‘Criminal Minds’ Star Paget Brewster Teases Prentiss & Mendoza’s Budding Romance

John Griffiths December 11, 2018, 4:00 pm

The FBI agents of Criminal Minds suddenly have love on the brain. Behavioral Analysis Unit chief David Rossi (Joe Mantegna) recently re-popped the question to his third ex-wife, Krystall Richards (Gail O’Grady). Sexy Luke Alvez (Adam Rodriguez) just moved in with ER doctor Lisa Douglas (Daniella Alonso).

And in the December 12 episode, even relationship-phobic special agent Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster) gets frisky, entering into a romance with Andrew Mendoza (Being Mary Jane’s Stephen Bishop), a fellow Fed she met while hunting a crazy dubbed the Machete Killer a few episodes back.

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“Prentiss likes that Mendoza understands what her life is,” Brewster says. “And he’s thoughtful and funny.” So, as the BAU tracks its latest psychopath — a “blast from the past” that will excite longtime fans, Brewster promises Prentiss takes a break to make her new man dinner. Broiler alert: “We find out that Prentiss cannot cook.”

Beyond a failed pasta carbonara, the pair’s biggest hurdle seems to be guess-who’s lousy dating record. “I think Prentiss has only had two boyfriends on the show,” says Brewster, “and one was a bad guy she dated just to get information from.”

Paget Brewster (Emily Prentiss), Stephen Bishop (SSA Andrew Mendoza) (Photo: CBS)

While the actress is enjoying her chemistry with Bishop — “We have that somethin’-somethin'” — her true romance is musician husband Steve Damstra. (The couple celebrated their fourth anniversary this Thanksgiving.)

“I told him nine years ago, ‘If I have to kiss someone for work, I will buy you a present,'” she says. “So he just got an amplifier.”

Criminal Minds, Wednesdays, 10/9c, CBS