The Truth About Penelope Garcia And Derek Morgan's Relationship On Criminal Minds

Despite seemingly eternal hopes that the Garcia-Morgan relationship would at last bloom into a romance, it was never really the intent on the part of either actor or the show's writers to commit them to anything other than friendship. The friendship was the point, in fact.

One episode in particular went the extra mile to gently establish their relationship boundaries: "Snake Eyes," the thirteenth episode of season 7. After breaking up with her boyfriend, Garcia resigns herself to an evening locked away in her apartment for an old-fashioned bit of coping through alcohol. When she awakens the next morning severely hungover, Morgan is there, cheekily introduced into the scene shirtless after a quick shower. The rest of the episode proceeds as normal save for Garcia's sitcom-esque panic that she slept with Morgan as a terrible rebound. She didn't, as Morgan tells her later with an amused smile. They discuss what a terrible turn that would be for their friendship, and the episode ends with them sharing a laugh about her worrying over nothing.

You may have noticed that television often has a problem depicting male-female relationships. Sometimes it's cited as the "Moonlighting Problem," after the iconic Bruce Willis-Cybill Shepherd series: a show's difficulty in writing compelling character dynamics and stories once a long-standing will-they-won't-they romance is finally realized. It might be a little deeper than that, however; television can have a difficult time portraying men and women as anything other than romantic partners. Morgan and Garcia's relationship was popular because it was unique as an earnest, genuine opposite-gender friendship — and because both characters are so well-illustrated as being quite different from each other, yet the friendship flourishes anyway. The open flirting and pet names are an expression of two people in sync having fun, confident in their boundaries with each other as only good friends can be.