| “ | I'm not gonna stop living my life. I'm just not. | ” |
Lila Archer is an incidental character who appeared in the Season One episode of Criminal Minds, "Somebody's Watching" as a love interest for Reid.
Background
Not much has been revealed about Lila's past. It is mentioned that she went to college at the Juilliard School in NYC and at one point briefly shared an apartment with her friend and future stalker Maggie Lowe for a weekend when the heating in Lila's apartment went out. After graduating, she worked as a waitress and lived on Houston Street before becoming a professional actress. As of 2006, Lila had a role in Emotional Cages, a TV drama series that seems to revolve around beach volleyball. She was able to get Maggie a job on the show's production staff. Around this time, Maggie had started killing potential threats to Lila's career without her knowledge.
Somebody's Watching
In the beginning of the episode, Lila meets Reid at an art gallery and becomes attracted to him. When Maggie killed Lila's manager Michael Ryer, Reid is assigned to protect her in her house. The same night, Lila, becoming infatuated with the agent, drags Reid into the house's pool and starts kissing him. Reid, suffering from a bad conscience, tells her about Michael's death. She feels betrayed but is somewhat comforted when Jason Gideon tells her that he had ordered Reid to not to tell about it. Later, Maggie sneaks into Lila's house and holds her and Reid at gunpoint, but is successfully taken down by Reid.
Lila held at gunpoint by Maggie.
There were still some hints of a romance between Reid and Lila at the end of the episode, but nothing appears to have come of it. She is, however, briefly mentioned, though not by name, in "Catching Out". Lila is mentioned again in "The Performer", where Reid avoids saying what happened between them when asked, redirecting the conversation back to the case at hand. Considering that Reid would go on to form another romantic relationship with a woman in Season Eight, it can be safely assumed that their relationship ended in some way.
Appearances
- Season One
- "Somebody's Watching"
- Season Four
- "Catching Out" (mentioned)
- Season Five
- "The Performer" (mentioned)