His return had been teased months earlier without giving away the tragic context, and according to A.J. Cook, she was the one who reached out to her former co-star to see if he could come back after conversations with showrunner Erica Messer. On the subject of what it was like to be back on set with Gubler, Cook told EW:

“I’m still mad,” A.J. Cook says of that devastating loss for JJ on Criminal Minds.