In season nine, the events during her departure in 2010–11 returned when Mateo Cruz was promoted to Section Chief. In "The Road Home," while waiting to meet Cruz, she is suddenly kidnapped. In "200," it is revealed that she was kidnapped by a man named Tivon Askari, who was a traitor in the task force, in order to access files from her mission in the Middle East. She was held hostage alongside Cruz and was tortured into giving up the code. She discovered that Askari was not working alone when he mentioned her miscarriage, revealing the true enemy to be Michael Hastings, a man she worked with on the task force. He threatened to rape JJ in order to get Cruz to give up his access code. She is rescued by Hotch and Prentiss, and she proceeds to chase after Hastings. Prentiss accompanies her and they both take on Hastings, resulting in Hastings falling off a roof to his death. JJ is left traumatized by the situation and promises to stop the lies and give only the truth.