In its fifteen seasons, a true genius series Criminal Minds has become one of the most popular crime programs on television, thanks to a bevy of gory and bizarre cases. There’s a lot to go through in fifteen seasons, so if you’re short on time, consider skipping some of the best episodes.
About criminal minds’ history, “Criminal Minds” aired 324 episodes during the course of its 15-year run, which is a remarkable achievement given the show’s high production values. When it comes to cases of the week, there’s nothing quite like the profiling-based procedural, which has consistently delivered compelling (and at times horrifying) tales of criminality.
There are a number of adored characters who have been subjected to high-stakes situations, which in turn has led to even greater levels of emotional intensity. Furthermore, it gathered a cast of characters that could carry an episode to brilliance on their own.
As a result, we’ve compiled a list of the top Criminal Minds episodes for your viewing pleasure. The episodes on this list are a good place to start if you’re curious about the program but aren’t sure whether you’ll like it.
Profiler, Profiled
(Season 2, Episode 12)
The first episode on our list is when special agent Morgan (Moore) went to Chicago to celebrate his mother’s birthday midway through the second season, he had to perform some heavy lifting in cooperation with the behavioral analysis unit. Meanwhile Frank is doing something else.
However, when the local police falsely accused him of the murder of three youngsters, the BAU team members were left scrambling to discover the true killer and clear their colleague’s name. As well as being a terrific opportunity for Moore to show off his character, it was also a timely episode that emphasized bonds of friendship the team tries to achieve.
The fact that Carl Buford (Julius Tennon), the future serial murderer, was also introduced in this episode was simply frosting on the cake.
Conflicted
(Season 4, Episode 20)
Director Jason Alexander had a lot of material to cover in this hour-long episode, in which the BAU head hunted down a serial murderer who was raping and murdering male college students over their spring break.
This is due to the fact that the unsub at the core of the murders had two distinct personalities: Adam, who was submissive, and Amanda, who was dominating (played by Jackson Rathbone). Despite the fact that not everything in the episode stands up today, it was praised at the time for providing a more in-depth and meaningful look at trans problems, and as a result, it remains a significant episode in the broader “Criminal Minds” canon.
The Replicator
(Season 8, Episode 24)
When Mark Hamill took on the role of John Curtis, aka The Replicator, in Season 8, he embraced the dark side of the Force. He was a former FBI agent with a genius-level IQ who started committing copycat killings of cases that the BAU had solved in the past after being fired from his position. In the season’s first half, he taunted the squad and took over for criminals they had just apprehended – a pattern that continued until the season finale.
After poisoning and killing Strauss (Jayne Atkinson), Curtis’ journey came full circle in the episode, but he met his explosive death soon thereafter due to an explosion. If you’re looking for a dramatic ending, this is one of the more intense ones, and it gets a significant emotional boost from the unexpected goodbye that occurs at the end of the episode of Jason Gideon.
Mosley Lane
(Season 5, Episode 16)
The horrifying concept of this episode provided Gubler with the opportunity to make his directing debut, allowing him to play in a real house of horrors.
This is a really hard watch episode. Specifically, the unsubs in issue were a couple who were abducting children and raising them as a faux family in their basement, providing viewers with all sorts of horrifying insights into the thoughts of bereaved parents along the process. An impressionable young Evan Peters had a scary part in the episode, which was dark, gritty, and disturbing in its subject.
Date Night
(Season 15, Episode 6)
There have been several very noteworthy recurrent unsubs over the course of this program, but one of the most memorable was undoubtedly Aubrey Plaza’s Cat Adams, who was played by Aubrey Plaza. Before returning for this last episode, the character had a long relationship with Reid, and she had arranged for his girlfriend’s father and sister to be abducted before she returned.
Why? It turns out that she wanted one more date with Reid before she was executed, and this was her last performance. It was a fitting end for a figure who had been responsible for the murders of more than 200 people before her own doom was brought to a close.
Zugzwang
(Season 8, Episode 12)
Among the most essential episodes of the whole series, this one stands out for its importance in terms of character development and general creepiness. It’s also really gloomy and seeing it demands some emotional preparation on your part before you can enjoy it. Diana Turner, the lady who pursued Reid’s long-distance lover Maeve to a small town, was played by Michelle Trachtenberg in this episode of Mad Men (Beth Riesgraf).
It took the team all they had to do to rescue Maeve when Diana abducted the little girl. But in the end, Diana murdered herself and Maeve, leaving Spencer Reid with a huge emotional scar that would last for months.
Elephant’s Memory
(Episode 3, Episode 16)
The Elephant’s Memory episode. There are other Reid-centric episodes that make this list, but this one sticks out in particular because of the personal commitment the doctor had in the case. A lot of Reid’s prior pain from his own upbringing resurfaced during his attempt to assist a young murderer with the name of Chad Brown (Cody Kasch), and he became even more frustrated when he realized that he had failed this kid at every step.
This episode easily makes it into the Top 5, thanks to some heartwarming sequences between Morgan and Hotch, as well as a Johnny Cash-inspired music and a compassionate unsub.
The Fisher King: Part 1 and “The Fisher King: Part 2
(Season 1, Episode 22 and Season 2, Episode 1)
For the sake of this list, both of these episodes are considered to be a single overall installment. The cliffhanger ending drew in any viewers who were on the fence about whether or not to continue watching as the program transitioned from a full-fledged procedural to a series with characters whose personal lives sometimes spilled into the cases that the lead investigator investigates.
Include a fantasy unsub in the shape of Randall Garner (played by Charles Haid in the first half and Charley Rossman in the second), who was theatrically waiting to meet Elle at gunpoint, and this season finale/opener is one of the series’ most memorable moments.
Masterpiece
(Season 4, Episode 8)
Alexander appeared onscreen in a part that would prevent any “Seinfeld” fans from ever seeing him in the same capacity again. This was only a few episodes before Alexander moved behind the camera to helm “Conflicted.” Notorious serial murderer and one of the 16 believer of the cult members Henry Grace brought himself in as part of a plot to seek vengeance on Rossi (Joe Mantegna) for apprehending his brother, William, who was also a serial killer.
Grace (Alex Jennings) announced in the episode that he had abducted five individuals, three of whom were children, and that one of them would die every two hours if the BAU didn’t locate them. It was a trap that the crew caught just in time, but Rossi didn’t seem to notice, and the series came to a satisfactory climax in one of the most rewarding endings the series has ever achieved.
100
(Season 5, Episode 9)
During the fourth and fifth seasons of “Criminal Minds,” George Foyet, a.k.a. The Reaper (C. Thomas Howell), established himself as one of the most famous and despised unsubs in the show’s history. His purpose appeared to be to make Hotch’s life as difficult as possible, and this was evident from his very first appearance in “Omnivoire.”
Despite the fact that the show’s 100th episode (with its eerily appropriate title) marked the end of the killer’s reign of terror, he managed to mislead and murder Hotch’s ex-wife Haley (Meredith Monroe). When Hotch saw her corpse, he lost his cool and beat the guy to death in a fit of anger until the rest of the squad came to take him away. It goes without saying that the character was never the same after that.
Revelations
(Season 2, Episode 15)
If “Criminal Minds” drove one thing home during its impressive run, it’s that there’s a lot of gray area when it comes to good versus evil. That theme was especially prevalent in this episode, which was the concluding installment of a two-part, Super Bowl event.
It featured Tobias Hankel (James Van Der Beek in a head-turning role), a Zodiac killer with multiple personalities who kidnapped Reid, beat him, drugged him, and psychologically tortured him. The character was so memorable because Hankel was both a killer and a victim, and when Reid was forced to kill him it stayed with the BAU member (and viewers) for a long, long time.
Derailed
(Season 1, Episode 9)
This episode features Elle (Lola Glaudini), who has had a difficult first season on the program, including being held prisoner by a mentally ill passenger, who also holds the whole train car hostage in New York. Ted Bryar (Chris Bauer) suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, and seeing the FBI agent when the train came to an abrupt halt persuaded him that he was being pursued by the government.
He believed also that robots came after him, as he discussed the uncanny valley. Even though the cast makeup was radically different back then, the subsequent discussions and unraveling scenarios were a highlight of the series. (Glaudini left the program early in Season 2 in order to return to his home on the East Coast.) A great episode, the least to say.
Somebody’s Watching
(Season 1, Episode 18)
Gideon (Patinkin) and Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler) were on their way to Los Angeles for a seminar when they were caught in a related extreme aggressor and his spate of killings. In this early-on episode, the dark, meta side of Hollywood was unleashed.
The episode featured guest star Amber Heard as Lila, an up-and-coming actress whose stalker (guest actor Katheryn Winnick) has grown obsessed with eliminating her competitors in order to give her a leg up on the competition.
The program looked at the darker side of celebrity, including some ominous Charles Manson allusions, while also digging into the psychological makeup of an “underappreciated” stalker and his victims. It also had a cute flirting and the possibility of a romantic relationship for Reid, making it an all-around winner.
Mayhem
(Season 4, Episode 1)
The episode Mayhem. Following the Season 3 conclusion, “Lo-Fi,” there were a lot of high expectations for this season’s opener, therefore the stakes were high for this episode. Fortunately for the audience, it did not disappoint. The episode centred on a terrorist plan that targeted first responders, which became much more problematic when Agent Joyner (Sienna Guillory) was gravely wounded in the course of the investigation.
The sight of Hotch (Gibson), who is typically cool and collected no matter what the scenario, losing his cool and crying for aid was a mind-blowing experience for viewers, making this one of the finest episodes of the season.
Minimal Loss
(Season 4, Episode 3)
The episode Minimal Loss. Luke Perry made headlines as the chilling one of the 16 believer of the cult members and also the cult leader Cyrus in this high-stakes episode, in which Reid and Prentiss (Paget Brewster) went undercover at a compound in order to investigate alleged child abuse.
Things took a sour turn when a surprise SWAT raid forced a hostage situation, resulting in a news report that one of the hostages was in fact an undercover agent. While the episode stands out for its unique and gripping storyline, it was also a chance to showcase the various agents in terms of the skill sets they each bring to such life-or-death situations.
L.D.S.K.
(Season 1, Episode 6)
A hostage scenario usually makes for a suspenseful hour of television, and the predicament that Hotch and Reid found themselves in during this episode was no exception to this. It was the focus of this episode to follow a sniper (or, as the BAU called him, a “long-distance serial murderer”) who would damage victims in order to subsequently assist them in saving themselves.
That the moments between Reid and Hotch when they were taken hostage were so memorable was because the latter pushed out all the means to try and salvage the day — even staging a fake fight — that it made the episode a classic.
Sex, Birth, Death
(Season 2, Episode 11)
In this episode, Anton Yelchin made an impression as an adolescent who was suffering from a mysterious passenger. In the end, Nathan Harris realized that his perverted urges were starting to get the better of him, to the point that he sought Reid’s assistance.
It was a subtle examination of the contradictory personas of a serial murderer, and it was delivered with panache by the late actor. Unfortunately, despite the fact that the episode left the door open for another guest star appearance (and raised ethical concerns for Reid in the process), Harris did not appear onscreen again after that episode.
Lauren
(Season 6, Episode 18)
In this powerful Prentiss-centric episode, in which the character goes for Big Bad Ian Doyle (Timothy V. Murphy) on his own, fans were treated to an emotional roller coaster. Steering a big wheel taking up this task on his own. All of this culminated with Doyle kidnapping Prentiss, vowing vengeance, and inserting a wooden stick into her abdomen before fleeing.
Prentiss staged her own death out of fear that he would seek retribution on her friends, and for a painful moment, viewers assumed the character had genuinely died as a result of the following burial. It was also the last time anybody would see her for the remainder of the season.
Mr. Scratch
(Season 10, Episode 21)
The subject of mind control was a major element in this episode, which introduced viewers to Peter Lewis for the first time (Bodhi Elfman). In order to avoid being killed, the terrible unsub would trick individuals into imagining a man called Mr. Scratch and then murder their loved ones, culminating in a tale that was as horrifying in its theory as it was in actuality — particularly when he targeted the BAU.
Those feelings of anxiety returned in Season 11 when Lewis managed to escape and antagonized the crew throughout the season, establishing himself as one of the most dangerous characters to appear on the program.
Penelope
(Season 3, Episode 9)
During this episode, fans were beyond themselves as their favorite character Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) battled for her life after getting shot in the chest while on a date. It was an opportunity to go further into the character that everyone knew and loved, while also giving a nod to the Morgan-Garcia shippers out there in the audience.
It was obvious that the fans were interested, and although the coworkers did not end up together in the end, this episode did debut Nicholas Brendon as Garcia’s new lover Kevin Lynch, who would go on to appear in another 21 episodes of the show.
There was also enough drama to keep track of behind the scenes, courtesy of the departures of many actors (and returns).
Among the notable departures are Mandy Patinkin, who left the show in its early days because of the dark subject matter; A.J. Cook, whose contract was not renewed after Season 5 but was reinstated by Season 7 following fan outrage; Thomas Gibson, who was fired after a reported altercation with a producer on set; and Shemar Moore, who left after 11 seasons to spend more time with his family (and later, to star on the CBS drama “SWAT”).
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