The BEST Episodes of Criminal Minds
Every episode ever - ranked by fan votes!
Last Updated: Feb 16, 2020
Network: CBS
Special Agents Jason Gideon and Aaron Hotchner head up the FBI's most elite profiling team - experts in analyzing criminal minds. Each team member has their specialty. There's Elle Greenaway, who has a background in sexual offences; Derek Morgan, who focuses on obsessional crimes; Special Agent Dr. Spencer Reid the smart-but-socially-challenged genius; and Jennifer "JJ" Jareau, the rookie. With each mind-blowing case, they put their lives on the line as they match wits with the most ruthless criminals on earth.
#1 - Run (2)
Season 7 - Episode 24 - Aired May 16, 2012
As the BAU team continues to pursue the bank-robbing serial killers, the team determines that the suspects have a bigger target in the nation's capital, and with one of the team still a hostage, they must work quickly to diffuse an explosive situation. Wedding bells ring for one of the BAU. Prentiss ponders her future.
8.30 
#2 - 200
Season 9 - Episode 14 - Aired Feb 5, 2014
When JJ is kidnapped, the BAU delves into her time at the State Department to find clues to her disappearance and uncover a secret mission that now puts her life in danger. To help with their search for JJ, the team calls upon Prentiss to help in the crisis.
8.13 
#3 - The Fisher King (1)
Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired May 10, 2006
While on their vacations, each of the team receives a clue from a psychopathic killer challenging them to save his next victim.
8.13 
#4 - Penelope
Season 3 - Episode 9 - Aired Nov 21, 2007
As a team member fights for life, the BAU continues the search for an attacker that leads the unit to believe the assailant could be someone close to the investigation.
8.12 
#5 - 100
Season 5 - Episode 9 - Aired Nov 25, 2009
The BAU team races to help Hotchner find The Reaper and save his family before it's too late.
8.11 
#6 - The Fisher King (2)
Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired Sep 20, 2006
The BAU team continues to unravel the clues given to each of them by a psychopath in order to save his most recent victim. Gideon decides not to focus on the personal aspects of the case. Rather, he tells the team to profile the killer as they would in any other investigation. Reid stays behind to work on a personal connection that could solve the case as one member of the team fights for life.
8.10 
#7 - The Replicator (2)
Season 8 - Episode 24 - Aired May 22, 2013
The Replicator zeroes in on the BAU when the killer targets one of the team as the next victim. The team is also called in to investigate a string of deaths in Manhattan tied to apparent ecstasy overdoses. Hotch discovers that his estranged brother is caught in the middle.
8.09 
#8 - Demons (2)
Season 9 - Episode 24 - Aired May 14, 2014
The BAU continues its murder investigation in Texas, and clues uncover a deep web of corruption that could be the motive for the killings. As one team member's life hangs in the balance, another concerned BAU member must face a sad secret from the past. Garcia is thrust into action to save a colleague.
8.06 
#9 - No Way Out (2): The Evilution of Frank
Season 2 - Episode 23 - Aired May 16, 2007
When the prolific serial killer Frank returns and murders Gideon's girlfriend, Gideon takes off to find him without telling the team where he is going. The BAU must then profile Gideon as well as Frank to find both of them.
8.05 
#10 - Date Night
Season 15 - Episode 6 - Aired Feb 5, 2020
After a father and daughter get kidnapped, a former foe of the BAU returns with very specific demands for Dr. Reid that give a whole new meaning to the phrase “wheels up.”
8.05 
#11 - Hit (1)
Season 7 - Episode 23 - Aired May 16, 2012
When the BAU goes up against a gang of serial-killing bank robbers in Washington DC, the team tries to negotiate the situation unfolding inside the bank, but the stakes rise when one of their own becomes a hostage.
8.04 
#12 - Carbon Copy
Season 8 - Episode 16 - Aired Feb 27, 2013
When victims are found in Philadelphia in a similar style to victims of The Replicator, the stalker who has been tracking the BAU's every move, the team thinks this could be the break they need to try and apprehend him.
8.01 
#13 - Derek
Season 11 - Episode 16 - Aired Mar 2, 2016
When Morgan is abducted, the BAU scrambles to find him and save his life.
8.00 
#14 - Entropy
Season 11 - Episode 11 - Aired Jan 13, 2016
The BAU implements an elaborate strategy to try and take down the “Dirty Dozen” hitmen ring, with Reid playing a central role.
8.00 
#15 - Omnivore
Season 4 - Episode 18 - Aired Mar 18, 2009
Agent Hotchner revisits the first case he worked at the BAU when details come forth that one of the deadliest serial killers in New England's history has struck again after a 10-year hiatus.
7.99 
#16 - Red Light
Season 12 - Episode 22 - Aired May 10, 2017
Derek Morgan brings the BAU a lead in the case against serial killer and escaped convict Mr. Scratch.
7.99 
#17 - The Storm
Season 11 - Episode 22 - Aired May 4, 2016
The BAU is shocked when Hotch is apprehended by a SWAT team and suspected of conspiracy, and as the team scrambles to prove his innocence, they suspect a larger plot is on the horizon.
7.98 
#18 - Saturday
Season 15 - Episode 4 - Aired Jan 22, 2020
The members of the BAU enjoy a Saturday off in vastly different ways; Rossi and Prentiss help Simmons assemble a new crib; Garcia leads a hacking competition; Dr. Reid strikes up a conversation with a woman named Maxine.
7.97 
#19 - Last Gasp
Season 13 - Episode 16 - Aired Mar 14, 2018
Away from the watchful eye of the FBI’s assistant director of national security, Linda Barnes, the BAU meets in secret to investigate an UnSub who appears to be kidnapping and photographing young women.
7.97 
#20 - ...and Back (2)
Season 4 - Episode 26 - Aired May 20, 2009
The BAU tracks a serial killer who chooses junkies, prostitutes and the homeless off the streets of Detroit as his victims and takes them across the border into Canada. An agent's life is in peril.
7.96 
#21 - Mr. Scratch
Season 10 - Episode 21 - Aired Apr 22, 2015
When three people implicated in murders claim they were attacked by a “clawed shadow monster” at the moment each crime occurred, the BAU searches for an UnSub who is controlling their minds. Also, the search for the culprit puts one of the team in jeopardy.
7.96 
#22 - To Hell... (1)
Season 4 - Episode 25 - Aired May 20, 2009
The BAU tracks a serial killer who chooses junkies, prostitutes and the homeless off the streets of Detroit as his victims and takes them across the border into Canada, and an agent's life is in peril.
7.94 
#23 - 300
Season 14 - Episode 1 - Aired Oct 3, 2018
When Reid and Garcia are abducted by Benjamin Merva, it’s up to the rest of the team to find them. The BAU finds surprising clues in their own history to solve why the two heroes have been targeted by a mass murderer. It’s a race to save them before a “Believers” prophecy is fulfilled.
7.93 
#24 - A Beautiful Disaster
Season 11 - Episode 18 - Aired Mar 23, 2016
When an UnSub targets the BAU, and the team goes into action to find out who is responsible.
7.92 
#25 - Riding the Lightning
Season 1 - Episode 14 - Aired Jan 25, 2006
After interviewing a couple on death row for serial murders, Gideon suspects that the woman is actually innocent. But since she's set to be executed in two days, it's a race against time to prove it.
7.92