The BEST episodes of Criminal Minds
Every episode of Criminal Minds ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Criminal Minds!
Special Agents Jason Gideon and Aaron Hotchner head up the FBI's most elite profiling team, the Behavioral Analysis Unit, the experts in analyzing criminal psychology. With each mind-blowing case, they put their lives on the line as they travel the country, matching wits with the most ruthless criminals on Earth.
#1 - Run (2)
Season 7 - Episode 24 - Aired 5/16/2012
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.
#2 - Penelope
Season 3 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/21/2007
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.
#3 - 100
Season 5 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/25/2009
The BAU team races to help Hotchner find The Reaper and save his family before it's too late.
#4 - The Fisher King (1)
Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/10/2006
While on their vacations, each of the team receives a clue from a psychopathic killer challenging them to save his next victim.
#5 - The Replicator (2)
Season 8 - Episode 24 - Aired 5/22/2013
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.
#6 - 200
Season 9 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/5/2014
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.
#7 - The Fisher King (2)
Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/20/2006
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 - Demons (2)
Season 9 - Episode 24 - Aired 5/14/2014
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.
#9 - Hit (1)
Season 7 - Episode 23 - Aired 5/16/2012
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.
#10 - Entropy
Season 11 - Episode 11 - Aired 1/13/2016
The BAU implements an elaborate strategy to try and take down the “Dirty Dozen” hitmen ring, with Reid playing a central role.
#11 - No Way Out: The Evilution of Frank (2)
Season 2 - Episode 23 - Aired 5/16/2007
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.
#14 - Omnivore
Season 4 - Episode 18 - Aired 3/18/2009
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.
#15 - Carbon Copy
Season 8 - Episode 16 - Aired 2/27/2013
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.
#16 - Mr. Scratch
Season 10 - Episode 21 - Aired 4/22/2015
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.
#17 - Date Night
Season 15 - Episode 6 - Aired 2/5/2020
After a father and daughter get kidnapped, a former foe of the BAU returns with very specific demands for Reid that give a whole new meaning to the phrase “wheels up.”
#18 - Riding the Lightning
Season 1 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/25/2006
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.
#19 - The Storm
Season 11 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/4/2016
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.
#20 - Fatal
Season 9 - Episode 22 - Aired 4/30/2014
Victims of arsenic poisoning are found in Long Beach. The investigation reveals that the killer has a fascination with Greek mythology, based on handwritten death threats to the deceased and other mysterious clues. Meanwhile, Hotch becomes concerned about participating in Jack's third-grade career day.
#21 - ...and Back (2)
Season 4 - Episode 26 - Aired 5/20/2009
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.
#22 - To Hell... (1)
Season 4 - Episode 25 - Aired 5/20/2009
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.
#23 - Red Light
Season 12 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/10/2017
Derek Morgan brings the BAU a lead in the case against serial killer and escaped convict Mr. Scratch.
#24 - Oedipus Wrecks
Season 16 - Episode 5 - Aired 12/15/2022
A surprising connection forces Deputy Director Bailey to ask the BAU to take a case involving young D.C. socialites who are bitten by a sadistic UnSub. But when the case turns political, the BAU finds themselves in the crosshairs from a high-powered senator. The team is led to a second shipping container that’s rigged to blow.
#25 - The Inspiration (1)
Season 9 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/25/2013
The hunt for a methodical killer takes the BAU to Arizona to search for an increasingly devolving unsub, and the team speculates that Hotch is in the running to be the new BAU Section Chief following the death of Erin Strauss.