The BEST Episodes of Criminal Minds
Every episode ever - ranked by fan votes!
Last Updated: Apr 23, 2019
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.
8.46 
#2 - 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.
8.37 
#3 - ...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.
8.29 
#4 - Revelations (2)
Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired Feb 7, 2007
In this conclusion of a special two-part episode, finding the serial killer becomes critical to the BAU when the team realizes Reid is being held captive and a live feed of him being tortured is shown on the internet. Meanwhile, Reid's troubled childhood is revealed in flashback sequences as he drifts in and out of consciousness.
8.20 
#5 - 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.
8.19 
#6 - 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.
8.19 
#7 - Lo-Fi
Season 3 - Episode 20 - Aired May 21, 2008
The BAU faces one of its toughest cases when the team is called to New York City to determine if a series of random shootings is the work of one serial killer or a team of killers working together.
8.18 
#8 - 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.
8.16 
#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.
8.16 
#10 - Lauren
Season 6 - Episode 18 - Aired Mar 16, 2011
As Prentiss faces off against Ian Doyle, JJ receives a call and returns to help them find Prentiss and capture Doyle before it's too late.
8.16 
#11 - The Company
Season 7 - Episode 20 - Aired Apr 11, 2012
When Morgan's sister sees a woman who looks like their presumed-dead cousin, Cindi, it forces Morgan to confront a lie he told his family last year to provide closure and compels the BAU to reopen the case of her disappearance.
8.15 
#12 - 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.
8.15 
#13 - 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.
8.14 
#14 - 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.
8.14 
#15 - 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.
8.13 
#16 - 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.
8.12 
#17 - 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.
8.11 
#18 - Legacy
Season 2 - Episode 22 - Aired May 9, 2007
When homeless persons begin going missing mysteriously from the streets in Kansas City, a local detective calls the BAU to investigate the disappearances.
8.08 
#19 - The Big Game (1)
Season 2 - Episode 14 - Aired Feb 4, 2007
In this special two-part episode, the BAU is called to investigate after a wealthy couple is murdered in their home following a Super Bowl party. The team pursues what they believe might be multiple killers who use webcams to record murders and upload the tapes on the internet. Hotchner, Morgan and Prentiss soon discover the unsub is actually one man with multiple personalities. As they close in on the killer, Reid faces a life-threatening situation.
8.07 
#20 - Derek
Season 11 - Episode 16 - Aired Mar 2, 2016
When Morgan is abducted, the BAU scrambles to find him and save his life.
8.07 
#21 - Mosley Lane
Season 5 - Episode 16 - Aired Mar 3, 2010
The BAU is called by local authorities in Ashburn, Virginia, to profile a predator who may have been abducting children for at least eight years.
8.06 
#22 - Mayhem
Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired Sep 24, 2008
When an SUV carrying members of the team explodes, the rest of the team fights to save them and catch the terrorists responsible for the bombing.
8.05 
#23 - Masterpiece
Season 4 - Episode 8 - Aired Nov 19, 2008
When a narcissistic psychopath confesses he has killed seven people and more will die, the team must locate his latest victims before it is too late.
8.05 
#24 - 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.
8.05 
#25 - Brothers Hotchner (1)
Season 8 - Episode 23 - 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.
8.04