The BEST episodes of Criminal Minds season 2

Every episode of Criminal Minds season 2, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Criminal Minds season 2!

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.

Last Updated: 12/20/2024Network: Paramount+Status: Continuing
The Fisher King (2)
star
8.08
2029 votes

#1 - 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.

Directors: Gloria Muzio
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
No Way Out: The Evilution of Frank (2)
star
8.05
1609 votes

#2 - 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.

Writer: Simon Mirren
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Revelations (2)
star
7.91
1801 votes

#3 - Revelations (2)

Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired 2/7/2007

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.

Directors: Guy Norman Bee
Writer: Chris Mundy
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Profiler, Profiled
star
7.90
1861 votes

#4 - Profiler, Profiled

Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/13/2006

Morgan is arrested as a serial killer after he goes home to Chicago to visit his family. Because the detective making the arrest had used a profile provided by Gideon, the team travels to Chicago to help the local authorities find the real killer and exonerate Morgan.

Directors: Glenn Kershaw
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Big Game (1)
star
7.87
1698 votes

#5 - The Big Game (1)

Season 2 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/4/2007

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.

Directors: Gloria Muzio
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Sex, Birth, Death
star
7.85
1833 votes

#6 - Sex, Birth, Death

Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/29/2006

The BAU is called to investigate the serial murders of prostitutes in Washington, D.C., and suspect a teenager is guilty of the crimes. The case becomes complicated when a congresswoman about to make a speech to praise the city's lower crime rate threatens to take away the case if Hotch calls a press conference to discuss it.

Writer: Chris Mundy
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Distress
star
7.82
1645 votes

#7 - Distress

Season 2 - Episode 17 - Aired 2/21/2007

The BAU travels to Houston to investigate a series of murders that have occurred near construction sites and abandoned buildings. Because the murders appear to be random, the team believes the killer could be a homeless person. Meanwhile, everyone is noticing an apparent change in Reid's behavior.

Writer: Oanh Ly
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
No Way Out (1)
star
7.78
1716 votes

#8 - No Way Out (1)

Season 2 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/17/2007

Gideon is pitted against the scariest and most evil murderer in his entire career. When the BAU confronts the sadistic killer in a remote diner in the Nevada desert, the local authorities want to move quickly and make an arrest. But Gideon bides his time as he attempts to persuade the man, who has sworn not be captured, to reveal the whereabouts of a woman he is holding hostage.

Directors: John Gallagher
Writer: Simon Mirren
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Lessons Learned
star
7.77
1803 votes

#9 - Lessons Learned

Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/22/2006

Gideon, Reid and Prentiss travel to Guantanamo Bay to interrogate the leader of a terror sleeper cell being detained there after a chemical weapons dispersal device is discovered during a raid at a suspicious house. Working with Reid, Emily's fluency in Arabic proves to be useful as they scrutinize the suspect.

Directors: Guy Norman Bee
Writer: Jim Clemente
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
North Mammon
star
7.77
1778 votes

#10 - North Mammon

Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/1/2006

After a man kidnaps three teenaged girls and locks them in a cellar, he tells them only two of them will live and they must choose which one will die. The BAU team takes the case when the mother of one of the girls travels to Quantico to ask JJ to intercede with the FBI on the girls' behalf.

Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Legacy
star
7.75
1619 votes

#11 - Legacy

Season 2 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/9/2007

When homeless persons begin going missing mysteriously from the streets in Kansas City, a local detective calls the BAU to investigate the disappearances.

Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Boogeyman
star
7.73
1701 votes

#12 - The Boogeyman

Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/25/2006

The BAU travels to a small Texas community to investigate the murders of children. Meanwhile, Elle is having readjustment issues after being shot, and Hotch becomes worried about her when she misses a mandatory psych evaluation and isn't answering her cell phone.

Directors: Steve Boyum
Writer: Andi Bushell
Watch Now:Apple TV
Ashes and Dust
star
7.73
1652 votes

#13 - Ashes and Dust

Season 2 - Episode 19 - Aired 3/21/2007

A serial arsonist who targets the homes of upper-middle-class families as they sleep is investigated. The BAU determines the arson victims are linked together through corporate development companies that have been accused of building on contaminated land.

Watch Now:Apple TV
The Last Word
star
7.73
1757 votes

#14 - The Last Word

Season 2 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/15/2006

The daughter of high-powered diplomats, Special Agent Emily Prentiss joins the team, and she must convince Gideon and Hotchner she deserves the job based on merit and not on her family connections. The BAU is then called to St. Louis to investigate two serial killers who appear to be competing with each other. By setting a trap based on one killer's profile, the team creates a media event by which to capture the second killer.

Directors: Gloria Muzio
Watch Now:Apple TV
Open Season
star
7.69
1487 votes

#15 - Open Season

Season 2 - Episode 21 - Aired 5/2/2007

The BAU is called to investigate after the bodies of missing people are discovered in a remote region of the Idaho wilderness. The gruesome find also leads the team to determine the unsubs have been hunting humans for sport.

Directors: Gloria Muzio
Writer: Chris Mundy
Watch Now:Apple TV
Jones
star
7.67
1591 votes

#16 - Jones

Season 2 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/28/2007

A case involving a serial killer believed to be copying Jack the Ripper takes Gideon to New Orleans after three victims are found with their throats cut. Once thought to have been killed in Hurricane Katrina, the discovery of a fourth victim in the French Quarter confirms the murderer is still alive. All the evidence and files had been lost in the flood, so the only clue the team has is the word "Jones" that the lead detective wrote on the wall just before he drowned. Meanwhile, Reid meets up with an old rival as he continues to struggle with the aftermath of being held hostage.

Directors: Steve Shill
Writer: Andi Bushell
Watch Now:Apple TV
P911
star
7.67
2076 votes

#17 - P911

Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/27/2006

A young boy who had disappeared a year ago turns up for for sale by a child pornographer on an online auction. A former profiler who now heads the FBI's Innocent Images Unit asks Gideon and the BAU to help her save the boy's life.

Directors: Adam Davidson
Writer: Simon Mirren
Watch Now:Apple TV
The Perfect Storm
star
7.66
1960 votes

#18 - The Perfect Storm

Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/4/2006

The BAU has reason to believe a series of murders might have been committed by two people working as a team after the victims' families receive DVDs after each crime that includes psychological attacks.

Watch Now:Apple TV
Psychodrama
star
7.55
1805 votes

#19 - Psychodrama

Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/11/2006

The BAU is called to investigate a series of bank robberies after it becomes evident the crimes are not based on money because the robber abuses his victims by forcing them to undress before he leaves the crime scene.

Directors: Guy Norman Bee
Writer: Aaron Zelman
Watch Now:Apple TV
Fear and Loathing
star
7.55
1566 votes

#20 - Fear and Loathing

Season 2 - Episode 16 - Aired 2/14/2007

The BAU becomes involved to prevent a possible race riot when the murder of four young black women in a mostly white New York suburb appear to be hate crimes.

Directors: Rob Spera
Writer: Aaron Zelman
Watch Now:Apple TV
Aftermath
star
7.54
1911 votes

#21 - Aftermath

Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/18/2006

The BAU investigates a serial rapist who had been attacking young women at religious schools and stopped for six weeks. He has resumed his attacks, but is now targeting a different demographic of women. Elle makes a decision that could end her career with the BAU.

Directors: Tim Matheson
Writer: Chris Mundy
Watch Now:Apple TV
Empty Planet
star
7.54
1748 votes

#22 - Empty Planet

Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/8/2006

The BAU travels to Seattle to identify and catch a serial bomber who has been terrorizing the city and targeting centers of automated techology. Working with the author of a science fiction novel that has become a guide for the bomber, the team attempts to determine why certain sites have been chosen as targets.

Directors: Elodie Keene
Writer: Ed Napier
Watch Now:Apple TV
Honor Among Thieves
star
7.49
1589 votes

#23 - Honor Among Thieves

Season 2 - Episode 20 - Aired 4/11/2007

Elizabeth Prentiss, a foreign ambassador and SSA Emily Prentiss' mother, seeks the aid of the BAU when a Russian immigrant is kidnapped and held for ransom.

Directors: Jesús Treviño
Writer: Aaron Zelman
Watch Now:Apple TV