The WORST episodes of Without a Trace
Every episode of Without a Trace ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Without a Trace!
Without a Trace is a fast-paced procedural drama about the Missing Persons Squad of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The sole responsibility of the special task force is to find missing persons by applying advanced psychological profiling techniques to peel back the layers of the victims' lives and trace their whereabouts in an effort to discover whether they have been abducted, been murdered, committed suicide or simply run away. The team reconstructs a "Day of Disappearance" timeline that details every minute of the 24 hours prior to the disappearance, following one simple rule: learn who the victim is in order to learn where the victim is. Senior agent Jack Malone heads the dedicated team that knows too well that every second counts when someone vanishes.
#1 - John Michaels
Season 3 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/12/2005
John Michaels is a 71-year-old insurance investigator who went missing after last being seen getting into a car with two strange men. While investigating his disappearance, the team finds that he had recently tried to make amends with his ex-wife and has been trying desperately to get his older daughter on the straight and narrow. Things get strange in the case though, and all is not as it seems.
#2 - White Balance
Season 4 - Episode 23 - Aired 5/11/2006
Jack finds himself in the hotseat when a young white woman and a young black man, go missing on the same night and Jack is ordered to put more of the team's resources into finding the young woman.
#3 - All the Sinners, Saints
Season 5 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/5/2006
Martin brings the team in on the hunt for a young woman that went missing after a priest attempted to exorcise a demon from her. He begins to feel guilty when he finds out he used to work with her, but doesn't remember her.
#4 - From the Ashes
Season 4 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/13/2005
The team adds a new member who already as a connection to one of the team as they search for a missing prostitute.
#5 - The Little Things
Season 4 - Episode 16 - Aired 3/2/2006
The team investigates after five-year-old Ethan Heller is carjacked from the family car, and Danny starts to figure out what's going on with Martin.
#6 - A Day in the Life
Season 4 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/17/2005
After young Shawn Hopkins disappears one night after leaving the arcade, his parents soon begin to believe that the team is not doing everything to find their daughter, and are shocked to learn that their son has been gambling and has also been seen with a local drug dealer. After learning that Shawn had taken up the cause of a friend who had been raped, Larry and Susan Hopkins are relieved to learn that their son wasn't doing anything wrong, but worried that he still might not come home.
#7 - Endgame
Season 3 - Episode 23 - Aired 5/19/2005
Paige was last seen sneaking out of her office at the same time as an NYPD detective was asking her boss to direct him to Paige for a routine inquiry. To the team's surprise, the NYPD detective turns out to have been an imposter, causing them to question why Paige chose to run from this mystery man, what he wanted -- and if he caught up with her. Further investigation uncovers that the seemingly upstanding and socially conscious Paige was involved in a lucrative identity theft ring with close ties to a terrorist on a watch list who was recently seen in New York with her. Meanwhile, the remaining team members are gravely concerned about Vivian, who is undergoing open-heart surgery on that very day.
#8 - Party Girl
Season 3 - Episode 15 - Aired 2/17/2005
When a spoiled heiress in her early twenties is kidnapped, the team has to work against the clock to save Chelsea, who is being featured on a website giving fans the option to choose whether she lives or dies. As they continue to investigate her disappearance, the team learns that Chelsea had finally been starting to grow up, but she may not have time to enjoy her new life.
#9 - Safe
Season 4 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/6/2005
The team searches for a missing teenager who was paranoid about his own personal safety and left an ominous message behind.
#10 - Penitence
Season 3 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/13/2005
When Mac, a prisoner only two weeks from parole, disappears during a fight in the yard along with another prisoner, his sister contacts the FBI for help. No one can figure out why a member of the Aryan gang would escape with a black prisoner. While Martin and Viv talk to the other prisoners and Jack tries to wade his way through the sister's lies and half-truths where her brother is concerned, Danny focuses on a new prisoner who Mac had been protecting.
#11 - Off the Tracks
Season 3 - Episode 21 - Aired 5/5/2005
Danny is skeptical when the pregnant girlfriend of his missing estranged brother, Rafael "Rafi" Alvarez, and mother of their 9-year-old son, tells him that Rafi has transformed himself into a responsible family man, who recently obtained a loan to open his own body shop. But Danny's investigation uncovers that Rafi has been seen with a convicted car thief, and the large sum of cash he'd been flaunting for his purchase of a body shop didn't come from the bank. Though Jack makes the point that Rafi may have legitimate explanations for the suspicious circumstances, Danny braces himself for the very real possibility that his brother may have put himself in harm's way.
#12 - Neither Rain Nor Sleet
Season 3 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/10/2005
After postal worker Rosie Diaz goes missing during what seemed to be a regular workday, the team initially connects her disappearance to her cargo, which include $12,000 worth of the game Demon Storm, which all the kids were after. But when the team gets in touch with child protective services, they learn that Rosie recently had her foster children taken away after an anonymous abuse call. A search of her home uncovers a DVD containing child pornography, and the team starts to look at the case from another angle. Danny comments on Martin and Sam's obvious closeness, and wonders why they're keeping it quiet.
#13 - Lone Star
Season 3 - Episode 17 - Aired 3/10/2005
Lance Hamilton is a successful real estate agent in his early thirties who disappears one day after showing a house. When the team gets involved, they soon realise that Lance had more than one dealing with a local hood, Jimmy 'The Tooth' Fusco, and begin to suspect that Lance may not have been the good guy everyone thought he was. After tracking down the woman Lance had recently been spotted kissing in his office, the team needs to revise their opinion, knowing now that Lance is one of the good guys, but wondering if he's died for his beliefs.
#14 - The Road Home
Season 4 - Episode 18 - Aired 3/30/2006
The team searches for 18-year-old Brandon Parker only to learn that 15-year-old Matt Jameson had stolen his former teammate's identity in order to get a job to support his three younger siblings after his mother had taken off. They manage to connect Matt to an old friend from a former foster home, Casey Miller, and soon realise that Matt has gotten in over his head while trying to keep his younger sisters and brother together. Sam starts to get suspicious of Martin's behavior and confronts him on his drug addiction. She goes to Danny looking for help, but Danny is reluctant to get involved in Martin's problems.
#15 - All for One
Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/15/2006
The team investigates when Malia Norton, a teenager at a detention center, disappears after being threatened by one of the other residents. Malia had been involved in a drinking and driving accident that had seriously injured her sister's boyfriend and killed another young man. The investigation at the detention center uncovers a lot of secrets that some of the residents would prefer to keep well hidden.
#16 - Crossroads
Season 4 - Episode 24 - Aired 5/18/2006
After attorney Jennifer Nichols disappears, the team investigates the last few days in her life and soon find that she had grown disillusioned with her most recent relationship with Allen Davis. Discussions with a married ex-lover reveal that Nichols had recently gone through an old case file relating to a ten-year-old bank robbery, which has a connection to her recent relationship. Jack and Ann avoid discussing a recent development in their relationship -- her pregnancy.
#17 - More Than This
Season 4 - Episode 20 - Aired 4/20/2006
After Breck Mulligan goes missing from the women's shelter he had been working at, the team is called in to investigate. Breck was originally assigned to work at the shelter as part of a his probation for drug related offences, but the plight of the women and children seeking help had gotten to him and he had continued to work for the shelter, even going so far as to sleep with rich older women to get donations to help the shelter. The team is surprised to learn how little faith Breck's family and friends had in him, discovering that his friends had staged in 'intervention' the night he went missing, trying to convince him to walk away from his new life.
#18 - Lost Time
Season 4 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/20/2005
After evidence surfaces suggests that a woman believed murdered by her lover seven years earlier may be alive, Jack wonders if he went too far trying to get a confession.
#19 - The Damage Done
Season 5 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/22/2006
Jack and the team investigate when Sadik Marku's son goes missing along with the boy's mother, and Samantha worries that Jack is more interested in settling an old score with Marku than with finding the missing woman and boy.
#20 - The Calm Before
Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/29/2006
The team investigates when Aaron Gibbs ends up missing one night and soon learn that he had been lying to his wife about quitting his job, and had been working nights in a fight club. During the course of the investigation, Jack and the others learn that Aaron's disappearance was connected to events that took place during Hurricane Katrina, when Aaron was fighting to save his sons, and follow the trail of evidence, believing that the events of that night in New Orleans hold the key to finding the truth about the missing man.
#21 - Manhunt
Season 3 - Episode 16 - Aired 2/24/2005
Martin is swamped with guilt after a young boy is kidnapped shortly after he jogs by. The team tries to reassure Martin that his presence was a help rather than a hindrance as they search for the kidnapped child, but Sam's continued reluctance to admit to their relationship partnered with Martin's jealousy of her relationship with Jack only cause more problems.
#22 - Odds or Evens
Season 4 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/2/2006
After Andy Reynolds, a dishonorably discharged U.S. Marine, goes missing, Jack heads to Tokyo, where Reynolds once confessed to raping a young woman. Back in the U.S., the other agents continue to investigate Reynolds' life, and learn that he had recently gotten the victim to tape a sworn statement that he wasn't the rapist after learning that a former lover had given birth to his child.
#23 - Freefall
Season 4 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/24/2005
Max Cassidy vanishes after leaving a message on his wife's voicemail, with both Jack and Ann frantic to find him. While investigating, Jack realises that Max was having an affair, and that he's gotten much deeper into a case than he should have following the murder of his partner, Jimmy, a man Max had felt was too green for undercover work. Both Jack and Ann fear the worst as the team tries to hunt down Max.
#24 - The Stranger
Season 4 - Episode 15 - Aired 2/9/2006
When Leah Robinson goes missing after a confrontation with a young man at an art gallery, the team mvoes in to investigate and soon become suspicious of Leah, suspecting her of murdering young women that she believed to be involved with her husband, Ken. Ann isn't quite ready to take her romance with Jack public, and their relationship gets rocky when their different methods of handling the case tip off the suspect.
#25 - Win Today
Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/12/2006
Jack and the team investigate the disappearance of Alex Stark after his girlfriend reports him missing, and soon learn that Alex didn't own a cleaning business like he said he did but was actually involved in an illegal gambling operation. Jack goes undercover at a club that Alex would gamble at to find out what happened to him, and ends up being taken hostage by an associate of Alex's who becomes convinced that Jack is actually there to kill her. Unfortunately for Jack, his team believes that he has changed his cover story and has no idea that he's actually been kidnapped.