Best Episodes of Criminal Minds

The BAU team races to help Hotchner find The Reaper and save his family before it's too late.

The BAU implements an elaborate strategy to try and take down the “Dirty Dozen” hitmen ring, with Reid playing a central role.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

When Reid discovers that his girlfriend has been kidnapped by her stalker, he and the BAU team band together to find her before it's too late.

The investigation in Texas reveals a deep web of corruption; Garcia must save a friend.

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".

While on their vacations, each of the team receives a clue from a psychopathic killer challenging them to save his next victim.

The BAU is called to investigate a series of murders of prostitutes in Washington D.C. and Reid suspects a teenager he met asking for his help is guilty of the crimes. The case becomes complicated when a congresswoman, who about to make a speech to praise the city's lower crime rate, threatens to take away the case if Hotchner calls a press conference to discuss it.

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.

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.

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.

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. Also, wedding bells ring for one of the BAU, and Prentiss ponders her future.

When Reid discovers former FBI Special Agent Owen Quinn locked inside a storage unit, the BAU questions the credibility of Quinn's bizarre accounts of searching for an UnSub that he named "The Strangler".

As Reid's investigation of a young boy's murder in Las Vegas continues, he discovers possible connections to his own past.

The team travels to Fort Lauderdale during spring break to find a serial killer who is targeting co-eds on vacation.

When a new type of chemical warfare is released into the open air, the BAU must act quickly to find the source before any more innocent people are exposed.

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.

An unusual personal obsession is at the center of a BAU abduction case. Meanwhile, Hotch struggles with his return to work.

A series of murders in San Francisco bearing the tell-tale signs of the infamous Zodiac Killer have the BAU wondering if the notorious serial killer has returned. Also, Reid ponders if he should be doing more with his genius abilities.

When the BAU goes up against a gang of serial-killing bank robbers in Washington, D.C., the team tries to negotiate the situation unfolding inside the bank, but the stakes rise when one of their own becomes a hostage.

When an UnSub targets the BAU, and the team goes into action to find out who is responsible.

Derek Morgan brings the BAU a lead in the case against serial killer and escaped convict Mr. Scratch.

The BAU is asked to identify a killer who is shooting at victims in broad daylight, and the team works with local law enforcement officers to recreate one of the shootings.

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.

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.

The investigation turns to the family as the BAU and local authorities race against time to locate a young girl who has disappeared from a local shopping mall.

The BAU is called to West Bune, a small town in Texas, to investigate what appears to be spree killings that involve a teenaged boy and his girlfriend.

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.

The team investigates a serial killer who shoots luxury car owners on Southern California's freeways.

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 Believer's prophecy is fulfilled.

The BAU investigates a spooky local ghost story of the 'Tall Man' and the clues it provides when two people go missing in the woods of East Allegheny’s Dead Man’s Conservatory, and a third mysteriously surfaces the following day with limited details as to what happened to her friends. To assist with the case, JJ reluctantly returns to her hometown, triggering emotional flashbacks to age 11 and her older sister’s tragic death.

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.

Reid finds himself in danger when he falls for a starlet whose stalker has turned into a killer.

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.