After fifteen long years, Criminal Minds finally came to an end in February 2020. The show which premiered in 2005 did a great job of satisfying fans of crime and drama. The series followed members of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) as they worked to solve complex cases.
The ratings were quite high with each season averaging at least ten million viewers. By the time the series ended, a whopping 324 episodes (all with unique cases) had aired. Out of all those episodes, here are the ten best ones according to IMDb ratings.
Best: True Genius (8.7)
The plot of Season 7's eleventh episode was inspired by Leopold and Loeb. These were two students from the University of Chicago who planned and carried out the murder of a 14-year-old boy named Bobby Franks just to see if they could commit the perfect crime.
In the episode, the BAU made their way to San Francisco after a series of murders hinted at the return of the "Zodiac Killer." Elsewhere, Reid and Prentiss attended a seminar whose theme was "Violent Crime." The seminar was hosted by the popular crime novelist Patricia Cornwell.
Best: Amplification (8.7)
There was a strange occurrence in Season 4's twenty fourth episode after 12 people who visited Quiet Hills Park in Annapolis, Maryland all died from anthrax poisoning, a mere eighteen hours later. The strain of anthrax was a deadly one, suggesting that it had been engineered by a scientist.
The BAU suspected that someone from the military was involved since such strains were used in warfare in previous decades. Media outlets refused to air the story to avoid panic among the public. To make matters worse, a member of the team got exposed to the pathogen too.
Best: Zugzwang (8.7)
In the twelfth episode of Season 8, Reid discovered that his girlfriend had been kidnapped by a man who had been stalking her. He thus set up a rescue team together with the rest of the BAU band so that they could find her before something bad happened to her.
The episode title is borrowed from a German chess term meaning "the compulsion to move." It refers to when one player has no choice but to move a piece even though doing so will give an advantage to the opponent.
Best: Date Night (8.7)
Max and Reid's third coffee date was cut short when Reid was summoned to handle a new case. Someone had kidnapped a father and daughter and in return she wanted Cat Adams to be released.
Interestingly, Cat didn't want to be released. All she wanted as her final wish was a date with Reid. The team was thus put in a dilemma on whether to release her and save the kidnapped pair or give in to her wishes. They were all aware that Cat was up to no good.
Best: Lauren (8.8)
The BAU had new headaches in Season 6's eighteenth episode. Prentiss had gone missing, leaving behind her badge and gun. The team managed to connect her to Doyle and so they sought the help of J.J., to enlightened them on the role Prentiss had in the CIA.
They learned that Prentiss was heavily involved with the team that profiled Doyle and that she had gone to look for him and punish him for his crimes. But they also realize that she has no chance because Doyle has a vast that keeps him safe.
Best: Mr. Scratch (8.8)
There was plenty of action in Season 10's 21st episode. The BAU managed to apprehend three killers who had all committed the same crime of killing a loved one. What was even more puzzling was that two of the killers had similar motives.
The two argued that monsters attacked them and so they thought they were defending themselves but in reality, they were killing someone. The BAU also found out that all three killers had been adopted in the same year when they were young. The team thus worked on patching the clues together.
Best: Believer (8.9)
An anonymous email was sent to Reid in the season finale of Season 13. The email gave hints about the whereabouts of Owen Quinn—the FBI agent who had ambitions of joining the BAU. After breaking protocol while pursuing a major case, Owen had quit then disappeared for the past year.
The BAU tried to find out what the sender of the email wanted to achieve. They also interrogated Oliver, who confessed to having been held captive by a family known as "The Stranglers." But there was more evidence that hinted at Oliver being part of "The Stranglers" too.
Best: Revelations (9.0)
There have been plenty of serial killers in Criminal Minds and Season 2's fifteenth episode went that route too. In the episode, there was a killer named Tobias Hankle. Tobias was a religious fanatic who punished immoral people. He also happened to be a drug addict. Quite the unusual combination.
Tobias had kidnapped Dr. Spencer Reid and kept him captive inside an isolated cabin deep in the woods. While digging into the killer's history, the BAU found out that he had been abused as a child and that his dad was also into religion. He thus developed Dissociative Identity Disorder.
Best: Mosley Lane (9.0)
This episode marked the first time where a member of the show's main cast directed an episode. "Mosley Lane" was directed by Matthew Gray Gubler who plays Dr. Reid.
In the episode, the BAU was called to Ashburn, Virginia where a predator had been kidnapping children for the past eight years. Twelve kids had been kidnapped in exactly the same manner. Interestingly, they were all years old when they were taken.
Best: Entropy (9.2)
Season 11's eleventh episode was all about the Black Widow. Not the Marvel one, but an assassin who was apart of a group named "The Dirty Dozen." The woman's real name was Cat and Reid organized a blind date with her where he pretended to have a job for her.
The BAU was trying to nab Cat and four assassins who were all said to be using the code name "Snowman." But Cat was smart and she soon discovered she was being played by Reid. What followed was a beautiful conversation between the two as they both try to play mind games on each other.