best criminal minds episodes spencer reid

#Best criminal minds episodes spencer reid serial#
#Best criminal minds episodes spencer reid full#

Season 14 starts big with episode 300 where Garcia and Agent Spencer Reid ( Matthew Gray Gubler) have been kidnapped by a cult led by a serial killer. What turned out to be Criminal Minds' penultimate season feels like it was preparing for the end by tapping into the show's history. Meanwhile, SSA David Rossi ( Joe Mantegna) experiences a personal loss when his Marine sergeant Harrison Scott (in a tribute to the late actor Meshach Taylor, who died six months before the episode aired) died and the joyous discovery of an adult daughter.Ĭriminal Minds has seasons with a stronger collection of cases and the team has had much better chemistry than this one offered. In a callback to the show's early days, original character Jason Gideon ( Mandy Patinkin) is killed by an unknown subject, or 'unsub,' off-screen, but it still doesn't hit the strong emotional notes fans would expect from the death of one of the show's OGs. 'Rock Creek Park,' an episode about the abduction of the wife of a congressman-on-the-rise, is another strong offering. Scratch in the season's best episode, and a touching callback to Hotch's late wife when the veteran agent helps his father-in-law deal with her death. For instance, season 10 features the backdoor pilot of Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders that welcomes a new team working internationally and includes SSA Matthew Simmons (Daniel Henney), who later joined the flagship series, the introduction of recurring villain Mr. Still, there are a handful of standout moments and episodes during this uneven season. In the end, the one arc could have been fulfilled by a recurring character as Hewitt's real-life pregnancy mirrored Kate's exit after one season.

Kate is an undercover agent who isn't utilized much outside of a fairly powerful season-long arc about a sophisticated network of human traffickers that involves her niece Meg. Agent Kate Callahan ( Jennifer Love Hewitt) makes for a solid new hire, but the loss of Alex Blake (Jeanne Tripplehorn), who left after two seasons, is still felt because the magic of the team was not at its strongest in this configuration. Instead, she becomes not-JJ and the Criminal Minds team churns out an installment known more for casting changes than anything else.Ĭriminal Minds is a show that works well when its team gels, which was not the case in season 10.

Even as a recurring player, she could've brought such an interesting perspective but that experience is only utilized in one episode before she joined the BAU. The newly-minted BAU team member starts the season as the daughter of a serial killer who was at the FBI academy that helped the team on a case. Murphy), and ended with the agent faking her own death after fighting for her life when Doyle kidnapped her.Įven though it is the best part of the uneven season, the shuffling and extended arc meant Agent Seaver didn't have much room on the show. Prentiss' exit arc offers a fascinating look into her past that involved a classified case, international criminal Ian Doyle (Timothy V. The show passed up the opportunity to celebrate JJ's talents during her maternity leave (a result of Cook's actual pregnancy) in season four, opting for a weak arc featuring Meta Golding as her temporary replacement and doing it after this highly criticized exit only inflamed an already angry fanbase. As JJ left the series, Criminal Minds spent a lot of time discussing how important she was to the team as its communications liaison and even had an episode where Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) tries to take on the role before deciding to split the responsibility with Aaron Hotchner ( Thomas Gibson).

#Best criminal minds episodes spencer reid full#

To add even more chaos, Cook returned to help the team save Prentiss for her exit and then returned to the team full time for the following season.īehind-the-scenes choices were turned into a plot point that ended up hurting the show. The announced exits, particularly Cook's, angered fans, which made new hire Agent Ashley Seaver (Rachel Nichols, who had the daunting role of stepping in for them) a hard one to integrate into the fold. Cook) who was forcefully sent to a new post at the Pentagon and was followed up later in the season by the exit of Emily Prentiss ( Paget Brewster). It began with the abrupt exit of beloved character Jennifer 'JJ' Jureau (A.J. Criminal Minds did a lot of cast shuffling during its run, but those changes derailed season six's storytelling.