Criminal Minds Has had some truly weird and wacky episodes in its 17 seasons, with disturbing unsubs and disturbing cases. Some of the best Criminal Minds Episodes are also some of the strangest, highlighting the originality of the show, which helps keep the series fresh and viewers tuning in almost 20 years after the first premiere. This also created Criminal Minds Ensubs that stick with the viewers and the characters.
As a police procedural drama about serial killers, Criminal Minds has been allowed to dive into some incredibly strange storylines. While some can be too much to handle, others are just funny enough to keep viewers on their toes while still entertaining. Many Criminal Minds Stories are based on real-life cases, which only makes the weird episodes even funnier.
15
“Route 66”
Season 9, Episode 5
Most of the weird Criminal Minds Episodes are considered to be so because of the cases they revolve around. However, “Route 66” is strange for an entirely different reason. While the BAU team chases down a robber-turned-spree killer who kidnapped his estranged daughter, Hotch is fighting for his life after complications from being stabbed by George Foyet, the Ripper.
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while in the hospital, Hotch begins to experience strange visions of his wife, Hayley, who was killed four seasons earlier. That alone might not be considered weird, but in his fantasy world, Hayley is friends with Foyt. The sweet reunion between Haley and Hotch quickly turns into a nightmare, although the episode, luckily, has a happy ending.
14
“hope”
Season 7, Episode 8
“Hope” was a Penelope-centric episode of Criminal MindsAs it was a case in which she knew the victim. Penelope leads a grief support group attended by Monica Kingston, whose daughter, Hope, was abducted years earlier by a man named Bill Rogers. in Criminal Minds Season 7, Episode 8, he then abducts Monica.
It was a heartbreaking episode that revealed Bill had sexually abused and impregnated her. This caused Hope to commit suicide, which then inspired Bill to abduct Monica. Bill planned to “Make another hope“With Monica, although fortunately, he did not succeed. Criminal Minds featured many kidnappings, but Bill’s obsession with Hope and then Monica made this episode stand out.
13
“Mr. scratch”
Season 10, Episode 21
Mr. Scratch is one of the most notable Criminal Minds unsubsAs he became a long-term torturer of the BAU team. He and his strange methods were first introduced in Criminal Minds Season 10, Episode 21 in an episode named after him. Mr. Scratch’s real name in Criminal Minds is Peter Lewis, a man who drugged his victims and made them hallucinate.
The hallucinations made them violently lash out, typically leading them to kill a loved one. It was a special and horrible type of torture, because they had no memory of what they had done and were not in control of their own bodies and minds. Mr. Scratch took advantage of the most susceptible, making him even more sadistic.
12
“The Capillanos”
Season 13, Episode 17
The concept of killer clowns is nothing new, and when depicted on screen, they typically fall somewhere between silly and absolutely terrifying. The Ansab in Criminal Minds Season 13, Episode 17, Sal Capilano, falls on the scary end of the spectrum. Sal was a professional clown working in the circus before he turned to a life of robbery and eventually murder.
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When committing his murders, Sal would dress up in his clown costume, which is sure to give nightmares to anyone with even a slight clown phobia. He also carved smiling faces with stars in the eyes in the doors of the victims’ houses, transforming the innocent into darkness. The last thing heard from Sal when the BAU caught him was his haunting, maniacal laughter.
11
“A Family Affair”
Season 7, Episode 16
Criminal Minds Often makes viewers wonder whether serial killers are born or bred, as shown by episodes like “A Family Affair.” As the title suggests, the episode deals with a family of unsubs rather than just one, although it was the son, Jeffrey Collins, who leads the killings. Jeffrey was paralyzed from the waist down and frustrated with his impotence, which led him to kill prostitutes.
Jeffrey’s parents would dispose of his victims’ bodies, although they did not necessarily approve of his killings. They try to stop him, but they want him to be happy more than anything, even if that means helping him commit murders. It was one of the weirder family dynamics in Criminal MindsOf which there are many.
10
“There’s No Place Like Home”
Season 7, Episode 7
Criminal Minds Season 7, episode 7 was aptly named “There’s No Place Like Home” because it dealt with an Ansub who killed teenage boys during storms. Travis James, would abduct, drug, and bludgeon runaways to death. When they were dead, Travis would take a certain part of their body, trying to assemble enough parts to recreate his older brother, Tucker, by stitching the parts together.
The rest of the bodies were swept up by the tornadoes, making it appear that the victims were killed by the storm. Setting the episode during storms made it look like Travis’ Dr. Frankenstein-inspired motif. Travis truly believed he could bring his brother back to life, which made the episode even more disturbing.
9
“open season”
Season 2, Episode 21
Oddly enough, there are many Criminal Minds Episodes where the unsubs hunt their victims as prey. In “Open Season,” Joe and Paul Mulford go to Boise National Park in Idaho and abduct and torture their victims by letting them loose in the park before finally murdering them with arrows. The uncle and nephew have a high body count, with 26 kills.
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Joe and Paul give them a chance to escape, only to kill them, making their methods even more upsetting. The hunts would last even for a week, with many of their victims dying slow, painful deaths in what can only be described as someone’s worst nightmare. The mixture of psychological and physical torture is hard to bear.
8
“God Complex”
Season 8, Episode 4
It is not unusual that an unsub in Criminal Minds Will be a doctor, a former doctor, or someone who works with the body. In the case of “God Complex,” the sub, John Nelson, was a former mortician. He uses his skills to perform botched surgeries on his victims, trying to find a way to perform a successful leg transplant for his amputee wife.
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The episode features some sick Frankenstein-like images of limbs sloppily sewn onto other people’s bodies. John was convinced that he was helping his wife, but she did not know what he was doing. When she finds out, she doesn’t approve and helps the BAU catch him.
7
“Dust and Bones”
Season 13, Episode 7
If “The Capillanos” targeted those with fears of clowns, “Dust and Bones” is a tough watch for those with a snake phobia. in the Criminal Minds Season 13 Episode The Ansub, Desi Gutierrez, has a strange emotional connection and obsession with snakes. She went as far as changing her appearance to make herself look more serpentine.
Desi split her own tongue and cut wounds in her arm in the shape of snake scales. Although she did not kill any of her victims like other serial killers Criminal MindsShe also split their tongues. The episode is full of snakes that she used to incapacitate her victims, adding to the creep factor of the story.
6
“Heathridge Manor”
Season 7, Episode 19
There are many delusional serial killers in Criminal MindsBut James Heathridge stands out for his quirky signature. In “Heathridge Manor,” Jacob sees a vision of his mother, an actor who has a minor role in a production of Shakespeare’s The Living Wives of Windsor. She was convinced that the main actresses were “the devil’s wives” and chopped off his baby sister’s arm to make her less appealing to the devil.
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James’s mother’s delusions became his own, and when he killed his victims, he dressed them up in homemade Renaissance-style dresses identical to those in the Shakespeare play. The pictures of the dead women dressed as if they were going to perform. Sometimes what an unsub does post-mortem is more strange and disturbing than the murder itself.
5
“Rabid”
Season 9, Episode 18
Criminal Minds has found seemingly endless ways to have unsubs torture their victims. This can be fascinating at best, disturbing at worst, and typically a mix of the two. in Criminal Minds Season 9, Episode 18, “Rabid,” Ansub David Wade Cunningham infects his victims with rabies. That was horrible enough, but his method of doing it made the torture even worse.
David would keep a previously abducted and infected victim and place them on the new victim. The victims are driven insane before eventually dying of cardiac arrest. Although the BAU was able to save one of his victims, she unfortunately later died in the hospital, as she was already infected.
4
“The Good Earth”
Season 8, Episode 5
Most unsubs in Criminal Minds are younger white men. The few female unsubs typically don’t work alone, and their crimes are usually sex-based, but Emma Kerrigan from “The Good Earth” was one of the exceptions. Emma was a hypochondriac with a severe skin disease who only ate food she grew up with.
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Emma spread her husband’s ashes in her garden and believed they cured her illness. To stay healthy, she force-fed people soil additives, animal feed and natural tranquilizers. She then decapitated them, chopped up the bodies, and ground the parts with a wood chipper to use as fertilizer. The unique murder trial made the episode interesting and funny.
3
“The Inspiration/The Inspired”
Season 9, Episodes 1 and 2
Criminal Minds Season 9 had a two-part premiere, “The Inspiration” and “The Inspired.” The episodes follow the search for a killer in Arizona who turns out to be Wallace Hines. Wallace captured the girls who reminded him of a past love and tortured them for murder. What made this episode stomach-turning was the torture with cannibalism.
Wallace kept the broken head of his first victim and forced parts of it from each subsequent victim. This is not the only one Criminal Minds episode to deal with cannibalism, but the two-parter was disturbingly graphic. Wallace’s method of killing came from his obsession with female praying mantises, which made it even weirder.
2
“the lesson”
Season 8, Episode 10
“The lesson” is one of many Criminal Minds Episodes directed by Matthew Gray Gubler, who played Spencer Reid. When viewers see his name in the credits, they know they’re in for a fun and wild ride. The ansub in “The Lesson” is Adam Rain, who woke up from a coma with severe brain damage that made his mind childlike.
Adam tortures his victims by dislocating their limbs and then stuffing their bodies into custom-made boxes. As if that wasn’t disturbing enough, it’s then revealed that he turns his victims into marionettes to build a puppet show. The Criminal Minds Episode is made even creepier by the children’s music to remind viewers that it was essentially a child’s mind that came up with this twisted, murderous plan.
1
“The Invisible Valley”
Season 5, Episode 12
The weirdest episode of Criminal Minds is season 5, episode 12, “The Uncanny Valley.” It’s one of those episodes that sticks with viewers years later because of how creepy and freakish it was. There is another episode featuring a female unsub, Samantha Malcolm, who abducts and imprisons her victims before killing them.
Samantha’s father molested her when she was young and bought her dolls as an apology. To prevent her from telling the truth, he punished her with electroshock therapy, which permanently damaged her brain. in Criminal MindsSamantha dresses her victims as dolls. Her victims look really doll-like, and her background makes Samantha a sympathetic person despite her strange methods.
Criminal Minds centers on cases from the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), a group of elite criminal profilers who analyze the country’s most notorious criminals as they look to anticipate their next moves before they strike again. Starting in 2005, Criminal Minds ran for 15 seasons before getting a revival show, Criminal Minds: Evolution, in 2022.
- Figure
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Shemar Moore, Joe Mantegna, Kirsten Vangsness, Paget Brewster, Thomas Gibson, Matthew Gray Gubler, AJ Cook, Mandy Patinkin, Lola Glaudini, Rachel Nichols, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Aisha Tyler.
- Release date
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September 22, 2005
- Seasons
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17
- Showrunner
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Erika Messer