Criminal Minds' Adam Rodriguez Drops a Major Clue About the Hunt for Scratch

Will Season 13 be the lucky year the BAU finally catches Mr. Scratch on Criminal Minds?

The unsub has been at large since breaking out of prison in the Season 11 finale and has been one step ahead of the BAU since, targeting their family members and luring them into a trap in the Season 12 finale that culminated in a multiple SUV pileup. Showrunner Erica Messer told TV Guide in May that she had not yet decided if Scratch (Bodhi Elfman) will be caught in Season 13, but now that the show's back in production, it sounds like she has landed on something.

"I think we're gonna get our hands on Mr. Scratch," Adam Rodriguez teased when TV Guide caught up with the cast at CBS' Television Critics Association summer press tour party. "Maybe."
Criminal Minds: Here's the Scandalous Reason Simmons Is Joining the BAU

It's not as innocuous of a quote as it seems, because "in a couple of months, you'll see that was a great pun," Paget Brewster added.

Hands, huh? Does someone choke him? Does the BAU bust out their own shadow monster with talon hands? (Since Matthew Gray Gubler played the Scratch clawed shadow monster, that should be easy.) Do they draw him out with Jewel on repeat?
Yes, the last one. That's totally how they'll do it.

Season 13 of Criminal Minds premieres Wednesday at 10/9c on CBS.

(Full disclosure: TV Guide is owned by CBS.)

Additional reporting by Lindsay MacDonald