Join or Sign In
Sign in to customize your TV listings
By joining TV Guide, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy.
Criminal Minds Season 13 Episodes
Season 13 Episode Guide
22 Episodes 2017 - 2018
Episode 1
Wheels Up
Wed, Sep 27, 201743 mins
On their way to apprehend Scratch, the BAU team members, minus Garcia and Reid, who has not yet been reinstated, are instead ambushed in what was a trap set by Scratch. For a specific reason, Garcia brings along SSA Matt Simmons formerly of the International Response Team to the BAU team members' last known site of communication. There, Garcia and Simmons do find the team members, each suffering from a range of no injuries to the opposite extreme. However, one team member is missing, assumed apprehended by Scratch. Reid - who is unofficially reinstated in this extenuating circumstance - Simmons, Garcia and the healthy team members continue their search for Scratch in trying to save their apprehended colleague. They have access to what most of the team was unaware of which is a hard copy only file folder on recent activities regarding Scratch. Adding Reid back to the team has both pluses and minuses, for the team, for the case and for Reid himself. Meanwhile, Scratch chose the specific team member to meet his end game, that team member who he believes is the only one who can provide the information he wants. As such, Scratch has to keep the team member alive and lucid - at least until he gets what he wants - while using those tactics which will best get him the desired information.
Episode 2
To a Better Place
Wed, Oct 4, 201743 mins
Following the final incident with Scratch, the team has been taking a mandatory break to decompress. In addition, Reid has gone through his reinstatement evaluation, he who has been conditionally reinstated without the possibility of negotiation on that condition. In their time off, there has been a backlog of cases. However, they depart to Naples, Florida on a case of some currency, as a female has just been discovered murdered, her body stuffed into an old suitcase and placed in a public location. She is the second victim, the first as of yet an unidentifiable Jane Doe whose body had decomposed beyond a state of visual identification. By the time the team lands in Naples, a third victim is discovered. Beyond the suitcase in a public locale, the other similarities between the two identified victims is gender, that they were strangled, and that the same old fashioned shade of lipstick had been smeared on their mouth area. The lipstick and the suitcases indicate that there is some vintage aspect to the unsub's psyche, and that a probable stressor is being abandoned by a female, probably the unsub's mother when he was a child. They also discover that both women were in the process of a romantic evening, friends who can attest that they were careful women not prone to reckless dating. JJ surmises that the unsub is able to lure his victims unwittingly using a Florence Nightingale complex, in that they are attracted to some "broken" aspect to his personality. It isn't until the first victim is identified that a tie between all three victims is discovered. By that time, the team believes that the unsub probably has an ultimate victim in mind, who they have to discover before she becomes an actual victim. In the process of the case, Reid will demonstrate, at least in this case, if the evaluation committee was correct in their concerns about him.
Episode 3
Blue Angel
Wed, Oct 11, 201743 mins
The BAU team members head to Detroit, Michigan where two men in two weeks have been discovered dead. Both were married, Caucasian, mildly successful professionals. Both were found in very public places hanging by a meat hook, naked and their private parts cut off pre-mortem. The authorities eventually receive a snuff movie of the second victim, Curtis Wyler, including the entire time it took him to bleed out to death. The team analyzes the video in order to find any clues as to the unsub's whereabouts. Garcia discovers that both men had been systematically withdrawing large sums of money from their bank accounts, small enough not to be questioned by the banks. In questioning the Wyler's wife, the team believes that both men were probably using the money for the services of an escort. What Garcia finds is that it is not an escort service, but rather an online dating site, Blue Siren, where members arrange their own meetings. Both victims had been involved with the same member, a woman with the online handle Dasha, who had recently discontinued her membership. The team is able to locate Dasha, who admits to her involvement with the victims, but does not know why anyone would want to kill them. She is concerned that the unsub may be after her. The unsub is after her, but not in the way that she anticipates.
Episode 4
Killer App
Wed, Oct 18, 201740 mins
The BAU team members are called immediately to the Silicon Valley in California on an active shooting at a video gaming company, the shooter who was able to get away. The team will be liaising with Homeland Security on this case. When the team arrives, they find there are only three casualties despite the large number of employees who were in the active shooting area of the building. Despite there being no ties between the three victims beyond the place of employment, the team believes the victims, with the exception of the security guard who was collateral damage for being in the way, were targeted as they were shot multiple times with few stray bullets. Eyewitness accounts prove of little help due to the inconsistencies. The initial thought is perhaps that the unsub is a disgruntled ex-employee. However when a second attack occurs at a different site of a different video gaming company - all four of the coders in the building working that evening who were killed - the team believes they have discovered why a shooter was never apprehended at the first site. Garcia is eventually able to tie all six of the targeted victims to an overlapping three month period of unemployment spanning over a total of six months. They now know that the unsub has a specific end victim in mind, but finding her before the unsub does is only one part of the equation as a secretive military contractor named Peakstone is found to play into what is happening, Peakstone which will go to extreme lengths to keep some of their organization secrets.
Episode 5
Lucky Strikes
Wed, Oct 25, 201742 mins
The BAU heads to Bridgewater, Florida where a prostitute, Rebecca Strong, was found murdered, her dead body discovered in a rest stop ladies room. The killing has all the hallmarks of a case that the team worked on ten years ago, that of Floyd Feylinn Ferell. Ferell's alleged murders contained elements of Satanism and cannibalism, Rebecca whose legs and fingers were cut off, fingers which were found in her stomach. However, the fingers she ingested were not her own, meaning that there is another victim not yet discovered. The problem for the team is that Ferell has been in a psychiatric institution since that case, he who was never deemed mentally fit to stand trial. That problem in tying Ferell to these two recent murders changes when the team learns that Ferell had recently been granted day privileges, something that the institution did not feel the need to tell the FBI since his case was never deemed a criminal one as he did not go to trial. Certain aspects of Rebecca's death that matched those attributed to Ferell's alleged murders ten years ago were never made public, meaning that they are certain he had something to do with Rebecca's death. What complicates matters is that Ferell's lawyer informs them that she is petitioning for his unconditional release as he has been the model patient for the ten years and the hospital board may deem him to be fit for such a release. In their investigation, the team begins to wonder whether they missed that he may have been manipulated by a true unknown mastermind as Ferell's lawyer suggests. They may get some clearer answers to their questions if they discover the body of the first victim. Once the team is certain who was the mastermind in the murders ten years ago as well as the unsub in the current case, they may face a larger issue of having to choose between doing what is legal and what will provide justice for the victims. One of the profilers that has stayed behind in Quantico is J.J., whose role is to look after Garcia. The issue is that Ferell's case ten years ago occurred at the time Garcia was shot, that shooting which is now playing heavily on her mind, whether or not she wants to admit it. Beyond being there for Garcia, J.J. may know the antidote to get Garcia out of her funk.
Episode 6
The Bunker
Wed, Nov 8, 201742 mins
The team stays local for their next case where four young women have been abducted under similar circumstances over the past five years, the Richmond field office which was handling the case now wanting the BAU's assistance as the fourth has just been abducted. Crossing racial lines, the four are all youngish, successful professionals - an obstetrician, a teacher, a dentist and the latest victim Allie Leighton, a chef. Two of the victims were abducted in a parking garage, their vehicles and their belongings not stolen. All four were abducted around midnight. There have been no ransoms requested and no dead bodies discovered, leading to the team believing all four may still be alive. The fact of the BAU being called in leads to a young woman, Joanna Miller, coming into the office hoping that they can also look into the disappearance five years ago of her sister, Chrissy Miller. The field agents in the Richmond office previously working on the case didn't believe Chrissy's disappearance is tied to this case as Chrissy was classified as a young, troubled teen runaway, not fitting into the victimology of the successful professional. However, J.J., who has taken the responsibility of liaising with Joanna, believes there is a tie between the case and Chrissy as well as a large number of who were classified as teen runaways, the four abducted women who would be providing their services not to the runaways but to the runaways' children as they discovered Chrissy and many of the other runaways were pregnant at the time. When one of the four abducted professionals is found dead - seemingly by a self-inflicted wound - and another abducted within the same vein of work probably to take her place, Reid knows the motive behind why the now five professional women were abducted when they were. One of the last pieces of the puzzle is finding a large enough facility or tract of land where these women could be held captive without detection for as long as they have been.
Episode 7
Dust and Bones
Wed, Nov 15, 201742 mins
Minus Tara who is on assignment, the team is called to Austin, Texas, where two thirtysomething women in two separate incidents were abducted, only to emerge a day later in their car with no knowledge what had happened to them since the time they entered their car before going missing. Both women had their face intricately cut with several pieces of the derma layer removed which will result in permanent scarring, and a white plastic mask next to where they awoke. They also had two small puncture wounds which are initially thought to be taser burns, but with Reid's deduction are found to be the way the unsub was able to subdue the victims. When a third victim emerges shortly after the team's arrival in Austin, they believe the unsub works in the body modification business doing more than just tattoos, and that snake imagery is important to that person. Reid is also able to tie the location where the victims' vehicles were located to point not to the unsub, but to whose attention the unsub is trying to get, possibly that person the ultimate target who the unsub feels wears a figurative mask hiding the true person underneath that façade. Working on this case, specifically in dealing with the victims, may help Alvez, whose former partner, Phil Brooks, has been struggling with physical recovery after three years, that recovery which still has him unable to walk.
Episode 8
Neon Terror
Wed, Nov 22, 201740 mins
The team is down Reid and Lewis on their next case, with the rest of the team joining Rossi in Miami, Florida, the latest stop in he doing publicity for his latest book. In three separate incidents in that city, three women have been shot and killed while sitting behind the wheel of their parked car. All three are in their twenties, have long brunette hair, lead low risk lifestyles, and were shot in the heart with a .44 caliber magnum, which the team believes is the unsub wanting attention in what he is doing. A fourth and fifth victims are discovered by the time the team arrives in Miami, they a pair out on a date, the male of the pair who the team believes is collateral damage in the female being the target. From police photos, they are able to find that each of the female victims had a discreetly placed hair clip behind the ear. When such is reported by Channel 3 News complete with photographs, the team knows that someone with inside knowledge had to have provided them with the information as the hair clips were not visible in any publicly distributed photographs to the media outlets. In visiting Channel 3, the team knows they will have problems most specifically with its news director, Sandra Madsen, who has a wall of fame indicating that she has narcissistic tendencies and wants to sensationalize the unsub by giving him a catchy media-friendly moniker. As the investigation continues, Channel 3 continues to have one scoop after another, which may provide a key into the unsub's identity, who the victims may represent to the unsub, and whose attention he is trying to get by committing these murders.
Episode 9
False Flag
Wed, Dec 6, 201743 mins
The BAU team members are in Roswell, New Mexico where two murders have occurred among a group of truthers, more commonly referred to as conspiracy theorists. They have determined that the murderer is hiding among them. The team knows they have a difficult task in that the truthers believe that the authorities in general are working against them. A few days into their stay in Roswell, the team makes the unprecedented step of delivering the profile to the truthers themselves in the hopes that they can identify the murderer, possibly a faker, among them. But something that happens at that meeting turns the tables on the team. While most of the truthers decide to clam up and hire lawyers to protect themselves, one, Melissa Miller, at least decides to talk to the team on the caveat that she be able to record the proceedings and broadcast it on her podcast. As a forensic scientist, Tara is tasked with dealing with Melissa. She has to be able to prove to Melissa that she and the team are not lying, while getting some relevant information that may point them in the direction of the murderer.
Episode 10
Submerged
Wed, Jan 3, 201842 mins
The team heads to Ramona, California where three sets of murders have taken place in backyard pools. In all three cases, a male victim was tied to a cinder block and drowned, with a female victim shot in the chest found floating in the pool in the third set. Also in all three cases, seemingly minor items were burgled - an inexpensive coin set, bowling trophies and costume jewelry - with more expensive items still remaining in the houses. Because of the stolen items, the crimes were initially deemed burglaries gone wrong by the local authorities. When the team arrives in Ramona, they find that it is a recreational town largely developed by the creation of Lake Palmer twenty years ago, it a man made reservoir. The town is going through some economic hardship due to drought which has dropped the lake's water level and thus has closed many of the recreational activities on the lake, such as fishing. Because of the economic situation, burglaries have been on the rise, hence the reason for the local authorities' thought of these three cases being burglary centered. What the falling water level has also caused is dead bodies coming to the surface, they largely previously unrecovered victims of lake activity accidents. The team believes the backyard pool murders are tied to the drought - the reason that the unsub has chosen to drown his victims in pools instead of in the lake. To discover the identity of the unsub, the team will have to uncover many mysteries of the lake itself and its creation twenty years ago.
Episode 11
Full-Tilt Boogie
Wed, Jan 10, 201842 mins
The BAU heads to nearby Hitchens, Virginia where Trish Gaines, the wife of local Police Chief Steve Gaines, was found barely alive, partially buried, in a national park, the federal jurisdiction of the park being the reason that it becomes an FBI case. Trish is currently in a coma. Steve and their two children were off camping at the time, this the first time Steve had left Trish alone since they moved to Hitchens a year ago. On her own, Trish went to the local bar for a girls night out the evening before, the bar where she was harassed by a man named Rick Sturgess, who had previously served time for sexual assault. After taking Trish's statement at the bar, Assistant Chief Jimmy Mackenzie - Mack - escorted Trish home to make sure she was all right. These items lead to Sturgess being at the top of the suspect list. By the time the BAU arrives in Hitchens and Sturgess is in custody, they rule out Sturgess as the unsub. They also find that people involved in the case seem to be hiding a plethora of pertinent information. They discover what looks to be evidence of domestic abuse within the Gaines family with Trish having made several trips to the ER to deal with "accidents" for issues such as broken ribs, with one of those medical incidents being a miscarriage a few years earlier. The Gaines' move to Hitchens is also somewhat suspect as Steve had lost a mayoral bid in their previous residence, more cosmopolitan Ashburn, leading to this lateral move to largely rural and economically depressed Hitchens. They also believe Mack may be involved in what happened to Trish, if he being the unsub it an act of revenge for having been passed over for the Police Chief job in favor of outsider Steve. Beyond something that JJ notices about Trish in her coma, they may only be able to bring all the secrets to the surface and discover the identity of the unsub if Trish emerges from her coma.
Episode 12
Bad Moon on the Rise
Wed, Jan 17, 201841 mins
The BAU is called to New York City where a second person in the span of a month has been found dead in Central Park, the victims disemboweled, and their throats torn out. Beyond both victims being male, they have little in common, the first the member of a vicious street gang, the second a late night jogger who led a low risk lifestyle. The killings could conceivably have been done by an animal, such as a wolf or a vicious dog, especially as there are puncture wounds on the victims that look to be made by extremely sharp non-human canine teeth. If it was animal killings, the animals could have been trained to do so as opposed to them being random attacks. When the M.E. discovers no canine blood or hair on the victims and that the victims' seeming bite marks contain ecstasy laced human saliva, coupled with the killings having taken place on full moon nights, the team believes the unsub is having drug induced psychosis believing himself to be a werewolf. However, because of the bite marks having been made by something non-human, they further believe that the unsub, rather than suffering from a psychotic break, is conscious of his activities having fashioned a mouthpiece for himself mimicking that of a canine. It may be the encounters the unsub had with a subsequent victim, the first female, and with a youth named Chad Higgins, a runaway from the foster care system, that may provide some missing pieces to the puzzle of the unsub's identity and why he is compelled to kill in the park. Through this case, Alvez can't help but be preoccupied about his blind date before the case with Lisa Douglas, she the first woman in some time with who he believes he could have something special.
Episode 13
Cure
Wed, Jan 24, 201843 mins
The next case for the BAU is assisting DC police in an active homicide, that of Andrew Hirota, an asset fund manager killed in his office. His shaken associate, Abigail Fuller, who was also in the office at the time of the murder, was gagged and bound by the masked unsub, Fuller who was otherwise not physically hurt and who states that the unsub was dressed in all black like riot police. She also states that their company was going through difficult financial times having lost a lot of money over the past year, including for their investor clients. Hirota was killed by multiple shallow slashes all over his body, his blood used to scrawl what looks to be a serpentine staff on the office wall, which his body was posed facing. The insignia is generally used to signify healing. It isn't until the M.E.'s examination that they discover a message written in code placed into Hirota's throat. With Garcia and Reid breaking the code, they discover the message is a manifesto railing against institutions of power, especially those in law, finance and religion as the causes of social ills. The writer or writers - as the manifesto uses "we" instead of "I" - believes themselves to be the cure, hence the probable use of the serpentine staff insignia. The BAU, however, does know that they are dealing with one unsub, the use of the word "we" used as means to signify power and narcissistic tendencies. They also deem that that the message was solely for their eyes rather than it being a public manifesto, signifying the unsub's want to indulge in a game with the FBI to see who is smarter. Three subsequent victims later all similar to the first build upon the initial evidence and point to the victims being specifically targeted as people. It is the fact that the last victim, family court judge Scott Taveras, survived his attack, and whose girlfriend, Elena Duran being a possible victim but who instead managed to scare the unsub attacker away, that may provide the biggest clues as to the unsub's identity and his motives. JJ can't help but be preoccupied throughout the case by an email received and cc'd to Prentiss sent by Assistant Director Linda Barnes asking to meet, that meeting which ends up taking place immediately following the conclusion of this case. The last time JJ received such a message, she was removed from the team.
Episode 14
Miasma
Wed, Jan 31, 201842 mins
Almost immediately following their last case, the BAU is called to New Orleans, Louisiana where ten dead bodies, recently deceased, have been found in a vandalized crypt. All ten are burnt beyond recognition, each body being drained of its blood. Due to other evidence, the team believes the murders may be ritualistic and related to voodoo. The identification of the first five victims results in a mixed victimology across races, genders, ages and socioeconomic status, with three having been homeless and two working professionals. The M.E. is also able to determine that all victims were killed by large doses of ketamine, with the exsanguination and the burning, where the unsub used rubbing alcohol as an accelerant, occurring post-mortem. When a further victim emerges alive, the team believes they know the unsub's targets: anyone who displays any open symptoms of being sick, his mission to put the targets out of their misery, with voodoo not factoring into the crimes. Beyond the ten in the crypt and the few others discovered after the team's arrival in the city, J.J. comes to the conclusion that the unsub had an original target who has yet to be discovered. The discovery of the original victim will help the team discover the identity of the unsub. The team is without Prentiss on this case, she staying behind in Quantico to meet with Assistant Director Linda Barnes, and J.J. placed in the role of acting unit chief for this case. The team, especially J.J. and Simmons, are most concerned as J.J. had already met with Barnes and told in confidence only scant pieces of the reason for the meeting with Prentiss, while Simmons' prior dealing with Barnes was in her dismantling of the IRT of which Simmons was then a member. The meeting between Barnes and Prentiss is on the surface an annual review, this one important on the first anniversary of Reid being jailed, but Prentiss begins to believe that beyond Barnes' own ambition to become Director that she has a specific agenda about which she is not being forthright. Prentiss has to decide to play nice or fight back against Barnes' hardball tactics.
Episode 15
Annihilator
Wed, Mar 7, 201842 mins
The BAU's next case will be the first with J.J. as acting unit chief following Prentiss' suspension, J.J. not happy about the means of this promotion. The entire team is also not happy that Barnes hand-picked this case as what she considers an "easy win" and that she too will be joining them in the field. While one member takes action to show displeasure in Barnes' actions, they all know that Barnes' end goal is to dismantle the unit, she doing so by picking them off one by one, or if the unit is able to survive that she recreate it in her own vision. The case takes the team to St. Louis, Missouri, where four young roommates have been murdered in their home, they are bound and gagged, and stabbed multiple times. Based on social media, the house seemed to be the focus of the group's extended social circle, and that the roommates acted like a family, each member fulfilling a specific role. Upon arriving in St. Louis, the team further learns that there are three other roommates who were not home at the time and thus escaped the murders: Rachel Willow who at the last minute ended up staying with her sister for the night, Corinne Jordan, a flight attendant, who was overseas for work at the time, and Larry Scanlon, who for other reasons was not at the house at the time. With the evidence on hand, Barnes is certain that Larry is the unsub. The rest of the team members are not as quick to jump to the same conclusion, this only one of the many battles in the field between the team members and Barnes. Only the resolution of the case will show if Barnes or the team has the upper hand, at least at this point in time, in their internal battle. Meanwhile back in DC, Prentiss is taking the first step in getting back to work, only it's not quite the step the team would expect. Only Reid may be able to provide some perspective on the matter due to what happened between him and Prentiss in Mexico.
Episode 16
Last Gasp
Wed, Mar 14, 201843 mins
It's been two weeks since Barnes has reassigned the BAU team members, and no one is settling into their new position well. Besides Rossi who was forced into retirement and who has his own issues in his post-FBI life, Prentiss arguably has the biggest adjustment in what is obviously designed to be a disciplinary demotion. Even those still in the skeleton BAU - JJ as conditional chief, and Alvez and Simmons as the remaining profilers - are facing challenges in that Barnes has not approved any of the cases JJ has brought to her. JJ calculates that twenty-six people have died as a result of Barnes denying the BAU these cases. But Garcia stumbles onto some material in her work in cybercrimes that JJ believes is appropriate. Despite Barnes denying that case as well believing it to be a fake, JJ convenes the old team who agree to work on the case on the sly with Prentiss back at the helm. They all go into it knowing that Barnes will eventually find out, and regardless of if they are able to solve the case, Barnes may end up firing them all. They believe that the case is a serial murder case, the unsub who has taken a series of three time stamped photographs of a young woman, the first a posed photo, the second where she is seemingly drugged, then third and final photo taken post-mortem with her dressed in white lingerie. A fourth later time stamped photograph is included of a different but similar looking woman in that posed position, she who the team knows is meant to be the next victim. As the team works on the case, they may find that they have a few simpatico people in the FBI. However, they hit a roadblock when they know to solve the case, they need Barnes' assistance. As such, they have to decide if it is worth the risk to approach her directly about what they're doing.
Episode 17
The Capilanos
Wed, Mar 21, 201843 mins
The team heads to small town Guymon, Oklahoma to investigate a home invasion, burglary and murder of the homeowner, Mark Wilson. The unsub in the case had most recently committed similar crimes in a home in equally small town Campo, Colorado, killing the homeowner, Sam Franklin. Both victims were husbands and fathers, Caucasian, hard working midwestern types. Both men were severely beaten with something the unsub had found in the house, and had their mouths cut at the corners to be posed with an exaggerated smile. Also in both cases, the unsub had broke into the isolated home while it was empty, seemingly lying in wait for the victim in each situation to return home. In the Wilson situation, there is an eyewitness, the Wilsons' seven year old son, Dylan Wilson, who, before he stopped talking due to the trauma, said that the person who killed his father was dressed as a clown, which the team has to figure out is real or a manifestation of a clown phobia. As the unsub was probably aware of Dylan in the house, the team believes the unsub is specifically targeting strong male types. Garcia is able to discover other home invasions in Colorado prior to Franklin's murder which they believe to be tied to the case in that a clown-like smiley face was carved into the doors of each home located in an isolated area. As such, the team is able to determine that the unsub is traveling the back roads perhaps to some ultimate destination. Not only for his own welfare, the team hopes that Dylan will overcome this trauma to be able to speak again to provide more information that can lead them to the unsub.
Episode 18
The Dance of Love
Wed, Mar 28, 201842 mins
The unit heads to Chicago, Illinois, where two women in two separate incidents in two days were found murdered in their respective home, each woman with a single stab wound in the back - the cause of death - and a red rose placed in each of the victim's mouth. Otherwise, the two women on the surface are vastly different, the first a younger woman living a promiscuous lifestyle, and the second a middle aged wife, albeit one in a troubled marriage. By the time the unit members arrive in the city, a third victim is discovered. Each of the crime scenes had a different calling card each which Lewis is able to determine is associated with a different pop music standard from the 1930s to 1950s. The unit members are also able to determine that each of the victims were night owls, either by nature or by necessity for work. The complicating matter is that each of the women were targeted by the unsub, who the unit members believe was in some sort of romantic relationship with each of the victims. They have to figure out how the unsub would have had the long game to find each of the vastly different women. The one unit member not on the case is Rossi, who has taken a few days off to remain in DC as ex-wife number three, Krystall Richards - an ex Las Vegas croupier, the two who were only married for thirty-six hours before sobriety led to them annulling the marriage - is coming to the city for her daughter's wedding. Rossi and Krystall have not seen each other since the annulment. But in meeting with Krystall, her daughter Portia and Portia's fiancé Wick Rollins, Rossi is unable to turn off his professional mind, red flags which are raised and which he feels he needs to investigate.
Episode 19
Ex Parte
Wed, Apr 4, 201842 mins
The BAU is asked to take charge in dealing with an active hostage situation downtown, it at the offices of the American Legal Defense Council (ALDC) which occupies one floor of an office building. This case hits the unit especially hard when they learn directly from Simmons that his wife Kristy just started working there two weeks ago and is probably one of the two dozen or so hostages. As such, Prentiss has to be careful in where to place Simmons on the case, he wanting to do whatever necessary to save his wife's life. By the time the unit starts working on the case, they learn that the unknown hostage takers have secured the floor with explosive devices at each point of entry, not enough to bring the office tower down, but enough to kill everyone on that floor. When the lead hostage taker makes contact, the unit discovers the motive for the commandeering of the ALDC offices: the release of death row prisoner, Leonard Hagland, who is scheduled to be executed at the end of the weekend. The demand is Hagland's immediate release, with one hostage killed every fifteen minutes until the demand is met. Hagland is the leader of a separatist group called the Horsemen who do not believe in official authority, such as that of the FBI or the ALDC which helped bring him to justice. Through the communication with the lead hostage taker and eventually with Hagland, the unit hopes that they can discover more about the hostage takers and how to use that information to their advantage. Through it all, Kristy tries to make contact with her husband, while Simmons looks for any opportunity, official or unofficial, to hasten the process to save Kristy and the other hostages.
Episode 20
All You Can Eat
Wed, Apr 11, 201842 mins
The BAU is called in by the Center for Disease Control in an expected case of bio-terrorism in Arlington, Virginia, where two people, over the span of twenty-four hours, spontaneously bled to death, the symptoms mirroring the effects of Ebola. The two victims, a divorced female commercial loans officer at a bank and a married male civilian analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency, had peripheral contact with each other which could be the connection in this case. The M.E. determines that the substance with which they are dealing is easily obtained rat poison, meaning that there is probably only one unsub instead of a terrorist organization at play. With a subsequent target, the unit is able to determine that the unsub is targeting the Arlington business community, the analyst the outlier among the victims. They believe the bank is the key to the unsub's rage. Food as a method of attack is important, but it also means that the unsub could easily poison mass amounts of food at a number of targets and locations. In addition to Reid who is still on a mandatory sabbatical, the team is also down Garcia for this case, she, who will be working remotely when she can, for the first time attending the parole board hearing for Jesse Wilson at San Quentin, he the drunk driver who killed her mother and stepfather twenty years ago. Of Garcia's many stepbrothers, only the youngest, Carlos Garcia, will be attending the hearing, he who will making a victim impact statement on behalf of the entire family, all who are determined to see Wilson remain behind bars for the entire twenty-five years of his sentence. As Garcia deals with this personal issue, she struggles with the entire notion of the choices one makes in life, some bad which lead to tragic consequences like the death of her parents.
Episode 21
Mixed Signals
Wed, Apr 18, 201840 mins
The unit heads to Taos, New Mexico where in the span of a week two people were killed, each victim - a male teacher and female clinic physician - with a hole drilled into the exact same spot on the left side of their head. The M.E. is able to determine that the drilling took place pre-mortem and was the cause of death. By the time the unit arrives in Taos, a third victim, a male construction worker, is discovered. One lead is that the physician, Stacy Uqalla, was on the phone with her husband, Michael Uqalla, at the time of her murder, he being able to hear the unsub looking/asking for some specific unnamed item. The unit members discover that all three victims had money issues, and leading out of a subsequent attack and from the nature of the drill holes believe that the attacks have some auditory component to them, with the unsub possibly suffering from humming in the ears, such phenomena which was first attributed within the general population to the Taos area in the early 1990s. The unit members believe the unsub is trying to find the source of the hum, with the victims being anyone who prevents him from doing so or whose help he enlists cannot stop the hum. As such, the unit members have to go on a search for what the unsub believes is the source.
Episode 22
Believer
Wed, Apr 18, 201843 mins
Reid receives notification via anonymous email of the hidden whereabouts of Owen Quinn, an FBI agent with the Violent Crimes Apprehension Program (ViCAP) until he quit one year ago. He aspired to be part of the BAU, but broke protocol in a potential case, leading to him quitting to pursue the case on his own in his obsession on the issue. That case, the unsub who he coined the Strangler, had one known victim, although he believed there were others, he fitting missing persons into his victimology to support his theory, most of those missing persons who ended up being found and not potential victims of this supposed unsub. The many questions of the BAU, the answers to which would will help them solve the mystery of Quinn's situation, include: who the anonymous email sender is; what the email sender's motive is; and why the email sender chose Reid, who barely knows Quinn. Through questioning Quinn, Quinn's family (the case which led to the breakup of his marriage), and his ViCAP colleagues, the BAU has to decipher if Quinn is telling the truth about what has happened to him over the past year or if it is just a story in hiding that he is the Strangler himself. That story is that he was held captive by who would seem to the outside world as a model suburban family, the parents, purportedly the Stranglers, who tortured him, while their late teenaged son, Theo, the only one in the household who showed him any sympathy.
