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[[File:cmcurrentpromo.jpg|frame|The BAU team, from season 3 to season 6, and now again.]]
These days, every [[Police Procedural]] needs a clever gimmick. Something that separates it from the pack. For ''[[
And for '''''Criminal Minds''''', it's ''crazy serial killers''. ([[Running Gag|And magic.]])
''Criminal Minds'' centers around a team of FBI profilers who use their knowledge of the human mind to get into the heads of the worst
Beyond that, ''Criminal Minds'' is notable for a mostly gender-equal cast, its standards of realism for the motives of its criminals, who are often fascinating characters (though the mechanics of the crimes aren't always that realistic), and for the sympathy and respect with which it treats the victims of violent crime (and sometimes the perpetrators as well!).
In 2011 it got a spinoff, ''[[Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior
Has [[Criminal Minds
{{tropelist}}▼
▲{{tropelist}}
== A-B ==
* [[Abusive Parents]]: Show up often, and aren't limited only to UnSubs.
* [[Accidental Aiming Skills]]: Subverted (deconstructed? averted?) in "L.D.S.K." when Reid claims, after shooting an UnSub in the head, that he was "aiming for his leg." Reid recently failed his gun test, so it would be easy to believe this explanation...except that Reid was lying just a few feet away from the UnSub at the time, and it had been previously established that anything less than a [[Boom! Headshot!|headshot]] would probably result in the deaths of half the people in the room. Reid was making his first joke of the series, and fittingly, it was a morbid and obscure one.
** The joke is also a call back to the opening of the episode when Reid was practicing with Hotch for the not yet failed test and aims for the target's head but hits the groin.
* [[Actor Allusion]]: Reid finding Morgan and Rossi watching ''[[The Young and The Restless]]'' in his hotel room is an allusion to Shemar Moore's tenure on the show.
* [[
* [[Adult Fear]]: Let's just add "take a shot every time a child is abducted/abused/assaulted/threatened" to the Criminal Minds drinking games.
** Notable episodes include "Risky Business", "Cradle to Grave", "Seven Seconds", and others.
* [[Adventures in Coma Land]]: After {{spoiler|Elle}} is shot by the [[Serial Killer]] of the week she is left unconscious and bleeding to death. Throughout the remainder of the episode while emergency workers attempt to resuscitate her, she is in {{spoiler|a dream version of the BAU jet, where she is visited by her police officer father who died when she was a child. During their conversation, Elle's father tells her that the decisions she makes in the plane will make the difference as to whether she lives or dies in real life}}.
* [[Affectionate Nickname]]: Morgan and Garcia have dozens of these for each other.
** JJ is also the only person (in the world, apparently), who calls Reid "Spence."
* [[Alone
** Hotchner, at the end of season 4 and beginning of Season 5. However, {{spoiler|Hotchner, stabbed multiple times, is not rescued by his teammates, but rather by the [[Serial Killer]] (called the Reaper) who ambushed him. The Reaper even takes Hotchner to the hospital to makes sure that Hotchner survives to suffer more.}}
** Reid and JJ at the end of "The Big Game"
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** Will in "Hit and Run", the two part season seven finale.
* [[Always Murder]]: Well, they ''are'' the FBI's Behavior Analysis Unit. But if there were actually that many serial killers out there, no one would ever leave their houses.
** This ''may'' [[Truth in Television]]
*** The team also deals with child abductions, serial rapists, terrorists, and spree killers, none of which are included in the FBI's estimates. Only about half of any given season's cases are actual serial killers. The serious element of unrealism here is that one team would work all of those types of cases; in reality, the BAU has [[Economy Cast|separate units to deal with separate kinds of specialized crime.]]
*** Other divisions specializing in things like the Mob and child exploitation have shown up occasionally.
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* [[Artistic License History]]: In "I Love You, Tommy Brown", the titular student in a [[Teacher-Student Romance]] [[Gone Horribly Wrong]] (well, more wrong) is starting to have doubts (after the teacher in question shoots his classmate / neighbour), tries to calm him down and justify their love by saying that in Medeival times 12 year olds marrying their elders was not unusual- this was only true of the aristocracy, and still wasn't very common; that when [[Henry VIII]] married Catherine of Aragon she was a much older woman (she was only about 5 years his senior); and that [[Romeo and Juliet]] were 13 (true of the play, not of the original story; also, the point of the play is that they are too young and their love is childish; also, ''its a play''). Possibly [[Justified Trope|justified]] since the teacher is a [[Manipulative Bitch|manipulative]], [[Ax Crazy]] [[The Sociopath|sociopath]] trying to control a not-very-smart teenage boy, and of course she doesn't have to know a lot about history / English literature anyway.
** It's also a common mistaken fact made in most referances to Medeival times. Most people uninterested in that time period would make the same mistake and those who are interested wouldn't really bother to correct them.
* [[Art Shift]]: In "True Night", the UnSub was a comic artist who unknowingly acted out scenes from his own violent comics by murdering gang members. The audience knows in real life, he wears a hooded sweatshirt, but while "on camera" within his delusion, he's wearing a hooded [[Badass Longcoat]] that seems to come standard issue from [[Kingdom Hearts II
** Less fridge when you watch the epilogue of that story and Garcia actually compares the Un-Sub to [[Frank Miller]].
* [[Asshole Victim]]: A few; for instance, in "Pleasure Is My Business" the UnSub is a prostitute killing [[Corrupt Corporate Executive
** Another example is "Elephant's Memory" - the UnSub of the episode is profiled as an "injustice collector," killing people who've caused him or his girlfriend pain: her abusive father, his neglectful father, school bullies etc.
** A third example are the victims in "True Night" - the UnSub is murdering the gangbangers that were responsible for the murder of his fiancee, who was carrying his baby.
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* [[Awesome By Analysis]]:
** Hotchalanches. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BlJ_MQNjY0 Wherein Aaron Hotchner is made of awesome], though were this real life the complaint of the defense attorney, especially in pointing how ''wrong'' the team's methods often are on specifics, would have been entirely justified.
{{quote|
'''Hotchner''': Charcoal gray. You match them to the color of your suit to appear taller. ... You also wear lifts and you've had the soles of your shoes replaced. One might think you're frugal, but you're having financial difficulties. You wear a fake Rolex because you pawned the real one to pay your debts, my guess is to a bookie. ... Your vice is horses. Your Blackberry's been buzzing on the table every twenty minutes, which happens to be the average time between posts from Colonial Downs. You're getting race results. And every time you do, it affects your mood in court, and you're not having a very good day. That's because you pick horses the same way you practice law - by always taking the long shot... }}
* [[Backdoor Pilot]]: The 18th episode of Season 5, "The Fight", featured another BAU team, which starred in a [[Spin-Off]], "Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior". Not really a [[Poorly-Disguised Pilot]]... the producers announced this intention right from the beginning. Didn't really pan out, as very little fandom interest plus poor writing got it canceled.
* [[The Bad Guy Wins]]:
** "North Mammon", essentially. The UnSub's entire plan pretty much went perfectly, and he obviously didn't care that he was caught in the end, and may have even wanted to get caught, since he likely could have gotten away with it if he had bothered to cover his face when letting the remaining two girls go.
** "Into The Woods", where Shane gets away. Whether he's gotten away for good, however...
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* [[Beneficial Disease]]: One of the abducted women "The Uncanny Valley" is diabetic, which somehow allows her to metabolize the paralytic drugs she was given at a faster than usual rate.
* [[Berserk Button]]: There was an episode where a guy who dealt really badly with a breakup went around getting women to "play along" with him as he raped them at gun or knifepoint, killing the boyfriends and then the women after he'd finished with them. When the team eventually tracks the UnSub to his latest victim, who he is kicking and punching, Prentiss [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|pushes him to the ground, points a gun at his temple, and basically tells him he is going to be raped in prison and there is nothing he can do about it, and then she tells him to "play along" for her when this eventually happens]]. Needless to say, Prentiss and sex abuse cases is like gasoline and fire.
* [[Beware the Nice Ones]]: JJ and Garcia, especially JJ's [[Boom! Headshot!]] through a plate-glass window to {{spoiler|Garcia's shooter}}. [[Played for Laughs]] with Reid who who takes pranking [[Up to Eleven]].
* [[Bilingual Bonus]]: Prentiss speaks several languages and some of her languages scenes aren't dubbed. However, "Catching Out" becomes an unintentionally funny episode when you hear Prentiss speak Spanish. To Spanish speakers it is blatantly obvious that her pronunciation is ''atrocious''.
* [[Blind and
* [[The Bluebeard]]: The UnSub from "The Fox" could be seen as a variant.
* [[The Book Cipher]]: "The Fisher King" features an Ottendorf cipher brought to the Behavioral Analysis Unit by {{spoiler|1=the UnSub via Hotch's wife}}. The cypher is part of a larger puzzle to find {{spoiler|a girl who's been missing for two years}}. The key text is {{spoiler|''The Collector'' by John Fowles}}.
* [[Boom! Headshot!]]: "L.D.S.K.", "Identity", "Penelope", "Lo-Fi".
* [[Bottle Episode]]: All but two scenes of "Seven Seconds" takes place in the same shopping mall.
* [[Break the Cutie]]:
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* [[Broken Heel]]
* [[Brother Chuck]]: Hotch's brother, Sean, and Gideon's son, Stephen. Gideon talks to Stephen on the phone at the end of "Blood Hungry," and Sean actually appears at the beginning and end of "The Tribe", but neither of them are even ''mentioned'' again after season one.
** Though never appearing or heard in the series, Garcia's four brothers mentioned in the Season 2 episode "P911" mysteriously disappeared from existence by the Season 6 episode "Safe Haven," where she says she was an only child. (Though since she has a
* [[Buffy-Speak]]: Usually averted, what with this being a team of highly intelligent agents, but sometimes...
{{quote|
* [[Burn the Witch]]: The UnSub in "Heathridge Manor" first tries to drown them (if they're witches they'll revive and if they drown they're innocent) then sews them into poisoned dresses, but before he even finds them he paints creepy portraits of them surrounded by flames.
* [[The Butcher]]: Killed around 20 women 20 years ago then stopped after Rossi got too close. {{spoiler|After getting Alzheimer's, he and his [["Well Done, Son" Guy|approval-seeking son]] start killing again while he can still do it right.}}
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== C-E ==
* [[California Doubling]]: Almost every episode. The BAU travels around the country to solve crimes, but filming is limited to LA and surrounding areas. LA has so far passed for New York City, New Orleans, countless small towns in the Midwest and South, and even Mexico, among other places.
** In "Amplification," the climactic scene takes place in what's supposed to be the [https://web.archive.org/web/20120919004003/http://blog.aia.org/mt-static/plugins/Ajaxify/tinymce/jscripts/tiny_mce/plugins/imagemanager/images/favorite_architecture_images/106_washington_d.c._metro_lg.jpg Washington D.C. Metro]; it's the [https://web.archive.org/web/20100116093744/http://www.metro.net/about_us/rail_ops/rail_operations.htm Los Angeles Metro] standing in for Washington.
** Averted in the [[Poorly-Disguised Pilot]] that took place in [[San Francisco]] (although it's still California...)
* [[The Calls Are Coming From Inside the House]]: "Somebody's Watching." Justified because the caller was using a cell phone.
* [[Canada, Eh?]]: "To Hell..."/"... And Back"
* [[Cannot Spit It Out]]: Gideon deliberately provokes the stuttering Footpath Killer until he gets so angry that he can't talk.
* [[Captive Date]]:
** One episode focuses on a killer who treats his victims to a romantic evening complete with rose petals, though they're not tied down. He means no harm until they turn him down once they reach the bathtub part of the date. The rest fits to a T though.
** In another episode, a guy was stalking a woman and ended up kidnapping her. One scene shows them sitting at a table and talking, until the woman raises her hands and it's revealed that she's tied up.
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* [[Catch Phrase]]:
** "UnSub", short for "'''un'''known '''sub'''ject," a bit of [[Truth in Television|real-life FBI jargon]].
*** Amazing Fun Fact: ''UnSub'' was also the title of a short-lived series aired in 1989, which the Other Wiki tells us was [
** Reid: "Actually..."
** Garcia: "Off the grid" and other techie/gamer/Internet slang.
** UnSub Stanley Howard from "Scared To Death": "Is it worse than you thought?"
* [[Cat Scare]]: "The Angel Maker"; it even gets lampshaded when the soon-to-be victim actually finds her cat ("Geez Bo, you scared me half to death... such a cliche"). Also, in "Sense Memory", a paranoid Prentiss is startled when her new cat, Sergio, jumps in her lap.
* [[Censorship
{{quote|
'''The Reaper''': Well she should be! She's gonna ''(covers Jack's ears and lowers his voice)'' D-I-E because of your inflated ego! }}
* [[Central Theme]]: Why do people do terrible things?
* [[Character Blog]]: Garcia's [http://twitter.com/Garcia_BAU Twitter account]. Several of the team members also have Facebook accounts.
* [[Character Overlap]]: The character Penelope Garcia is the technical analyst in both ''Criminal Minds'' and, its spin-off, ''[[Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior]]''.
* [[Children Are Innocent]]: Most of them, but it is subverted at least twice (in {{spoiler|"The Boogeymen" and "A Shade of Gray"}}).
** In "Safe Haven," [[Victim of the Week|Nancy]] thinks this and tries to convince Jeremy of it {{spoiler|even though this is a kid who has already killed two whole families, plus a minister in his car, threatened her two kids, and is holding her at knife point in her car, only not killing her because he needs a ride to his mother's house to kill her. In fact, her insistence on it ends up being part of what gets her stabbed before he gets out of her car.}}
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** Averted in at least one episode, with an appropriate depiction of a protestant Christian survivalist enclave.
* [[Chronic Villainy]]: "The Big Wheel"
* [[CIA Evil, FBI Good]]: Played straight as far as the FBI being good of course, but averted the one time the CIA shows up; they're portrayed as just kind of inoffensively shady, and although the UnSub of the episode is a CIA agent he's explicitly a rogue one, with the victim (also CIA) coming across as almost saintly. In the episode that dealt with the Navy SEALS they're portrayed as being pretty awful, however.
* [[Click. "Hello."]]:
** Rossi [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|pulls one]] during a [[Mexican Standoff]] in "Exit Wounds".
** Most of the team in "Cradle to Grave" where the UnSub walks out of his bathroom and looks up to discover his kitchen is now full of FBI agents and SWAT pointing guns at him.
** The UnSub, a former Navy SEAL, pulls one on Rossi, Morgan, JJ, and Reid in "Dorado Falls". In the bullpen at Quantico.
* [[Cliff Hanger]]: [[
** Season 1 - Elle walks into her house and lies down on her couch. The UnSub walks over to her with a gun. We hear a gunshot and it fades to black.
** Season 2 - Strauss tells Prentiss that she's going to help Strauss end Hotch's career or lose her job.
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* [[Contamination Situation]]: "Amplified," at the end of season four
* [[Continuity Nod]]:
** In the season five episode "Exit Wounds", Emily and J.J. are discussing the difficulty of maintaining relationships with their jobs. Emily starts to come around when J.J. says that she and Will make it work, but when they are called into work less than a minute later Emily dejectedly remarks that she should get a cat. In her Ian Doyle story arc in the sixth season, her new cat, Sergio, can be seen wandering around her apartment and even figures into the story a bit. Also, in an early seventh season episode, Hotch calls Emily out on lying to her therapist about Sergio, a wonderful guy she's become involved with. Emily states that he's the perfect man...his qualities include the fact that he doesn't hog the covers and poops in a box.
* [[Couldn't Find a Lighter]]: In "Natural Born Killer," Morgan and Gideon imagine the killer lighting a cigarette with a blowtorch before using it on his victim.
* [[Courtroom Episode]]: "Tabula Rasa"
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** More than that: {{spoiler|he has his entire season five arc with Hotch planned out to the last, down to the details of getting members of the BAU interviewing Karl Arnold}}. It's a [[Batman Gambit]] with a heavy reliance on [[Flaw Exploitation]], taken to a power of ten.
** How Frank gets away in "No Way Out".
* [[Criminal Mind Games]]: Done a number of times.
** In "The Fisher King", by the UnSub of the same name, who mostly just wanted to send them on a quest. Some of the team worked on it like a normal case, some of the team followed the breadcrumbs. The trail of breadcrumbs solved the case, and not following the rules nearly got one of the BAU killed.
** In "Masterpiece" by Professor Rothschild/{{spoiler|Henry Grace}}, who {{spoiler|used clues and a "live video feed" of torture to lead the team into a trap}}. Luckily, Reid's [[Good
** And then there's {{spoiler|George Foyet}}/The Reaper, who {{spoiler|stalked the cop who called him off, tried to guilt Hotch into taking the same deal, tortured Hotch, got his family taken away, stalked him for months, and sent the team clues through Karl Arnold, knowing that they would go to him when he got mail about a new string of crimes}}.
** Before all those there was "Unfinished Business". The BAU teams up with a retired profiler to track down The Keystone Killer, a serial killer who had started killing again after almost twenty years and whose signature was sending complicated word puzzles to the authorities.
* [[Cult]]: "The Tribe" and "Minimal Loss"
** Subverted at least once, when it turned out they were atheists who just used the Satanist thing to annoy the conservative locals.
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* [[Daddy Had a Good Reason For Abandoning You]]: Reid, as well as {{spoiler|Jack Hotchner}} in season five.
** Reid would disagree. Despite promising to forgive his father in exchange for help on a case, Reid remains (rightfully) unappeased. In "Public Enemy", in response to a case related statement, "There are lots of ways that sons defeat their fathers," he quips bitterly, "I just kept getting Ph.D.s."
** You could even call [[Team Dad|Gideon's]] departure from the team this.
* [[Damsel Fight
** "Reflection of Desire" had a victim break the UnSub's nose and immediately flee for a door...only to discover it's locked. Later in a second escape attempt, she finds out she wouldn't have wanted to go in there anyway.
* [[Daylight Horror]]
* [[Dead All Along]]: {{spoiler|May Walden, the actress mom in "Reflection of Desire", is able to belittle and sexually harass her son from beyond the grave.}}
** The same goes for {{spoiler|Norman Hill's family in "Normal".}}
* [[Dead Guy
* [[Deal
* [[Death
** {{spoiler|1=The second UnSub (the first UnSub's lover)}} in "A Thousand Words".
** Played with in "Cradle to Grave", where {{spoiler|1=the UnSub and his wife}} are killing the girls ''after'' they give birth, if it's a baby girl.
*** They were allowed to live if they gave birth to a girl, on the rationale that if they'd produced a full-term, healthy baby of the wrong gender, the next one might be a boy; it was the girls who miscarried who were killed.
* [[Death
* [[Deceptive Disciple]]: "Amplification".
* [[Despair Speech]]: Some UnSubs do this while confessing.
* [[Development Gag]]: Gideon was originally going to be named "Jason Donovan". In "Extreme Aggressor" that name appears on the cover of a book Gideon finds in a suspect's room.
* [[Directed
* [[Disappeared Dad]]: Much of the cast, most notably Reid.
* [[Disposable Sex Worker]]: Happens a lot on this show (''e.g.'' "Legacy", "Sex, Birth, Death", "The Last Word"), but subverted in that the prostitutes are treated like people too, and the team takes crimes against them just as seriously.
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** "Derailed" is an episode about a man having a psychotic break...on a stopped train.
** "Empty Planet" refers to an [[Fictional Document|in-universe science-fiction novel]] {{spoiler|and to what the unsub thinks the world is being turned into, due to the proliferation of machine technology - courtesy of his delusions inspired by the aforementioned book}}.
** "Revelations" has an unsub who believes he is living out the Biblical [[
** The [[Story Arc]] of Reid's drug use is developed in "Jones"; the title is the name of a bar in New Orleans which is a crime scene, and also a reference to an addict "jonesing" for his next fix.
** "Open Season" refers both to what the {{spoiler|unsub team}} is doing with the victims, who appear to have little in common, and to {{spoiler|the fact that the unsubs are hunters}}.
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** "The Slave of Duty" {{spoiler|deals in part with Hotch's decision to return to the BAU after the Boston Reaper killed Haley; the title is both a description of Hotch's personality and the alternate title of [[Gilbert and Sullivan|"The Pirates of Penzance."]] Hotch met Haley when they were both in a high school production of "Pirates."}}
** "Risky Business" refers to and darkly twists certain plot elements of the [[Tom Cruise]] movie of the same name - {{spoiler|privileged, apparently straight-edge kids get into trouble behind their parents' backs, to hilarity in the film's case and to their deaths in the episode}} - as well as echoing the notion of a victim being high or low risk, which is brought up several times over the course of the series.
** "Compromising Positions" refers to the sex the UnSub forces his victims to have before killing them, as well as the swinger's parties he's finding them at. It also refers to Garcia "compromising" {{spoiler|both her usual role as technical analyst and taking on JJ's former job as media liaison, and finding it impossible to do both to an acceptable standard}}.
** "Safe Haven" refers to what the families who are killed are trying to give the unsub not knowing what he's planning for them {{spoiler|as well as being the name of the law that the teenaged unsub was given up by his mother under, precipitating his descent into murder.}} On top of all that, you also have {{spoiler|little Ellie Spicer from "Our Darkest Hour" and "The Longest Night" looking for a safe haven away from her neglectful foster family in California by running away to Virginia to see Morgan.}}
** "Profiling 101" refers to both the undergraduate class the team walks through the case in the episode and {{spoiler|the unsub's whopping 101 victims}}.
* [[Double Standard Rape (Female
* [[Downer Ending]]:
** "100" most notably, since it's where {{spoiler|Hotch crosses the [[Despair Event Horizon]]}}.
** "North Mammon" is also pretty bad, since {{spoiler|they don't find the three missing girls before they make the [[Sadistic Choice]] offered to them by their kidnapper - kill one and the other two go free}}.
** "The Fox". {{spoiler|Sure, Karl Arnold is caught and tricked into a confession, but then Hotch finds a little box in which the unsub keeps the wedding rings of the men he kills. There are eight rings, which mean Karl has killed much more people without raising any suspect before being caught.}}
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** "The Big Wheel" is a pretty huge downer, although there is some goodness in the fact that {{spoiler|the unsub actually did have a breakthrough that enabled him to finally clasp the hand of his friend.}}
** "Into the Woods" ("He got away...")
** "What Happens at Home", because {{spoiler|the killer murdered his own wife, while his own daughter begs him to stop. Later he attacks Hotchner, who has no choice except to shoot him, though not before the murderer apologizes to his daughter, leaving her alone}}.
** "Lauren" {{spoiler|Subverted: Although there are wrenching hospital and funeral scenes, and the team suffers a terrible loss, Prentiss is shown to be alive at the very end.}}
** "True Night" {{spoiler|"Hey, this is Vicky! I can't come to the phone right now because I'm out living my life!"}}
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* [[Driven to Suicide]]: A number of UnSubs kills themselves at the end of their episode.
** This was actually the original plan for how to write Gideon out, but [[Mandy Patinkin]] refused. You can still see echoes of it in "In Birth and Death", particularly in the shot where he contemplates his gun before putting it on the table with his badge instead.
** Done literally by an UnSub who targets people driving red coupes and runs them over with his pickup, because his wife died from an accident involving a red coupe. When the team discover that {{spoiler|the red coupe was her car, and he was driving it when the accident happened}} and confront the Unsub about why his memories of the tragedy are so vague, [[Go Mad
* [[Drop the Hammer]]: "The Angel Maker" and "To Hell and Back".
* [[Dueling Hackers]]: How Garcia and Kevin meet.
* [[Dysfunction Junction]]: Let's count them off, shall we?
** Morgan {{spoiler|was sexually molested from childhood through adolescence by an authority figure}}, and his father was killed in front of him when he was very young.
** Prentiss had a neglectful mother and {{spoiler|had an abortion at age 15. One should note that the abortion itself is never played for angst, rather the consequences of it - her isolation from the baby's father and the guilt heaped on her by her Catholic upbringing - is.}} She also {{spoiler|went under deep cover to catch Doyle, to the point of feigning a relationship with him. We see that Doyle fell for her, but whether she did or didn't have some feelings for Doyle is unclear. In any case, they wind up trying to kill each other.}}
** Rossi has 3 ex-wives as a result of being [[Married to
** Garcia's parents were killed by a drunk driver when she was 18. She "went underground" and became one of the most dangerous hackers in the world. She was forced to join the FBI to avoid prison and {{spoiler|was once ''shot'' by a narcissistic unsub.}} She also worries that she's getting desensitized by all the horrible things that she sees.
** Hotch is trying to raise his son {{spoiler|after his ex-wife - his high school sweetheart - was murdered by the Reaper, who made him listen over the phone while she died. Hotch was so grief-stricken that he beat the Reaper to death ''with his bare hands.''}} Oh, and this was ''after'' he got {{spoiler|stabbed and possibly raped by the Reaper, and had his son taken into protective custody.}} ''And'' after that time he nearly got blown up by a suicide bomber, lost an old flame in the same attack, and had painful hearing problems for some time afterwards as a result of it shattering his eardrums.
** J.J. had {{spoiler|an older sister who committed suicide}} and grew up in a stifling small-town environment.
** Reid? Schizophrenic mother, a dad who walked out on them, drug addiction and social isolation. And his father figure up and left without even saying goodbye in person.
** Both Gideon and Elle were so messed up by the job - Gideon by the serial killer {{spoiler|who killed his girlfriend in his own home}} (after he'd already had to get over the trauma of losing his previous team to a [[Mad Bomber]]); Elle by {{spoiler|the serial rapist she went [[Vigilante Execution|vigilante executioner]]}} on - that they up and left the team. Gideon didn't even resign in person, he just left a letter behind for Reid and took off.
** Seaver's {{spoiler|father was a serial killer}}.
* [[Electric Torture]]: "Charm and Harm", "Limelight", "Remembrance of Things Past", and a variation in "Lauren".
* [[Enfant Terrible]]: "The Boogeyman" and "A Shade of Gray".
{{quote|
{{spoiler|'''Jeffrey Charles:'''}} Because I wanted to. }}
** In "A Shade of Gray" a {{spoiler|little boy named Danny kills his younger brother because he broke one of his model planes. When his parents discover what he has done Danny only feigns remorse so he won't get in trouble, secretly content his "annoying" brother is dead.}}
{{quote|
** Some of the adult unsubs were also pretty screwed up as children; Mark Gregory from "Charm and Harm" drowned his mother, Floyd Feylinn Ferell from "Lucky" tried to eat his baby sister, Peter Redding from "A Higher Power" slashed his brother's wrists and The Reaper killed his parents and made it look like a car accident.
** {{spoiler|Jeremy, the budding sociopath}} in "Safe Haven".
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* [[Mr. Fanservice]]: Thomas Gibson, Shemar Moore, and Matthew Gray Gubler. If you need to ask, you've never watched the show.
** Lampshaded in "Legacy":
{{quote|
'''Prentiss''': How'd you guys do?
'''Hotch:''' Well, Reid got propositioned by every prostitute we talked to, but we didn't find anybody who thinks they'd seen the UnSub. }}
** Isn't the joke there supposed to be that Reid is canonically UNATTRACTIVE and looks like a potential John to them?
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* [[Evil Laugh]]: "Lucky" and "Outfoxed".
* [[Evil Gloating]]: {{spoiler|Foyet to Hotch in "Nameless, Faceless": "Like my scars? Yours are going to look just like them." He does it again in "100": "I'm going to find that little bastard son of yours and show him your dead bodies and tell him it's all your fault."}}
** The second example was [[Berserk Button|something]] [[Despair Event Horizon|of]] [[No
* [[Evil Versus Evil]]: Okay, maybe not ''evil'', but the Guantanamo guards detaining the [[Big Bad]] in "Lessons Learned" are portrayed as little more than [[Smash Mook|brainless, brutish thugs]] themselves. This was likely partly due to [[Hellhole Prison|the perception of the facility in the public eye]] and partly to contrast them with the protagonists.
* [[Executive Meddling]]: JJ was written out and Prentiss' screen time was reduced for season six, due to budget cuts, leaving Garcia as the only regular female cast member. Naturally, the fans were not pleased. Especially the female fans. And neither is the entire cast and crew, as expressed with, among other things, pointed double-meaning lines in "JJ". It was made worse by bringing in [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute|a new female lead]] to replace JJ (though she doesn't have the same job). Thanks to the fans, they were brought back as regulars for season seven and the [[Replacement Scrappy]] went bye-bye.
** In light of the producer's comments about always intending to bring JJ and Prentiss back, an alternative explanation from industry workers has appeared on several sites. That explanation being that the producers wanted to more heavily focus on Prentiss for at least part of the season and explore her mysterious past. As part of this they needed someone to have the access that JJ's new job gave her for story reasons. However, experts in union contracts say that AJ Cook was cut as a regular because keeping her at that rank would mean paying her for all episodes of the season even if she was not in them, at a huge expense. Same with cutting back Paget Brewster's contracted number of episodes given that they knew she would be missing from several. But they had always left open a way to bring back Emily at any time both in story and contract.
* [[Expanded Universe]]: A trilogy of books (all of which take place mid-Season Three) and an upcoming computer game.
* [[Extra Y, Extra Violent]]: Played with; one killer claims that he's XYY, and that's why he kills. However, Rossi replies that the study linking that condition to criminal behaviour was debunked years ago.
* [[Eye Scream]]: "The Eyes Have It"
** Particularly [[
** For a more subdued example, there's the killer's habit of gluing his victims' eyes open in "Plain Sight".
** "Proof" features a killer who dribbles acid into his victims' eyes. We get to see a lovely view of the corpses' vacant eyesockets.
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** We have Garcia's spectacular cleavage and Elle's double gun holsters criss-crossing over very tight t-shirts. Not to mention [[Beach Episode|the time she wore a bikini]].
** Prentiss also gets a chance to flaunt her [[Gag Boobs|considerable]] assets in "JJ." And let's not forget her and Jordan Todd in "52 Pick-up" at the club.
** Garcia and Prentiss's dresses in "Run" {{spoiler|at JJ's wedding}} seem specifically designed to show off their [[You Only Live Twice
** The episode "Supply & Demand" had a lot of cute brunette women in their underwear.
** On the male side we have,[[Adorkable|Reid.]] [[Mr. Fanservice|Reid.]] [[Nerds Are Sexy|Reid.]] [[
** [[Mr. Fanservice|Also]], [[Dark and Troubled Past|Morgan]].
** Hoo boy, yes, Morgan. Most especially {{spoiler|: coming out of the shower wearing only a towel in seventh season episode Snake Eyes, with every inch of him showing a sheen of water droplets. A moment that caused many a remote control to wear out and smoke as it was constantly brought back up to the screen...}}
** Hello? [[Hot Dad|We're]] [[Iron Woobie|forgetting]] [[Mr. Fanservice|Hotch.]]
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** Professor Ursula Kent's SF novel in "Empty Planet."
** Jonny McHale's comic book ''Blue'' in "True Night."
* [[Finger in
* <s>Five</s> [[Five-Man Band|Seven Man Band]]:
** [[The Hero]]: Hotch
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*** Reid even jokes, in "Nameless, Faceless," that "kicking down doors is Morgan's job."
** [[The Chick]]: Prentiss, Seaver, and JJ. Though this should not be taken as a bad thing, since all play other roles at times (Prentiss is the other BAU member [[Action Girl|who seems to come face-to-face with the Unsub a lot]]). But in the sense of the [[Five-Man Band]], this is the role they play most often.
*** Reid has some Chickish qualities, too, especially with his tendency to get in trouble (aka getting kidnapped).
* [[Foot
* [[Foot Focus]]: A lot of kidnapped females end up barefoot. Apparently a lot of criminals on this show have a foot fetish.
* [[Forced to Watch]]: If the unsub is particularly sadistic. Though a couple go further and force them to ''participate''.
* [[For the Evulz]]: "3rd Life". The three thrill killers from "Hopeless" and the (unrelated) rioters in the same episode.
** Syd and her husband in "The Thirteenth Step", though they have a reason {{spoiler|it's leading up to killing their sexually abusive fathers. Syd's especially, since she's the leader of the two and all but one of the attacks happen in places that remind her of her dad}}.
* [[Freak
** Really, any time one of the UnSubs devolves.
* [[Funny Background Event]]: In "Compulsion", a student is telling to Hotch about his physics project and, rhetorically, asks 'Do you know how to solve the Three-Body Problem?' Behind them, Reid nods with a serious look on his face.
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* [[The Glasses Gotta Go]]: Fabulous subversion: After JJ's departure, Garcia (normally a [[Meganekko]]) tries dropping her usual distinctive style of dress for boring dark dresses, and (in a complete flip of [[Purely Aesthetic Glasses]]) gets contacts so that she can look serious when dealing with victims' families and such. When she's starting to lose it, Morgan actually gets her to put the glasses (and her old wardrobe) back on.
* [[A God Am I]]: The {{spoiler|original bomber}} from "Painless".
* [[Go Into the Light]]: In "Epilogue," the Unsub {{spoiler|resuscitates his victims so he can find out what they saw and compare it to his own [[Near
* [[Gollum Made Me Do It]]: "The Big Game"/"Revelations"
* [[Good Cop, Bad Cop]]: Hotch (Bad Cop) and Prentiss (Good Cop) do a fairly spectacular version in "Bloodlines."
** Again with Morgan (Bad Cop) and Gideon (Good Cop) in "The Boogeyman", although it should be noted that Morgan had every reason to believe the guy was the Unsub, while Gideon was aware that he was innocent (but covering for the real Unsub) just before he took over the interrogation from Morgan.
** Rossi (Bad Cop) and Reid (<s>Snarky</s> Good Cop) in "Lauren", against a weaselly mook that Rossi keeps calling a "hood rat".
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** "The Performer" involves a series of murders seemingly associated with a [[Goth]] rock star and his fans' subculture.
** "Tabula Rasa" tells us that Prentiss was a goth in high school--[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZyzGxU0brw and there are pictures to prove it.]
{{quote|
'''Garcia:''' Oh, no, Pussycat. That - that's all you. Garfield High, Class of '89.
'''Prentiss:''' You really didn't change anything?
'''Garcia:''' I hacked it, as is. You're seriously trying to tell me you don't remember rocking that look?
'''Reid:''' Perhaps your lack of recognition stems from a dissociative fugue suffered in adolescence. Say, at a Siouxsie and the Banshees concert? }}
** "Doubt" featured a [[Goth]]/[[Emo]] college student who {{spoiler|copycat-killed a dorm-mate so the unsub would be released. She wanted the unsub to kill her because she didn't have the nerve to kill herself.}}
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** The sole female victim in "Haunted" gets knifed right below the belt.
* [[Guile Hero]]: Jason Gideon.
{{quote|
'''Gideon''': The first time I talked to him. }}
* [[Hacker Cave]]: Garcia's workstation.
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* [[Hannibal Lecture]]: A militia member and [[Conspiracy Theorist]] tries to give Morgan one in "Identity", but it [[Shut UP, Hannibal|backfires]].
** The Reaper is pretty prone to them as well.
* [[Harmful to Minors]]: ''A lot.'' Besides things that happen during the cases themselves, some [[Harmful to Minors]] events form various unsubs' backgrounds and [[Freudian Excuse
* [[He Who Fights Monsters]]: The original quote is used first as one of the quotes in the pilot, "Extreme Aggressor", though it's shortened. It's used again, this time as the full version, at the beginning of "100." [[Wham! Episode|For a reason.]]
* [[Hell Hotel]]: "Paradise"
* [[Hero Insurance]]: We find out that Prentiss's {{spoiler|fake funeral and actual hospital expenses}} cost the government more than $650,000. Imagine what sort of tab the BAU has run up altogether over the years with their not-quite-by-the-book antics (see [[Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right]], below).
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* [[Hidden Depths]]: The hitman in "Reckoner" is portrayed as a brutish thug, but his signature weapon is a gun that he built from scratch and his nickname is cribbed from a relatively obscure 17th century play.
** Emily Prentiss. A new agent, straight from a desk job, with a relatively comfortable upbringing... but she copes ''really well'' with the things the BAU deals with. It stands out enough that both JJ and Hotch remark on it, but that's the only hint we get for quite a while!
* [[Hoist
* [[Holding the Floor]]: In one episode Hotch and Reid are locked in a room with a serial killer and the guards won't be back for fifteen minutes. Hotch attempts to threaten the guy, but then Reid, true to his nature, starts babbling about all of the possible factors contributing to the killer's sociopathy. For fifteen minutes.
{{quote|
'''Spencer Reid''': "I dunno...maybe." *scurries out the door* }}
* [[Honor Before Reason]]: Prentiss in "Valhalla" and "Lauren"
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* [[Hot Mom]]: JJ, Haley, Fran Morgan, Sarah Jacobs, assorted victims like Maggie from "Legacy"... really, it'd be easier to list the mothers that ''don't'' fit.
* [[Hunting the Most Dangerous Game]]: "Open Season", "Rite of Passage" (though to a far lesser extent), "Exit Wounds".
* [[Hypocritical Humor]]: In "The Internet Is Forever" Rossi makes fun of social networking sites like Twitter. Almost every single member of the cast has a prolific Twitter presence.
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** Example: When an unsub and a victim he's taken hostage crash into a marsh in a car, and there's no sign of bodies, the team fans out and find him almost immediately, and take him down with a headshot instead of forgetting how to use their guns.
** Worth pointing out that this applies to the victims, too. In the above example, the victim crashes her car on purpose, runs away, and even when the killer has caught up with her and is drowning her, she grabs the next thing that can serve as a weapon, and fights back. Oh, and the noise from the car crash is what told the nearby police and FBI where to go.
** The one female victim in "Our Darkest Hour" seems to have gotten an entire season's worth of [[Idiot Ball
*** Three words: [[Rule of Scary]].
** One could argue that the second-part episodes of "Revelations" and "Penelope" are the results of Reid and Garcia (of all people!) making stupid mistakes in the first parts ("The Big Game" and "Lucky" respectively). In the "The Big Game," {{spoiler|while in the midst of chasing Tobias Hankel, Reid decides in the heat of the moment to split up from JJ in order to cover more ground to capture Hankel (which JJ didn't think was a good idea in the first place) and it backfires on Reid as he ends up being kidnapped instead.}} For "Lucky," since Garcia is the Techno Goddness, you would think that she would have done a background check on her {{spoiler|would-be shooter before going out with him?}} Then again, for Rule of Drama, if Reid and Garcia didn't make the choices they did, those two episodes would never have happened or impacted their Character Development (they do regret them later).
*** And you'd think that after everything that had happened with Hankel, Reid would have learned his lesson about splitting off from the rest of the team on an impulse, but no. He does it again in "Amplification." And again in "Corazon." It's understandable in-character, because Reid, for all of his smarts, does tend to get caught up in the emotion/excitement of it all more than most of the other team members, but still, come on, Reid!
*** If Garcia did a background check on her date, all she would have found (assuming she penetrated the false name he gave her) was that he was a decorated cop. Yes, she might have caught him in the lie of being an attorney (which he didn't bring up until they were already out to dinner) and, of course, the fake name, but she would have already been on the date and in danger. She's not a profiler... his Chronic First Responder Syndrome would not have raised any red flags for her.
** In "Roadkill," the first victim tried to OUTRUN a truck, when she could moved out of the way or something of the sort.
*** While definitely not the smartest option to take, it seems unlikely that any of her options would have worked out; where could she go that that truck couldn't have followed? The driver was willing to ram it into ''steel elevator doors'' when in hot pursuit, and it didn't damage anything but the bumper! It was pretty clearly modded for what he intended to do with it.
** "Sense Memory". Prentiss, when you know a dangerous international criminal is after you, and you know he's going to want revenge, and you think he's broken into your apartment, you do NOT take the mysterious package he's left inside. Even if it IS only a flower, you ''call the bomb squad and leave it there''.
* [[I Have Your Wife]]: {{spoiler|"Retaliation"}}
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** Happens to the Cop of the Week played by Eric Close in "Our Darkest Hour", though {{spoiler|it's more of a case of "I Have Your Sister and Daughter".}}
* [[I Love the Dead]]: "The Last Word", "Cold Comfort", and {{spoiler|"Reflection of Desire"}}.
* [[Impaled
* [[Improbable Aiming Skills]]: With his handgun, Hotch once shot a perp who was on top of a moving train from a speeding car. Also, unsub Ian Doyle shot his henchman square on the wrist tattoo, conveniently obscuring it for the sake of plot tension.
* [[Improbable Age]]: Justified by Reid, as yes, he ''is'' that young and that accomplished, because he's a genius. Played straight by Hotch, who manages to have been a prosecutor for a while before joining the FBI, worked with the SWAT team and the Seattle field office, joined the BAU, trained under Rossi and Gideon and worked the Reaper case 10 years ago, but made Unit Chief in only 6 or 7 years. Probably a result of [[Writers Cannot Do Math]].
** As of "The Last Word", Hotch has been with the Bureau since Emily went off to college. Which means at least fourteen years (Emily's been with the Bureau almost ten years).
** Reid has also been with the Bureau for three years by season one (L.D.S.K.). So, since he graduated from high school at age twelve, he's earned three PhDs by the time he was 20.
** And there were two birth dates given for Morgan in "Profiler, Profiled."
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** Plus, there's Gina King, though she only drinks their blood. That still counts, right?
* [[Incurable Cough of Death]]: Appears to be what Brooke is suffering from in ''North Mammon''.
** A double subversion! For one thing, it's implied that the only reason her cough is 'fatal' is because they're locked in a cellar with no way to treat it; not to mention there's a lot of [[Protests Too Much]] going on due to the situation the [[Un Sub]] has set up. For another, {{spoiler|while the other girls are working each other up to kill her, convincing themselves that she's dead anyway because she's coughing and they have no medicine, she [[Surprisingly
* [[I Never Said It Was Poison]]: Standard operating procedure.
** In ''The Fox'', the killer, profiled as probably having OCD, has a minor [[Freak
** From "A Real Rain":
{{quote|
'''Suspect:''' It's what he deserved. }}
*** The victim, of course, had been stabbed in the head.
* [[Infant Immortality]]: Subverted painfully on multiple occasions.
** Played straight in "Our Darkest Hour": {{spoiler|the unsub played by Tim Curry doesn't harm children. Well, not ''[[Harmful to Minors|physically]]''}}.
** Frank also mentioned he had absolutely no interest in harming children. ''Indirectly'' harming them, however...
* [[Insane Equals Violent]]: Several unsubs, but the unsub in "With Friends Like These..." stands out.
** Reid does everything but mention this trope by name in this episode, in fact. He gets quite upset at the implication that all schizophrenic people are violent, and goes to great lengths to point out what a varied condition schizophrenia is, and how peaceful most of the people who suffer from it are. Given that his mother is one of those people, and he himself might be one day, that's pretty understandable.
* [[Instant Marksman, Just Squeeze Trigger]]: In "L.D.S.K.", Reid is trying to pass his firearms qualification test, and Hotch gives him lessons, telling him "front sight, trigger press, follow through". Hotch also mentions the "squeeze, don't pull" advice.
* [[Intelligence Equals Isolation]]:
** Reid's school experience - "Being the smartest kid in class is like being the only kid in class."
** Prentiss,
* [[Internal Affairs]]: Erin Strauss, though she's sympathetic to Hotch after {{spoiler|Haley dies.}}
** Though Straus isn't actually Internal Affairs. She's just the big boss.
* [[In the Blood]]: Subverted in "Birthright"; while it turns out that {{spoiler|the killer's father was also a killer, this is not portrayed as being genetic, and rather the result of a teenager who was raised to worship his dead father finding his dad's old journal and deciding to carry on the family tradition. Meanwhile, the father's other son, who's known for years that he was born out of rape, is a perfectly nice guy}}. In another episode, the unsub claims that he has an inherited chromosomal disorder that makes him predisposed to violent crimes. This is met by Rossi pointing out that the study linking that particular disorder to violent crime had been debunked years ago.
* [[Involuntary Battle to
** Also, Reid.
* [[Ironic Nursery Tune]]: A young boy hums "Pop Goes the Weasel" in "At Childhood's Hour", intercut with footage of his mother being stabbed to death.
* [[I Surrender, Suckers]]: Part of Gideon's backstory is a bomber taking out six of his agents this way.
** It nearly happens a separate time in the episode that reveals this. Two agent have cornered the supposed unsub in a storage room. He throws his gun to them and is about to come out, but then Gideon, in another building, puts all the pieces to the puzzle together, and realizes that the cornered guy is strapped with bombs. He tells the agents to get out, and they do so, right before the bombs strapped to the guy detonate and he becomes paint on the walls.
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* [[It Got Worse]]: "The Fox", "Open Season", "Lucky", "Omnivore", "Bloodline", "To Hell..."/"...And Back", "Outfoxed," "Our Darkest Hour," "Lauren."
* [[It Never Gets Any Easier]]
* [[
* [[
* [[It's Personal]]: In addition to having hot-button issues, each agent has gotten a case which leads to this. Hotch has the Reaper arc; Gideon had Frank; Rossi in "Damaged", "Zoe's Reprise", and "Remembrance of Things Past"; Morgan in "Profiler, Profiled" and "Our Darkest Hour"; Prentiss in "Demonology" and in her Doyle arc; Reid in "Instincts" and "Memoriam"; Elle in "Aftermath"; JJ in "North Mammon" and "Risky Business"; and the entire team in "Penelope", "The Fisher King", "100", "Lauren", and "It Takes a Village".
* [[I Want You to Meet An Old Friend of Mine]]:
** In "Minimal Loss," the antagonistic Attorney General that Hotch gets into an argument with is Joel Murray, Thomas Gibson's old co-star from ''[[Dharma and Greg]]''. Gibson also runs into Mimi Kennedy (another ''Dharma and Greg'' co-star) in "Coda".
** In "JJ", the two UnSubs are played by Michael Welch and Chris Marquette, who played, respectively, Luke Girardi and Adam Rove opposite Joe Mantegna in ''[[Joan of Arcadia]]''.
* [[Jack the Ripoff]]:
** There's a serial killer who is specifically stated to be copying Jack the Ripper's ''modus operandi''. {{spoiler|Although, this one is a woman killing men.}}
*** This is actually one of the more out-there theories about the real Ripper's identity. Since he was never caught, we can never know.
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* [[Karma Houdini]]: Consistently averted, even when it initially seems [[Villain Exit Stage Left]] has occurred (i.e. "Reckoner"). The only two unsubs to successfully pull this off were Frank and The Reaper, the series' worst of the worst (and even they were eventually brought down in later episodes).
** Played straight in "Into the Woods", though, where the child killer manages to get away.
** The fate of the guy from "Secrets and Lies" is also left somewhat ambiguous.
** Nothing happens to {{spoiler|either of the two [[Papa Wolf|Papa Wolves]]}} from "3rd Life" (though they were, if not exactly sympathetic, certainly understandable), nor do we ever learn the fate of {{spoiler|the second killer family}} from "Bloodlines." None of these were the primary UnSub, though.
** "Dorado Falls" has another one, although it's not the unsub. It's the person who made the unsub the way he is.
** The first suspect in "Out of the Light" could qualify. While he isn't guilty of the murders, or (probably) any murder, he's still, at worst, an accessory who knew who had kidnapped the girls and kept silent, and at best a pedophile who decided to conceal evidence and get off on the victim's suffering after the fact. Either way, he gets off scot-free, and the BAU believes he's an innocent man who was framed.
* [[Kick the Dog]]: [[Sympathetic Murderer
** Morgan snapping at Garcia in "The Longest Night" because she doesn't have the answers he wants.
** "The executive branch" does this to the BAU team when it {{spoiler|puts forward the decision to transfer JJ out of the BAU, completely disregarding their family}}.
** "Reflection of Desire":
{{quote|
:: However, if you consider what the episode's unsub did to women he found beautiful...
* [[Killer Cop]]: {{spoiler|Jason Clark Battle}} in "Penelope" and {{spoiler|Ronald Boyd}} in "A Rite of Passage".
* [[Kill It
* [[Kill the Poor]]: The rich and completely insane killer in the episode "Legacy" believed he was doing the world a favor by exterminating street people, who he viewed as completely subhuman garbage, tainting everything they touch. When the detective who watches over the part of the city the killer gets his victims from is actually awarded due to the lower crime rate, the killer is insulted, and sends him a letter saying he should be ashamed for stealing the credit for other people's work. In the end, when the killer is surrounded by the police just as he is about to murder someone else, he actually screams "Just let me do my job!" before being shot.
* [[Kneecapping]]: In the season 6 episode "Today, I do", a self-ascribed motivational speaker turned serial killer shatters the kneecap of her most recent victim with a hammer after the victim refuses to eat the popcorn she made for her. She later turns this into a self-help lesson, by teaching the victim to "walk in the face of adversity".
* [[Knife Nut]]: A number of unsubs, including the ones from "The Big Wheel" and "Public Enemy", as well as the Reaper.
* [[Knocking
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* [[Last-Name Basis]]: Everyone but JJ, who is referred to by her nickname.
* [[Little Miss Badass]]: Ellie Spicer in "The Longest Night", who stands up to a serial killer who's just {{spoiler|murdered her father in front of her, left her aunt to die, and has been killing in ''every single state for twenty-six years''}}.
** [[Deconstructed Trope|Deconstructed]] in "Remembrance of Things Past," where we find out that the poor thing has developed PTSD and can't sleep without talking to Morgan first.
** And played straight again in "Safe Haven" when she hijacks her foster mom's credit card, flies cross-country, lies her way past airport security, and talks her way into the BAU to see Morgan (and because {{spoiler|her foster brother is perving on her in the shower and no one's taking her seriously}}). Impressive, for a nine-year-old.
* [[Living Doll Collector]]: "The Uncanny Valley"
* [[Loony Fan]]: "Somebody's Watching" and "The Performer".
* [[Lost in
* [[Lying to
** Rossi is slick like an oil spill. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_W8_X3F-tc There's a reason why he teaches interrogation at Quantico].
*** Particularly impressive in "Reckoner" when he has not only the UnSub believing he'd slept with the UnSub's wife multiple times, but ''the entire team'' believing it, too.
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* [[Make It Look Like an Accident]]: "Paradise"
** [[Hunting Accident]]: How the father of the unsub from "Natural Born Killer" died.
* [[Married to
** No longer implied; Rossi says he's more married to the team then he's ever been to three wives.
* [[Mauve Shirt]]: SSA Kate Joyner from "Lo-fi"/"Mayhem", {{spoiler|Sheriff Ruiz in "Rite of Passage", Detective Spicer in "Our Darkest Hour", and Tsia Mosely in "Valhalla"}}.
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*** Averted in "The Angel Maker" were everything is eventually explained and it was delibrately made to look like the supernatural going on. However it did take the orginal Unsub a long time to die and his death freaked the Doctor out so much he quit excutions.
** Does {{spoiler|the Devil really come for poor Lara}} at the end of "Heathfield Manor", or is she just as crazy as her brother and mother?
* [[Meaningful Name]]: The name of the [[General Ripper]] in "Dorado Falls" who {{spoiler|caused the episode's [[Sympathetic Murderer]]'s [[Start of Darkness]] by forcing him to assassinate two innocent children to keep a covert Navy SEALS operation quiet}}? ''[
* [[Memetic Badass]]: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iVcMs9NZxs This conversation] between Reid and Garcia seems to imply that Hotch is an in-universe example.
* [[Men Are the Expendable Gender]]: If an episode features an unsub who kills both genders indiscriminately, the "main victim" will almost always be female.
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* [[The Men in Black]]: They are sometimes perceived as this, which can be detrimental to the case. In "Identity," it causes conflict because they're trying to solve a case in an area with a heavy militia presence, and the FBI aren't very welcome after the events of Waco and Ruby Ridge. It can also work against them if they're trying not to feed the Unsub's fantasies, and attracting the attention of the FBI would do that.
** Lampshaded by Gideon in "Compulsion":
{{quote|
* [[Mind Screw]]: For a show about crazy serial killers, Criminal Minds is fairly light on the mindscrew.
** A minor bit is tossed at you in "Normal" but it's foreshadowed, appears internally consistent, and may not even register as such.
** The opening of "Reflection of Desire", however, is a masterpiece of television mindscrew. And even when you think it's over, it isn't. {{spoiler|In fact, they've been mindscrewing you the entire episode. The unsub's mom is dead, despite the fact she seems to appear in public.}} Of course, if you know what [[Psycho|homage the episode is making]], you'll have spotted it.
* [[Missing White Woman Syndrome]]: Lampshaded in "The Last Word" and in "Legacy". Also in "Fear and Loathing"; several black girls are killed and the murders look like hate crimes and, when the BAU gets involved with the investigation, a local preacher claims its only because the latest victim's ex-boyfriend, who was white, was killed alongside her.
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* [[Motor Mouth]]: Reid veers into this territory sometimes, going off on tangents when he's nervous or thinking hard.
** Garcia, too, when she's upset or excited about something. Or drinking too much coffee:
{{quote|
'''Prentiss''' (wearily): D.C. time, Garcia.
'''Garcia''' (checks her watch): 11:17 a.m.
'''Prentiss:''' D.C. ''Decaf.'' }}
* [[Mugging the Monster]]: "The Big Wheel" (although the unsub doesn't get away uninjured).
* [[Murder
* [[Murder.Com]]: "Revelations" and "The Internet is Forever".
* [[Murder
* [[My Card]]: Hotchner in "Poison", giving his ABA card to the Unsub of the Week. Also by other BAU members, when persons of interest in the Case o' the Week are being squirrely.
** Used in hilarious fashion by JJ, Garcia and Prentiss to some guy in a bar claiming to be a Bond-esque FBI agent.
** Used by Reid in "Sex, Birth, Death" when he gives his card to Nathan Harris. {{spoiler|At the end of the episode, Harris attempts suicide and leaves the card on the table as a "suicide note". The prostitute he's with uses it to call Reid, saving Harris's life.}}
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* [[Name's the Same]]: Billy Flynn, serial killing [[Chicago|tap-dancing lawyer]].
* [[Neck Snap]]: "Secrets and Lies" and "Distress".
* [[Nerd Glasses]]: Dr Reid, [[Depending
* [[Never Found the Body]]: Morgan's cousin Cindi. They found ''a'' body {{spoiler|that Morgan claimed was her body so his family could move on}}, and later {{spoiler|found Cindi alive}}.
* [[Never Got to Say Goodbye]]: Reid actually says this in "Lauren".
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* [[New Media Are Evil]]: "P911", "The Big Game", "Revelations, "Risky Business", and "The Internet Is Forever." You'd think a show featuring tech goddess Penelope Garcia would be better about averting this.
* [[Nietzsche Wannabe]]: In "The Popular Kids," Morgan and Reid speak as though the killer is one simply because he was carrying a copy of ''Thus Spake Zarathustra'' the first time Reid met him. The killer himself, however, never says anything to indicate that he is one.
* [[No
* [[No Kill Like Overkill]]: See above. In Hotch's defense, though, {{spoiler|Foyet}} did fake his own near-death once by stabbing himself so many times that the police thought he was one of the victims. Hotch was probably right to make sure he was down for the count.
* [[Noodle Incident]]: There's a few of these, mainly involving JJ, which are often [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]].
* [[
* [[No Social Skills]]: Dr. Reid has obviously spent a lot of his life in academia, and before that had a rather isolated childhood; as a result he's socially awkward. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] by Rossi, when he [[Crowning Moment of Funny|jokes]] that Reid was found as a baby on the steps of the FBI.
* [[Not Proven]]: The team arrests a man who fits the profile perfectly, and who has no alibis for any of the murders, but as there isn't any definitive evidence to say he did it, the team aren't sure what to do with him. After he is released, the team enact a plan to get him to confess, but {{spoiler|it goes horribly wrong and results in his death and the death of someone else, and they still don't have any proof that he did it.}}
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== O-P ==
* [[The Obi-Wan]]: Gideon, who acted as Reid's father and mentor-figure for a couple of seasons before leaving under mysterious circumstances to a place where Reid can never contact him again.
* [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]]: Erin Strauss.
** Subverted in "100" where she {{spoiler|doesn't even try to punish Hotch for killing the Reaper. After spending almost the entire episode playing the [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]] role in trying to get all the facts from the team, she actually almost tears up as Hotch finishes his report}}.
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* [[Old Master]]: Jason Gideon. To ''everyone'' - (although more specifically, he's [[The Obi-Wan]] to Reid).
* [[Ominous Mundanity]]: Some episode titles, like "Mosley Lane", "Hanley Waters" and so on.
* [[Ominous Music Box Tune]]: "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn3uOQGBdcA The Fox]" and "The Uncanny Valley".
** The music in the former is, unfortunately, replaced by a much more generic piece on the DVD release, making a number of scenes far less disturbing and creepy.
** Strangely, that same music, which is [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1DKy1uqGpE&playnext_from=TL&videos=nfYRu15M0Co "Illabye" from Tipper] came back in "Mosley Lane".
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** Hotch, in ". . . And Back" and "Nameless, Faceless".
** Prentiss in "Lauren"; Hotch even goes so far as to {{spoiler|1=declare Prentiss the victim and her abductor, Doyle, the UnSub}}.
* [[One of Us]]: In-universe, Rossi is a hardcore gamer.
* [[One Steve Limit]]: Averted, logically - there have been how many UnSubs called Vincent, again? And how many victims named Katie/Katy? There have also been at least two blonde boys called Michael, and a baby.
** Uh, is this troper the only one in the entire fandom who notices '''Aaron''' Hotchner and '''Erin''' Strauss? Although, he was called Eric for a time (probably for this reason), but he seems to have swtiched back to Aaron. Even though the male form ''can'' be pronounced "ay-rin", Hotch himself would pronounce it "eh-rin". In short, Hotch and Strauss [[Depending
* [[Only in Florida]]:
{{quote|
'''Morgan:''' How bad?
'''JJ:''' Florida. }}
* [[Only Known
* [[Orphaned Punchline]]: "Reckoner":
{{quote|
* [[Our Vampires Are Different]]: "The Performer"
* [[Outlaw Couple]]: " {{spoiler|The Perfect Storm}}", "Mosley Lane", " {{spoiler|A Thousand Words}}", "The Thirteenth Step", and the novel ''Finishing School''. {{spoiler|"Conflicted"}} is suspected to be the case, but it is subverted when it turns out to be a case of {{spoiler|[[Split Personality]]}}.
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* [[Power Born of Madness]]: "True Night". The guys from "The Big Wheel" and "Reflection of Desire" also had an extremely high tolerance to pain.
* [[Power Walk]]: The team doesn't get as many of these as you might think, but special mention has to go to Hotch, Rossi, and Prentiss's in "Hopeless".
* [[Precision F-Strike]]: A few time but the most notable would be Reid In "Painless" yelling "Son of a bitch!" when his phone's been ringing off the hook for the past two days when Morgan pranks him.
* [[Pregnant Hostage]]: "Derailed", though she was actually on her way to get an abortion when the train was hijacked.
* [[Prison Rape]]: Prentiss openly implies this will happen to the unsub in "Slave of Duty."
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* [[Psycho Lesbian]]: {{spoiler|unsub Maggie Lowe in the episode "Somebody's Watching." She stalked Lila Archer for years after falling in love with her in college. She killed people who were either in Lila's way or were competing for her attention.}}
* [[Psychopathic Manchild]]: The perpetrator of the brutal murder that haunted Rossi for twenty years - built up to an extent as a ruthless, brilliant, homicidal maniac - turned out to be {{spoiler|a frightened, mentally ill man who never meant to kill anyone (he followed a little girl he liked from his carnival workplace, broke into the house, and panicked when the parents discovered him and the father, quite understandably not knowing what was going on, attacked the 'intruder' with an axe and fought back with tragic results) and cries helplessly for his daddy when he's arrested. He felt so bad about the murder that he had been sending fluffy toys as presents every year on the anniversary as an apology.}}
** The unsub in "To Hell..."/"And Back" was revealed to be {{spoiler|an overgrown manchild who was being manipulated into stealing the stem cells of homeless people by his quadriplegic mad scientist older brother.}}.
** The unsub from "The Uncanny Valley" is probably an example of this as well, as {{spoiler|she has the mind of a young child, due to verbal and sexual abuse she suffered from her ''father''. She just wants a pretty set of dolls, the perfect set, to play with.}}
** The unsub from "Proof" is an extremely dark one. {{spoiler|As a teen he got Seven Minutes in Heaven with the popular girl, only to have her taken by his brother. Many years later, he hears they're having marital problems and starts brutally torturing and killing women after she rejects him again. He ends up kidnapping his niece when she bleaches her hair to look like her mom on prom night and when kidnapped himself he explained what he did in glee. Oh, and he taped every murder.}}
*** {{spoiler|"I like hearing the women scream, it's reminds me of the roller coaster!" Playing [[Kick the Dog]] was fun too.}}
* [[Put
** In "JJ", {{spoiler|JJ was shuttled off to a new position in the State Department}}.
** Gideon, after Frank pushes him over the edge in Season 3.
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== Q-S ==
* [[The Quisling]]: "Bloodline".
* [[Rape
* [[Reality Subtext]]: "JJ". So much it practically bleeds into the context.
* [[Real Life Relative]]: The victim the team is working to save in "3rd Life" is played by Gina Mantegna (who now credits herself as Gia Mantegna), Joe Mantegna's (Agent Rossi's) daughter in [[Real Life]].
** The two oldest Galen children from the episode "Damaged" are played by real-life twin brother and sister Nicholle Tom and David Tom.
* [[Real Life Writes the Plot]]:
** Actor Matthew Gray Gubler, who plays Reid, injured his knee just before production commenced on the show's fifth season, forcing him to get around on crutches. In the first episode of season five, "Nameless, Faceless", Reid is shot in the leg, and has to use crutches for the next few episodes.
** Likewise, AJ Cook's real-life pregnancy resulted in a pregnancy being written in for JJ, and the actor took maternity leave at the same time as her character.
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* [[Red Herring]]: According to the commentary of "The Perfect Storm", the characters set up to be red herrings for the real killers are nicknamed "UnSchmucks".
** One of their earliest UnSchmucks was in the second episode of the series. The student security guard was apparently there to be a suspect for the serial arson, but his ''real'' purpose was to give Gideon a [[Eureka Moment]].
* [[Revenge
* [[Ripped from the Headlines]]: Almost all of their cases are based at least in part on a real-life case, some examples being:
** The Footpath Killer from "Extreme Aggressor" and "Compulsion" - [
** "Won't Get Fooled Again" - [
** "Natural Born Killer" - [
** "Blood Hungry" - [
** Key parts of "What Fresh Hell" were taken from a case that the show's real-life BAU consultant, Jim Clemente, had worked on.
** "Unfinished Business" - [
*** In his debut appearance, the Reaper was also compared to those two.
** "The Tribe" - The Manson Family murders.
** "Machismo" - [
** "Empty Planet" - [
** The Mill Creek Killer from "The Last Word" - [
** "Legacy" - [
** "Identity" - [
** "Minimal Loss" - An amalgam of a [
*** This is referenced in the episode by the sheriff, Rossi, and Morgan, discussing Waco and other FBI/cult hostage situations. Rossi was also apparently at [
** "Catching Out" - [
** "Amplification" - [
** "To Hell..."/..."And Back" - [
** Bill Jarvis from "Haunted" - [
** "Hopeless" - [
** "The Eyes Have It" - [
** ([[Unfunny Aneurysm Moment|or just an eerie coincidence?]]) "The [[Uncanny Valley]]" - [http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-hospital-director25-2010feb25,0,5761517.story Claude E. Foulk], a sanitarium chief accused of molesting his son and least four others.
*** More like the second trope, as the episode was made before this news story.
** "Our Darkest Hour" - [
*** Possibly also Gordon Fredrick Cummins, an obscure serial killer who struck exclusively during blackouts.
** "JJ" - The disappearance of [
** "25 to Life" - [
* [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]]: "Elephant's Memory", "House on Fire", the appropriately-named "Retaliation", and what Hotch does to {{spoiler|Foyet after he targets Hotch's family in "100"}}. Also evident in many other episodes where particular victims are chosen because they have somehow hurt or offended the unsub (or are somehow like someone who has).
** Also Doyle's killing spree of the people who put him in prison, leaving Emily for last.
* [[Roaring Rampage of Rescue]]: The Dorado Falls [[Un Sub]] ''believes'' he's on this.
* [[Room Full of Crazy]]: {{spoiler|Clara Hayes}} in "Compulsion."
{{quote|
** When they peel back the wallpaper in Tobias's house in "Revelations" its revealed he's covered the entire wall in "Honor thy father"... in Latin.
* [[Run for
** Played straight in "Rite of Passage".
* [[Running Gag]]:
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*** And lampshaded again in the season five opener, where JJ says that Reid's going to be on crutches for a while, but that's okay, "kicking down doors is Morgan's job".
*** From "Psychodrama:"
{{quote|
'''Morgan:''' Nah, I got one (kicks in the door) }}
*** Lampshaded in "A Higher Power"
{{quote|
** Morgan and Garcia's telephone banter.
** The Unsub being impotent. While this is part of the standard personality profile creation, it's practically the first thing out of an agent's mouth [[Once an Episode]] and the Unsub never seems to be so.
** Any configuration of the team getting together outside
* [[Sadistic Choice]]: "Psychodrama" and "North Mammon"
* [[Samaritan Syndrome]]: Hotch has this, to a certain extent, and Rossi deconstructs it angrily:
{{quote|
* [[Sanctuary of Solitude]]: Happens several times:
** At the end of "Lucky", Morgan, who's been dealing with a crisis of faith, goes to church for the first time in years. Ironically, at that very moment, {{spoiler|his [[Most Important Person|'baby girl']] Garcia is shot by her date for the evening, who Morgan had tried to warn her away from. The team can't get a hold of him to tell him because he's turned his phone off in the church. Morgan even [[
** Prentiss subverts the trope in "Demonology", when she walks home instead of leaving with the team when [[Sinister Minister|Silvano]] is finally captured. She ends up outside a church (which she hasn't been in since her {{spoiler|abortion at fifteen}}) and while she looks longingly at it, the last shot is of her deciding ''not'' to go in.
** Gideon ends up in a church at some point for himself, but he also follows a young girl into one in "The Popular Kids". She confesses what's really been going on with the murders the BAU is investigating and she blames herself, though Gideon tries to help.
* [[Sarcastic Clapping]]: Done by Morgan at the end of "25 to Life".
* [[Scarily Competent Tracker]]: John Blackwolf in "The Tribe" was able to (among other things) determine that Hotch carried a second gun by noticing that the right instep of his footprints was slightly deeper than the left "and since you don't appear to have a club-foot..."
* [[The Schizophrenia Conspiracy]]: Ted Bryar in "Derailed."
* [[Scooby
** In "The Angel Maker", the unsub tries to make it look like a dead serial killer has come back to life/didn't actually die.
* [[Scream Discretion Shot]]
* [[Screwed
* [[Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right]]: Happens a lot, usually culminating in the involvement of Strauss. Lampshaded in "It Takes a Village".
* [[Second Episode Introduction]]: J.J. is neither present nor even mentioned in the first episode.
* [[Self
* [[Serial Killer]]: Well, natch.
* [[Series Continuity Error]]: The inconsistencies between Rossi's story in "Birthright" (twenty years ago, three kids witnessed their parents get beaten to death on Christmas Eve) and what's shown in "Damaged" (nineteen years ago, three kids woke up one day in March to find their parents had been hacked up with an axe).
** In "P911", Garcia recognizes a scout uniform worn by the abducted boy because all four of her brothers were members of the same organization. In "Safe Haven", she mentions she is an only child.
** Subverted for Prentiss' backstory. In "Revelations", JJ and Hotch marvel at Prentiss' sang froid. Although this seems inconsistent with {{spoiler|the later discovery of Prentiss' background as a badass undercover agent,}} it is conceivable that the rest of the team could have been barred from that info (at least until they're cleared in "Lauren").
{{quote|
'''Prentiss:''' What do you mean?
'''JJ:''' You came off a desk job. Now suddenly you're in the field, surrounded by mutilated bodies, and you don't even flinch.
'''Hotch:''' She's right. You've never blinked.
'''Prentiss:''' I guess maybe I compartmentalize better than most people. }}
*** This does not, however, account for the discrepancy between Prentiss' original season 2 statement that she had then been with the Bureau for ten years and the revelation in "Lauren" that {{spoiler|a mere seven years earlier, she was instead working for Interpol and/or the CIA, apparently.}}
*** Well, the statement was just that, a statement. And since her previous assignment was kind of secretive, you don't blurt it out.
*** Particularly considering that the division of Interpol she was working for was technically non-official and highly classified, its understandable that she would have a mundane backstory backed to the hilt by paperwork. Then her entire approach in her introductory episodes become [[Fridge Brilliance]] where the reason she doesn't blink is because she's seen worse.
** When, exactly, did Hotch "liaise" with Kate Joyner? He married Haley right out of high school, and it would be incredibly out of character for him to cheat. It's not like the episode forgot about Haley, either, as Kate's similarity to her is remarked upon.
*** Nothing in that episode suggested that Hotch and Kate were more than just good friends.
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** Prentiss does it in "Lo-Fi".
* [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog Story]]: "No Way Out II" turns {{spoiler|"The Fisher King"}} into one of these, because {{spoiler|Frank kills the girl they saved in those episodes}}.
* [[Shout
** An episode involving a serial bomber takes place in [[CSI: Miami|Florida and is titled "Won't Get Fooled Again"]]
** The episode "In Heat," also set in Miami, starts with a [[Cold Opening]] that closely mimics a [[CSI: Miami]] [[Cold Opening]] in its cinematography and editing. At various crime scenes in the episode, several extras in the background are seen wearing "CSI" windbreakers.
** The hyper-egotistical surgeon in "L.D.S.K." (Gideon calls him "The worst narcissistic personality disorder I've ever seen.") looks and sounds just like Hugh Laurie's character in ''[[House (TV series)|House]]''.
*** Also could be considered at [[Take That]].
*** Or [[Truth in Television]].
** The title of "A Real Rain" refers to ''[[Taxi Driver]]'', while the ending is a Shout Out to ''[[The Boondock Saints]]''.
** The unsub's methods in " North Mammon" and "Legacy" are similar to the traps set up by the Jigsaw Killer from the ''[[Saw]]'' saga.
** The episode "Legacy" opens with the unsub whistling [[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (
** The ending of "Damaged" has a sort of a ''[[
** In "True Night", the scenes where Night kills the victims is shot in dramatic, [[Sin City]]-style black-and white. This is appropriate, as the prime suspect is a comic-book artist. Garcia even quotes [[Frank Miller]] towards the end.
*** Night also looks very similar to an Organization XIII member (particularly Roxas), with his [[Badass Longcoat]], a hood covering his face, black gloves, black boots and [[Dual-Wielding]] swords. Some of the poses can be seen in the Deep Dive video too (although from slightly different angles).
*** Aside from that, the whole storyline is a wee bit familiar: [[The Crow|A psychotic and creative young man whose fiancee is raped and killed by gang bangers adopts a dark and intimidating superhero-esque persona in order to get revenge on those who wronged him.]]
** The kidnapping we saw in "The Uncanny Valley" was strangely similar to the one done by [[The Silence of the Lambs|another famous fictional serial killer who also predated young girls.]] Also, the entire plot is suspiciously similar to that of Dollhouse episode "Belle Chose", though the unsub is portrayed far more sympathetically than Terry Karrens is.
*** They are actually both based on Ted Bundy. He used that ruse.
*** Speaking of [[The Silence of the Lambs]] series, even in context of Shout Outs, ''an evil quadriplegic heir to a pig farm named "Mason"'' was pushing it.
** The family in the beginning of "Children of the Dark" have an awkward conversation in their house's entryway with two strangers, who admire their lifestyle and golf clubs before torturing and killing them. [[Funny Games|Sounds familiar, in a funny sort of way.]]
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*** It's probably nothing, but one of his aliases is [[Comic Books|Alex Ross]].
** Character David Rossi is based on real-life FBI profiler John E. Douglas. However, a certain Forensic Psychology textbook cites not only John E. Douglas, but another FBI profiler named D. Rossi.
** Garcia swears by using "[[Battlestar Galactica
** Billy Flynn (played by [[Tim Curry]]) from "Our Darkest Hour" is dubbed "The Prince of Darkness", the moniker of several characters that he's previously played.
*** Could also be a ''[[Chicago]]'' shout-out.
** Its a reference (or also a reference) to the Night Stalker Richard Ramirez, the killer he's based on.
** Possible shout out in
{{quote|
** A brief scene in the Season 4 episode ''Demonology'', shows two priests preparing for an exorcism. Obviously, [[The Exorcist
** In "Devil's Night", Garcia calls Kaman, the UnSub, "the [[Big Bad]]".
** "Reflections of Desire" is basically {{spoiler|''[[Psycho]]'' and ''[[Sunset Boulevard]]''}} thrown in a blender.
** In "What Happens At Home", we first meet FBI cadet Ashley Seaver when Rossi goes to see her [[Silence of the Lambs|on the FBI academy training course]].
** At the end of "Amplification", the shot of the virus being sealed in a gigantic virus vault refers back to ''[[
** One of two murdered convenience store clerks on Garcia's computer is [[The Simpsons (animation)|Apu N.]].
** SF author and blogger Elizabeth Bear is a ''huge'' and
** In "With Friends Like These", there is a shout out to ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' when {{spoiler|Ben sees his hallucinatory friends pinned to the ceiling, dripping blood on his face.}}
** Perhaps unintentional, but the plot of "Sense Memory" concerns itself with [[Perfume
* [["Shut Up" Kiss]]: {{spoiler|J.J. and Detective La Montagne in "In Heat".}}
* [[Siblings in Crime]]: The unsubs of "Open Season" (formerly [[The Family That Slays Together]]) and, in a gut-wrenching variation, {{spoiler|"To Hell..."/"...And Back".}}
* [[Sinister Minister]]: "Demonology"
* [[Slasher Smile]]: The [[Big Bad]] in "Lessons Learned" cracks an ''incredibly'' creepy one at the thought of Islamic extremists brutally murdering all ''four billion'' non-Muslims in the world.
* [[Smart People Play Chess]]: Simultaneously subverted and played straight: Reid is the designated genius of the team, but while good at chess, he isn't exactly world-class, almost invariably losing to Gideon and apparently being out-thought by Prentiss.
** Played straight in "Compulsion" when his ability at chess is presented as an index of his ability to "think outside the box."
** And played straight again with Reid in "Uncanny Valley", where Reid says that after Gideon left, he went through every possible chess maneuver (an exponentially high number) as an attempt to figure out a way to beat the system. He's then shown at the end of the episode playing a lightning-fast game of chess with a young chess prodigy.
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** "True Genius" had former two chess prodigies, both were over 160 in IQ but one was far more successful than the other.
* [[Smug Snake]]: Professor Rothschild in "Masterpiece.", at least {{spoiler|Rossi destroys his master plan of revenge.}}
* [[Stalker
* [[Snuff Film]]: A number of Unsubs ("Hopeless", notably) have a habit of recording their murders, sometimes for... [[A Date
* [[Soundtrack Dissonance]]: In "Mosley Lane" we can hear ''Illabye'' as [[Evil Matriarch|Anita Roycewood]] carefully puts a sleeping boy in a cardboard box, smiles to him, hums a lullaby... {{spoiler|and then proceeds to burn the boy in a crematorium}}.
** "Ashes and Dust" gives us one of the most powerful examples of all time, as Enya's "Boadicea" plays over {{spoiler|a family trying to escape their burning house in vain, as the arsonist watches.}} You can watch it [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=steKWtFkZ4g right over here].
* [[South of the Border]]: "Machismo"
* [[Spear Carrier]]: Agent Anderson and Tech Gina Sharp, who have made a number of appearances, but never really do anything that noteworthy. Anderson hasn't even been given a first name.
* [[Spiritual Successor]]: To ''The Inside'', a [[Too Good to Last|short-lived Fox series]] which also revolved around a unit within the FBI tasked with pursuing serial killers (see [[Expy]]).
* [[Spin-Off]]: The show, itself, is not a spin-off, but, rather, has a type 3 spin-off, ''[[Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior]]''. They met the team that is in the spin-off in "The Fight" (season 5, episode 18).
* [[Split Personality]]: Two unsubs. {{spoiler|Raphael/Tobias Hankel/Tobias' father in "Revelations,"}} and {{spoiler|Adam/Amanda in "Conflicted."}}
* [[Stalker Shrine]]: "The Crossing"
* [[Stalker
* [[The Stoic]]: Hotch. Many characters remark that they hardly see him smile... but with a job like that, who could blame him?
** The biggest (only?) smile Hotch gives is {{spoiler|when JJ announces that she's pregnant.}} He's clearly happy for {{spoiler|her}}, but it just doesn't look right on his face.
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** The relationship between JJ and William LaMontagne ("Jones", "In Heat", "Memoriam")
** The continuing conflict between Strauss and Hotchner.
*** As well as Emily's hatred of the former, stemming from her [[Ten
** The Boston Reaper arc ("Omnivore," "...And Back," "Nameless, Faceless," "Outfoxed," "100," and "The Slave of Duty")
** Morgan's relationship with little Ellie Spicer starting in "Our Darkest Hour" through "Safe Haven".
** Prentiss' history with IRA terrorist Ian Doyle, which spreads across "The Thirteenth Step", "Sense Memory", "Today I Do", "Coda", "Valhalla"/"Lauren", and finally "It Takes a Village".
*** Many of these can also be considered examples of [[Character Development]].
* [[Strictly Formula]]: Most of the episodes have a highly predictable structure - the team talks about the UNSUB of the week, the team investigates the last murder scene, the team rings up Garcia to get her to hack into a database, the team describe the UNSUB's personality to the police, the team chases the UNSUB, end of episode. [[Tropes Are Tools|However]], this actually works for the show - the formula establishes the fact that the team are professionals who know what they're doing, and the UNSUB's stories are always different and unpredictable.
* [[Self
* [[Storyboard Body]]: The {{spoiler|first}} UnSub in "A Thousand Words".
* [[Subject 101]]: The season seven episode where the BAU speaks to a college class about profiling is called "Profiling 101".
* [[Temporary Substitute|Substitute Media Liaison]]: Jordan Todd.
* [[Suicide
** The unsubs in "Hopeless" take this route, as Morgan predicts.
** Also, the unsub in {{spoiler|"Parasite".}}
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** The unsub in "Lo-Fi" forces Emily into this, too, as part of the plot to make it look like the shooter was dead.
** The UnSub in "What Happens At Home" pulls this with Hotch.
** The UnSub in "Penelope" walks into the BAU and, when he realizes they know who he is, intends to go down that way taking as many of them as he can. {{spoiler|JJ shoots him from behind before he gets a chance.}}
** Under the circumstances, the older unsub's refusal to back down when surrounded at gunpoint in "Open Season" comes across as one part [[Suicide
* [[Suicide Is Painless]]: Averted by "Risky Business" and the "choking game". The kids think it's a big contest until {{spoiler|1=the UnSub, a paramedic who has also been egging them on via a website, collects them from their houses and makes sure they've succeeded in killing themselves.}}
** Also, in the same episode, Reid responds to a smartass student who's not taking the issue seriously with an [[Squick|all too detailed description of how unpleasant death by asphyxiation really is.]]
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** This show deserves points for playing OCD fairly accurately and sympathetically. There's even a case where it helps - in "Legacy", the Kansas City detective's compulsive note-taking was the very reason he noticed that ''sixty-three'' homeless people were missing, leading to the discovery that they were being systematically tortured and killed.
* [[Sympathetic Murderer]]: "Distress", "Jones", "True Night", "In Heat", "Elephant's Memory", "Pleasure is My Business", "The Big Wheel", "Uncanny Valley" and undoubtedly more.
** Any case where the killer is psychotic or forced to commit their crimes through compulsion while they regret their actions. Sociopaths and Psychopaths who torture and kill, however, will be portrayed as the [[Complete Monster
** This show also has a couple of rare sympathetic ''rapist''-murderers ({{spoiler|"Conflicted"}} and arguably {{spoiler|"The Perfect Storm"}}) and an even rarer sympathetic ''domestic abuser'' ("The Performer").
* [[Sympathy for
** The song is actually used at the beginning of "Revelations".
== T-Z ==
* [[Take Me Instead!]]: Prentiss does this for Reid in "Minimal Loss".
* [[Take Our Word for It]]: The more grusome activities the unsubs partake in and their effects on the victims are often only shown through the horrified or disgusted looks on the team's faces.
* [[Take That]]:
** Upon arriving at a crime scene [[CSI|in Las Vegas]], this exchange between Rossi and Prentiss in "The Instincts": "Not exactly a well-preserved crime scene." "It's the crime scene investigators. They all want to play cop instead of being scientists and they end up trampling on everything."
** "JJ" is an episode-long [[Take That]]. {{spoiler|JJ's voiceover during the "goodbye montage" makes it quite clear that she, the actress portraying her, and the rest of the cast and crew don't want her to leave, but "people above her pay grade" (the studio) are forcing it.}}
* [[Taking You
* [[Talking the Monster
* [[Tattooed Crook]]: "A Thousand Words", given attention in "Honor Among Thieves", "Valhalla", and "Lauren".
* [[Teacher-Student Romance]]: in "I love you Tommy Brown" which also brutally Deconstructs the idea that it's okay if its a teenage boy with an attractive woman.
* [[Team Pet]]: Reid.
* [[Tear Your Face Off]]: The victim in "About Face" is killed this way.
* [[Television Geography]]: Often.
** "Normal" begins with an aerial shot of [[Nerdgasm|the Civil Engineer's wet dream]] that is the [https://web.archive.org/web/20110525141316/http://members.cox.net/mkpl/interchange/4lvl_mg.jpg Four-Level Interchange], subtitled "Orange County, CA". The Four-Level Interchange is not in Orange County though... it's 20 miles away in Los Angeles. Orange County's freeway interchanges are not nearly as pretty from the air. They look a lot more like a [http://www.ptank.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/I-5ca22ca57.png Freeway Full of Crazy].
** In "Limelight", the UnSub is somehow able to get from police headquarters (which is in downtown Philadelphia) to a house where his next victim is (the design of which can only be found in parts of West Philadelphia), and then deposit her next to what is supposedly the Schuylkill Expressway near Conshohocken (which it's clearly not, considering the complete lack of a river nearby) in what has to be less than an hour. Any Philadelphia native will laugh at that above description. Repeatedly.
* [[Ten
** Averted with {{spoiler|Elle and Gideon}}.
* [[Terms of Endangerment]]: The killer in "Natural Born Killer" puts himself on a [[First-Name Basis]] with Gideon while being interrogated.
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* [[That One Case]]: Multiple ones, in this show:
** Gideon had Frank ("No Way Out" and "No Way Out II: The Evilution of Frank")
*** Not to mention the bomber in Boston, which led to his nervous breakdown. He caught the man, but lost 6 agents and a hostage immediately afterwards.
** Rossi had the Galen case ("Damaged") and the Butcher ("Remembrance of Things Past"). In the latter we briefly see the Butcher case is just one of several old cases he still hasn't solved.
** Hotch had the Reaper case ("Omnivore", "To Hell..."/"...And Back", "Nameless, Faceless", "100").
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** The Prince of Darkness ("Our Darkest Hour" and "The Longest Night") became this for Morgan.
*** Lampshaded by Morgan in "The Longest Night", telling Hotch that he needs to go after Billy Flynn personally:
{{quote|
** The Doyle case for Prentiss, haunting her from her previous assignment {{spoiler|and coming back to bite her in the ass in a big way}}.
* [[That's What I Would Do]]: "Elephant's Memory". Reid empathizes with the unsub and says this almost word for word regarding how he figured out the unsub's next move.
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** Numerous other unsubs: "Natural Born Killer," "True Night," and "Hopeless," for example.
** In "100," {{spoiler|Hotch does this to Foyet. With his ''bare hands.''}}
** Unintentionally done in "Normal" after Norman shoots the first victim her car crashes and flips over in an over dramatic way. {{spoiler|She still survives albeit in critical condition and paralyzed from the waist down.}}
* [[This Is Gonna Suck]]: Prentiss, word for word, in "52 Pickup."
* [[Thousand
* [[Title Drop]]: Happens a lot with episode titles.
* [[To Know Him I Must Become Him]]: Count the times Morgan says "I'm the unsub ... "
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** The victims in "Roadkill". {{spoiler|The victim in the garage was especially stupid. He had ample opportunity to escape from the unsub by dodging behind columns or other cars, but instead he tries to outrun the truck. Becomes even more apparent when it is revealed the unsub had no legs and couldn't have caught his victims if they had got away}}
** The first thing Hotch tells Agent Seaver is to never go anywhere by herself. Granted, the person she went to see was a grieving father and his young daughter, {{spoiler|but he was also a [[Serial Killer]] like Seaver's own father. Fortunately the dad was distracted because he needed to know ''why'' Seaver mentioned apologizing in the killer's family's place, but she was still chewed out by Hotch}}
** An Unsub walking into a tornado in Season 7, as it tears sheds and vehicles off the ground.
** A victim in "Divining Rod" who fails to notice her full wine glass is now empty and her back door's open.
* [[Took a Level
** Now she's up another. Apparently, she took some intensive hand-to-hand training courses while doing paper work with the State Department. She charges and beats the ever loving ''shit'' out of an armed [UnSub] in Closing Time. It comes out of ''nowhere.''
** Reid definitely had one between seasons 6 and 7. Just watch the season 7 premiere if you don't believe me.
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* [[Trailers Always Lie]]: "Snake Eyes'" B-story says that Garcia and her boyfriend have a fight over her flirty friendship with Morgan. Actually {{spoiler|Garcia's afraid that she slept with Morgan while drunk. Not only did that not happen, but Garcia's boyfriend completely trusts Morgan (though the next episode has him state he "went through a lot of therapy to figure out their relationship")}}.
* [[Traumatic Haircut]]: Inverted in "Divining Rod": {{spoiler|A man kills four women in one day just to make the woman he loves a nice wig, which he lovingly places on her head. It wouldn't have been quite so bad if the last victim hadn't been ''scalped''.}}
* [[True Companions]]: The Team. Which makes JJ's and Prentiss' departures all the more heartbreaking. It's as though the BAU family is torn apart.
* [[Unexpected Genre Change]]: The comic-based scenes in True Night, featuring someone who looks like [[Assassin's Creed|Al'tair]] fighting werewolves. {{spoiler|They're actually a metaphorical representation of a comic artist killing gang members who killed his girlfriend; he's unknowingly drawing his crimes.}}
* [[Unflinching Walk]]: At the end of "Hopeless", where the unsubs decide to commit suicide by cop, and the policemen outside are so frustrated and angry they happily oblige. Knowing that they can do nothing to help, Hotchner, Rossi, and Prentiss walk away, while the hell breaks loose behind their backs.
** And promptly declare [[I Need a Freaking Drink]], as we see in the final montage.
* [[Ungrateful Bastard
* [[Unholy Matrimony]]: "{{spoiler|The Perfect Storm}}," "Mosley Lane," and "The Thirteenth Step.". Also possibly {{spoiler|"Divining Rod"}}.
* [[Unusually Uninteresting Sight]]: In ''Compulsion'', the unsub is setting fire to buildings all over campus. By the time the episode starts, three buildings have already been destroyed by this psychotic arsonist. And yet, every student continues to go along with their merry lives, worrying more about their homework and relationships than their lives, parents aren't arriving in hordes to take their children home, and the administration is doing little to protect their students other than helping the BAU and pulling the fire alarms.
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** In "Mayhem" as well... no one on the streets of New York gives much thought to guys dressed all in black with hoods completely covering their faces, even though the clothing worn by other civilians suggests it is not winter. Even after said Unsubs ''shoot strangers execution-style in broad daylight'', they still manage to get away undetected 6 out of 7 times. Because by the time they round a corner, and put the gun in their pocket, they're don't look all that out of place again.
* [[Unreliable Narrator]]: "Normal." Maybe you figured out before [[The Reveal]] that {{spoiler|there was no one else in the car}}, but did you see it coming that {{spoiler|''every interaction'' with his family in that episode was a delusion and that he'd killed them before the BAU had even arrived}}?
** That is actually a [[Call Back]] to the earlier on in the episode when the come to the inevitable conclusion that {{spoiler|he was going to kill his family eventually, after killing all those other victims, but they had no idea when. This is further proven when they go into the last room and you can see near-fresh blood stains on the bed sheet.}}
* [[Verbal Tic]]: Reid's preference for [[Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness|highbrow synonyms]]: "exceedingly" instead of "extremely", "consume" instead of "eat", etc. Also, his tendency to say "actually..." and then go on a long-winded explanation of something to correct someone.
* [[Very Special Episode]]: More than a few occasions.
* [[Vigilante Execution]]: "A Real Rain" and "Reckoner". Also played with in "True Night", where {{spoiler|the unsub is a vigilante getting revenge on gang members for his girlfriend's murder, only without knowing that he is doing so.}}
** There are also a few episodes where the unsubs ''themselves'' undergo these: "{{spoiler|Aftermath}}", "{{spoiler|Brothers In Arms}}", "{{spoiler|Ashes and Dust}}", and, ironically, "{{spoiler|Reckoner}}".
*** Averted in " {{spoiler|Tabula Rasa}}" and " {{spoiler|Exit Wounds}}."
** {{spoiler|[[Tim Curry]]'s character}}'s death came across as one part this and one part [[Suicide
* [[Villain Episode]]: "True Night"; other episodes prominently feature the killer, but none of them have the spotlight shine as brightly on them as this one.
** In the opening of most episodes you see what happens to the victim, and then follow the BAU as they slowly uncover who the killer is and why he kills. In "True Night" this is reversed: You know immediately who the killer is, and over the course of the episode you find out who he killed and why.
*** That might be because "True Night" starred [[Malcolm in
** "The Longest Night" is one for Billy Flynn.
** "The Big Wheel", though not quite to the same extent as "True Night".
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* [[Western Terrorists]]: "Lo-Fi"/"Mayhem", "Amplification", and "Valhalla"/"Lauren".
* [["Well Done, Son" Guy]]: {{spoiler|The son of [[The Butcher]], to the point where, at age ten, he ''knocked out his own mother'' to help his dad kill her, then repressed it, then started helping his dad go hunting. It didn't help that, even if The Butcher showed approval, he'd just forget it due to his Alzheimer's.}}
* [[Wham! Episode]]: "Profiler, Profiled", "Lucky", "The Big Game"/"Revelations", "Lo-Fi"/"Mayhem", "...And Back"/"Nameless, Faceless", "100", and "Valhalla"/"Lauren".
* [[Wham! Line]]:
** "[[
** "Hey, Garcia? I've been thinking about doing this all night." ( {{spoiler|Jason Battle to Garcia, before shooting her}} in "Lucky")
** From "Lucky":
{{quote|
'''Floyd Feylinn Ferrell''': {{spoiler|[[I'm a Humanitarian|So is Tracy Lambert.]]}} }}
** From "3rd Life":
{{quote|
'''Jack Vaughan''': {{spoiler|Tomorrow. *BLAM!*}} }}
** "Don't tell them about your brothers." ( {{spoiler|The mother to the young son of a family of killers}} in "Bloodlines")
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** {{spoiler|"She never made it off the table." JJ breaks Prentiss' death to the team}}, in "Lauren"
*** And then, even more so, {{spoiler|"Good luck." "(Emily's voice) Thank you."}}
** From "Divining Rod":
{{quote|
{{spoiler|now imprisoned}} '''Copycat killer''': No, what's that? {{spoiler|Everyone thought a copycat sent letters quoting the book to the original killer, who died reciting the quote; turns out the letters were from the original's wife who has since decided to embrace her "ability" to amplify serial killing tendencies after the copycat fell in love with her.}} }}
* [[What Could Have Been]]: The show was originally going to be called ''Quantico'' and Gideon was originally named Jason Donovan. An early version of Hotch was described as a "blond haired, blue eyed Mormon" and Lukas Haas (the guy who played The Footpath Killer) originally auditioned for the part of Reid, and might have even got it if he hadn't begun expressing doubts about doing a series.
** When [[Mandy Patinkin]] left the show, the producer's first choice for a replacement was [[Harvey Keitel]].
* [[What Happened to
** To be important enough to cause ''literal'' "Mayhem" and be the target of a terrorist attack, it would have to be, most likely, the VP or the President. However, with no hints within the episode besides their political importance, it's difficult to say which of those two it would actually be.
** "In Name and Blood" the Hotchners' home phone rings, so Hotch picks it up, but after saying "Hello?" once or twice, gets no answer. Immediately after whoever was on the other end hangs up, Haley's personal phone starts ringing, but she doesn't answer it, and after talking to Hotch, leaves with it. What was up with this is never given an explanation.
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* [[Writer Revolt]]: And actor revolt, and creator revolt... basically, no one is happy with the reduced roles and departures of Prentiss and JJ. You'll notice how "budget issues" and "the higher-ups" tend to get mentioned a lot in season six...
* [[X Meets Y]]: "Reflection of Desire" is ''[[Sunset Boulevard]]'' meets ''[[Psycho]]'' {{spoiler|right down to the posessive dead mommy, although Norman never cut off another woman's lips to replace his mom's}}.
** "The Thirteen Step": ''[[Natural Born Killers]]'' meets ''[[
* [[Xanatos Gambit]]: "Masterpiece" sounds like one but [[Out
** The lead killer in "Children of the Dark" also tries pulling one, and it's just barely averted (the gambit, not the trope).
* [[Xanatos Speed Chess]]: "Secrets and Lies" consists of almost nothing but this.
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* [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness]]: "Poison", "The Fisher King", "Honor Among Thieves" and "Middle Man".
* [[You Look Familiar]]: Jason Wiles played the unsub in "Psychodrama" and the abducted father in "The Fight".
* [[You Would Make a Great Model]]: This was the tactic of the killer in "Fear and Loathing." Although he doesn't rape his victims. He records their voices as trophies and kills them by drugging and strangling them.
* [[Your Princess Is in Another Castle]]
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