Criminal Minds: Difference between revisions

Has [[Criminal Minds (TV)/Characters|a character page]].

== A-B ==

* [[And Starring]]: Thomas Gibson, after Joe Mantegna joins the cast in season three.

* [[Arch Enemy]]: Frank to Gideon, the Reaper to Hotch, and Doyle to Prentiss.

** 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 (Video Game)|Organization XIII]], wielding a pair of scimitars. He moves in slow motion, smooth techno music in the background. The entire scenes are in highly contrasted black and white, with highly sharpened raindrops and super slo-mo splashes when he steps in a puddle or slashes one of the "werewolves" he's fighting, with occasional bright splashes of blue or red. The entire style is deliberately evocative of something directed by [[Frank Miller]], like the film versions of [[The Spirit]] or [[Sin City]]. Which makes it [[Fridge Brilliance]] for those familiar with those movies, as both [[Frank Miller]] and the UnSub (in-universe) are both highly successful and revolutionary comic authors.

{{quote| '''Defense Attorney''': The fact is, behavioral analysis is just intellectual guesswork. You probably can't even tell me the color of the socks I'm wearing with no greater accuracy than a carnival psychic.<br />

'''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... }}

* [[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.

** The season seven finale "Hit"/"Run" dealt with bank robbers and a hostage situation.

* [[Batter Up]]: "The Boogeyman", "Paradise", "Reckoner" and "Middle Man".

* [[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.

* [[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 stepfather -- Mr. Garcia -- both could arguably be true at once.)

{{quote| '''Morgan:''' Come on, genius. Do something... genius-like.}}

* [[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.

* [[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 [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 [http://www.metro.net/about_us/rail_ops/rail_operations.htm Los Angeles Metro] standing in for Washington.

* [[The Calls Are Coming From Inside the House]]: "Somebody's Watching." Justified because the caller was using a cell phone.

* [[Cannot Spit It Out]]: Gideon deliberately provokes the stuttering Footpath Killer until he gets so angry that he can't talk.

* [[Captive Date]]:

** Season 6 doesn't have a cliffhanger in the same vein as the other seasons- the case is wrapped up in one episode. {{spoiler|However, there is some debate whether or not the team will be split up next season.}}

** Season 7 - The only season without a ''major'' cliffhanger. It ends with {{spoiler|1=the main UnSub getting arrested, JJ and Will's wedding and Prentiss telling Morgan that she wanted to leave the team. Not a surprise for the people who knew that Paget Brewtser was leaving at the end of the season, though.}}

* [[Con Man]]: "Parasite"

* [[Consulting a Convicted Killer]]: Happened twice, once when [[Mad Bomber]] Adrian Bale was called upon to help stop a copycat bomber and again when a serial hostage taker was asked to help stop a group of copycats. {{spoiler|In the first case, Bale was unable to resist the opportunity to try and trick the team into blowing up a potential victim. Gideon caught on to this and stopped it. In the second, [[Exploited Trope|the guy hired the copycats so the BAU would have to consult with him]], which gave him an opportunity to escape.}}

** Jonny McHale's comic book ''Blue'' in "True Night."

* [[Finger in The Mail]]: The season 1 finale features a variation on this trope; SSA Jason Gideon receives, at his cottage, a baseball card and a head in a box via courier, which sets the BAU's targets on this new case.

** [[The Hero]]: Hotch

** [[The Lancer]]: Gideon, eventually replaced by Rossi - Neither of them fit the typical "opposite personality of The Hero", but if you view Hotch as [[The Hero]] (which the writers certainly do), then they have to fall into [[The Lancer]] role.

** [[The Big Guy]]: Derek Morgan. Not dumb or mute, but 9 times out of 10, he's the one doing the running, beating, shooting, etc, when they come face-to-face with the Unsub.

*** Reid even jokes, in "Nameless, Faceless," that "kicking down doors is Morgan's job."

*** Reid has some Chickish qualities, too, especially with his tendency to get in trouble (aka getting kidnapped).

* [[Foot Dragging Divorcee]]: Hotch hesitates for several episodes to sign the papers that divorce him from Haley.

* [[Hacker Cave]]: Garcia's workstation.

* [[Halloween Episode]]: "About Face", sort of. It takes place near Halloween and the unsub's MO is fittingly creepy. Also, "Devil's Night".

** 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|Freudian Excuses]].

* [[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 Syndrome]]: The Deputy Sheriff who {{spoiler|shoots Garcia}}. The disorder is identified by name.

** Precisely the case with the shooter in "L.D.S.K." He's a {{spoiler|nurse in the [[E Rs]] where the victims were brought}}, which allowed him to 'heroically' help the victims. Here, it is called "Hero Homicide".

== I-K ==

** In "Reckoner," the last name on Judge Schuller's hit list is his own.

* [[Idiot Ball]]: Averted HARD. It's rare, if ever, that a member of the cast - serial killer or FBI agent - holds the idiot ball. They are all very competent, and usually remain highly competent. In fact, it's rare among police procedurals these days to have such a consistently competent cast. Everyone but [[Does Not Like Guns|Garcia]] can shoot well and know how to handle themselves in a crisis situation, and rarely if ever miss anything.

** 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.

** 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.

** One of the unsubs from "Identity" also pulls this.

* [[Its Always Sunny At Funerals]]: "Fear and Loathing", "100" (although the coffin looks as if it's been rained on), "The Slave of Duty", and "Lauren".

* [[Its for A Book]]: Stated by a school principal when child porn is found on his computer in "P911".

* [[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".

* [[Lampshade Hanging]]: In Exit Wounds, the victim in the opening scene, upon hearing rustling chains on the "deserted" pier, calls out "Who's there?" and immediately after says "Right, because the homicidal maniac hiding in the shadows is really going to answer you."

** The show does another one about its own tendency to run with [[Paranoia Fuel]] in "Paradise".

* [[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.

** 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"}}.

** Done more subtly in "Revelations": {{spoiler|Tobias Hankel}} calls his Russian Roulette game "God's will". He tries to shoot {{spoiler|Reid}} at least five times and fails, but when {{spoiler|Reid steals his revolver he kills Tobias on the first try.}}

*** 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.

* [[Monster Sob Story]]: The unsub of ''The Uncanny Valley'' {{spoiler|was sexually abused by her father, who then gave her repeated electric shocks to shut her up about it.}} It's also a valid [[Freudian Excuse]].

** The unsub of "Normal" shoots random motorists because {{spoiler|his daughter was struck and killed by a speeding car}}.

* [[Mood Whiplash]]: The ending of "Proof". {{spoiler|We see a father watch a tape of his [[Psychopathic Manchild]] brother torturing his own daughter, covering his ears in fear as she screams. The scene then cuts to Rossi cheerfully teaching the team how to cook.}}

* [[More Dakka]]: "Rite of Passage", where the team breaks out the MP-5s since they're headed into cartel territory and might need heavier firepower if someone objects too strenuously. It comes in handy since the unsub's backup plan included an AR-15 modified for full auto.

* [[Mugging the Monster]]: "The Big Wheel" (although the unsub doesn't get away uninjured).

* [[Murder By Cremation]]: "Mosley Lane" {{spoiler|(well, almost)}}

* [[Murder Suicide]]: A number of killers do this rather than be caught.

* [[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.}}

* [[My Greatest Failure]]: Prentiss' {{spoiler|assumed death}} was this for Morgan, and he's been slow to get over it.

* [[My Greatest Second Chance]]: Morgan {{spoiler|trying to keep the drowning kidnapping victim alive at the end of "Out of the Light" is very similar to his tending to Prentiss in "Lauren." Of course, it's somewhat ironic in that he actually managed to save Prentiss--he just doesn't know it.}}

* [[Neck Snap]]: "Secrets and Lies" and "Distress".

* [[Nerd Glasses]]: Dr Reid, [[Depending On the Writer|sometimes.]]

== O-P ==

* [[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}}.

** Some deleted scenes from "In Name and Blood" also had her showing a softer side (she's actually shown comforting the husband of a victim in one of them).

* [[Oh Crap]]: The expression on the unsub's face {{spoiler|before he gets blown up}} at the end of "Ashes and Dust".

* [[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".

* [[Only Known By Their Nickname]]: Animal, The Footpath Killer, The Hollow Man, and The Mill Creek Killer.

* [[Orphaned Punchline]]: "Reckoner":

* [[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]]}}.

* [[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".

* [[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."

** 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 By Proxy]]: Attempted in "Masterpiece" - {{spoiler|Rothchild attempts to kill the entire BAU team except Rossi, who is the object of his rage}}.

** The Footpath Killer from "Extreme Aggressor" and "Compulsion" - [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trailside_killer David Carpenter]

** "Won't Get Fooled Again" - [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Hofmann Mark Hofmann]

* [[Scream Discretion Shot]]

* [[Screwed By the Network]]: JJ and Prentiss leaving and coming back.

* [[Second Episode Introduction]]: J.J. is neither present nor even mentioned in the first episode.

* [[Self Serving Memory]]: "Roadkill" has an unsub who believes the reckless driver of a red car was responsible for killing his wife and leaving him paralyzed. Near the end he realizes {{spoiler|there was no other driver and that he is responsible for the crash that cost him his legs and wife, as he had fallen asleep at the wheel}}. [[Driven to Suicide|He does not take this well at all.]]

** The unsub in "Profiling 101," who killed [[Title Drop|101]] people, is described as the most prolific serial killer the BAU has ever encountered. Apparently, despite the fact that they were very prominent villains, the show forgot about Frank Breitkopf (166 victims) and Billy Flynn (in the neighborhood of 200-400 victims).

* [[Shaky POV Cam]]: "Blood Hungry", "Our Darkest Hour", and (to a lesser extent) "What Fresh Hell?" and "Catching Out".

* [[Sherlock Scan]]: Hotchner does this occasionally when someone is skeptical of the team's abilities. The fact it is a completely unrelated skill from profiling [[Fridge Logic|always seems to elude these people.]]

** Rossi and Gideon have also pulled these in several episodes.

** The ending of "Damaged" has a sort of a ''[[Cold Case (TV)|Cold Case]]'' feel to it.

** 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.

*** 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.

* [[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]]).

* [[Split Personality]]: Two unsubs. {{spoiler|Raphael/Tobias Hankel/Tobias' father in "Revelations,"}} and {{spoiler|Adam/Amanda in "Conflicted."}}

* [[Stalker Shrine]]: "The Crossing"

* [[Talking the Monster To Death]]: In some standoff situations, the BAU manage to talk the unsubs into surrendering. Also occurs literally in one instance where the detective working with the BAU accidentally prompts the unsub to kill himself by breaking his delusion. And at the end of "The 13th Step" the team defuse a hostage situation by pushing the unsub's buttons so that he ends up killing his partner then committing suicide by cop.

* [[Tattooed Crook]]: "A Thousand Words", given attention in "Honor Among Thieves", "Valhalla", and "Lauren".

* [[Team Pet]]: Reid.

* [[Tear Your Face Off]]: The victim in "About Face" is killed this way.

* [[Ten Minute Retirement]]: {{spoiler|Hotch and Prentiss, in the beginning of season three. They don't even make it through the episode.}}

** Averted with {{spoiler|Elle and Gideon}}.

* [[Terrorist Without a Cause]]: "Empty Planet"

* [[That Man Is Dead]]: "Identity" and "In Heat".

** Reid definitely had one between seasons 6 and 7. Just watch the season 7 premiere if you don't believe me.

** Prentiss took a monumental level in badass during her Doyle arc, especially in "Valhalla" and "Lauren," when she donned a leather jacket, grabbed an MP-5, and led her colleagues to discover that she wasn't quite so much the desk jockey they thought she was in her pre-BAU assignment.

* [[Tonight Someone Dies]]: "Lo-Fi" {{spoiler|It was [[Mauve Shirt|Kate Joyner]]}}

** And in 100. {{spoiler|Haley Hotchner.}} Also {{spoiler|Foyet,}} but no one really cares about {{spoiler|him.}}

* [[Wacky Marriage Proposal]]: {{spoiler|Garcia's boyfriend runs a few of these past Morgan, but ultimately proposes in her office while giving her her favorite foods. Sadly, she's not interested in taking things to the next level because she knows terrible things can happen out of nowhere (or the possibility that she might be a doom magnet).}}

* [[Western Terrorists]]: "Lo-Fi"/"Mayhem", "Amplification", and "Valhalla"/"Lauren".

* [[Wham Episode]]: "Profiler, Profiled", "Lucky", "The Big Game"/"Revelations", "Lo-Fi"/"Mayhem", "...And Back"/"Nameless, Faceless", "100", and "Valhalla"/"Lauren".

* [[Wham Line]]:

* [[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]].

** 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.

** In the episode "Identity", Reid is working on a map that would help narrow down where the unsub lives. Rossi asks how the map is coming along and Reid replies that he's almost finished with it, then it's never mentioned again.

** In season 1 we meet Hotch's little brother for a single episode- he is never seen nor mentioned again. At the end of the episode it is shown that he has left to become a cook / chef in a New York restaraunt; the team has worked several cases in New York since then, but Hotch still hasn't bothered to drop in.

** And {{spoiler|"52 Pickup"}}, only for the first victim.

* [[Wire Dilemma]]: "Won't Get Fooled Again".

* [[The Worf Effect]]: Morgan, usually an unsub-beating machine, has been Worfed in both the sixth and seventh season finales, in the former by [[The Dragon]] and in the latter by the [[Big Bad]]. {{spoiler|He managed to turn the tables on the first, but actually needed Hotch to save him from the second}}.

* [[Wounded Gazelle Gambit]]: Both the unsub from "The Perfect Storm" and The Reaper pull this.

* [[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...

[[Category:Crime and Punishment Series]]

[[Category:Criminal Minds]]