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Criminal Minds spent over 15 years on CBS before concluding its final season in 2020. The show experienced a resurgence in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic and earned a revival — Criminal Minds: Evolution — from Paramount+ in 2022. Throughout the show's 16 seasons, the Criminal Minds creatives delved into the darkness of the human psyche and never shied away from exposing what humans were truly capable of.

As a show centering around cruel killers, many Criminal Minds episodes are disturbing. Whether it is because the Unsub's methods are horrifying or because a criminal attacks a fan-favorite character, some storylines in this show are truly haunting.

Updated by Alan A. Mehanna, on March 6, 2024 This list has been updated to adhere to CBR's most recent standards for formatting.

20 "The Capilanos" Features a Killer Clown

Season 13, Episode 17

"The Capilanos" takes the audience to Guymon, Oklahoma, a small town that's dealing with a series of home invasions. When these crimes escalate to brutal murders, the BAU tries to find the Unsub with only one clue coming from a child witness: the Unsub dresses as a clown.

Although they're supposed to be funny and entertaining, clowns can be incredibly scary in the right context. "The Capilanos" doesn't deal with topics as creepy as other Criminal Minds episodes, but the killer clown haunts fans' memories, largely thanks to his creepy appearance and horrific murders.

19 "Mosley Lane" Deals With Child Kidnappings

Season 5, Episode 16

"Mosley Lane" is disturbing and emotionally devastating, especially in its final moments. Matthew Gray Gubler, who plays the fan-favorite character, Dr. Spencer Reid, directed the episode. Gubler-directed episodes are usually creepy, and "Mosley Lane" certainly fits the bill.

"Mosley Lane" follows an Unsub who has been kidnapping children and holding them captive for years. The more that's learned about the captors and the conditions of their victims, the more horrifying the episode becomes. Several parents reunite with their missing children at the end of the episode, except for one set of parents whose son had died the day before.

18 "Riding the Lightning" Ends With an Innocent Woman's Death

Season 1, Episode 14

Season 1's "Riding The Lightning" takes the team to jail to interview a husband and wife serial killer team a few days before they are sentenced to execution. The straightforward interview quickly becomes complicated when the team suspects that one-half of the criminal duo may be innocent.

Tensions heighten when the window to save Sarah Jean Mason from execution begins to close. However, this tension turns into horror when the true details of the serial killer couple's crimes come to light. Sarah didn't kill her son, but she still chooses to die in prison because if the BAU made her innocence public, her son would be in grave danger. Her story is one of the most haunting and sympathetic in all of Criminal Minds.

17 "Mr. Scratch" Plays Mind Games

Season 10, Episode 21

Peter Lewis was a long-running Unsub in Criminal Minds. His father, Neil Lewis, was falsely accused of a heinous crime against the kids of his group home and then killed inside prison. Peter then grew up, became a genius, and worked for the NSA with a thirst for revenge and a lot of knowledge about drugs.

"Mr. Scratch" is particularly disturbing because it plays with the audience's expectations. It begins as a seemingly paranormal experience, very Slenderman-like, but then it shows that the true horror comes from real human actions. Mr. Scratch uses mind-altering drugs to attack his victims and frames people into thinking they've killed their family members.

16 "Heathridge Manor" Introduces the Devil

Season 7, Episode 19

"Heathridge Manor" is full of spine-chilling horror, but the truly terrifying part is its ambiguous end. The episode follows a series of seemingly Satanic killings where women are found dead, dressed in Gothic clothing. The killer is later revealed to be James Heathridge, who has delusions of his mother telling him that he needs to murder all of Satan's wives to keep the peace. James is killed himself in a struggle with Agent Hotchner, but James’s sister, Lara, continues to live in their family house.

The terrifying end to this episode shows a dark figure with a cow-skull cane approaching Lara, and he asks her to accompany him. Lara obliges, but when the camera shows a different angle, Lara is walking alone. This ambiguous ending leaves the audience guessing as to the mysterious man's identity and whether Lara is going to follow in her mother and brother's murderous footsteps.

15 "Dust and Bones" Features Snakes and Child Abuse

Season 13, Episode 7

Like most Criminal Minds episodes, "Dust and Bones" is an unsettling episode due to its Unsub. The BAU quickly learns that a woman named Desi Gutierrez has been kidnapping and mutilating women — giving them serpentine bodily modifications. This stems from her traumatic past when her mother would lock her in a shed where she befriended the snakes that made their nest there.

The episode is not only disturbing because of its use of snakes but also because of how snake-like Desi has become. She transformed her own body and feels more at home with the reptiles than she does with humans. Also, the fact that she was treated so abysmally as a child still sticks with audiences long after the episode is over.

14 "North Mammon" Pits Friends Against Each Other

Season 2, Episode 7

"North Mammon" follows the BAU as they investigate the disappearance of three girls in the small titular town. As the residents of North Mammon begin to turn on each other, the three girls are instructed by their captor that two of them can leave if they kill the third. The sickening plot unfurls as two of the girls, Kelly Seymour and Brooke Chambers, debate whether to kill off their sick friend, Polly Homefeldt.

In the end, two girls survive after Polly kills Kelly for wanting to murder anyone in the first place. Just as the town turned on each other, the girls turned on each other as well. This episode is one of the more disturbing ones since it presents the moral dilemma of assuring the safety of two girls or taking the chance to save all three.

13 "The Lesson" Shows Victims as Puppets

Season 8, Episode 10

Matthew Gray Gubler also directed "The Lesson," which fans remember as one of the most graphic episodes in Criminal Minds. The BAU team finds several bodies that are completely disjointed. The episode reveals that an Unsub turned the victims into human marionette puppets. The Unsub then used the corpses in a puppet show.

However, fans see what the killer does to his victims in excruciating detail. One gruesome scene displays the disarticulating process the killer uses, which is sure to stay with viewers long after the credits roll. Many fans think that "The Lesson" went too far.

12 "Lucky" Upsets Viewers's Stomachs

Season 3, Episode 8

"Lucky" aired during the third season of Criminal Minds and demonstrated just how far the series was willing to go tell disturbing stories. In "Lucky," the BAU is investigating a case where an Unsub kills women after forcing them to eat human flesh.

"Lucky" shows how the horrifying nature of this crime affects not only the team but also the local police force and townspeople involved in the investigation. In a subplot, Garcia meets her "dream man" at a coffee shop, but "Lucky" reveals that he's the serial killer. The episode becomes even more disturbing when the Unsub victimizes the whole town in a truly awful way.

11 "Omnivore" Introduces a Major Antagonist

Season 4, Episode 18

The Season 4 episode "Omnivore" was the start of something huge for Criminal Minds. The episode follows the hunt for a serial killer known as the Reaper, who kills with brutal efficiency while taunting the police at every turn. From the start, it's evident that the Reaper is unlike any serial killer the BAU agents have chased before.

The killer murders an entire bus full of passengers just to taunt Agent Hotchner, the lead agent of the BAU. The Reaper, aka George Foyet, would go on to become a big bad for the team throughout Seasons 4 and 5, cementing his status as one of the most disturbing Unsubs the team ever faced.

10 "Rabid" Has No Survivors

Season 9, Episode 18

After three bodies with both human and animal bite marks appear, the BAU tracks down an Unsub who's obsessed with finding a cure for rabies after his brother's death. "Rabid" follows the Unsub as he locks people up, infects his victims with rabies, and puts them in a horrifying position.

Anyone who knows rabies has no cure will find "Rabid" incredibly difficult to watch. Most of the Unsub's victims die immediately, but the FBI manages to save Liv Foley. Even this lighthearted moment is disturbing, as she eventually dies in the hospital, and her husband and two kids see her at her worst.

9 "Rusty" Reveals Alternate Dimensions

Season 15, Episode 7

"Rusty" is such a disturbing episode because it details the lengths a father will turn to in his grief to revive his deceased son. The unsub, George Kyle Peters, decapitates his victims in the hopes of reaching an "alternate timeline" where his son, Ethan, is alive after he tragically passes away in a car accident caused by George's drunk driving.

George's delusions are fueled by the vision of a man dressed as a goat who goes by "Rusty." George's thoughts only get worse, and he tries sacrificing other children to get his son back. This heartbreaking case of one father's desperation to right his past wrongs is haunting — especially for audiences who would do anything for their own children.

8 "A Shade of Gray" Features Fratricide

Season 4, Episode 21

The worst Criminal Minds episodes are the ones that involve child victims, but "A Shade Of Gray" takes things even further and also has a child murderer. Danny Murphy is an angry and troubled kid who kills his little brother, Kyle, after the latter breaks one of his toys.

"A Shade of Gray" is not for the faint of heart. Between Danny's attitude and his parents' constant denial, the viewer will feel incredibly powerless watching the episode. "A Shade of Grey" features incredibly chilling scenes, like the moment when the audience realizes that Danny stuffed his toys down Kyle's throat and their parents knew about it all along.

7 "To Hell..." and "...And Back" Is a Dual Act

Season 4, Episodes 25 And 26

"To Hell..." and "...And Back" are Criminal Minds's two-part Season 5 finale. The episodes span two countries, starting in the streets of Detroit and ending on a pig farm in Canada. Missing people cases turn into a serial killer investigation with one of the highest body counts in the show's history. When the team arrives at the farm and realizes what these killers have done, viewers endure the most haunting case in Criminal Minds's history.

"...And Back" shows audiences a box full of almost 100 pairs of victims' shoes, which are souvenirs. What's terrifying is that one of the killers almost got away with it since he used his brother as a killing machine.

6 "The Good Earth" Shows a Macabre Skin Care Routine

Season 8, Episode 5

"The Good Earth" from Season 8 is a classic example of the psychological horror Criminal Minds likes to emulate in its more extreme episodes. A serial killer abducts men for seemingly no reason and disposes of their bodies by turning them into fertilizer, which leaves no trace.

When the BAU agents recover parts of the victims, they go down a winding and confusing road to uncover what the serial killer wants with these men. "The Good Earth"'s Unsub believes that the ash of cremated bodies will heal her skin condition, and she goes to extreme lengths to kill.

5 "The Boogeyman" Has One of the Youngest Unsubs

Season 2, Episode 6

"The Boogeyman" is most notable for its Unsub. The town of Ozona, Texas, is plagued by a series of child murders when the BAU is called in to help. The team first looks at a local hermit-like man named Joseph Finnegan, but as they dig deeper, they realize that the Unsub is much closer than they thought.

It is eventually revealed that the son of a guidance counselor is to blame. Jeffrey Charles takes to killing other kids just because he can after he thinks his father is spending too much time with other children. The fact that a child could become so angry and desensitized to such brutal acts is what makes this episode particularly disturbing.

4 "The Uncanny Valley" Makes Victims Into Dolls

Season 5, Episode 12

Jennifer Hasty appears in "The Uncanny Valley" as Samantha Malcolm, an Unsub who kidnaps women and drugs them to play with them as dolls. This disturbing process is her method to cope with the sexual abuse and electroshock therapy she suffered as a child.

Even though Samantha kills three women and kidnaps many others, it's difficult not to empathize with her suffering. Given this, "The Uncanny Valley" has no good moments. While other episodes give viewers a sense of hope following the Unsub's arrest, Samantha's story is incredibly disturbing, and her crimes are even worse.

3 "Blood Relations" Highlights Family Feuds

Season 9, Episode 20

Season 9's "Blood Relations" goes off the rails in terms of violence, drama, and horror. "Blood Relations" follows the BAU as they investigate a series of murders of two feuding rural clans.

The team must stop the killer to prevent more violence from erupting between these two families. The murders in "Blood Relations" are incredibly brutal, including a scene where a woman is dragged to death by a car. While the BAU investigates, they uncover a shocking family secret, which leads them to the killer, who escapes justice and disappears into the night.

2 "The Inspiration" and "The Inspired" Take Notes From Nature

Season 9, Episodes 1 And 2

Season 9 of Criminal Minds opens with a two-part season premiere titled "The Inspiration" and "The Inspired." The Unsub murders people based around the killings of a praying mantis, and that fact alone gives the viewers an idea of what they are in for as they watch the story unfold.

The killer, who actually works with a team, hyper-fixates on praying mantises. Specifically, the female praying mantis who murders her mates. Unfortunately, this includes the cannibalization of their victims, which Criminal Minds shows in graphic detail.

1 "Night Lights" Introduces the Terror of the Hunt

Season 14, Episode 11

Season 14 is the penultimate season of the show, but Criminal Minds did not mellow out with age. "Night Lights" centers around an Unsub who blinds his victims and then releases them to hunt them for sport. The burning of the victims' eyes is scary enough, but watching the victims think they're free only to be killed at the last moment is devastating.

What's even scarier is the mind games the Unsub plays with his victims to give them a false sense of security before he comes for them. "Night Lights" keeps fans on the edge of their seat with its disturbing content right up until the episode ends.