The Criminal Minds Character With The Highest Kill Count
There are a number of possible outcomes when hunting down a suspect on a TV procedural like Criminal Minds. There's bringing in the suspect and going through the second part of the law and order process, which is the preferred result. There's failing to apprehend them, which is good for dramatic purposes but bad from a law enforcement standpoint, especially when the suspect might be a serial killer. Other times ideally rarely, a suspect will be killed before they can be arrested.
That last outcome's not so rare in the Criminal Minds universe. Back in 2015, one fan of the show did a data-driven deep dive into the final outcomes of each episode to calculate the likelihood of any one unknown subject (unsub) being arrested, escaping, or being killed by any one member of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit team. Not to ruin the suspense, but there's a reason the poster subtitled the report "Aaron Hotchner is Probably a Serial Killer."
What are the odds a Criminal Minds unsub gets killed?
The good news is that, should you find yourself as the Criminal Minds unsub of the week, you stand a better than 50/50 chance of being arrested and standing trial for your alleged crimes. The bad news, other than that you're already potentially a suspected serial killer, is you're only barely better off than leaving it up to a coin flip.
Through the show's tenth season, 54 percent of unsubs, 144 out of a total of 266, were arrested. Only two of the 266 escaped, not quite one percent. That leaves 45 percent, or 120 unknown subjects, who were killed before they could be brought in, which seems maybe worthy of an internal review somewhere along the line.
Not everyone is killed by the BAU. Twenty-three of those 120 committed suicide. Fourteen were killed by local law enforcement, and 20 were killed by people not on the case — either their victims, other unsubs, or bystanders. That leaves 63 suspects who were killed by someone on the squad, or 24 percent of the total of 266.
Who are the most trigger-happy Criminal Minds agents?
If you've read this far, you're likely after the full stat breakdown. Luckily the poster provided that, and the subtitle proves to be on the mark. Aaron Hotchner (Thomas Gibson) is responsible for the largest slice of the body count, getting credited with 19 of the kills, about 30 percent of them. Derek Morgan (Shemar Moore) is close behind with 15 kills, or 24 percent.
Considering the number of team members who cycled in and out over the course of ten seasons, that's a staggering percentage for just two guys. Through 233 episodes of the show, there was a greater chance of an unsub being killed by one of those two than of any other outcome, aside from getting arrested. "Given all the myriad things that CAN happen," the poster writes, "one or two characters having such high odd s... seriously, are there ANY repercussions for shooting someone in the CM 'verse?"
Seems like not, at least for the resident Dirty Harry of the BAU. Maybe the team should have devoted an episode to investigating one of its own.