The Most Underrated Criminal Minds Episode According To Fans
With over 300 "Criminal Minds" episodes to choose from for a rewatch, fans are lush with options. While the most committed will simply rewatch from Season 1, Episode 1 and on, it's helpful to be able to pick out a good episode and go from there. Around the fandom, certain episodes have gained acclaim for being the best and some have become overrated, but many good episodes go under the radar.
u/zbutcher24 asked "Criminal Minds" fans on Reddit which episodes they thought were the most underrated of the series, offering up Season 4's episode "Pleasure Is My Business" as their pick. The episode hinges on a call girl who kills her clients because of a childhood trauma and develops a curious relationship with Hotch (Thomas Gibson). u/zbutcher24 loved the ending in particular.
In response to their question, another episode rose to the top of the comments as an underrated gem. It's definitely an episode that goes against the grain.
Mysterious suicides make for a chilling Season 5 episode
When it came to the most upvoted comment, Season 5's "Risky Business" won out. User u/Suitable_Emergency34 mentioned it, saying they haven't seen anyone discuss the episode, which has a good unsub misdirection.
In "Risky Business," a string of strange, patterned teenage suicides catch the BAU's attention. JJ (A.J. Cook) convinces them to check it out, and it's a good thing they do, because they discover someone is goading teens into choking themselves as part of a county-wide competition. While at first the BAU suspect the goth teenager Chris (Michael Bolten) of organizing it, they discover that his EMT father (John Pyper-Ferguson) has actually been abusing and manipulating him in service of his Münchausen syndrome by proxy — meaning he feels the need to injure people under his care.
u/Suitable_Emergency34 mentioned the opening scene, in which two students prepare to choke themselves and are found by distraught parents, as particularly chilling. They also liked that Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) comes with the team and builds a rapport with Chris, in a departure from her usual station at her desk. Plus, the conversations between the BAU team on the plane at the end of the episode offer both humor and striking emotional depth. While u/Suitable_Emergency34 added, "Not sure if this is the most underrated, but I just wanted to talk about it," at the end of their comment, other fans seemed to agree, judging by their upvotes.
Original poster u/zbutcher24 agreed, commenting, "That episode is definitely one of my favourites. I was on the edge of my seat the moment the episode started." u/Small-Excitement-474 said the episode is "quite confronting," which is high praise for a show like "Criminal Minds."
Runners up include unconventional cases
Other commenters added their picks for underrated "Criminal Minds" episodes. u/DansoRoboto replied to the post with Season 9's episode "The Edge of Winter," saying that "it's like a throwback to the early days of Criminal Minds when they took risks with how the plot would unravel and then shock the viewers with the twist at the end."
The episode is a little unconventional, as the BAU has already wrapped up the serial killer case by the start, before learning new information about a complicated accomplice. u/DansoRoboto finished their comment by adding, "I thought season 9 in general is pretty underrated including the finale." In the fandom, Season 9 has a reputation as the creepiest season of the series.
Another episode mentioned was Season 2's "Sex, Birth, Death," which is among the top 30 "Criminal Minds" episodes according to IMDb and features a teenage boy grappling with his serial killer tendencies. Evidently, it's the episodes that break the procedure that truly stand out from the rest.