Criminal Minds: The Best Reid-Centric Unsub According To Fans
"Criminal Minds" certainly had its fair share of memorable antagonists — or "unsubs," as the series would come to call them — over the course of its original 15 season run. These villains were often standalone antagonists that the members of the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) were forced to match their wits against in order to bring down. At least, that's the format the show followed almost exclusively throughout its 324 episodes, and it was a formula that worked to keep its fan base engaged every single week.
However, occasionally "Criminal Minds" would bring in an unsub that ended up having an arc across multiple episodes and seasons. These unsubs were usually tied to one of the show's main characters, and their stories often resulted in some fairly compelling character development, especially for a standard network procedural. One character who received more than a few of these arcs was Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler).
With that in mind, speculating over which of the show's Reid-related unsubs was its best is a natural thing for viewers to discuss. In fact, it turns out that fans of "Criminal Minds" recently voted to choose their favorite Reid-centric unsub.
Here's who they chose.
Criminal Minds fans think highly of Cat Adams
Over on the r/criminalminds subreddit, u/Dippy13666 created a poll asking "Criminal Minds" fans who their favorite unsub was that "traumatized" Spencer Reid. Cat Adams (Aubrey Plaza) emerged as the runaway leader of the pack with 342 of the 674 total votes, while Tobias Hankel (James Van Der Beek) came in second place with a respectable 293 votes. Diane Turner (Michelle Trachtenberg), however, placed third by a wide margin with only 39 votes.
Justifying their choice, u/GlitteringThought650 wrote, "I went with Cat because her recurring character was a fun back and forth to watch with him.. and her whit actually kept up for a good portion." However, there were also some Hankel fans in the comments section, who believed the character was more impactful on Reid's life. u/Mannup5 noted that Hankel got Reid "hooked on drugs," which became "so much a part of his life after that." Meanwhile, some users were more torn over the question, with u/mccabebabe writing, "this is tough.......in some ways, Hankel; in some ways Adams."
Given how close the poll ultimately was between Adams and Hankel, it's clear that this is a subject "Criminal Minds" fans will continue to debate the more the show's legacy grows. But no matter which unsub one believes is better, there's no denying that they're both characters who had a major impact on Reid's life and forced him to change and develop in ways that would last for the rest of the series.