Good Writing Right Here: 5 Criminal Minds Plot Twists That Totally Blew Us Away

Our favorite BAU team members continue to delve into the psyche of serial killers on the set of Criminal Minds: Evolution, and fans of the iconic procedural are hoping that Season 2 will grace their screens already this year. Fingers crossed!

And while we wait for Paramount+ to announce the premiere date, the time seems perfect to re-watch, if not the entire 15-season original series, then some of the best episodes. Especially since there are plenty to choose from.

Criminal Minds' format and release schedule has always been challenging, to say the least. The cast and crew produced over twenty episodes per year, and the 'monster of the week' approach meant that the BAU had to tackle a new case in every episode, with everything a good crime story requires (opening, shocking unsub, climax, big reveal, etc.). And heaven knows, the Criminal Minds writers delivered!

Over the course of the show's original CBS run, we saw some of the best storytelling in the genre, including plot twists that blew our minds. Some of them haunt viewers to this day. Here are five prime examples as recalled by fans on Reddit.

The Road Warrior

S4E11 Normal

Not only did this episode teach us to be polite to strangers, it provided a final twist that stayed with us for years. The unsub is a normie accountant who goes insane after his daughter's death in a car accident. He goes on a killing spree, shooting blonde women as they drive down the highway.

Throughout the episode, the unsub constantly argues with his wife and two daughters, and in the climax, he kidnaps them. But when the BAU catches him, it turns out that he killed his family in the first five minutes of the episode, and everything else was all in his head.

Fake News

S2E10 Lessons Learned

For many viewers, this is the episode that set Criminal Minds apart from other entertaining cop shows. Gideon, Reid, and Prentiss are asked to interrogate a chemical weapons terrorist and find out the location of the next attack.

The interrogation lasts two days, during which the unsub is allowed to pray regularly. When he doesn't break down and the news of the attack is broadcast, the terrorist finally opens up. And it turns out that Gideon manipulated his prayer schedule and brought in a fake newscast. In reality, the attack hasn't happened yet and can now be prevented.

Unforgettable Stew

S3E8 Lucky

This is probably the most disturbing episode of the entire series. The unsub is a psychotic killer who believes he is possessed by a flesh-eating demon and has cannibalistic tendencies from an early age (when he bites off a large piece of his baby sister).

He kidnaps many victims, one of whom is never found. In the end, the BAU and the girl's family find out that the unsub cooked a stew with her flesh and served it to the volunteers looking for her.

Adam/Amanda

S4E12 Conflicted

This list would not be complete without dissociative identity disorder. When the BAU comes to Texas to investigate the serial killers luring men into hotel rooms and killing them. They theorize that it must be a team of female and male perpetrators.

But eventually they realize that it is the same young man, Adam, who has formed another personality, Amanda, due to severe childhood abuse. And it is she who is killing and raping these men.

He Was Alive Yesterday

S5E16 Mosley Lane

This phrase is a big trigger for all Criminal Minds fans. The episode is one of those child abduction cases that tend to have that shocking quality to them. The unsubs, Anita and Roger Roycewood, kidnap children in public places and treat them with cruelty for years, killing some and turning others into their reluctant apprentices.

In the end, Stephen, the boy who has been missing for seven years, tries to protect a new abductee and the unsubs kill him. The next day, the BAU enters the house and rescues all the survivors. And Stephen's parents learn that their son was alive only a few hours before.

Source: Reddit.