History Awesome / CriminalMinds

* In Season 1's "L.D.S.K.", Hotch tricks the [=UnSub=] into letting him kick the snot out of Reid -- which gives Reid access to the gun strapped to Hotchner's ankle.
* In Season 1's "Riding the Lightning", Jacob is in the electric chair, just about to be executed. Hotch storms into the room, then slams a recent picture of Jacob's son Riley onto the glass and says "You lose", proving that Jacob didn't kill his son -- and neither did Sarah Jean. Even better, Jacob flips out at this, screaming wordlessly where before he had gleefully accepted his impending execution. "You lose" indeed.
* In Season 2's "Psychodrama", a killer is holding up establishments just to order people to undress, and get sons to have "control" of their mothers (slapping them repeatedly) while carrying a MAC-10. He murders a bank employee and a 14-year-old child, which disgusts Hotch -- and fills him with stoic rage. When the BAU eventually tracks the guy down, Hotch blows a hole in his chest with his gun, then tells the paramedics not to give him any painkillers. Oh, and all the while, this guy is detoxing off of crystal meth. Hotch gives the guy exactly what he deserves. It's the disgusted tone when he says "these are children, for god's sake" that really makes it. One of the great things about Hotch's patrician upbringing is that he can kick your ass and do it with an exasperated sort of "honestly, pull yourself together, man!" look that just makes it more painful.
* Season 2's "Legacy" contains one of Hotchner's best moments. He walks into a room with the unsub's accomplice, then tells the accomplice exactly what is going to happen and why. Everything happens exactly as Hotch says it will, for the reasons that Hotch lays out. He deconstructs a man's entire life and personality, then turns him against everything he had done to that point, with ''a two-minute monologue'':

* In Season 3 episode "Damaged", a death row prisoner purposefully gets Hotchner and Reid locked up with him and states his intent to kill them in order to stay his own execution. Hotch is obviously not impressed:

* In Season 3's "Tabula Rasa", Hotch, in court, is faced with a defense attorney who calls the whole field of profiling into doubt. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BlJ_MQNjY0 Hotch proceeds to profile the LAWYER, with extreme accuracy, basically demolishing his case.]] This scene is the origin of the term "Hotchalanche" -- wherein Aaron Hotchner is ''made of awesome''.
* In Season 4's "Brothers in Arms", Hotch ''plans'' on the [=UnSub=] attacking him at the press conference. The [=UnSub=] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59MZTMidj74&feature=related stalks Hotch through the parking lot]], and the audience thinks Hotch is going to get his head blown off. The [=UnSub=] rounds the car to find Hotch... not there. A gun cocks from behind the [=UnSub=] to reveal Hotch, having gotten the upper hand.
* In Season 4's "Pleasure Is My Business", the team is being blocked by a CEO's various lawyers. One of them says that she will cooperate in exchange for immunity. Hotch replies that if she doesn't cooperate, he will arrest her for obstructing justice, and while she's sitting in jail, the FBI's White Collar division will tear through her company's finances and learn all her secrets anyway. It is his only offer -- and the only one he needs to make.
* In Season 5's "Nameless, Faceless", Hotch stares down the barrel of Foyet's gun and does not even ''blink'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq6EJaFksFM when the bullet comes within an inch of his shoulder]]:

** In the next episode, Reid notes that, "You know, I've been thinking about it, and in all the time I've known Hotch, I've ''never seen him blink''."
* In Season 5's "100", Hotch beats Foyet to death with his bare hands and continues until Morgan pulls him off. [[VillainsWantMercy Foyet even tries to surrender in the middle of it]] , but Hotch is in full-on PapaWolf mode, so he just keeps going. You can actually tell Foyet's state just from how the scene plays out. Derek barges in first and pulls Hotch away while assuring him the Reaper's dead on the ground. Look at Prentiss's reaction especially. Derek was able to tell Foyet was dead from a glance alone ''suggesting he was beaten to a bloody pulp to the point where it was obvious because his face was just '''gone'''''.

* After failing his firearms test, Reid grabs the gun on Hotch's ankle and blows away a sniper in Season 1's "L.D.S.K." Let's be clear here. He kills the sniper from the floor, while in handcuffs, after having the crap kicked out of him, in a room full of hostages. With a headshot. This is followed by one of the best Reid lines ever:

* In Season 1's "Derailed", Reid manages to talk down a psychotic, hallucinating [=UnSub=] with a gun by showing the [=UnSub=] that Reid knows what it's like to be him, to the point that the [=UnSub=] tells his hallucinations to shut up after listening to them for the entire episode.
* In Season 1's "Somebody's Watching", Reid confronts the [=UnSub=], a crazed stalker, who has a gun to the victim. He's unarmed, the gun is like six inches from the hostage's head, and Reid still disarms the [=UnSub=] with a tackle.

* In Season 3's "Damaged", Reid delivers a thirteen-minute profile ''from scratch'' to keep a killer occupied while they wait for the guards to come back to let them out of the cell where they're interviewing him.

* In Season 3's "Elephant's Memory", Spencer Reid -- the team member once referred to by a witness as "a pipe cleaner with eyes" -- walks unarmed, with his hands up, ''purposely blocking a sniper's shot'', into the middle of a street to talk down a machine-gun-wielding spree killer on the verge of going nuclear. He succeeds.
* In Season 3 episode "Tabula Rasa", Reid confronts the grieving father of a victim, who is bent on shooting the man who murdered his daughter, and talks him down. He does this completely without a weapon or force of any kind, using only his profiling skills and general compassion.

* In Season 5’s opening episode, the show had to write around Creator/MatthewGrayGubler’s knee injury. How do they do this? By having Reid take a bullet protecting the [=UnSub=]’s target, continue shielding the target whilst unable to stand, and ultimately non-fatally shoot the [=UnSub=] when he couldn’t be talked down. On top of that, Reid then immediately forgoes medical attention to ensure the [=UnSub=]‘s survival.
* In Season 5's "The Uncanny Valley":
** Reid's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcP6-Vcpx7c furious verbal smackdown]] to a smug child psychiatrist (played by Jonathan Frakes) whose molestation and physical abuse of his daughter caused her to become a psychopath. Part of it is the build-up; while Rossi interrogates the psychiatrist Reid spends the whole time silently poking around in his office... and just from that he deduces the psychiatrist is a child-molester who keeps twisted "mementos" of his victims.

** At the end of the episode he confronts the aforementioned psychiatrist's daughter and convinces her to let the police take her without a fight. Also a [[Heartwarming/CriminalMinds Heartwarming moment]], since all he does is act kind and empathetic while giving the woman back the things she lost.

* In the Season 7 episode "It Takes A Village", Reid delivers an almighty verbal smackdown to the Senate Committee after they question his decision to release Ian Doyle:

** In the same episode, the [=UnSub=] catches the team off guard and begins shooting in every direction, taking down Doyle. Reid, who is standing closest to her, pulls his gun and blows her away, likely saving several officers.

* In Season 14's "Hamelin", a known sex offender suspect gets handsy with Tara, to which Reid responds by slamming him into a table and slapping the cuffs on him.

* In Season 14's "Truth or Dare", Reid is held hostage ''again'', along with JJ. While JJ distracts the [=UnSub=] with the titular game, Reid quietly edges over to some broken glass to cut his bonds and just as the [=UnSub=] is about to shoot JJ, draws a concealed gun and shoots him. Post-prison Reid seems to be taking after Hotch.

* In Season 2's "The Last Word", the team has discovered two serial killers in the same town in competition with each other. Having captured one, JJ holds a press conference where she says that the captured one will be studied for years as "one of the most complex killers we've ever encountered" while the other appears to be either isolated incidents and copycats or a killer so sloppy and unsophisticated, he isn't worth the BAU's time. This drives the second [=UnSub=] to go to the police station in a rage to confront them. It doesn't end well for him.
* In Season 2's "Revelations", she fires three shots in the dark and takes down three attack-trained dogs.

* In Season 6's "The Longest Night": JJ talking Billy Flynn into letting Ellie go by talking to him about what a parent should do and that she understands how bad his childhood was, and that even though she can't understand why he's doing what he's doing, she knows what a parent should do and that he should let Ellie go. She's not a hostage negotiator, so the fact that she did this was all kinds of awesome. If this show ever had a motto, it would probably be the last few lines of JJ's speech.

* The fact that JJ's (originally planned) last episode, Season 6's "J.J.", also doubles as a TakeThat to CBS. It's pretty plain to see that the writers are just as pissed as the fans are.
* She gets one simply ''walking into a room'' in Season 6's "Lauren", when she's revealed as the State Department official that Hotch called in.

* Season 8's "All That Remains" is an episode-long CMOA for both JJ and her actress.
* In Season 8's "Nanny Dearest", JJ once again delivers a headshot to an [=UnSub=], who is at least twenty-five yards away.

* Rossi's [[ShutUpHannibal response]] to Rothchild's BreakingSpeech in Season 4's "Masterpiece" about destroying Rossi's ego and killing his "family" and that he's going to get away with it: "Did you get all that, Garcia?" Followed by Rossi offhandedly mentioning that the confession will make "a good teaching aid" -- oh, wait, did he forget to tell Rothchild that he [[LyingToThePerp teaches interrogation at Quantico]]? ''Then'' (because what he just did totally wasn't awesome enough, right?), when the [=UnSub=] attacks him from behind, Rossi turns around and ''pins'' him to the wall and taunts him some more! The title of the episode, "Masterpiece", might as well refer to Rossi's gambit instead of Rothchild's caper.
* In Season 4's "Demonology", a corrupt, fanatical priest is murdering people using exorcism and is shielded by diplomatic immunity. So, what does Rossi do to get around it and prevent the [=UnSub=] from being a KarmaHoudini? He calls the freaking ''Vatican'', and it works!
* In Season 4's "Omnivore", after the Reaper has taken out an entire bus full of people in response to Hotch turning down a deal, Hotch is suffering from a severe crisis of faith and believes [[ItsAllMyFault it's all his fault]]. What does Rossi do? [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome He holds out his gun to Hotch.]]

* Rossi gets another one in Season 5's "Exit Wounds". Hotch, Reid, and the Alaska sheriffs are facing off with a virtual lynch mob over the [=UnSub=]. Hotch and Reid are trying to defuse the situation, and the leader of the mob wants to know who Hotch thinks has the high ground.

* In Season 5's "The Internet is Forever", his epic BreakingSpeech towards one of the [=UnSub=]'s accomplices, who refuses to admit to his guilt even after the killer is caught. It's so awesome [[Recap/CriminalMindsS5E22TheInternetIsForever it deserves to be read in full]].

* Rossi uses his vacation time to catch serial killers. No, really, he goes to Mexico on vacation and instead uses it to track down a killer who got away from the team in Season 8's "The Pact".
* In Season 8 finale "The Replicator" he saves the rest of the team, and then leaves the Replicator to die in his own death trap.

* Her hacker-battling Kevin, and winning, in Season 3's "Penelope". It's basically what causes him to start falling for her before he even sees her face or knows her name.
* In Season 3's "Damaged", Kevin calls her his girlfriend and she says all dreamy-voiced:

* In Season 3's "Tabula Rasa", we get this gem from Garcia trying to get information from an uncooperative secretary over the phone:

* No less than three major moments in Season 4 premiere “Mayhem”:
** Despite her panic after the initial bombings, she manages to keep it together to identify the bomber on the camera feeds.
** Jamming the second bomber’s remote control JustInTime to stop him from blowing up the hospital.
** Directing Morgan on his drive out of the city so he can get the bomb to an isolated location.
* Season 4's "House on Fire":
** After having to research a town's dark secrets to help find an [=UnSub=], Garcia gets sickened and extremely depressed. She completely tears into Hotch when they get back, and he apologizes.
** Her coldly furious reveal to the team of how the small town had turned on a teenage boy (prompting his descent into madness and multiple-casualty arson) is nothing short of amazing.
* In Season 5's "Exit Wounds", Garcia inadvertently runs across the [=UnSub=] committing their latest murder while fixing the police station's internet. It's dark outside, she's unarmed and alone -- and she runs right towards the crime, because she didn't want the victim to die alone like she almost did in Season 3's "Lucky". Crosses over with Heartwarming.
* Hacking the [=Unsub=]'s video feed in Season 5's "The Internet Is Forever", stalling his latest kill just long enough for the BAU to arrive. ACCESS DENIED. YOU LOSE.

* In Season 13's "Last Gasp", Garcia immediately recognises the pattern in the photos she finds in a cybercrimes suspect's hard drive and takes it to her boss to try and save the life of the next victim. When he blows her off because it wasn't a cybercrimes case, she takes it straight to JJ. Once Barnes blows her off, JJ ignores orders and calls in the scattered BAU team, leading to the team saving a young woman's life, catching the [=UnSub=], and getting back together permanently. All because of Garcia.
* In Season 13's "Lucky Strikes", despite struggling with her PTSD being triggered, Garcia is the one to break the case when she realises the copycat [=UnSub=] only had five fingers in his stomach, when the victim was missing all of her fingers. The team had been looking for proof the original [=UnSub=] was involved all episode. Watching his breakdown when served with a warrant to X-ray him, especially when it comes after the psychiatric facility has found him sane so he will be properly tried and potentially get the death penalty, is all too sweet.

* The time that Derek Morgan tackled a moving van in Season 2's "Legacy". Seriously. When doors and people just can't do it for you anymore... He also tackles a train in Season 4's "Catching Out", and, maybe best of all, ''leaps tall buildings in a single bound'' in Season 3's "Tabula Rasa".
* In Season 2's "Profiler, Profiled", Morgan confronts the guidance counselor who sexually abused him as a child, [[ShutUpHannibal decimating the man's argument]] by pointing out that no matter how many people he's "helped", he's still a child molester.

* Morgan walking into a Congressional candidate's fundraiser in Season 6's "25 to Life" and ''accusing him of murder'' after repeatedly being told by [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Strauss]] that his job is on the line if he so much as looks at the man wrong. Morgan -- with Rossi and Prentiss for backup -- strides right up to the guy and [[GuileHero baits the guy into confessing]] in front of a ballroom full of guests, then handcuffs him and leads him out.
* In Season 6's "Lauren", he arguably saves [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice a grievously injured Prentiss]] (at least until the paramedics can get there) by [[NoOneGetsLeftBehind forcing her to stay conscious]], despite her [[ICannotSelfTerminate entreaties to let her slip away]]. His plea of "if you can hear me, just squeeze my hand" doubles as a [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments CMOH]].
* Chasing a minivan off the side of the road into a lake in Season 6's "Out of the Light". He then dives in to pull the victim out of the car and resuscitates her, possibly [[MyGreatestSecondChance having flashbacks to "losing" Prentiss]].

* Speaking flawless Arabic in Season 2's "Lessons Learned" and helping the team identify the real terrorists behind the killings. It's also the first time she proves her worth to the team.
* Prentiss being accused of playing political games with a congresswomen threatening to take their case away in Season 2's "Sex, Birth, Death." Her response?

* In Season 5 premiere "Nameless, Faceless", she stays by Hotch's side after Foyet stabs him and, while she's hanging around, manages to solve the case everybody else is working on.
* In Season 5's "The Eyes Have It", breaking into the [=UnSub=]'s store by shattering the front door's glass window with her elbow and opening the lock from the inside. Morgan is visibly impressed.
* Prentiss taking down a rapist [=UnSub=] in Season 5's "The Slave of Duty".
* In Season 5's "Retaliation", Prentiss, a fellow officer, and the [=UnSub=] are hit by a truck while driving to a station. The [=Unsub=] just killed the officer and leaves Emily to die in the car. Cue Prentiss pushing her way out of the battered car and shooting at the truck the [=Unsub=] unfortunately got away in.
* In Season 6's "Compromising Positions", pulling off a disturbingly convincing [[TheVamp Vamp]] routine to stop the [=UnSub=] from going on a rampage at a nightclub, then shooting him with a gun concealed in her purse when it falls through.
* Prentiss takes an ''exponential'' level in badass during the Doyle arc. It's revealed that Prentiss used to be a superspy for Interpol, working deep cover missions to put terrorists away. In Season 6's "Lauren", she pulls off a one-woman assault on Doyle's SUV, involving smoke bombs and machine guns, and withstands branding, beatings, and torture before disappearing into Witness Protection. In the final fight, she also delivers a ReasonYouSuckSpeech while she has the [=UnSub=] in a headlock.
* Prentiss stepping into the Hotchalanche shoes that Jason Gideon and Hotch have left empty in Season 7's "Hope".
* In Season 7's "Run", she refuses to leave Will to die and disarms the bomb strapped to him with zero time to spare.
* She gets to be a total DamselOutOfDistress in Season 13's "Wheels Up": after being abducted by Mr. Scratch, she [[DefiantCaptive refuses to give him Hotch's and Jack's location]] even under torture. Scratch holds a scalpel less than an inch from her eye, and she ''doesn't even blink''. Later, she's able to deduce that her injuries are just hallucinations caused by Scratch drugging her, and promptly escapes by [[ISurrenderSuckers tricking him into thinking she's going to talk]] before overpowering him long enough to get away, and when he chases her, successfully evading him long enough for her team to arrive and help her.
* In Season 13's "Last Gasp", Emily getting Barnes off the BAU's back for good with one simple question after saving the Senator's daughter.

* Kudos to the pilots on Inter Atlantic Flight 61 during Season 10 episode "A Thousand Suns", who manage to recover the plane in time after the unsub of the week hacks it and attempts to crash it, only to be stopped by the BAU.

* In Season 1's "L.D.S.K.", Hotch tricks the unsub into letting him kick the snot out of Reid -- which gives Reid access to the gun strapped to Hotchner's ankle.

* In Season 14's "Truth or Dare", Reid is held hostage ''again'', along with JJ. While JJ distracts the [=UnSub=] with the titular game, Reid quietly edges over to some broken glass to cut his bonds and just as the [=UnSub=] is about to shoot JJ, draws a concealed gun and shoots him. Post-prison Reid seems to be taking after [[TeamDad Hotch]].

* The whole team in Season 15's "Date Night" going up against Cat Adams for the third time. Reid on the one hand gets a MomentOfAwesome by keeping his cool for the most part throughout the episode when forced to interact with the woman who has done everything in her power to ruin his life, especially when his new LoveInterest Max becomes involved. But the rest of the team gets the real hat-tip for not only figuring out Cat's endgame, but getting ahead of her by intercepting a panicking Max before she gets to Reid's apartment and explaining the situation to her so she knows what she's walking into and giving her an earpiece to ensure they can communicate. Between Max's great acting (see below) and the team managing to keep both Cat and Reid in the dark, they save Max's sister and Cat is returned to prison to await her execution.

* In Season 15's "Date Night", Reid's new girl-who-is-a-friend ([[RunningGag He's not her boyfriend!]]) Max is understandably freaked out when she gets a call to say her father and younger sister have been kidnapped and she has to go to Reid's apartment. She's even more freaked out when the police and FBI stop her on her way there. But once the team explain the situation to her, namely that Cat Adams, a narcissistic sociopath obsessed with Reid, has kidnapped her family in order to mess with him, she's a quick study and is smart enough to follow Emily's directions through the earpiece. However, what reallymakes this a MomentOfAwesome for her is the acting masterclass on her part, feigning anger towards Reid for slamming Cat into a wall and spinning a tale about killing an abusive ex with neither [[ManipulativeBastard Cat]] or [[TheProfessor Reid]] catching on to her lies.

* In Season 4's "Brothers in Arms", Hotch {{plan}}s on the [=UnSub=] attacking him at the press conference. The [=UnSub=] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59MZTMidj74&feature=related stalks Hotch through the parking lot]], and the audience thinks Hotch is going to get his head blown off. The [=UnSub=] rounds the car to find Hotch... not there. A gun cocks from behind the [=UnSub=] to reveal Hotch, having gotten the upper hand.

* In Season 9's "Rabid", Russel Holmes the unsubs next intended victim was abducted due to Russel being a good Samaritan. While imprisoned Russel despite being obviously scared for his life, showed more concern for his mothers health who just had surgery than his own situation. After the second victim who was there before him escapes Russel actively taunted the unsub and fought back. Not bad for a nebbish ShrinkingViolet.