History CriminalMinds / TropesOToS

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: "Elephant's Memory", "House on Fire", the aptly-named "Retaliation", and what Hotch does to [[spoiler: Foyet after he targets Hotch's family in "100"]]. Also evident in many other episodes where particular victims are chosen because they have somehow hurt or offended the [=UnSub=] (or are somehow like someone who has).

* PoliceAreUseless: Generally averted, as the local police assisting the BAU are generally depicted as helpful and competent within the boundaries of their expertise and experience, but simply outmatched by whatever [[MonsterOfTheWeek Psycho of The Week]] they're currently facing. There are a few exceptions, of course, including a remarkably bizarre LostInTranslation moment in "Machismo" (although her subordinates are more capable), and the prejudiced and antagonistic Detective Gordinski in "Profiler, Profiled".

* RapeAndRevenge: The Unsub of "Jones" was raped in college and the cops didn't take her seriously, causing her to target men who remind her of her assailants.

* SleightOfHandiness: In "Derailed," Reid uses sleight of hand to trick the UnSub into thinking he's removed a tracking chip from his arm.

* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Erin Strauss, the bureau chief. Subverted in "100" where she [[spoiler: doesn't even try to punish Hotch for killing the Reaper. After spending almost the entire episode playing the ObstructiveBureaucrat role in trying to get all the facts from the team, she actually almost tears up as Hotch finishes his report]]. Some deleted scenes from "In Name and Blood" also had her showing a softer side (she's actually shown comforting the husband of a victim in one of them).

** The voice-over quote at the beginning and end of each episode. It was averted and lampshaded at the end of "... And Back," when Hotchner begins his voice-over with, "Sometimes there are no words, no clever quotes to neatly sum up what's happened that day..."

** Oh, and half the time, when Reid isn't getting kidnapped or held hostage or [[spoiler:infected with anthrax]], the case is still hitting him in the gut: nightmares, visions of himself in the victim's shoes, etc. The one time that Reid is held hostage but not the one the Bad Thing happens to, he's guilty about it for the rest of the episode. (In "Minimal Loss", when [[spoiler:Emily takes the beating to keep him from getting shot]].) And in the end, he was still slammed in the gut with a gun[[spoiler:and nearly blown up]]. Reid does not have a good track record.

** There have been two Allen (Alan) Archers. One is a minor character in "Magnum Opus," the other is a heroic witness [[spoiler: actually one of the [=UnSubs=]]] two years later in "Hero Worship," with Indianapolis's mayor even declaring "Allen Archer Day."

** At least two multi-episode [=UnSubs=] have had the surname Montola.
* OnlyAFleshWound: Quite a lot of episodes end with the [=BAU=] attempting to disable armed suspects by shooting them in the arm or leg (often, the armed person is mentally ill, an emotional non-criminal attempting to get revenge on a serial killer that killed a love one, or otherwise acting out of mistake rather than malice). However, all shootings are necessary and the show seems to actively avoid showing whether or not the person that got shot actually survived (their fates often aren't mentioned during the team's final debriefing), so the writers may be aware of this trope.

* OppressiveImmigrationEnforcement: In "[[Recap/CriminalMindsS5E19ARiteOfPassage A Rite of Passage]]", the [[MonsterOfTheWeek serial killer of the week]] is [[KillerCop Ronald Boyd]], a crazy sheriff's deputy of a New Mexico border town who spends his nights hunting down undocumented immigrants trying to sneak into the United States and killing them. When the BAU arrives to town because of the huge body count he has left behind, he escalates to insane levels to not be caught, including annihilating a local Cartel group to try to frame them for the deaths, killing a fellow deputy when he is a witness, and trying to shoot it out with the FBI agents. He's even infuriated his boss Sheriff Ruiz investigated his victims disappearances, declaring his victim's can't be missing as they "[[BigotWithABadge ain't supposed to be here in the first damn place]]" right before killing him.
* OrganDodge: The team realize that the sniper that are chasing in the "Final Shot" episode is not a run of the mill spree shooter because his victims were hit by kill shots directly to the head, base of neck, and heart. The only reason that the sixth victim survived the mass shooting was because he had dextrocardia, having the heart on the right side of the body instead of the left. But it is ultimately averted since the bullet still tore through major arteries and the doctors couldn't save him.

* {{Paparazzi}}: "The Performer", "Public Enemy", "Somebody's Watching"

** Elle's last words to her father were "I hate you, Daddy," because she was eight years old and he couldn't stay home from work to teach her how to ride a bike. He was a policeman and died that day.

* PhotographicMemory: Reid has one. It seems to mostly pertain to things he has read, but to an extent also to the things he's lived. Elle at one point comments that despite having an eidetic memory, he can barely remember anything from his first ten years of life.

* PlatonicLifePartners: Derek Morgan and Penelope Garcia truly, madly, ''deeply'' love each other and would go to the ends of the earth to back each other up. But they aren't ''in love'' with one another, and are just fine with that.

** Generally you can tell whenever an episode's particular FBI consultant has a dim opinion of non-Federal law enforcement, because in those episodes the local police are always at best helpless and rather in awe of the BAU, fading into the background and reduced to scenery, and at worst obstructive and actively harmful to the investigation, giving the BAU chances to lecture and scold them.

* PrecisionFStrike: A few time but the most notable would be Reid In "Painless" yelling "Son of a bitch!" when his phone's been ringing off the hook for the past two days when Morgan pranks him.
%% ** Done twice in the season 16 premiere/revival, as the series moved to Creator/ParamountPlus "Just Getting Started", "Well, then fucking get it!" and "Oh, my God. What the fuck?"

** In early Season 2, [[spoiler: Elle left the BAU after killing a rapist, and hasn't been seen since]].

** In Season 11, [[spoiler: Derek quit the BAU after his wife Savannah gave birth to their son, and he decided that his job was too dangerous now that he had a wife and son]].

** The Unsub of "What Happens in Mecklinberg" is targeting not only [[KnightTemplarBigSister the frat boys who raped her little sister]] but the people who helped them avoid getting caught.

*** For that matter, that's why Will was brought back as well. The writers realized they'd need to give her a love interest as well, and remembering the chemistry between JJ and Will brought him back.

** A more unusual case occurs in "To Hell...And Back" Parts 1 and 2. The writers acknowledged that the episodes were so dark, depressing, a monumental downer ending, and bordering on ShootTheShaggyDogStory that they couldn't think of any quotes that would adequately apply for the second episode. So they used that:

%%** Spencer Reid knows that Mr. Scratch is after the team and ''will'' hurt them in the worst way possible, yet he still crosses the Mexican border three times without being briefed by the FBI. That alone would be understandable because he wants to help his mother. What is not understandable is him not telling ''any'' of his team members. Of course it turns out that [[spoiler: it was actually Cat Adams and Lindsey Vaughn who orchestrated the entire thing,]] but that doesn't make it any less nonsensical for him to illegally cross the border while he knows someone is after the team and knows how to work his way around the legal system. He is then [[spoiler: drugged and involved in a murder]] and charged with [[spoiler: the murder of Nadie Ramos and thrown into prison because of course the police and FBI won't believe Reid that he was framed because they don't know him like the team does.]]

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: "Elephant's Memory", "House on Fire", the appropriately-named "Retaliation", and what Hotch does to [[spoiler: Foyet after he targets Hotch's family in "100"]]. Also evident in many other episodes where particular victims are chosen because they have somehow hurt or offended the [=UnSub=] (or are somehow like someone who has).
** Also Doyle's killing spree of the people who put him in prison, leaving Emily for last.

** Any configuration of the team getting together outside work -- provided it occurs at the beginning of the episode -- will always be interrupted by a call (normally to J.J.) summoning everyone to the office immediately. Usually they attend the briefing still in their party (or, in one case, funeral) duds.

* SamusIsAGirl: The [=UnSubs=] in [[spoiler: "Jones", "Seven Seconds", "The Instincts", "Outfoxed", "The Good Earth", "All That Remains", "What Happens In Mecklinburg?"]] are revealed to be female. [[spoiler: "The Perfomer" and ".. A Thousand Words"]] are cases where in turns out [[spoiler: she is ''one'' of the [=UnSub=]''s'']]. And in [[spoiler: "The Dark Knight", the enigmatic artist "Morpheus" is revealed to be female, though the [=UnSub=] is actually her ex-husband]]

** At the end of "Lucky", Morgan, who's been dealing with a crisis of faith, goes to church for the first time in years. Ironically, he's there because [[spoiler: his [[MostImportantPerson 'baby girl']] Garcia is mad at him, and refused to spend the evening with him. As a result of that she gets shot by her date. The team can't reach him to tell him because he's turned his phone off in church. Morgan {{lampshade}}s it in the next episode asking Reid "What are the odds that the first time I pray in twenty years, she's on the table?"]]

* SelfDeprecation: "False Flag", with its abundant dosis of BaitAndSwitch, works both as a DeconstructorFleet of conspiracy theories, and as one of the show's own, laziest tropes. Not only do the two deaths of similar victims being investigated by the BAU turn out to be unrelated, but [[spoiler:one is actually a freak accident and another is a mundane, spur-of-the-moment murder by a disgruntled lover]]. Likewise, several [[EurekaMoment Eureka Moments]] are actually [[RedHerring Red Herrings]], most notably the introduction of a NoCelebritiesWereHarmed version of Ted Kaczynski in the third act that all the other conspiracy theorists are afraid of, but who turns out to be [[spoiler: a façade put up by a ''skeptic'' to scam the conspiracionists, and a completely harmless person otherwise.]] The BAU eventually figures out the real killer by playing what they call "old timey criminology", rather than recurring to Garcia's HollywoodHacking, and even then they comment that they still need hard evidence before making an arrest or they "will be not better than these people", meaning the conspiracionists. One of such conspirationists even thinks that the BAU [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality flying around on their own private jet]] borders on the unbelievable.

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