Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 5 (click to see context) from:
* TakeOurWordForIt: The more gruesome activities the [=UnSubs=] partake in and their effects on the victims are often only shown through the horrified or disgusted looks on the team's faces.
to:
* TakeOurWordForIt: The more gruesome activities the [=UnSubs=] partake in and their effects on the victims are often only shown through the horrified or disgusted looks on the team's faces. Probably well-justified because the [=UnSubs=] commit all sorts of depraved actions that won't make it to home TV without keeping them offscreen.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
** "Fatal" also has one; the killer snapped after receiving a bad medical diagnosis too early in his retirement to actually enjoy it, especially by taking his do-over trip to Greece. His particular obsession was [[YouCantFightFate the Greek mythological idea of fate]] and how no matter who you were or how you lived, your life could be cut short for no reason. (In a heaping helping of DramaticIrony, the BAU look up the flight he was meant to be on fifteen years ago and tell him that it crashed, meaning his not being on it ''saved'' his life.)
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
*WickedToymaker: The unsub in 'The Lesson' who kidnaps people to turn into living marionettes.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 14 (click to see context) from:
** The villainous variant appears in a few episodes, with a cornered [=UnSub=] pulling a MurderSuicide to take their last victim with them; examples include "The Night Watch" and "[[spoiler: Zugzwang]]". [[spoiler:[[ArcVillain The Replicator]]]] tries this on Rossi at the end of Season 8, but Rossi [[OutGambitted out-gambits]] him and leaves him to die alone.
to:
** The villainous variant appears in a few episodes, with a cornered [=UnSub=] pulling a MurderSuicide to take their last victim with them; examples include "The Night Watch" and "[[spoiler: Zugzwang]]"."[[spoiler:Zugzwang]]". [[spoiler:[[ArcVillain The Replicator]]]] tries this on Rossi at the end of Season 8, but Rossi [[OutGambitted out-gambits]] him and leaves him to die alone.
Changed line(s) 75 (click to see context) from:
** The first thing Hotch tells Agent Seaver is to never go anywhere by herself. Granted, the person she went to see was a grieving father and his young daughter, [[spoiler: but he was also a SerialKiller like Seaver's own father. Fortunately the dad was distracted because he needed to know ''why'' Seaver mentioned apologizing in the killer's family's place, but she was still chewed out by Hotch]].
to:
** The first thing Hotch tells Agent Seaver is to never go anywhere by herself. Granted, the person she went to see was a grieving father and his young daughter, [[spoiler: but [[spoiler:but he was also a SerialKiller like Seaver's own father. Fortunately the dad was distracted because he needed to know ''why'' Seaver mentioned apologizing in the killer's family's place, but she was still chewed out by Hotch]].
Changed line(s) 80,81 (click to see context) from:
* TookALevelInBadass: J.J.'s at ''four'' and counting -- shooting the dogs in "The Big Game"; shooting [[spoiler: Garcia's attacker]] in "Penelope"; bashing an [=UnSub=] upside the head with a shovel while just having been concussed in "The Performer", and [[spoiler: talking Billy Flynn down over the Emergency Broadcast System]] in "The Longest Night." Pretty damn good for the team's ''communications specialist''.
** Now she's up another, with her fight with a [[spoiler: professional killer]] in "Run."
** Now she's up another, with her fight with a [[spoiler: professional killer]] in "Run."
to:
* TookALevelInBadass: J.J.'s at ''four'' and counting -- shooting the dogs in "The Big Game"; shooting [[spoiler: Garcia's [[spoiler:Garcia's attacker]] in "Penelope"; bashing an [=UnSub=] upside the head with a shovel while just having been concussed in "The Performer", and [[spoiler: talking Billy Flynn down over the Emergency Broadcast System]] in "The Longest Night." Pretty damn good for the team's ''communications specialist''.
** Now she's up another, with her fight with a[[spoiler: professional [[spoiler:professional killer]] in "Run."
** Now she's up another, with her fight with a
Changed line(s) 85 (click to see context) from:
* TonightSomeoneDies: "Lo-Fi": [[spoiler: [[MauveShirt Kate Joyner]]]]
to:
* TonightSomeoneDies: "Lo-Fi": [[spoiler: [[MauveShirt [[spoiler:[[MauveShirt Kate Joyner]]]]
Changed line(s) 110 (click to see context) from:
* UnholyMatrimony: "[[spoiler: The Perfect Storm]]," "Mosley Lane," and "The Thirteenth Step." Also possibly [[spoiler: "Divining Rod"]].
to:
* UnholyMatrimony: "[[spoiler: The "[[spoiler:The Perfect Storm]]," "Mosley Lane," and "The Thirteenth Step." Also Also, possibly [[spoiler: "Divining [[spoiler:"Divining Rod"]].
Changed line(s) 115,116 (click to see context) from:
* UnreliableNarrator: "Normal" and "Reflections of Desire" most notably. [[spoiler: their family members were dead the whole time]].
** For "Normal" this is actually a CallBack to earlier on in the episode when they come to the inevitable conclusion that [[spoiler: he was going to kill his family eventually, after killing all those other victims, but they had no idea when. This is further proven when they go into the last room and you can see near-fresh blood stains on the bed sheet]].
** For "Normal" this is actually a CallBack to earlier on in the episode when they come to the inevitable conclusion that [[spoiler: he was going to kill his family eventually, after killing all those other victims, but they had no idea when. This is further proven when they go into the last room and you can see near-fresh blood stains on the bed sheet]].
to:
* UnreliableNarrator: "Normal" and "Reflections of Desire" most notably. [[spoiler: their [[spoiler:their family members were dead the whole time]].
** For "Normal" this is actually a CallBack to earlier on in the episode when they come to the inevitable conclusion that[[spoiler: he [[spoiler:he was going to kill his family eventually, after killing all those other victims, but they had no idea when. This is further proven when they go into the last room and you can see near-fresh blood stains on the bed sheet]].
** For "Normal" this is actually a CallBack to earlier on in the episode when they come to the inevitable conclusion that
Changed line(s) 120 (click to see context) from:
* {{UST}}: Increasingly between Garcia and Alvez, until [[spoiler:he finally asks her on a date in the very last episode]].
to:
* {{UST}}: Increasingly between Garcia and Alvez, until [[spoiler:he finally asks her on a date in the very last episode. As of the end of the first season of the rebooted series, it's still there, especially after Garcia's heart and trust gets broken by her love interest during the final episode]].
Changed line(s) 135 (click to see context) from:
** Averted in "Tabula Rasa" and "[[spoiler: Exit Wounds]]."
to:
** Averted in "Tabula Rasa" and "[[spoiler: Exit "[[spoiler:Exit Wounds]]."
Changed line(s) 156 (click to see context) from:
** "[[PunctuatedForEmphasis There. Were. Rules!]]" [[spoiler: Randall Garner, right before shooting Elle in her home]] at the end of "The Fisher King: Part 1".
to:
** "[[PunctuatedForEmphasis There. Were. Rules!]]" [[spoiler: Randall [[spoiler:Randall Garner, right before shooting Elle in her home]] at the end of "The Fisher King: Part 1".
Changed line(s) 174 (click to see context) from:
*** [[spoiler: Everyone thought a copycat sent letters quoting the book to the original killer, who died reciting the quote; turns out the letters were from the original's wife who has since decided to embrace her "ability" to amplify serial killing tendencies after the copycat fell in love with her]].
to:
*** [[spoiler: Everyone [[spoiler:Everyone thought a copycat sent letters quoting the book to the original killer, who died reciting the quote; turns out the letters were from the original's wife who has since decided to embrace her "ability" to amplify serial killing tendencies after the copycat fell in love with her]].
Changed line(s) 183 (click to see context) from:
** "Rock Creek Park": "What you did was unforgivable. [[TheExtremistWasRight But it worked]]." [[spoiler: Said by a rising young senator to his mother, who (apparently (?)) unbeknownst to him had his wife kidnapped, had her ear cut off, and was about to kill her so his popularity would rise ''a la'' [[ComicBook/{{Transmetropolitan}} The Smiler]]. Indeed after his wife's safe return his popularity is through the roof, the BAU has no inkling that the senator knows about his mother's plans beyond what they discovered in the episode, and the last scene shows she's still able to pull her son's strings from prison.]]
to:
** "Rock Creek Park": "What you did was unforgivable. [[TheExtremistWasRight But it worked]]." [[spoiler: Said by a rising young senator to his mother, who (apparently (?)) unbeknownst to him had his wife kidnapped, had her ear cut off, and was about to kill her so his popularity would rise ''a la'' [[ComicBook/{{Transmetropolitan}} The Smiler]]. Indeed Indeed, after his wife's safe return return, his popularity is through the roof, the BAU has no inkling that the senator knows about his mother's plans beyond what they discovered in the episode, and the last scene shows she's still able to pull her son's strings from prison.]]
Changed line(s) 186 (click to see context) from:
[[spoiler: '''Penelope''': I use twelve search bots, they traced me back to the FBI. They killed an assassin ''and'' a guard '''''in a supermax prison''''', no one can stop them, they're coming for me, I'm so scared....!]]
to:
Changed line(s) 193 (click to see context) from:
** The [[spoiler: scarification]] inflicted by Ian Doyle in "Lauren" evidently disappears without a trace, though since we only know its approximate placement, it may just be too far down on her chest to be seen. (But at least we did find out What Happened to the Cat, i.e. Sergio.)
to:
** The [[spoiler: scarification]] inflicted by Ian Doyle in "Lauren" evidently disappears without a trace, though since we only know its approximate placement, it may just be too far down on her chest to be seen. (But at least we did find out What Happened to the Cat, i.e. , Sergio.)
Changed line(s) 196,197 (click to see context) from:
** In Season 1, we meet Hotch's little brother for a single episode -- he is never seen nor mentioned again. At the end of the episode it is shown that he has left to become a cook / chef in a New York restaurant; the team has worked several cases in New York since then, but Hotch still hasn't bothered to drop in.
*** Explained that Hotch was kind of tired of dealing with him -- Sean finally re-appears at the end of Season 8.
*** Explained that Hotch was kind of tired of dealing with him -- Sean finally re-appears at the end of Season 8.
to:
** In Season 1, we meet Hotch's little brother for a single episode -- he is never seen nor mentioned again. At the end of the episode episode, it is shown that he has left to become a cook / chef in a New York restaurant; the team has worked several cases in New York since then, but Hotch still hasn't bothered to drop in.
*** Explained that Hotch was kind of tired of dealing with him -- Sean finally re-appears at the end of Season8.8, then just as quickly disappears as the Replicator Arc climaxes and concludes.
*** Explained that Hotch was kind of tired of dealing with him -- Sean finally re-appears at the end of Season
Changed line(s) 209 (click to see context) from:
* WrongNameOutburst: A truly heartbreaking example is the TitleDrop of "I Love You, Tommy Brown". You see, the kid that is the underage lover of the deranged teacher that is the killer of the week? Nope, that is not his name. That's the name of the ''previous'' boy that she had a relationship with, died, and she became even more (read:homicidally) deranged as a result. The moment she mutters it while struggling with the cops arresting her and looks like she is professing her love for the kid is the moment he finally gets that a TeacherStudentRomance was a seriously stupid thing.
to:
* WrongNameOutburst: A truly heartbreaking example is the TitleDrop of "I Love You, Tommy Brown". You see, the kid that is the underage lover of the deranged teacher that is the killer of the week? Nope, that is not his name. That's the name of the ''previous'' boy that she had a relationship with, died, and she became even more (read:homicidally) deranged as a result. The moment she mutters it while struggling with the cops arresting her and looks like she is professing her love for the kid is the moment he finally gets that a TeacherStudentRomance was a seriously stupid thing.
Changed line(s) 211 (click to see context) from:
** He was also taken out by The Reaper in "Omnivore", and didn't even get the chance to recover. This was apparently done at Shemar Moore's suggestion, who thought Morgan needed to finally lose a fight.
to:
** He was also taken out by The Reaper in "Omnivore", "Omnivore" and didn't even get the chance to recover. This was apparently done at Shemar Moore's suggestion, who thought Morgan needed to finally lose a fight.
Changed line(s) 216 (click to see context) from:
** Averted with Garcia and Alvez, since he waited until she quit to ask her out. [[spoiler:When she returns they are no longer dating.]]
to:
** Averted with Garcia and Alvez, since he waited until she quit to ask her out. [[spoiler:When she returns they are no longer dating.returns, it's revealed that the date was a one-off, continuing the {{UST}}.]]
Changed line(s) 219,220 (click to see context) from:
* WritersCannotDoMath: Usually {{averted|Trope}} or {{justified|Trope}}, but occasionally they slip up, such as in Season 8, taking place in 2011-12, when Reid says the [=UnSub=] must be in his mid to late twenties, therefore being born "between 1987 and 1992", although that's early to mid twenties.
* XanatosSpeedChess: The sting operation in "Entropy" turns into a spectacular one, with Reid and [[spoiler: Catherine Adams]] revealing plans and counter-plans all throughout the episode.
* XanatosSpeedChess: The sting operation in "Entropy" turns into a spectacular one, with Reid and [[spoiler: Catherine Adams]] revealing plans and counter-plans all throughout the episode.
to:
* WritersCannotDoMath: Usually {{averted|Trope}} or {{justified|Trope}}, but occasionally they slip up, such as in Season 8, taking place in 2011-12, when Reid says the [=UnSub=] must be in his mid to late twenties, mid-to-late-twenties, therefore being born "between 1987 and 1992", although that's early to mid twenties.
mid-twenties.
* XanatosSpeedChess: The sting operation in "Entropy" turns into a spectacular one, with Reid and [[spoiler: Catherine Adams]] revealing plans andcounter-plans counterplans all throughout the episode.
* XanatosSpeedChess: The sting operation in "Entropy" turns into a spectacular one, with Reid and [[spoiler: Catherine Adams]] revealing plans and
Changed line(s) 233 (click to see context) from:
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: Probably would be easier to count the amount of times the profile is accurate enough to lead to the killer in the first couple of acts (and then they have to prove it), because often it is just broad enough that some other poor bastard gets arrested first.
to:
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: Probably would be easier to count the amount number of times the profile is accurate enough to lead to the killer in the first couple of acts (and then they have to prove it), because often it is just broad enough that some other poor bastard gets arrested first.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* TerminallyIllCriminal: The BigBad of "[[Recap/CriminalMindsS5E3Reckoner Reckoner]]" is a judge who, having been diagnosed with terminal cancer, decides to hire a hitman to kill a number of criminals who got OffOnATechnicality on his watch (the judge also puts his name on the list, [[KarmicNod accepting that what he's doing is monstrous]], and is the last person the hitman kills before [[RunForTheBorder getting the hell out of Dodge]]).
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
The Woobie os YMMV
Deleted line(s) 3,8 (click to see context) :
!!Tropes with its own pages
[[index]]
* [[Woobie/CriminalMinds Woobie]]
[[/index]]
!!Other Tropes
[[index]]
* [[Woobie/CriminalMinds Woobie]]
[[/index]]
!!Other Tropes
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Deleted line(s) 156 (click to see context) :
* WeAllLiveInAmerica: Mexican Captain Navarro mentioning "maiden names" in "Machismo," despite the fact that there aren't maiden names in Mexico since Mexican women don't take their husband's name after marriage. Maybe he was using the words for the benefit of his colleagues at the BAU, but seeing how the episode failed Spanish naming customs right after despite the victim names being the clue that caused the team's EurekaMoment...
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
* WorkplaceRomance:
** Averted with Garcia and Alvez, since he waited until she quit to ask her out. [[spoiler:When she returns they are no longer dating.]]
** Subverted with Tara and Rebecca. They met at a support group for family members of alcoholics, and only come to work together during a case in season 16.
** Averted with Garcia and Alvez, since he waited until she quit to ask her out. [[spoiler:When she returns they are no longer dating.]]
** Subverted with Tara and Rebecca. They met at a support group for family members of alcoholics, and only come to work together during a case in season 16.
Changed line(s) 236 (click to see context) from:
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: Probably would be easier to count the amount of times the profile is accurate enough to lead to the killer in the first couple of acts (and then they have to prove it), because often it is just broad enough that some other poor bastard gets arrested first.
to:
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: Probably would be easier to count the amount of times the profile is accurate enough to lead to the killer in the first couple of acts (and then they have to prove it), because often it is just broad enough that some other poor bastard gets arrested first.first.
----
----
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 142 (click to see context) from:
* VillainousLineage: Subverted in "Birthright"; while it turns out that [[spoiler: the killer's father was also a killer, this is not portrayed as being genetic, and rather the result of a teenager who was raised to worship his dead father finding his dad's old journal and deciding to carry on the family tradition. Meanwhile, the father's other son, who's known for years that he was born out of rape, is a perfectly nice guy]]. In another episode, the [=UnSub=] claims that he has an inherited chromosomal disorder that makes him predisposed to violent crimes. This is met by Rossi pointing out that the study linking that particular disorder to violent crime had been debunked years ago.
to:
* VillainousLineage: VillainousLineage:
** Subverted in "Birthright"; while it turns out that[[spoiler: the [[spoiler:the killer's father was also a killer, this is not portrayed as being genetic, and rather the result of a teenager who was raised to worship his dead father finding his dad's old journal and deciding to carry on the family tradition. Meanwhile, the father's other son, who's known for years that he was born out of rape, is a perfectly nice guy]]. guy]].
** In another episode, the [=UnSub=] claims that he has an inherited chromosomal disorder that makes him predisposed to violent crimes. This is met by Rossi pointing out that the study linking that particular disorder to violent crime had been debunked years ago.
** Subverted in "Birthright"; while it turns out that
** In another episode, the [=UnSub=] claims that he has an inherited chromosomal disorder that makes him predisposed to violent crimes. This is met by Rossi pointing out that the study linking that particular disorder to violent crime had been debunked years ago.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* TroubledToybreaker: When the BAU is called in over the abduction of a girl at a local mall, they do a search of her home. They discover severely disfigured dolls, which clue them in that the girl was being sexually abused by her paternal uncle, and that the girl's aunt blamed her for the troubles in her marriage and left her to suffocate and die. The girl is found in time to save her life, but is implied to be severely injured from the murder attempt, on top of the abuse she's already suffered.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added line(s) 5 (click to see context) :
[[index]]
Changed line(s) 5 (click to see context) from:
to:
[[/index]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 3 (click to see context) from:
to:
!!Tropes with its own pages
* [[Woobie/CriminalMinds Woobie]]
!!Other Tropes
* [[Woobie/CriminalMinds Woobie]]
!!Other Tropes
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Uncanny Valley is IUEO now and the subjective version has been split; cleaning up misuse and ZCE in the process
Deleted line(s) 103,105 (click to see context) :
* UncannyValley:
** Appropriately, "The Uncanny Valley", which has an [=UnSub=] who [[spoiler: is keeping her victims paralyzed with drugs, and treating them like dolls]].
** "The Lesson", better known as "the puppet episode" (the [[https://localtvwtkr.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/criminal-minds.jpg?w=770 puppets made of human bodies]] are actually less unsettling).
** Appropriately, "The Uncanny Valley", which has an [=UnSub=] who [[spoiler: is keeping her victims paralyzed with drugs, and treating them like dolls]].
** "The Lesson", better known as "the puppet episode" (the [[https://localtvwtkr.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/criminal-minds.jpg?w=770 puppets made of human bodies]] are actually less unsettling).
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Changed line(s) 128 (click to see context) from:
** At the end of "3rd Life," the vengeful father of one of the victims indirectly does this by [[spoiler:giving the main PapaWolf -- a known ex-hitman -- information that allows him to KillEmAll on the [=UnSub=] and his gang, who also have said ex-hitman's daughter.]]
to:
** At the end of "3rd Life," the vengeful father of one of the victims indirectly does this by [[spoiler:giving the main PapaWolf -- a known ex-hitman -- information that allows him to KillEmAll kill them all on the [=UnSub=] and his gang, who also have said ex-hitman's daughter.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* UncannyValley:
** Appropriately, "The Uncanny Valley", which has an [=UnSub=] who [[spoiler: is keeping her victims paralyzed with drugs, and treating them like dolls]].
** "The Lesson", better known as "the puppet episode" (the [[https://localtvwtkr.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/criminal-minds.jpg?w=770 puppets made of human bodies]] are actually less unsettling).
** Appropriately, "The Uncanny Valley", which has an [=UnSub=] who [[spoiler: is keeping her victims paralyzed with drugs, and treating them like dolls]].
** "The Lesson", better known as "the puppet episode" (the [[https://localtvwtkr.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/criminal-minds.jpg?w=770 puppets made of human bodies]] are actually less unsettling).
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Changed line(s) 217 (click to see context) from:
* YouAreNotMyFather: [[spoiler:The [=UnSub=] of "Dust and Bones" grew to resent her mother for abusing her as a child, and showing extreme ParentalFavoritism towards her second daughter, even outright having an article about her that implies [[IHaveNoson she's disowned the elder one]]. She even goes to lure her mom into a trap to disfigure her and kill the sister via a snake bite before being shot dead]].
to:
* YouAreNotMyFather: YoureNotMyMother: [[spoiler:The [=UnSub=] of "Dust and Bones" grew to resent her mother for abusing her as a child, and showing extreme ParentalFavoritism towards her second daughter, even outright having an article about her that implies [[IHaveNoson she's disowned the elder one]]. She even goes to lure her mom into a trap to disfigure her and kill the sister via a snake bite before being shot dead]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Deleted line(s) 4,5 (click to see context) :
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder: T-Z]]
[[folder: T-Z]]
Changed line(s) 230,231 (click to see context) from:
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: Probably would be easier to count the amount of times the profile is accurate enough to lead to the killer in the first couple of acts (and then they have to prove it), because often it is just broad enough that some other poor bastard gets arrested first.
[[/folder]]
[[/folder]]
to:
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: Probably would be easier to count the amount of times the profile is accurate enough to lead to the killer in the first couple of acts (and then they have to prove it), because often it is just broad enough that some other poor bastard gets arrested first.
[[/folder]]first.
[[/folder]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Dewicked trope
Changed line(s) 166 (click to see context) from:
---> [[spoiler:[[AdultFear It could have been you]].]]
to:
---> [[spoiler:[[AdultFear It [[spoiler:It could have been you]].you.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
* UnseenPenPal: In Season 8, Reid is in a relationship with a geneticist named Maeve (whom he had been consulting about recurring headaches) in which they only communicate via phonecalls. This is due to Maeve being something of a recluse because of a stalker, whom she also fears could harm Reid. They do attempt to meet in person at a restaurant, although Reid tells Maeve to leave at the last minute because he believes her stalker is present. Despite this, they have a genuinely caring relationship; Reid even tells his colleagues it doesn't matter to him what she looks like because "she's already the most beautiful girl in the world to me", although he is worried she will find him disappointing. [[spoiler:Sadly, the first and only time they get to see each other is when Reid attempts to rescue Maeve from her stalker, only for her to be killed in front of him]].
* UnwittingPawn: The SerialKiller in "Internal Affairs" was unknowingly having victims funneled to him: undercover agents, sent to their doom by a MoleInCharge boss.
* UnwittingPawn: The SerialKiller in "Internal Affairs" was unknowingly having victims funneled to him: undercover agents, sent to their doom by a MoleInCharge boss.
Deleted line(s) 120 (click to see context) :
* UnwittingPawn: The SerialKiller in "Internal Affairs" was unknowingly having victims funneled to him: undercover agents, sent to their doom by a MoleInCharge boss.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* TemporarySubstitute:
** When JJ Jareau (and her actress Creator/AJCook) took maternity leave on ''Series/CriminalMinds'', she picked Jordan Todd (played by actress Meta Golding) to fill in for her.
*** An interesting case, this one. Since everyone had lots and lots of prior notice about AJ Cook's leave (her pregnancy storyline started the season before), Todd's role is not just a re-writing of scripts written for JJ: she has her own character, arc, and thematics, all of which are very different from JJ's. At the same time, she fills the same role in the team bureaucracy that JJ does.
** Tara Lewis (played by Creator/AishaTyler) fills in for JJ in season 11 when she goes on maternity leave. Unlike Todd, she joins the BAU full time after JJ returns; she was originally planned to be Kate's temporary substitute, but Creator/JenniferLoveHewitt decided to leave the show instead of returning in season 12. So Lewis gets a PromotionToOpeningTitles in said season, after being the FakeGuestStar for all but four episodes of season 11.
** When JJ Jareau (and her actress Creator/AJCook) took maternity leave on ''Series/CriminalMinds'', she picked Jordan Todd (played by actress Meta Golding) to fill in for her.
*** An interesting case, this one. Since everyone had lots and lots of prior notice about AJ Cook's leave (her pregnancy storyline started the season before), Todd's role is not just a re-writing of scripts written for JJ: she has her own character, arc, and thematics, all of which are very different from JJ's. At the same time, she fills the same role in the team bureaucracy that JJ does.
** Tara Lewis (played by Creator/AishaTyler) fills in for JJ in season 11 when she goes on maternity leave. Unlike Todd, she joins the BAU full time after JJ returns; she was originally planned to be Kate's temporary substitute, but Creator/JenniferLoveHewitt decided to leave the show instead of returning in season 12. So Lewis gets a PromotionToOpeningTitles in said season, after being the FakeGuestStar for all but four episodes of season 11.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* YouDidTheRightThing: In "Hashtag", Morgan briefly angsts about shooting a teenage Unsub until Hotch points out his doing so is the only reason the woman the Unsub was holding hostage survived.
-->'''Derek Morgan''': I shot a kid on national television.
-->'''Aaron Hotchner''': You shot a serial killer, and if you hadn't, that hostage wouldn't be in surgery right, she'd be dead. You did the right thing.
-->'''Derek Morgan''': I shot a kid on national television.
-->'''Aaron Hotchner''': You shot a serial killer, and if you hadn't, that hostage wouldn't be in surgery right, she'd be dead. You did the right thing.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
CriminalMinds/TropesAToD | CriminalMinds/TropesEToH | CriminalMinds/TropesIToN | CriminalMinds/TropesOToS | '''Tropes T to Z'''
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder: T-Z]]
* TakeMeInstead: Prentiss does this for Reid in "Minimal Loss".
** Reid offers himself to Diane, his girlfriend's stalker-turned-kidnapper.
* TakeOurWordForIt: The more gruesome activities the [=UnSubs=] partake in and their effects on the victims are often only shown through the horrified or disgusted looks on the team's faces.
* TakeThat:
** Upon arriving at a crime scene [[{{Series/CSI}} in Las Vegas]], this exchange between Rossi and Prentiss in "The Instincts": "Not exactly a well-preserved crime scene." "It's the crime scene investigators. They all want to play cop instead of being scientists and they end up trampling on everything."
** "JJ" is an episode-long TakeThat. [[spoiler: J.J.'s voiceover during the "goodbye montage" makes it quite clear that she, the actress portraying her, and the rest of the cast and crew don't want her to leave, but "people above her pay grade" (the studio) are forcing it]].
** To ''Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey'' in "Breath Play": A woman who arranges UsefulNotes/{{BDSM}} meet-ups makes it clear that the [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed not-FSOG romance novel]] isn't an accurate portrayal of the lifestyle, which is supposed to be freeing and life-affirming not terrifying and abusive [[note]] to be fair while the killer uses the victims' love of the book to get them in a vulnerable state his ''real'' fetish isn't in either novel[[/note]].
** "L.D.S.K." features a surgeon that has "[[{{Series/House}} the worst narcissistic personality disorder]]" Gideon has ever seen.
** "Lessons Learned" is an episode-long Take That to the [[RippedFromTheHeadlines use of torture in Guantanamo Bay]] and shows like ''Series/TwentyFour'', presenting it as both clueless and useless, and it does it without making the terrorists look good or sympathetic.
* TakingYouWithMe:
** How the [=UnSub=] of "Ashes and Dust" meets his end.
** The villainous variant appears in a few episodes, with a cornered [=UnSub=] pulling a MurderSuicide to take their last victim with them; examples include "The Night Watch" and "[[spoiler: Zugzwang]]". [[spoiler:[[ArcVillain The Replicator]]]] tries this on Rossi at the end of Season 8, but Rossi [[OutGambitted out-gambits]] him and leaves him to die alone.
* TalkingTheMonsterToDeath: In some standoff situations, the BAU manage to talk the [=UnSubs=] into surrendering. Also occurs literally in one instance where the detective working with the BAU accidentally prompts the [=UnSub=] to kill himself by breaking his delusion. And at the end of "The 13th Step" the team defuse a hostage situation by pushing the [=UnSub=]'s buttons so that he ends up killing his partner then committing suicide by cop.
* TattooedCrook: "A Thousand Words", given attention in "Honor Among Thieves", "Valhalla", and "Lauren".
* TeacherStudentRomance: In "I Love You, Tommy Brown," which also brutally deconstructs the idea that it's okay if it's a teenage boy with an attractive woman.
* TheTeam: The BAU, of course. Not only are they all TrueCompanions and several of them HeterosexualLifePartners / PlatonicLifePartners with each other, but they're also all a surrogate family, with a TeamMom (Hotch), TeamDad (Rossi), surrogate [[BigBrotherInstinct big brother]] (Morgan) and big sisters ([[TheHeart JJ]] and [[CoolBigSis Prentiss]]), a surrogate little brother / TeamPet (Reid), and a MoralityPet (Garcia). Further emphasized by the fact that several of them don't have a close relationship with their families and/or don't have family living nearby.
* TeamPet: Reid.
* TearYourFaceOff: The victim in "About Face" is killed this way.
* TelevisionGeography: Often.
** "Normal" begins with an aerial shot of [[{{Nerdgasm}} the Civil Engineer's wet dream]] that is the [[http://members.cox.net/mkpl/interchange/4lvl_mg.jpg Four-Level Interchange]], subtitled "Orange County, CA". The Four-Level Interchange is not in Orange County though... it's 20 miles away in Los Angeles. Orange County's freeway interchanges are not nearly as pretty from the air. They look a lot more like a [[http://www.ptank.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/I-5ca22ca57.png Freeway Full of Crazy]].
** In "Limelight," the [=UnSub=] is somehow able to get from police headquarters (which is in downtown Philadelphia) to a house where his next victim is (the design of which can only be found in parts of West Philadelphia), and then deposit her next to what is supposedly the Schuylkill Expressway near Conshohocken (which it's clearly not, considering the complete lack of a river nearby) in what has to be less than an hour. Any Philadelphia native will laugh at that above description. Repeatedly.
* TenMinuteRetirement: [[spoiler: Hotch and Prentiss, in the beginning of Season 3. They don't even make it through the episode]].
** Averted with [[spoiler: Elle and Gideon]].
* TermsOfEndangerment: The killer in "Natural Born Killer" puts himself on a FirstNameBasis with Gideon while being interrogated.
* TerroristWithoutACause:
** "Empty Planet"
** The cell from "Lo-Fi"/"Mayhem" ''claims'' to have a cause, but neither the characters nor the viewer ever find out what it is. Their [[EqualOpportunityEvil racially diverse membership]] and their target being a high government official implies a radical leftist organization of some kind.
** Hayman Vasher from "A Thousand Suns" just wants to kill people.
* ThatManIsDead: "Identity" and "In Heat".
* ThatOneCase: Multiple ones, in this show:
** Gideon had Frank ("No Way Out" and "No Way Out II: The Evilution of Frank")
*** Not to mention the bomber in Boston, which led to his nervous breakdown. He caught the man, but lost 6 agents and a hostage immediately afterwards.
** Rossi had the Galen case ("Damaged") and the Butcher ("Remembrance of Things Past"). In the latter we briefly see the Butcher case is just one of several old cases he still hasn't solved.
** Hotch had the Reaper case ("Omnivore", "To Hell..."/"...And Back", "Nameless, Faceless", "100").
** Reid had [[spoiler: Tobias Hankel, the [=UnSub=] with DID from "The Big Game" and "Revelations")]], and who sticks with him for a few reasons: first, the [[spoiler: drug addiction StoryArc]] that comes from being [[spoiler: shot up with Dilaudid, a painkiller, to help him survive the torture (physical and psychological) that the alter personalities were putting him through]]. This plotline is developed in "Fear and Loathing," "Distress," "Jones," and "Ashes and Dust," comes back for further development in "Elephant's Memory," and is referenced in "Amplification" and "Proof." Second, he feels a connection to the [[spoiler:primary personality, Tobias]] who showed him empathy, including [[spoiler: providing the aforementioned Dilaudid, which despite the long term consequences, clearly helped Reid cope with the torture at the time]]. As seen in "Conflicted," this [[spoiler:allows him to make the connection that Adam is switching personalities, and that the alter is the more aggressive partner they have been looking for]]. In the aftermath of that case, it [[spoiler:results in him feeling guilty for failing to save the (relatively innocent) primary personality, Adam. This leads him to maintain a relationship with Amanda in hopes of bringing Adam to the surface]].
** Reid also has the Riley Jenkins case ("The Instincts," "Memoriam"), from before he even "knew" it was a case.
** The Prince of Darkness ("Our Darkest Hour" and "The Longest Night") became this for Morgan.
*** Lampshaded by Morgan in "The Longest Night", telling Hotch that he needs to go after Billy Flynn personally:
---->''"We were there for you when you needed us. This one's mine."''
** The Doyle case for Prentiss, haunting her from her previous assignment [[spoiler: and coming back to bite her in the ass in a big way]].
** Recapturing "The Crimson King" for Alvez on account of the "King" gutted his partner. [[spoiler: He does, but the "King" is rendered amnesiac so Alvez doesn't even get the satisfaction of knowing he'll live the rest of his life as a failure]]
* [[ThatsWhatIWouldDo That's What I Would Do]]: "Elephant's Memory". Reid empathizes with the [=UnSub=] and says this almost word for word regarding how he figured out the [=UnSub=]'s next move.
** To further the point, the [=UnSub=] looks a lot like a younger Reid, right down to the hairstyle.
* TheBusCameBack: Numerous, but most prominently [[spoiler: JJ]] and [[spoiler: Emily]], who both came back as regulars and in the case of the latter, ''twice''.
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill
** The Boston Reaper.
** Numerous other [=UnSubs=]: "Natural Born Killer," "True Night," and "Hopeless" for example.
** In "100," [[spoiler: Hotch does this to Foyet. With his ''bare hands'']].
** Unintentionally done in "Normal" after Norman shoots the first victim her car crashes and flips over in an over dramatic way. [[spoiler: She still survives albeit in critical condition and paralyzed from the waist down]].
* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: Aside from the usual FromNobodyToNightmare [=UnSubs=] several "buyers" of the internet kidnapping ring look perfectly normal, including a pair of grandparents in what appears to be a BigFancyHouse and a suburban father with a bunch of girls caged in his basement.
* ThirteenIsUnlucky: Thirteen serial killers escape from prison at the end of "The Storm". [[spoiler: By the season premiere the list is reduced to five (four by episode's end) thanks to new character FBI Agent Alvez.]]
* ThisIsGonnaSuck: Prentiss, word for word, in "52 Pickup."
* ThisIsReality: In Season 6, walking out of a movie theater, Morgan comments that the protagonist should have known the [=UnSub=] was hiding in the attic, and Reid informs him that in movies, [=UnSubs=] are called villains.
* ThousandYardStare: Hotch gets this a lot in early Season 5 after Foyet's attack, especially in "Haunted."
* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: A lot of mentally unstable [=UnSubs=], most recently with the VigilanteMan in "Protection," who imagines his victims wearing different clothes and saying completely different things (a girl wearing a wholesome pink dress calling for the death of her rapist is really a girl in a black tank top and jeans screaming "Stop, he's my boyfriend!"). Interestingly, when the victims show up in his delusion at the end they're dressed as they really were, not how the [=UnSub=] imagined them.
* TitleDrop: Happens a lot with episode titles.
* ToKnowHimIMustBecomeHim: Count the times Morgan says "I'm the [=UnSub=] ... "
** Also, Reid in "Elephant's Memory".
** Hotch and Rossi use this to break the case in "Identity".
** Subverted by JJ in "The Longest Night", when she ''can't'' empathize with Billy Flynn, and instead, talks to him about what his mother ''should'' have done for him.
** Morgan and Prentiss play "you're/I'm the [=UnSub=]" in "Compromising Positions".
** At the end of "Open Season" Emily relates to Morgan that the victim asked her how killers can do such things, and she replied that [=UnSubs=] think differently... But she goes on to say that the BAU, who also hunt down people (the [=UnSubs=] they catch) may not be as different from their prey as they'd like.
* TooDumbToLive: The guy in "Psychodrama" who continually refuses to take his clothes off, even after the [=UnSub=] starts hitting him and shooting the floor around him.
** The woman in "Our Darkest Hour" who, despite seeing her door is now wide open even though there is no wind, goes in anyway.
** The woman who goes to see Vincent in "The Big Wheel". Think before you point out that the guy whose house you're alone in with looks just like that serial killer they're talking about on TV.
** The victims in "Roadkill". [[spoiler: The victim in the garage was especially stupid. He had ample opportunity to escape from the [=UnSub=] by dodging behind columns or other cars, but instead he tries to outrun the truck. Becomes even more apparent when it is revealed the [=UnSub=] had no legs and couldn't have caught his victims if they had got away]]
*** All the first victim had to do was get out of the road and behind a couple of trees in that dense wooden area. On the other hand, she seemed to be a rather vapid airhead.
** The first thing Hotch tells Agent Seaver is to never go anywhere by herself. Granted, the person she went to see was a grieving father and his young daughter, [[spoiler: but he was also a SerialKiller like Seaver's own father. Fortunately the dad was distracted because he needed to know ''why'' Seaver mentioned apologizing in the killer's family's place, but she was still chewed out by Hotch]].
** A victim in "Divining Rod" who fails to notice her full wine glass is now empty and her back door's open.
** The young hostage in "Derailed" who constantly speaks up and only agitates the hostage taker. He continually says things that only makes the situation worse and it's his fault the psychiatrist is shot. In his defense, he ''is'' a known alcoholic and presumably drunk at the time.
** "Haunted" might have ended bloodless if anyone in that pharmacy had one ounce of common sense.
** In the episode "Blood Relations," the team pulls up to an old barn and the guy inside starts shooting at them. He claims he thought they were his hillbilly-feud rivals. Pulling up in a fleet of brand-new black [=SUVs=]? Really?
* TookALevelInBadass: J.J.'s at ''four'' and counting -- shooting the dogs in "The Big Game"; shooting [[spoiler: Garcia's attacker]] in "Penelope"; bashing an [=UnSub=] upside the head with a shovel while just having been concussed in "The Performer", and [[spoiler: talking Billy Flynn down over the Emergency Broadcast System]] in "The Longest Night." Pretty damn good for the team's ''communications specialist''.
** Now she's up another, with her fight with a [[spoiler: professional killer]] in "Run."
** Reid definitely had one between Seasons 6 and 7. Just watch the Season 7 premiere if you don't believe me.
** Prentiss took a monumental level in badass during her Doyle arc, especially in "Valhalla" and "Lauren," when she donned a leather jacket, grabbed an MP-5, and led her colleagues to discover that she wasn't quite so much a desk jockey as a professional spy -- and one of the best, according to Clyde Easter -- before joining the BAU.
* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: The [=UnSub=] in "Lucky" said he stopped killing and devouring prostitutes since most of them were drug users, and they "taste funny."
* TonightSomeoneDies: "Lo-Fi": [[spoiler: [[MauveShirt Kate Joyner]]]]
** And in "100": [[spoiler: Haley Hotchner]]. Also [[spoiler: Foyet]], but no one really cares about [[spoiler:him]].
** "Demons": [[spoiler: subverted; everyone lives, but Blake leaves the team for personal reasons. Chalk it up to NeverTrustATrailer.]]
** Subverted in "Lauren," since [[spoiler: the team only thinks she's dead.]]
* TownWithADarkSecret: The town they investigate in the Season 9 finale "Angels" and "Demons" [[spoiler: have an entire squad of {{CorruptCop}}s, lead by the deputy, trying to cover up the murder of several sex workers who were witnesses by framing the local priest. By the end of the episode, it ends up with the BAU in a shootout with the local police.]]
* TragicHero: [[spoiler: Elle, Gideon, and Prentiss]].
* TrapMaster: Many [=UnSubs=], but [[ArcVillain The Replicator]] stands out most.
* TraumaCongaLine: Not a very long one compared to victims who were kidnapped for days or even years, but last victim in "Pariahville" was almost assaulted by a friend who then abandoned her on the side of the road. She was then picked up by another friend [[spoiler: who turned out to be the cheerleader-murdering [=UnSub=]]].
-->'''Victim''': Um, that's my stop...\\
'''Perpetrators''': Huh, yes it was... (x 2)
* TraumaticHaircut: Inverted in "Divining Rod": [[spoiler: A man kills four women in one day just to make the woman he loves a nice wig, which he lovingly places on her head. It wouldn't have been quite so bad if the last victim hadn't been ''scalped'']].
* TrueCompanions: The Team. Perhaps shown best in "100". Which makes J.J.'s and Prentiss' departures all the more heartbreaking. It's as though the BAU family is torn apart.
* TruthInTelevision: While Hotchner promptly shuts the guy down, the defense attorney's criticism in "Tabula Rasa" that profiling is just "intellectual guesswork" is actually a common opinion expressed by real-life detractors. There have been studies that suggest that observers not specifically trained in the profiling process can sometimes notice the same details and make the same inferences as trained profilers. Furthermore, even some of the most experienced and well-known profilers will concede that the profiles they build are to be used as a tool to aid criminal investigation, not as a substitute for it, as often happens on the show.
** It's also not uncommon, even on the show, for the team to have to drastically revise their profile when new information comes up or they have some sort of EurekaMoment... or both.
* TwoDecadesBehind: About half the offenders are modeled after criminals from the 1980s, give or take a decade. It is sometimes jarring to watch that the local LE has seemingly never heard of high profile serial killers like Ted Bundy or Richard Chase, and cannot see the parallels with their current case before they are told them by the BAU.
* TwoLinesNoWaiting: Crops up on occasion, most notably the Season 3 episode "Damaged." Morgan, Prentiss, J.J., and Garcia help Rossi tackle a cold case that's been haunting him, while in the B-Story, Hotch and Reid interview a serial killer on death row.
** Also used in "The Crossing," another Season 3 episode, where Hotch and Rossi investigate a woman's abuse claims while the rest of the team goes after an erotomaniac stalker.
* UglyGuyHotWife: Kate's husband is chubby, homely, and graying, completely the opposite of her [[Series/GhostWhisperer last TV husband(s)]].
* UncertainDoom: [[spoiler:Bruno Hawks]] in "Secrets and Lies" supposedly died in a car accident just after the events of the episode. While this is obviously a cover, it's uncertain if it's for [[spoiler:the CIA killing him or his death being faked to put him in witness protection]].
* UndergroundRailroad: One of these that helped battered wives escape their husbands was central to the episode "Sniper, Sniped".
* UnexpectedGenreChange: The comic-based scenes in "True Night," featuring someone who looks like [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI Al'tair]] fighting werewolves. [[spoiler: They're actually a metaphorical representation of a comic artist killing gang members who killed his girlfriend; he's unknowingly drawing his crimes]].
* UnflinchingWalk: At the end of "Hopeless," where the [=UnSubs=] decide to commit suicide by cop, and the policemen outside are so frustrated and angry they happily oblige. Knowing that they can do nothing to help, Hotchner, Rossi, and Prentiss walk away, while the hell breaks loose behind their backs.
** And promptly declare INeedAFreakingDrink, as we see in the final montage.
* {{Ungrateful Bastard}}s: In "Painless," this fueled the [=UnSub=]'s anger, as not only did [[spoiler: the media ignore his survival to focus on a top ten list of survivors]], but [[spoiler: one of them stole his story and took all the credit for ''his'' actions.]]
* UnholyMatrimony: "[[spoiler: The Perfect Storm]]," "Mosley Lane," and "The Thirteenth Step." Also possibly [[spoiler: "Divining Rod"]].
* UnusuallyUninterestingSight:
** In "Compulsion," the [=UnSub=] is setting fire to buildings all over campus. By the time the episode starts, three buildings have already been destroyed by this psychotic arsonist. And yet, every student continues to go along with their merry lives, worrying more about their homework and relationships than their lives, parents aren't arriving in hordes to take their children home, and the administration is doing little to protect their students other than helping the BAU and pulling the fire alarms.
** Near the end of "Psychodrama," no one (up until the birthday party scene, and even then it takes a bit) notices the [=UnSub=], who is wandering the streets in broad daylight, tweaked out of his mind and brandishing a MAC-10 machine pistol.
** In "Mayhem" as well... no one on the streets of New York gives much thought to guys dressed all in black with hoods completely covering their faces, even though the clothing worn by other civilians suggests it is not winter. Even after said [=UnSubs=] ''shoot strangers execution-style in broad daylight'', they still manage to get away undetected 6 out of 7 times. Because by the time they round a corner, and put the gun in their pocket, they're don't look all that out of place again.
* UnreliableNarrator: "Normal" and "Reflections of Desire" most notably. [[spoiler: their family members were dead the whole time]].
** For "Normal" this is actually a CallBack to earlier on in the episode when they come to the inevitable conclusion that [[spoiler: he was going to kill his family eventually, after killing all those other victims, but they had no idea when. This is further proven when they go into the last room and you can see near-fresh blood stains on the bed sheet]].
** If you figured out "Normal" then it's the same for "Protection" [[spoiler: The tenants the [=UnSub=] was hiding from a dangerous man were actually delusions, he had killed them a while before]].
* {{UST}}: Increasingly between Garcia and Alvez, until [[spoiler:he finally asks her on a date in the very last episode]].
* UnwittingPawn: The SerialKiller in "Internal Affairs" was unknowingly having victims funneled to him: undercover agents, sent to their doom by a MoleInCharge boss.
* VaguenessIsComing: At the end of "Devil's Backbone", Antonia Slade warns Hotch of "a coming storm". The following episode is titled, naturally, "The Storm".
* VengeanceFeelsEmpty: New character FBI Agent Alvez helps the team specifically so he can re-arrest a serial killer called "The Crimson King" who gutted his partner. When he finally catches him [[spoiler: he's been rendered amnesic by another serial killer and doesn't remember anything about his past much less killing an FBI agent. Alvez thinks/hopes he's lying or will eventually regain his memory but it's doubtful]]. Rendered doubly (tripley?)-empty since Hotch told Alvez earlier [[spoiler: as long as the killers are alive they can live with being a failure instead of believing they died for their cause. "King" doesn't even know what he failed at and is now the victim of a worse serial killer ("King" didn't kill unnecessarily, his attacker is doing everything just to get back at the BAU.]]
* VerbalTic: Reid's preference for [[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness highbrow synonyms]]: "exceedingly" instead of "extremely", "consume" instead of "eat", etc. Also, his tendency to say "actually..." and then go on a long-winded explanation of something to correct someone.
* VerySpecialEpisode: More than a few occasions.
* VigilanteExecution:
** At the end of "3rd Life," the vengeful father of one of the victims indirectly does this by [[spoiler:giving the main PapaWolf -- a known ex-hitman -- information that allows him to KillEmAll on the [=UnSub=] and his gang, who also have said ex-hitman's daughter.]]
** "Reckoner" has the [=UnSubs=], a hitman and a corrupt judge client, kill people who got away with crimes, ending with the man who killed the judge's wife in a car crash. The Judge then ends up on the receiving end of this as he put his own name on the list.
** [[spoiler: Creator/TimCurry's character Billy Flynn]]'s death came across as one part this and one part SuicideByCop. He wanted Derek to shoot him and was going to shoot the hostage to get him to do so, but Derek seemed a little too eager to give him what he wanted.
** "True Night," where [[spoiler: the [=UnSub=] is a vigilante getting revenge on gang members for his girlfriend's murder, only without knowing that he is doing so]].
** The [=UnSub=] in "Brothers In Arms" is killed by a gang member who was avenging the death of a fellow gangster.
** "Hostage" has the [=UnSub=] killed by the mother of the girl who died in captivity.
** Pablo Vargas being castrated and beaten to death by an angry mob.
** "The Pact" revolves around two vigilantes abducting and murdering the people responsible for killing their daughters.
** Also occurs in "A Real Rain", "Demonology", "Ashes and Dust", and "Aftermath".
** Averted in "Tabula Rasa" and "[[spoiler: Exit Wounds]]."
* VillainousBreakdown: The [=UnSub=] in "52 Pickup" who had been using pickup artist techniques to lure his victims. When Austin the bartender recognizes him trying to lure a victim and takes measures to separate them, he targets her instead ambushing her and grabbing her by force.
* VillainousLineage: Subverted in "Birthright"; while it turns out that [[spoiler: the killer's father was also a killer, this is not portrayed as being genetic, and rather the result of a teenager who was raised to worship his dead father finding his dad's old journal and deciding to carry on the family tradition. Meanwhile, the father's other son, who's known for years that he was born out of rape, is a perfectly nice guy]]. In another episode, the [=UnSub=] claims that he has an inherited chromosomal disorder that makes him predisposed to violent crimes. This is met by Rossi pointing out that the study linking that particular disorder to violent crime had been debunked years ago.
* VillainEpisode: "True Night"; other episodes prominently feature the killer, but none of them have the spotlight shine as brightly on them as this one.
** In the opening of most episodes you see what happens to the victim, and then follow the BAU as they slowly uncover who the killer is and why he kills. In "True Night" this is reversed: You know immediately who the killer is, and over the course of the episode you find out who he killed and why.
*** That might be because "True Night" starred [[Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle Frankie Muniz]].
** "The Longest Night" is one for Billy Flynn.
** "The Big Wheel", though not quite to the same extent as "True Night".
* VillainsWantMercy: Some of the [=UnSubs=] go into this once they are cornered or beaten on in order to stop them from carrying out their crimes. The worst cases are [[spoiler:Foyet the Reaper and Mr. Scratch, [[MoralMyopia but both get their pleas rightfully ignored considering everything they've done]] and are killed off for good]].
* VomitingCop: "No Way Out," "Valhalla".
* TheWatson: Usually the role of the local cops of the week.
** In early seasons, prior to her becoming a profiler herself, J.J. served that purpose too.
** Seaver is normally seen as this.
* WackyMarriageProposal: [[spoiler: Garcia's boyfriend runs a few of these past Morgan, but ultimately proposes in her office while giving her her favorite foods. Sadly, she's not interested in taking things to the next level because she knows terrible things can happen out of nowhere (or the possibility that she might be a doom magnet)]].
* WeAllLiveInAmerica: Mexican Captain Navarro mentioning "maiden names" in "Machismo," despite the fact that there aren't maiden names in Mexico since Mexican women don't take their husband's name after marriage. Maybe he was using the words for the benefit of his colleagues at the BAU, but seeing how the episode failed Spanish naming customs right after despite the victim names being the clue that caused the team's EurekaMoment...
* WesternTerrorists: "Lo-Fi"/"Mayhem," "Amplification," "The Witness", and "Valhalla"/"Lauren."
* WellDoneSonGuy: [[spoiler: The son of TheButcher, to the point where, at age ten, he knocked out his dad's victim to help his dad kill her, then started helping his dad go hunting. It didn't help that, even if The Butcher showed approval, he'd just forget it due to his Alzheimer's]].
* WhamEpisode: "Profiler, Profiled," "Lucky," "The Big Game"/"Revelations," "Lo-Fi"/"Mayhem," "...And Back"/"Nameless, Faceless," "100," "Valhalla"/"Lauren," "Brother's Hotchner/"The Replicator," and "200."
** "The Boys of Sudworth Place" is an interesting example in that, for the vast majority of the episode, it plays out as your standard episode. However, in the very last minutes of the episode, it is revealed that [[spoiler:Kate's daughter has been targeted by a sexual predator]].
* WhamLine:
** "[[PunctuatedForEmphasis There. Were. Rules!]]" [[spoiler: Randall Garner, right before shooting Elle in her home]] at the end of "The Fisher King: Part 1".
** "Hey, Garcia? I've been thinking about doing this all night." ([[spoiler:Jason Battle to Garcia, before shooting her]] in "Lucky")
** From "Lucky":
--->'''Father Marks''': God is in all of us.\\
'''Floyd Feylinn Ferell''': [[spoiler: [[ImAHumanitarian So is Tracy Lambert]]]].
** From "3rd Life":
--->'''Reid''': When does it end, Jack?... When does it stop?\\
'''Jack Vaughan''': [[spoiler: Tomorrow. *BLAM!*]]
** "Don't tell them about your brothers." ([[spoiler:The mother to the young son of a family of killers]] in "Bloodlines")
** In "Memoriam", the line Diana Reid says to her son:
---> [[spoiler:[[AdultFear It could have been you]].]]
** "Did you get all that?" (Rossi to [[spoiler: Garcia]] in "Masterpiece")
** "You should've made the deal." ([[spoiler:Foyet to Hotch]], in "...And Back")
** [[spoiler: "She never made it off the table." J.J. breaks Prentiss' death to the team]], in "Lauren"
*** And then, even more so, [[spoiler: "Good luck." "(Emily's voice) Thank you."]]
** From "Divining Rod":
--->[[spoiler:'''Helen Garrett''']]: Have you ever read ''1001 Arabian Nights''?\\
[[spoiler:'''Dylan Kohler''']]: No, what's that?
*** [[spoiler: Everyone thought a copycat sent letters quoting the book to the original killer, who died reciting the quote; turns out the letters were from the original's wife who has since decided to embrace her "ability" to amplify serial killing tendencies after the copycat fell in love with her]].
** The ''closing quote'' in "The Inspiration'' manages to be one:
--->'''Hotch:''' Josh Billings once wrote, "There are two things in life for which we are never truly prepared: [[spoiler:[[EvilTwin twins]]]]."
** "Supply and Demand": "Welcome back everyone." ([[spoiler:one of the supposed HumanTrafficking victims reveals herself to be [[TinyTyrannicalGirl the leader]]]])
** From "Fate":
*** To Rossi: [[spoiler:"I'm your daughter."]]
*** And then later: [[spoiler: "You've got a grandson who's running a fever."]]
** The heartbreaker from "Nelson's Sparrow," as the team stands over a body:
--->'''Hotch:''' It's [[spoiler: Gideon.]]
** "Rock Creek Park": "What you did was unforgivable. [[TheExtremistWasRight But it worked]]." [[spoiler: Said by a rising young senator to his mother, who (apparently (?)) unbeknownst to him had his wife kidnapped, had her ear cut off, and was about to kill her so his popularity would rise ''a la'' [[ComicBook/{{Transmetropolitan}} The Smiler]]. Indeed after his wife's safe return his popularity is through the roof, the BAU has no inkling that the senator knows about his mother's plans beyond what they discovered in the episode, and the last scene shows she's still able to pull her son's strings from prison.]]
** Fall 2015 opened with an assassin who revealed he's a member of a group of professional killers whose latest target is a group called "The Dirty Dozen". Some episodes later "The Dirty Dozen" is revealed (paraphrased):
--->'''Morgan''': ''You're'' "The Dirty Dozen"?\\
[[spoiler: '''Penelope''': I use twelve search bots, they traced me back to the FBI. They killed an assassin ''and'' a guard '''''in a supermax prison''''', no one can stop them, they're coming for me, I'm so scared....!]]
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse:
** Did we ever find out who the target was in the hospital (which the Secret Service had locked down) in "Mayhem"? We're given little context to draw from, and the Secret Service guards many different public figures, not just the President and Vice President. We're clearly supposed to know the individual in surgery is very important, but the writers neglect to name who it is, and leave viewers hanging.
*** To be important enough to cause ''literal'' "Mayhem" and be the target of a terrorist attack, it would have to be, most likely, the VP or the President. However, with no hints within the episode besides their political importance, it's difficult to say which of those two it would actually be.
** "In Name and Blood," the Hotchners' home phone rings, so Hotch picks it up, but after saying "Hello?" once or twice, gets no answer. Immediately after whoever was on the other end hangs up, Haley's personal phone starts ringing, but she doesn't answer it, and after talking to Hotch, leaves with it. What was up with this is never given an explanation.
*** While never explained, it is implied by the suspicious look on Aaron's face and the guilty look on Haley's and her defensive behavior that the phone call is from whomever Haley is having an extra-marital affair with.
*** Or it could be Haley's lawyer, calling her to discuss divorce options and didn't want Hotch to know about it.
** The [[spoiler: scarification]] inflicted by Ian Doyle in "Lauren" evidently disappears without a trace, though since we only know its approximate placement, it may just be too far down on her chest to be seen. (But at least we did find out What Happened to the Cat, i.e. Sergio.)
** In the episode "Identity," Reid is working on a map that would help narrow down where the [=UnSub=] lives. Rossi asks how the map is coming along and Reid replies that he's almost finished with it, then it's never mentioned again.
*** Of course, it becomes irrelevant once they find the [=UnSub=]'s ex-wife, who can just tell them where he lives. She points to a spot that is, in fact, at the edge of the area Reid marked off.
** In Season 1, we meet Hotch's little brother for a single episode -- he is never seen nor mentioned again. At the end of the episode it is shown that he has left to become a cook / chef in a New York restaurant; the team has worked several cases in New York since then, but Hotch still hasn't bothered to drop in.
*** Explained that Hotch was kind of tired of dealing with him -- Sean finally re-appears at the end of Season 8.
** In S1E21, it's shown that Morgan has a dog named Clooney... who is never referenced again.
** In "Lockdown," while the BAU stops [[spoiler: all the dirty prison guards, we still never know who all helped the WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds inmate kill two of said guards and their inmate ally at the start -- sans an AntiVillain guard seeking {{Revenge}} for the dirty ones threatening his daughter.]]
** JJ's self-destructive PTSD crops up for a few episodes before disappearing.
* WhatYouAreInTheDark:
** In "Legacy," Detective [=McGee=] receives an award for reducing the number of local vagrants. The real reason there are fewer homeless people around is that they're being abducted and murdered. Rather than accept the praise and do nothing, [=McGee=] tries to get first his superiors, then the [=BAU=] interested in investigating the disappearances.
** Kidnapping victim Tara Rickover provides a minor example in "Birthright." She arrives at a market to buy food and finds the owner absent. Tara still bothers to pay for the fruit that she takes.
* WholePlotReference: All the time, usually as a method of [[DeconstructedTrope deconstruction]].
* [[WhosLaughingNow Who's Laughing Now]]: "Elephant's Memory".
** And [[spoiler: "52 Pickup,"]] only for the first victim.
* WickedCultured: Some [=UnSubs=] can paint themselves as this, though they usually break down at some point. In the Season 1 finale, the Fisher King hid a music box that played "Fischerweise" by Schubert in the wall of an apartment where he left a body to show the BAU how much he enjoyed playing with them.
* WireDilemma: "Won't Get Fooled Again".
* WrongNameOutburst: A truly heartbreaking example is the TitleDrop of "I Love You, Tommy Brown". You see, the kid that is the underage lover of the deranged teacher that is the killer of the week? Nope, that is not his name. That's the name of the ''previous'' boy that she had a relationship with, died, and she became even more (read:homicidally) deranged as a result. The moment she mutters it while struggling with the cops arresting her and looks like she is professing her love for the kid is the moment he finally gets that a TeacherStudentRomance was a seriously stupid thing.
* TheWorfEffect: Morgan, usually an [=UnSub=]-beating machine, has been Worfed in both the sixth and seventh season finales, in the former by TheDragon and in the latter by the BigBad. [[spoiler: He managed to turn the tables on the first, but actually needed Hotch to save him from the second]].
** He was also taken out by The Reaper in "Omnivore", and didn't even get the chance to recover. This was apparently done at Shemar Moore's suggestion, who thought Morgan needed to finally lose a fight.
** He was also knocked out by a taser-wielding [=UnSub=] in an early Season 1 episode. He had yet to be established as the team's powerhouse at that point, however.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: "True Night," "A Real Rain," "The Thirteenth Step," "Pleasure Is My Business," "The Perfect Storm," "Elephant's Memory", "Jones", and ''especially'' "The Uncanny Valley."
** Later episodes like "Self-Fulfilling Prophecy" and "Lockdown" have [=UnSubs=] on suicidal [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge Roaring Rampages of Revenge]] for their dead relatives and/or friends against dirty leaders and their {{Mooks}}.
* WoundedGazelleGambit: The [=UnSubs=] from "The Perfect Storm" and "Supply and Demand" and The Reaper pull this. "The Uncanny Valley" has an [=UnSub=] luring victims by pretending to need help with their wheelchair, [[spoiler:but subverted as she actually is disabled, though not in need of a wheelchair]].
* WritersCannotDoMath: Usually {{averted|Trope}} or {{justified|Trope}}, but occasionally they slip up, such as in Season 8, taking place in 2011-12, when Reid says the [=UnSub=] must be in his mid to late twenties, therefore being born "between 1987 and 1992", although that's early to mid twenties.
* XanatosSpeedChess: The sting operation in "Entropy" turns into a spectacular one, with Reid and [[spoiler: Catherine Adams]] revealing plans and counter-plans all throughout the episode.
* {{Yandere}}: A good percentage of [=UnSubs=] are romantically obsessed or possessive of their targets, which leads to them stalking their obsession and killing people they believe to be a threat. This can lead to LoveMakesYouEvil or LoveMakesYouCrazy, depending on their character.
* YouAreNotMyFather: [[spoiler:The [=UnSub=] of "Dust and Bones" grew to resent her mother for abusing her as a child, and showing extreme ParentalFavoritism towards her second daughter, even outright having an article about her that implies [[IHaveNoson she's disowned the elder one]]. She even goes to lure her mom into a trap to disfigure her and kill the sister via a snake bite before being shot dead]].
* YouBastard: The team is rather disturbed at the public fascination with serial killers. Rossi encounters it more frequently, through his books and author appearances, and still seems baffled every time.
** Reid might qualify as an exception; he seems to be the only one of the team who is interested in criminal psychology for its own sake rather than just as a means to stop dangerous people. For example, he describes the near-unique psychological traits of the [=UnSub=] from "The Big Wheel" as "absolutely fascinating".
** Special mention should go to the [=UnSub=]'s audience in "The Internet Is Forever."
* YouGotMurder: "Won't Get Fooled Again". Played with in "Poison", where [[spoiler: the [=UnSub=] tries to kill his former bosses by poisoning the glue strips of envelopes they are using]].
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: "Poison," "The Fisher King," "Honor Among Thieves" and "Middle Man".
* YouKilledMyFather: The [=UnSub=] in "Protection" wants to kill the man who killed his mother: [[spoiler: he had no idea the killer was already arrested in another city hours away]].
* YouKillItYouBoughtIt: In "The Witness", a man discovers that his wife is having an affair, confronts the other man, and ends up killing him in a fit of rage. Said man happened to be one of a pair of brothers who had plotted a terrorist attack, and the other brother blackmails him into becoming [[UnwittingPawn his new accomplice]].
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: Probably would be easier to count the amount of times the profile is accurate enough to lead to the killer in the first couple of acts (and then they have to prove it), because often it is just broad enough that some other poor bastard gets arrested first.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: T-Z]]
* TakeMeInstead: Prentiss does this for Reid in "Minimal Loss".
** Reid offers himself to Diane, his girlfriend's stalker-turned-kidnapper.
* TakeOurWordForIt: The more gruesome activities the [=UnSubs=] partake in and their effects on the victims are often only shown through the horrified or disgusted looks on the team's faces.
* TakeThat:
** Upon arriving at a crime scene [[{{Series/CSI}} in Las Vegas]], this exchange between Rossi and Prentiss in "The Instincts": "Not exactly a well-preserved crime scene." "It's the crime scene investigators. They all want to play cop instead of being scientists and they end up trampling on everything."
** "JJ" is an episode-long TakeThat. [[spoiler: J.J.'s voiceover during the "goodbye montage" makes it quite clear that she, the actress portraying her, and the rest of the cast and crew don't want her to leave, but "people above her pay grade" (the studio) are forcing it]].
** To ''Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey'' in "Breath Play": A woman who arranges UsefulNotes/{{BDSM}} meet-ups makes it clear that the [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed not-FSOG romance novel]] isn't an accurate portrayal of the lifestyle, which is supposed to be freeing and life-affirming not terrifying and abusive [[note]] to be fair while the killer uses the victims' love of the book to get them in a vulnerable state his ''real'' fetish isn't in either novel[[/note]].
** "L.D.S.K." features a surgeon that has "[[{{Series/House}} the worst narcissistic personality disorder]]" Gideon has ever seen.
** "Lessons Learned" is an episode-long Take That to the [[RippedFromTheHeadlines use of torture in Guantanamo Bay]] and shows like ''Series/TwentyFour'', presenting it as both clueless and useless, and it does it without making the terrorists look good or sympathetic.
* TakingYouWithMe:
** How the [=UnSub=] of "Ashes and Dust" meets his end.
** The villainous variant appears in a few episodes, with a cornered [=UnSub=] pulling a MurderSuicide to take their last victim with them; examples include "The Night Watch" and "[[spoiler: Zugzwang]]". [[spoiler:[[ArcVillain The Replicator]]]] tries this on Rossi at the end of Season 8, but Rossi [[OutGambitted out-gambits]] him and leaves him to die alone.
* TalkingTheMonsterToDeath: In some standoff situations, the BAU manage to talk the [=UnSubs=] into surrendering. Also occurs literally in one instance where the detective working with the BAU accidentally prompts the [=UnSub=] to kill himself by breaking his delusion. And at the end of "The 13th Step" the team defuse a hostage situation by pushing the [=UnSub=]'s buttons so that he ends up killing his partner then committing suicide by cop.
* TattooedCrook: "A Thousand Words", given attention in "Honor Among Thieves", "Valhalla", and "Lauren".
* TeacherStudentRomance: In "I Love You, Tommy Brown," which also brutally deconstructs the idea that it's okay if it's a teenage boy with an attractive woman.
* TheTeam: The BAU, of course. Not only are they all TrueCompanions and several of them HeterosexualLifePartners / PlatonicLifePartners with each other, but they're also all a surrogate family, with a TeamMom (Hotch), TeamDad (Rossi), surrogate [[BigBrotherInstinct big brother]] (Morgan) and big sisters ([[TheHeart JJ]] and [[CoolBigSis Prentiss]]), a surrogate little brother / TeamPet (Reid), and a MoralityPet (Garcia). Further emphasized by the fact that several of them don't have a close relationship with their families and/or don't have family living nearby.
* TeamPet: Reid.
* TearYourFaceOff: The victim in "About Face" is killed this way.
* TelevisionGeography: Often.
** "Normal" begins with an aerial shot of [[{{Nerdgasm}} the Civil Engineer's wet dream]] that is the [[http://members.cox.net/mkpl/interchange/4lvl_mg.jpg Four-Level Interchange]], subtitled "Orange County, CA". The Four-Level Interchange is not in Orange County though... it's 20 miles away in Los Angeles. Orange County's freeway interchanges are not nearly as pretty from the air. They look a lot more like a [[http://www.ptank.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/I-5ca22ca57.png Freeway Full of Crazy]].
** In "Limelight," the [=UnSub=] is somehow able to get from police headquarters (which is in downtown Philadelphia) to a house where his next victim is (the design of which can only be found in parts of West Philadelphia), and then deposit her next to what is supposedly the Schuylkill Expressway near Conshohocken (which it's clearly not, considering the complete lack of a river nearby) in what has to be less than an hour. Any Philadelphia native will laugh at that above description. Repeatedly.
* TenMinuteRetirement: [[spoiler: Hotch and Prentiss, in the beginning of Season 3. They don't even make it through the episode]].
** Averted with [[spoiler: Elle and Gideon]].
* TermsOfEndangerment: The killer in "Natural Born Killer" puts himself on a FirstNameBasis with Gideon while being interrogated.
* TerroristWithoutACause:
** "Empty Planet"
** The cell from "Lo-Fi"/"Mayhem" ''claims'' to have a cause, but neither the characters nor the viewer ever find out what it is. Their [[EqualOpportunityEvil racially diverse membership]] and their target being a high government official implies a radical leftist organization of some kind.
** Hayman Vasher from "A Thousand Suns" just wants to kill people.
* ThatManIsDead: "Identity" and "In Heat".
* ThatOneCase: Multiple ones, in this show:
** Gideon had Frank ("No Way Out" and "No Way Out II: The Evilution of Frank")
*** Not to mention the bomber in Boston, which led to his nervous breakdown. He caught the man, but lost 6 agents and a hostage immediately afterwards.
** Rossi had the Galen case ("Damaged") and the Butcher ("Remembrance of Things Past"). In the latter we briefly see the Butcher case is just one of several old cases he still hasn't solved.
** Hotch had the Reaper case ("Omnivore", "To Hell..."/"...And Back", "Nameless, Faceless", "100").
** Reid had [[spoiler: Tobias Hankel, the [=UnSub=] with DID from "The Big Game" and "Revelations")]], and who sticks with him for a few reasons: first, the [[spoiler: drug addiction StoryArc]] that comes from being [[spoiler: shot up with Dilaudid, a painkiller, to help him survive the torture (physical and psychological) that the alter personalities were putting him through]]. This plotline is developed in "Fear and Loathing," "Distress," "Jones," and "Ashes and Dust," comes back for further development in "Elephant's Memory," and is referenced in "Amplification" and "Proof." Second, he feels a connection to the [[spoiler:primary personality, Tobias]] who showed him empathy, including [[spoiler: providing the aforementioned Dilaudid, which despite the long term consequences, clearly helped Reid cope with the torture at the time]]. As seen in "Conflicted," this [[spoiler:allows him to make the connection that Adam is switching personalities, and that the alter is the more aggressive partner they have been looking for]]. In the aftermath of that case, it [[spoiler:results in him feeling guilty for failing to save the (relatively innocent) primary personality, Adam. This leads him to maintain a relationship with Amanda in hopes of bringing Adam to the surface]].
** Reid also has the Riley Jenkins case ("The Instincts," "Memoriam"), from before he even "knew" it was a case.
** The Prince of Darkness ("Our Darkest Hour" and "The Longest Night") became this for Morgan.
*** Lampshaded by Morgan in "The Longest Night", telling Hotch that he needs to go after Billy Flynn personally:
---->''"We were there for you when you needed us. This one's mine."''
** The Doyle case for Prentiss, haunting her from her previous assignment [[spoiler: and coming back to bite her in the ass in a big way]].
** Recapturing "The Crimson King" for Alvez on account of the "King" gutted his partner. [[spoiler: He does, but the "King" is rendered amnesiac so Alvez doesn't even get the satisfaction of knowing he'll live the rest of his life as a failure]]
* [[ThatsWhatIWouldDo That's What I Would Do]]: "Elephant's Memory". Reid empathizes with the [=UnSub=] and says this almost word for word regarding how he figured out the [=UnSub=]'s next move.
** To further the point, the [=UnSub=] looks a lot like a younger Reid, right down to the hairstyle.
* TheBusCameBack: Numerous, but most prominently [[spoiler: JJ]] and [[spoiler: Emily]], who both came back as regulars and in the case of the latter, ''twice''.
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill
** The Boston Reaper.
** Numerous other [=UnSubs=]: "Natural Born Killer," "True Night," and "Hopeless" for example.
** In "100," [[spoiler: Hotch does this to Foyet. With his ''bare hands'']].
** Unintentionally done in "Normal" after Norman shoots the first victim her car crashes and flips over in an over dramatic way. [[spoiler: She still survives albeit in critical condition and paralyzed from the waist down]].
* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: Aside from the usual FromNobodyToNightmare [=UnSubs=] several "buyers" of the internet kidnapping ring look perfectly normal, including a pair of grandparents in what appears to be a BigFancyHouse and a suburban father with a bunch of girls caged in his basement.
* ThirteenIsUnlucky: Thirteen serial killers escape from prison at the end of "The Storm". [[spoiler: By the season premiere the list is reduced to five (four by episode's end) thanks to new character FBI Agent Alvez.]]
* ThisIsGonnaSuck: Prentiss, word for word, in "52 Pickup."
* ThisIsReality: In Season 6, walking out of a movie theater, Morgan comments that the protagonist should have known the [=UnSub=] was hiding in the attic, and Reid informs him that in movies, [=UnSubs=] are called villains.
* ThousandYardStare: Hotch gets this a lot in early Season 5 after Foyet's attack, especially in "Haunted."
* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: A lot of mentally unstable [=UnSubs=], most recently with the VigilanteMan in "Protection," who imagines his victims wearing different clothes and saying completely different things (a girl wearing a wholesome pink dress calling for the death of her rapist is really a girl in a black tank top and jeans screaming "Stop, he's my boyfriend!"). Interestingly, when the victims show up in his delusion at the end they're dressed as they really were, not how the [=UnSub=] imagined them.
* TitleDrop: Happens a lot with episode titles.
* ToKnowHimIMustBecomeHim: Count the times Morgan says "I'm the [=UnSub=] ... "
** Also, Reid in "Elephant's Memory".
** Hotch and Rossi use this to break the case in "Identity".
** Subverted by JJ in "The Longest Night", when she ''can't'' empathize with Billy Flynn, and instead, talks to him about what his mother ''should'' have done for him.
** Morgan and Prentiss play "you're/I'm the [=UnSub=]" in "Compromising Positions".
** At the end of "Open Season" Emily relates to Morgan that the victim asked her how killers can do such things, and she replied that [=UnSubs=] think differently... But she goes on to say that the BAU, who also hunt down people (the [=UnSubs=] they catch) may not be as different from their prey as they'd like.
* TooDumbToLive: The guy in "Psychodrama" who continually refuses to take his clothes off, even after the [=UnSub=] starts hitting him and shooting the floor around him.
** The woman in "Our Darkest Hour" who, despite seeing her door is now wide open even though there is no wind, goes in anyway.
** The woman who goes to see Vincent in "The Big Wheel". Think before you point out that the guy whose house you're alone in with looks just like that serial killer they're talking about on TV.
** The victims in "Roadkill". [[spoiler: The victim in the garage was especially stupid. He had ample opportunity to escape from the [=UnSub=] by dodging behind columns or other cars, but instead he tries to outrun the truck. Becomes even more apparent when it is revealed the [=UnSub=] had no legs and couldn't have caught his victims if they had got away]]
*** All the first victim had to do was get out of the road and behind a couple of trees in that dense wooden area. On the other hand, she seemed to be a rather vapid airhead.
** The first thing Hotch tells Agent Seaver is to never go anywhere by herself. Granted, the person she went to see was a grieving father and his young daughter, [[spoiler: but he was also a SerialKiller like Seaver's own father. Fortunately the dad was distracted because he needed to know ''why'' Seaver mentioned apologizing in the killer's family's place, but she was still chewed out by Hotch]].
** A victim in "Divining Rod" who fails to notice her full wine glass is now empty and her back door's open.
** The young hostage in "Derailed" who constantly speaks up and only agitates the hostage taker. He continually says things that only makes the situation worse and it's his fault the psychiatrist is shot. In his defense, he ''is'' a known alcoholic and presumably drunk at the time.
** "Haunted" might have ended bloodless if anyone in that pharmacy had one ounce of common sense.
** In the episode "Blood Relations," the team pulls up to an old barn and the guy inside starts shooting at them. He claims he thought they were his hillbilly-feud rivals. Pulling up in a fleet of brand-new black [=SUVs=]? Really?
* TookALevelInBadass: J.J.'s at ''four'' and counting -- shooting the dogs in "The Big Game"; shooting [[spoiler: Garcia's attacker]] in "Penelope"; bashing an [=UnSub=] upside the head with a shovel while just having been concussed in "The Performer", and [[spoiler: talking Billy Flynn down over the Emergency Broadcast System]] in "The Longest Night." Pretty damn good for the team's ''communications specialist''.
** Now she's up another, with her fight with a [[spoiler: professional killer]] in "Run."
** Reid definitely had one between Seasons 6 and 7. Just watch the Season 7 premiere if you don't believe me.
** Prentiss took a monumental level in badass during her Doyle arc, especially in "Valhalla" and "Lauren," when she donned a leather jacket, grabbed an MP-5, and led her colleagues to discover that she wasn't quite so much a desk jockey as a professional spy -- and one of the best, according to Clyde Easter -- before joining the BAU.
* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: The [=UnSub=] in "Lucky" said he stopped killing and devouring prostitutes since most of them were drug users, and they "taste funny."
* TonightSomeoneDies: "Lo-Fi": [[spoiler: [[MauveShirt Kate Joyner]]]]
** And in "100": [[spoiler: Haley Hotchner]]. Also [[spoiler: Foyet]], but no one really cares about [[spoiler:him]].
** "Demons": [[spoiler: subverted; everyone lives, but Blake leaves the team for personal reasons. Chalk it up to NeverTrustATrailer.]]
** Subverted in "Lauren," since [[spoiler: the team only thinks she's dead.]]
* TownWithADarkSecret: The town they investigate in the Season 9 finale "Angels" and "Demons" [[spoiler: have an entire squad of {{CorruptCop}}s, lead by the deputy, trying to cover up the murder of several sex workers who were witnesses by framing the local priest. By the end of the episode, it ends up with the BAU in a shootout with the local police.]]
* TragicHero: [[spoiler: Elle, Gideon, and Prentiss]].
* TrapMaster: Many [=UnSubs=], but [[ArcVillain The Replicator]] stands out most.
* TraumaCongaLine: Not a very long one compared to victims who were kidnapped for days or even years, but last victim in "Pariahville" was almost assaulted by a friend who then abandoned her on the side of the road. She was then picked up by another friend [[spoiler: who turned out to be the cheerleader-murdering [=UnSub=]]].
-->'''Victim''': Um, that's my stop...\\
'''Perpetrators''': Huh, yes it was... (x 2)
* TraumaticHaircut: Inverted in "Divining Rod": [[spoiler: A man kills four women in one day just to make the woman he loves a nice wig, which he lovingly places on her head. It wouldn't have been quite so bad if the last victim hadn't been ''scalped'']].
* TrueCompanions: The Team. Perhaps shown best in "100". Which makes J.J.'s and Prentiss' departures all the more heartbreaking. It's as though the BAU family is torn apart.
* TruthInTelevision: While Hotchner promptly shuts the guy down, the defense attorney's criticism in "Tabula Rasa" that profiling is just "intellectual guesswork" is actually a common opinion expressed by real-life detractors. There have been studies that suggest that observers not specifically trained in the profiling process can sometimes notice the same details and make the same inferences as trained profilers. Furthermore, even some of the most experienced and well-known profilers will concede that the profiles they build are to be used as a tool to aid criminal investigation, not as a substitute for it, as often happens on the show.
** It's also not uncommon, even on the show, for the team to have to drastically revise their profile when new information comes up or they have some sort of EurekaMoment... or both.
* TwoDecadesBehind: About half the offenders are modeled after criminals from the 1980s, give or take a decade. It is sometimes jarring to watch that the local LE has seemingly never heard of high profile serial killers like Ted Bundy or Richard Chase, and cannot see the parallels with their current case before they are told them by the BAU.
* TwoLinesNoWaiting: Crops up on occasion, most notably the Season 3 episode "Damaged." Morgan, Prentiss, J.J., and Garcia help Rossi tackle a cold case that's been haunting him, while in the B-Story, Hotch and Reid interview a serial killer on death row.
** Also used in "The Crossing," another Season 3 episode, where Hotch and Rossi investigate a woman's abuse claims while the rest of the team goes after an erotomaniac stalker.
* UglyGuyHotWife: Kate's husband is chubby, homely, and graying, completely the opposite of her [[Series/GhostWhisperer last TV husband(s)]].
* UncertainDoom: [[spoiler:Bruno Hawks]] in "Secrets and Lies" supposedly died in a car accident just after the events of the episode. While this is obviously a cover, it's uncertain if it's for [[spoiler:the CIA killing him or his death being faked to put him in witness protection]].
* UndergroundRailroad: One of these that helped battered wives escape their husbands was central to the episode "Sniper, Sniped".
* UnexpectedGenreChange: The comic-based scenes in "True Night," featuring someone who looks like [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI Al'tair]] fighting werewolves. [[spoiler: They're actually a metaphorical representation of a comic artist killing gang members who killed his girlfriend; he's unknowingly drawing his crimes]].
* UnflinchingWalk: At the end of "Hopeless," where the [=UnSubs=] decide to commit suicide by cop, and the policemen outside are so frustrated and angry they happily oblige. Knowing that they can do nothing to help, Hotchner, Rossi, and Prentiss walk away, while the hell breaks loose behind their backs.
** And promptly declare INeedAFreakingDrink, as we see in the final montage.
* {{Ungrateful Bastard}}s: In "Painless," this fueled the [=UnSub=]'s anger, as not only did [[spoiler: the media ignore his survival to focus on a top ten list of survivors]], but [[spoiler: one of them stole his story and took all the credit for ''his'' actions.]]
* UnholyMatrimony: "[[spoiler: The Perfect Storm]]," "Mosley Lane," and "The Thirteenth Step." Also possibly [[spoiler: "Divining Rod"]].
* UnusuallyUninterestingSight:
** In "Compulsion," the [=UnSub=] is setting fire to buildings all over campus. By the time the episode starts, three buildings have already been destroyed by this psychotic arsonist. And yet, every student continues to go along with their merry lives, worrying more about their homework and relationships than their lives, parents aren't arriving in hordes to take their children home, and the administration is doing little to protect their students other than helping the BAU and pulling the fire alarms.
** Near the end of "Psychodrama," no one (up until the birthday party scene, and even then it takes a bit) notices the [=UnSub=], who is wandering the streets in broad daylight, tweaked out of his mind and brandishing a MAC-10 machine pistol.
** In "Mayhem" as well... no one on the streets of New York gives much thought to guys dressed all in black with hoods completely covering their faces, even though the clothing worn by other civilians suggests it is not winter. Even after said [=UnSubs=] ''shoot strangers execution-style in broad daylight'', they still manage to get away undetected 6 out of 7 times. Because by the time they round a corner, and put the gun in their pocket, they're don't look all that out of place again.
* UnreliableNarrator: "Normal" and "Reflections of Desire" most notably. [[spoiler: their family members were dead the whole time]].
** For "Normal" this is actually a CallBack to earlier on in the episode when they come to the inevitable conclusion that [[spoiler: he was going to kill his family eventually, after killing all those other victims, but they had no idea when. This is further proven when they go into the last room and you can see near-fresh blood stains on the bed sheet]].
** If you figured out "Normal" then it's the same for "Protection" [[spoiler: The tenants the [=UnSub=] was hiding from a dangerous man were actually delusions, he had killed them a while before]].
* {{UST}}: Increasingly between Garcia and Alvez, until [[spoiler:he finally asks her on a date in the very last episode]].
* UnwittingPawn: The SerialKiller in "Internal Affairs" was unknowingly having victims funneled to him: undercover agents, sent to their doom by a MoleInCharge boss.
* VaguenessIsComing: At the end of "Devil's Backbone", Antonia Slade warns Hotch of "a coming storm". The following episode is titled, naturally, "The Storm".
* VengeanceFeelsEmpty: New character FBI Agent Alvez helps the team specifically so he can re-arrest a serial killer called "The Crimson King" who gutted his partner. When he finally catches him [[spoiler: he's been rendered amnesic by another serial killer and doesn't remember anything about his past much less killing an FBI agent. Alvez thinks/hopes he's lying or will eventually regain his memory but it's doubtful]]. Rendered doubly (tripley?)-empty since Hotch told Alvez earlier [[spoiler: as long as the killers are alive they can live with being a failure instead of believing they died for their cause. "King" doesn't even know what he failed at and is now the victim of a worse serial killer ("King" didn't kill unnecessarily, his attacker is doing everything just to get back at the BAU.]]
* VerbalTic: Reid's preference for [[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness highbrow synonyms]]: "exceedingly" instead of "extremely", "consume" instead of "eat", etc. Also, his tendency to say "actually..." and then go on a long-winded explanation of something to correct someone.
* VerySpecialEpisode: More than a few occasions.
* VigilanteExecution:
** At the end of "3rd Life," the vengeful father of one of the victims indirectly does this by [[spoiler:giving the main PapaWolf -- a known ex-hitman -- information that allows him to KillEmAll on the [=UnSub=] and his gang, who also have said ex-hitman's daughter.]]
** "Reckoner" has the [=UnSubs=], a hitman and a corrupt judge client, kill people who got away with crimes, ending with the man who killed the judge's wife in a car crash. The Judge then ends up on the receiving end of this as he put his own name on the list.
** [[spoiler: Creator/TimCurry's character Billy Flynn]]'s death came across as one part this and one part SuicideByCop. He wanted Derek to shoot him and was going to shoot the hostage to get him to do so, but Derek seemed a little too eager to give him what he wanted.
** "True Night," where [[spoiler: the [=UnSub=] is a vigilante getting revenge on gang members for his girlfriend's murder, only without knowing that he is doing so]].
** The [=UnSub=] in "Brothers In Arms" is killed by a gang member who was avenging the death of a fellow gangster.
** "Hostage" has the [=UnSub=] killed by the mother of the girl who died in captivity.
** Pablo Vargas being castrated and beaten to death by an angry mob.
** "The Pact" revolves around two vigilantes abducting and murdering the people responsible for killing their daughters.
** Also occurs in "A Real Rain", "Demonology", "Ashes and Dust", and "Aftermath".
** Averted in "Tabula Rasa" and "[[spoiler: Exit Wounds]]."
* VillainousBreakdown: The [=UnSub=] in "52 Pickup" who had been using pickup artist techniques to lure his victims. When Austin the bartender recognizes him trying to lure a victim and takes measures to separate them, he targets her instead ambushing her and grabbing her by force.
* VillainousLineage: Subverted in "Birthright"; while it turns out that [[spoiler: the killer's father was also a killer, this is not portrayed as being genetic, and rather the result of a teenager who was raised to worship his dead father finding his dad's old journal and deciding to carry on the family tradition. Meanwhile, the father's other son, who's known for years that he was born out of rape, is a perfectly nice guy]]. In another episode, the [=UnSub=] claims that he has an inherited chromosomal disorder that makes him predisposed to violent crimes. This is met by Rossi pointing out that the study linking that particular disorder to violent crime had been debunked years ago.
* VillainEpisode: "True Night"; other episodes prominently feature the killer, but none of them have the spotlight shine as brightly on them as this one.
** In the opening of most episodes you see what happens to the victim, and then follow the BAU as they slowly uncover who the killer is and why he kills. In "True Night" this is reversed: You know immediately who the killer is, and over the course of the episode you find out who he killed and why.
*** That might be because "True Night" starred [[Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle Frankie Muniz]].
** "The Longest Night" is one for Billy Flynn.
** "The Big Wheel", though not quite to the same extent as "True Night".
* VillainsWantMercy: Some of the [=UnSubs=] go into this once they are cornered or beaten on in order to stop them from carrying out their crimes. The worst cases are [[spoiler:Foyet the Reaper and Mr. Scratch, [[MoralMyopia but both get their pleas rightfully ignored considering everything they've done]] and are killed off for good]].
* VomitingCop: "No Way Out," "Valhalla".
* TheWatson: Usually the role of the local cops of the week.
** In early seasons, prior to her becoming a profiler herself, J.J. served that purpose too.
** Seaver is normally seen as this.
* WackyMarriageProposal: [[spoiler: Garcia's boyfriend runs a few of these past Morgan, but ultimately proposes in her office while giving her her favorite foods. Sadly, she's not interested in taking things to the next level because she knows terrible things can happen out of nowhere (or the possibility that she might be a doom magnet)]].
* WeAllLiveInAmerica: Mexican Captain Navarro mentioning "maiden names" in "Machismo," despite the fact that there aren't maiden names in Mexico since Mexican women don't take their husband's name after marriage. Maybe he was using the words for the benefit of his colleagues at the BAU, but seeing how the episode failed Spanish naming customs right after despite the victim names being the clue that caused the team's EurekaMoment...
* WesternTerrorists: "Lo-Fi"/"Mayhem," "Amplification," "The Witness", and "Valhalla"/"Lauren."
* WellDoneSonGuy: [[spoiler: The son of TheButcher, to the point where, at age ten, he knocked out his dad's victim to help his dad kill her, then started helping his dad go hunting. It didn't help that, even if The Butcher showed approval, he'd just forget it due to his Alzheimer's]].
* WhamEpisode: "Profiler, Profiled," "Lucky," "The Big Game"/"Revelations," "Lo-Fi"/"Mayhem," "...And Back"/"Nameless, Faceless," "100," "Valhalla"/"Lauren," "Brother's Hotchner/"The Replicator," and "200."
** "The Boys of Sudworth Place" is an interesting example in that, for the vast majority of the episode, it plays out as your standard episode. However, in the very last minutes of the episode, it is revealed that [[spoiler:Kate's daughter has been targeted by a sexual predator]].
* WhamLine:
** "[[PunctuatedForEmphasis There. Were. Rules!]]" [[spoiler: Randall Garner, right before shooting Elle in her home]] at the end of "The Fisher King: Part 1".
** "Hey, Garcia? I've been thinking about doing this all night." ([[spoiler:Jason Battle to Garcia, before shooting her]] in "Lucky")
** From "Lucky":
--->'''Father Marks''': God is in all of us.\\
'''Floyd Feylinn Ferell''': [[spoiler: [[ImAHumanitarian So is Tracy Lambert]]]].
** From "3rd Life":
--->'''Reid''': When does it end, Jack?... When does it stop?\\
'''Jack Vaughan''': [[spoiler: Tomorrow. *BLAM!*]]
** "Don't tell them about your brothers." ([[spoiler:The mother to the young son of a family of killers]] in "Bloodlines")
** In "Memoriam", the line Diana Reid says to her son:
---> [[spoiler:[[AdultFear It could have been you]].]]
** "Did you get all that?" (Rossi to [[spoiler: Garcia]] in "Masterpiece")
** "You should've made the deal." ([[spoiler:Foyet to Hotch]], in "...And Back")
** [[spoiler: "She never made it off the table." J.J. breaks Prentiss' death to the team]], in "Lauren"
*** And then, even more so, [[spoiler: "Good luck." "(Emily's voice) Thank you."]]
** From "Divining Rod":
--->[[spoiler:'''Helen Garrett''']]: Have you ever read ''1001 Arabian Nights''?\\
[[spoiler:'''Dylan Kohler''']]: No, what's that?
*** [[spoiler: Everyone thought a copycat sent letters quoting the book to the original killer, who died reciting the quote; turns out the letters were from the original's wife who has since decided to embrace her "ability" to amplify serial killing tendencies after the copycat fell in love with her]].
** The ''closing quote'' in "The Inspiration'' manages to be one:
--->'''Hotch:''' Josh Billings once wrote, "There are two things in life for which we are never truly prepared: [[spoiler:[[EvilTwin twins]]]]."
** "Supply and Demand": "Welcome back everyone." ([[spoiler:one of the supposed HumanTrafficking victims reveals herself to be [[TinyTyrannicalGirl the leader]]]])
** From "Fate":
*** To Rossi: [[spoiler:"I'm your daughter."]]
*** And then later: [[spoiler: "You've got a grandson who's running a fever."]]
** The heartbreaker from "Nelson's Sparrow," as the team stands over a body:
--->'''Hotch:''' It's [[spoiler: Gideon.]]
** "Rock Creek Park": "What you did was unforgivable. [[TheExtremistWasRight But it worked]]." [[spoiler: Said by a rising young senator to his mother, who (apparently (?)) unbeknownst to him had his wife kidnapped, had her ear cut off, and was about to kill her so his popularity would rise ''a la'' [[ComicBook/{{Transmetropolitan}} The Smiler]]. Indeed after his wife's safe return his popularity is through the roof, the BAU has no inkling that the senator knows about his mother's plans beyond what they discovered in the episode, and the last scene shows she's still able to pull her son's strings from prison.]]
** Fall 2015 opened with an assassin who revealed he's a member of a group of professional killers whose latest target is a group called "The Dirty Dozen". Some episodes later "The Dirty Dozen" is revealed (paraphrased):
--->'''Morgan''': ''You're'' "The Dirty Dozen"?\\
[[spoiler: '''Penelope''': I use twelve search bots, they traced me back to the FBI. They killed an assassin ''and'' a guard '''''in a supermax prison''''', no one can stop them, they're coming for me, I'm so scared....!]]
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse:
** Did we ever find out who the target was in the hospital (which the Secret Service had locked down) in "Mayhem"? We're given little context to draw from, and the Secret Service guards many different public figures, not just the President and Vice President. We're clearly supposed to know the individual in surgery is very important, but the writers neglect to name who it is, and leave viewers hanging.
*** To be important enough to cause ''literal'' "Mayhem" and be the target of a terrorist attack, it would have to be, most likely, the VP or the President. However, with no hints within the episode besides their political importance, it's difficult to say which of those two it would actually be.
** "In Name and Blood," the Hotchners' home phone rings, so Hotch picks it up, but after saying "Hello?" once or twice, gets no answer. Immediately after whoever was on the other end hangs up, Haley's personal phone starts ringing, but she doesn't answer it, and after talking to Hotch, leaves with it. What was up with this is never given an explanation.
*** While never explained, it is implied by the suspicious look on Aaron's face and the guilty look on Haley's and her defensive behavior that the phone call is from whomever Haley is having an extra-marital affair with.
*** Or it could be Haley's lawyer, calling her to discuss divorce options and didn't want Hotch to know about it.
** The [[spoiler: scarification]] inflicted by Ian Doyle in "Lauren" evidently disappears without a trace, though since we only know its approximate placement, it may just be too far down on her chest to be seen. (But at least we did find out What Happened to the Cat, i.e. Sergio.)
** In the episode "Identity," Reid is working on a map that would help narrow down where the [=UnSub=] lives. Rossi asks how the map is coming along and Reid replies that he's almost finished with it, then it's never mentioned again.
*** Of course, it becomes irrelevant once they find the [=UnSub=]'s ex-wife, who can just tell them where he lives. She points to a spot that is, in fact, at the edge of the area Reid marked off.
** In Season 1, we meet Hotch's little brother for a single episode -- he is never seen nor mentioned again. At the end of the episode it is shown that he has left to become a cook / chef in a New York restaurant; the team has worked several cases in New York since then, but Hotch still hasn't bothered to drop in.
*** Explained that Hotch was kind of tired of dealing with him -- Sean finally re-appears at the end of Season 8.
** In S1E21, it's shown that Morgan has a dog named Clooney... who is never referenced again.
** In "Lockdown," while the BAU stops [[spoiler: all the dirty prison guards, we still never know who all helped the WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds inmate kill two of said guards and their inmate ally at the start -- sans an AntiVillain guard seeking {{Revenge}} for the dirty ones threatening his daughter.]]
** JJ's self-destructive PTSD crops up for a few episodes before disappearing.
* WhatYouAreInTheDark:
** In "Legacy," Detective [=McGee=] receives an award for reducing the number of local vagrants. The real reason there are fewer homeless people around is that they're being abducted and murdered. Rather than accept the praise and do nothing, [=McGee=] tries to get first his superiors, then the [=BAU=] interested in investigating the disappearances.
** Kidnapping victim Tara Rickover provides a minor example in "Birthright." She arrives at a market to buy food and finds the owner absent. Tara still bothers to pay for the fruit that she takes.
* WholePlotReference: All the time, usually as a method of [[DeconstructedTrope deconstruction]].
* [[WhosLaughingNow Who's Laughing Now]]: "Elephant's Memory".
** And [[spoiler: "52 Pickup,"]] only for the first victim.
* WickedCultured: Some [=UnSubs=] can paint themselves as this, though they usually break down at some point. In the Season 1 finale, the Fisher King hid a music box that played "Fischerweise" by Schubert in the wall of an apartment where he left a body to show the BAU how much he enjoyed playing with them.
* WireDilemma: "Won't Get Fooled Again".
* WrongNameOutburst: A truly heartbreaking example is the TitleDrop of "I Love You, Tommy Brown". You see, the kid that is the underage lover of the deranged teacher that is the killer of the week? Nope, that is not his name. That's the name of the ''previous'' boy that she had a relationship with, died, and she became even more (read:homicidally) deranged as a result. The moment she mutters it while struggling with the cops arresting her and looks like she is professing her love for the kid is the moment he finally gets that a TeacherStudentRomance was a seriously stupid thing.
* TheWorfEffect: Morgan, usually an [=UnSub=]-beating machine, has been Worfed in both the sixth and seventh season finales, in the former by TheDragon and in the latter by the BigBad. [[spoiler: He managed to turn the tables on the first, but actually needed Hotch to save him from the second]].
** He was also taken out by The Reaper in "Omnivore", and didn't even get the chance to recover. This was apparently done at Shemar Moore's suggestion, who thought Morgan needed to finally lose a fight.
** He was also knocked out by a taser-wielding [=UnSub=] in an early Season 1 episode. He had yet to be established as the team's powerhouse at that point, however.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: "True Night," "A Real Rain," "The Thirteenth Step," "Pleasure Is My Business," "The Perfect Storm," "Elephant's Memory", "Jones", and ''especially'' "The Uncanny Valley."
** Later episodes like "Self-Fulfilling Prophecy" and "Lockdown" have [=UnSubs=] on suicidal [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge Roaring Rampages of Revenge]] for their dead relatives and/or friends against dirty leaders and their {{Mooks}}.
* WoundedGazelleGambit: The [=UnSubs=] from "The Perfect Storm" and "Supply and Demand" and The Reaper pull this. "The Uncanny Valley" has an [=UnSub=] luring victims by pretending to need help with their wheelchair, [[spoiler:but subverted as she actually is disabled, though not in need of a wheelchair]].
* WritersCannotDoMath: Usually {{averted|Trope}} or {{justified|Trope}}, but occasionally they slip up, such as in Season 8, taking place in 2011-12, when Reid says the [=UnSub=] must be in his mid to late twenties, therefore being born "between 1987 and 1992", although that's early to mid twenties.
* XanatosSpeedChess: The sting operation in "Entropy" turns into a spectacular one, with Reid and [[spoiler: Catherine Adams]] revealing plans and counter-plans all throughout the episode.
* {{Yandere}}: A good percentage of [=UnSubs=] are romantically obsessed or possessive of their targets, which leads to them stalking their obsession and killing people they believe to be a threat. This can lead to LoveMakesYouEvil or LoveMakesYouCrazy, depending on their character.
* YouAreNotMyFather: [[spoiler:The [=UnSub=] of "Dust and Bones" grew to resent her mother for abusing her as a child, and showing extreme ParentalFavoritism towards her second daughter, even outright having an article about her that implies [[IHaveNoson she's disowned the elder one]]. She even goes to lure her mom into a trap to disfigure her and kill the sister via a snake bite before being shot dead]].
* YouBastard: The team is rather disturbed at the public fascination with serial killers. Rossi encounters it more frequently, through his books and author appearances, and still seems baffled every time.
** Reid might qualify as an exception; he seems to be the only one of the team who is interested in criminal psychology for its own sake rather than just as a means to stop dangerous people. For example, he describes the near-unique psychological traits of the [=UnSub=] from "The Big Wheel" as "absolutely fascinating".
** Special mention should go to the [=UnSub=]'s audience in "The Internet Is Forever."
* YouGotMurder: "Won't Get Fooled Again". Played with in "Poison", where [[spoiler: the [=UnSub=] tries to kill his former bosses by poisoning the glue strips of envelopes they are using]].
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: "Poison," "The Fisher King," "Honor Among Thieves" and "Middle Man".
* YouKilledMyFather: The [=UnSub=] in "Protection" wants to kill the man who killed his mother: [[spoiler: he had no idea the killer was already arrested in another city hours away]].
* YouKillItYouBoughtIt: In "The Witness", a man discovers that his wife is having an affair, confronts the other man, and ends up killing him in a fit of rage. Said man happened to be one of a pair of brothers who had plotted a terrorist attack, and the other brother blackmails him into becoming [[UnwittingPawn his new accomplice]].
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: Probably would be easier to count the amount of times the profile is accurate enough to lead to the killer in the first couple of acts (and then they have to prove it), because often it is just broad enough that some other poor bastard gets arrested first.
[[/folder]]
