History Series / CriminalMindsBeyondBorders

* LoveMakesYouCrazy: "De Los Inocentes," "The Matchmaker," "Denial," "Paper Orphans" and "The Lonely Heart." Though admittedly, the [=UnSub=] in the latter was probably already insane before falling in love.

* TheMole: [[spoiler:Atwood]] in "Blowback."

* NeverSuicide: Three Americans living in Tokyo apparently killed themselves in "Whispering Death." The IRT rightfully suspects that something is wrong because the usual rate of Americans that commit suicide in Japan is three in a year, and these three died in the same week.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Abu Hakim al Badi from "The Matchmaker" is one of Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.

** "Il Mostro" moves some elements of the Monster of Florence case from TheEighties to TheNineties, such as the 1989 FBI's profile of the killer, which in the show is dated to 1993 and attributed to mothership character [[TheCameo David Rossi]].

* ADayInTheLimelight: Monty in "Iqiniso."

* AgentScully: Jack becomes one to Ananda Doshi's AgentMulder.
* AGodAmI: Part of the [=UnSub=]'s delusion in "Love Interrupted". They also speculate about that being the case in "El Toro Bravo" but it is not confirmed.

*** When Monty checks the Alonso family's status in "El Toro Bravo," the document in his screen is the same birth certificate shown earlier in the episode, which doesn't contain that information at all.

* {{Cult}}: "Lost Souls."

** Xavi Alonso to Simon Alonso (actual father in this case).

** Thai officer [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taksin Taksin]].

** Father [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Consolmagno Consolmango]], as referenced above.

* HeKnowsTooMuch: The reason behind the murders in "Blowback."

* {{Hikikomori}}: The [=UnSub=] in "Whispering Death."
* IAmAHumanitarian: The [=UnSubs=] in "Love Interrupted" and "Abominable."
* HumanSacrifice: The motive behind "The Harmful One" and "La Huesuda."
* ItsAlwaysMardiGrasInNewOrleans: "Harvested" takes place in India during Holi and "El Toro Bravo" is ([[TorosYFlamenco of course]]) in Spain during the Running of the Bulls.
** The running of the bulls episode has a Spanish journalist character stating "[[InvokedTrope the running of the bulls is Spain's very own Mardi Gras]]." [[FridgeLogic Which only makes sense]] if she was trying to help her American interlocutor understand.

** The [[UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra Apartheid-era]] UsefulNotes/{{South Africa}}n secret police are identified as "the Office of State Security". They were the ''Bureau'' of State Security, commonly known as "[[PunnyName BOSS.]]" Also, those who gained amnesty did so openly-their identities are a matter of public record, thus negating the whole plot.

** Joe Mantegna appears as OriginalFlavor CM's David Rossi in the first episode. Kirsten Vangsness has another cameo as CM's Garcia in "Denial" and "Lost Souls."

** "Obey": The unsub, who was a hitman [[VoodooZombie after his expected career in athletics failed]], survives a gunshot wound to the head and [[OurZombiesAreDifferent digs himself out of a grave]]. After that, he walks around [[TechnicallyLivingZombie while slightly brain-damaged]], killing people for mundane things, before he remembers the person who "killed" him and [[RevenantZombie goes to settle the schore]]. [[OurGhostsAreDifferent All while he hears the voices, and later, visions, of all the people he has killed.]]

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: The Unsubs of "Citizens of The World" are three young men from a Tuareg tribe kidnapping foreign tourists for ransom to pay for medical care for their terminallly ill mother.

* FormulaBreakingEpisode: "Blowback" takes place mostly in Quantico, the case abroad is told through flashbacks, and the quote in the beginning is from Creator/BenjaminFranklin. Because the "native language" in this case is American English, the text is written in 18th century handwritten font.

* GovernmentAgencyOfFiction: The IRT.

* LatinLand: Averted in the first season, which shows Cuba, Mexico and Belize (not a Latin country but with a high Hispanic population) as clearly different countries, and uses different accents.

* OldFriend: Since they are all FBI agents, the IRT knows everyone in the BAU and vice versa, but Garrett seems to have a close relationship with Rossi ([[ActorAllusion Sinise and Mantegna are friends in real life]]).

** A meaningful quote originating in said country, most often an ancient proverb, is read by one of the characters (most often Jack) at the beginning of each episode, while its written form (in local alphabet, if it is not Latin) appears over the EstablishingShot(s).
** When the case is solved, the IRT posts a bill from the country's currency in a wall of their plane/base of operations. If the country has shared currency with another, the tradition is apparently changed to fixing a postcard. This was abandoned after the first season, though.

* OutlawCouple: The unsubs in "The Ballad of Nick and Nat".

* ThePerryMasonMethod: Jack plays it while being interrogated by a FBI investigative commission.
* PoliceProcedural: Of course.

** [[RenegadeRussian Antakov]] pulls one on Jack at the end of "The Ripper of Riga," which is followed by Jack pulling his own speech on Antakov.
** Jack dishes out another on [[spoiler:Atwood]] in "Blowback."

* RedHerring: It's never the first suspect. Neither is the second and often not the third.
** The farmer and the drifter with a DarkAndTroubledPast in "The Harmful One."

** Same with the [[spoiler:Somali rebel group]] in "Lost Souls."
* ReligionOfEvil: The cult to Santa Muerte in "La Huesuda."

* SerialKiller: The BackdoorPilot in ''Criminal Minds'' had the first of several.

* TheStoner: Many in [[WelcomeToTheCaribbeanMon the Jamaica-based episode]], "Obey."

* WelcomeToTheCaribbeanMon: "Love Interrupted" (Belize) and "Obey" (Jamaica). Averted in "Paper Orphans" which is set in Haiti and the victims did not go there on vacation.

** The running of the bulls episode has a Spanish journalist character stating "[[InvokedTrope the running of the bulls is Spain's very own Mardi Gras]]." [[FridgeLogic Which only makes sense]] if she was trying to help [[WeAllLiveInAmerica her American interlocutor]] understand.

* WeAllLiveInAmerica:
** The crew says they worked hard to avert this. The IRT are 'guests' in other jurisdictions (even more than the BAU in ''Criminal Minds''), have to play by the written and not-written rules of other countries, and in some episodes they won't even be allowed to carry guns due to strict laws the main [=LEO=] agency has.
** First faux pas: right-hand traffic in India and Thailand, where it should be left-hand. Averted for Japan though since Japanese laws don't have a problem with this as long as vehicles pass inspections.
** Esposito is a Spanish National Police detective – but the SNP doesn’t have detectives, it has inspectors.[[note]]There is also something way too American in the way he describes Spain as a '[[TorosYFlamenco Catholic country ruled by guilt]]' and his choice of the words "pillar of the community" to describe Father Consolmango.[[/note]]
** Simon Alonso’s absolute train wreck of a [[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign birth]] [[SymbologyResearchFailure certificate]] shows among other things that his father, mother and Simon himself all have the same surname, just like Americans. Spanish citizens have two surnames by law (which must appear in the birth certificate of any natural born citizen), and women don’t take their husband’s last name in Spain.
** The many foreigners that speak English, regardless of their background (and even when they don't they still pronounce "FBI" as in English). Some are justified with either having known English as a second language or having been trained in America as law enforcement.
** Another small but telling detail from the Spain episode is the padded pews. You don't go to church in Spain to get comfy.
** The main characters constantly flash their badges and introduce themselves as FBI, and the suspects will for some reason be compelled to flee or talk to them, rather than tell them to sod off.

* CreepyCatholicism: The unsub in "De Los Inocentes" hits the trope straight on the head, even though he can't be Catholic barring a CriticalResearchFailure. He was a "pastor" and had an underage son that he was raising publicly. The prayer he recites at his murders is also said by Anglicans and Lutherans, though not as commonly as Catholics.

* AluminiumChristmasTrees:
** While the IRT is fictional, the FBI has international field offices and does occasionally investigate crimes abroad, either because Americans are involved or because foreign law enforcement requests their help.
** A serial killer with delusions of {{Mayincatec}} [[AGodAmI godhood]]? It has happened. Check [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolfo_Constanzo Adolfo Constanzo]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalena_Solis Magdalena Solís]]. They were arguably worse than [[FreakierThanFiction the guy in the show.]]
** Anyone who thinks that a female Indian mob boss is unrealistic has not heard of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoolan_Devi Phoolan Devi]].

* SequelGoesForeign: Of ''Criminal Minds''.
* SerialKiller: The BackdoorPilot in ''Criminal Minds'' had one, and we can only expect more.

** "Whispering Death": The killer is loosely based on Hiroshi Maeue (active 2005), and the episode features ''[[DarkSkinnedBlonde Ganguro]]'' girls, a Japanese subculture that peaked in the late 90s.

* NecessaryWeasel: There is no IRT in real life, although the FBI does investigate similar cases. Like with the mother series' BAU, we can probably expect a more direct, hands-on approach compared to its real counterpart to make for better television.

*** They mention that "the Running of the Bulls is one of the most recorded events in the world," but this is reduced in the episode to the killer's phone booth and one local TV station with one mobile crew. No trace of the [[Creator/GeorgeOrwell Orwellian]] CCTV system of 100+ traffic cameras and ten times that number private-owned cameras in RealLife Pamplona. When they go looking for the killer they don't even use TV or the internet despite [[IdiotPlot using it before]]. They hand out flyers. The actor playing the Spanish cop was interviewed in Spanish media before the episode aired, and while he wasn't too critical he couldn't let pass this:

** The unsub's neighborhood in "Paper Orphans" is only briefly seen and not particularly dangerous (that we know of) but it must be the most unsanitary looking place to appear in the show. [[UpToEleven Yes, more than Dharavi.]]

** Jack doles out another one dripping with disgust to the I sub in "Love Interrupted", deriding him as a coward, an abuser and a weakling, which enrages the Unsub enough to mistakenly release his child hostage, allowing Simmons a clean shot.

* AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent: "Blowback" takes place mostly in Quantico, the case abroad is told through flashbacks, and the quote in the beginning is from Creator/BenjaminFranklin. Because the "native language" in this case is American English, the text is written in 18th century handwritten font.

** VoiceWithAnInternetConnection: Monty.

** Main character Jack is RaisedCatholic.

* FiveManBand: The IRT.
** TheHero: Jack.
** TheSmartGuy: Clara.
** TheBigGuy: Matt.
** TheHeart: Mae.

* NotSoDifferent: As is typical in a StrangeCopInAStrangeLand plot, even the most uncooperative local LE tends to find common ground and ends up becoming friends with the IRT by the end of the episode. One notable aversion is "De los Inocentes" [[spoiler:where one of the private security guards is the unsub, and he kills the one Mexican cop assigned to the case before she can make amends with the IRT or the Americans wrongfully imprisoned for the crime.]]
** Either because of this or WriteWhatYouKnow, quite a few unsubs actually resemble US American criminal cases transplanted to other countries, rather than past criminal cases from those countries.

** The first released blurbs for ''FBI: International'', the second spin-off of ''Series/{{FBI}}'' read just like a description of ''Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders'', except the main characters work out of Hungary for some reason.

** The release blurb for ''FBI: International'', the second spin-off of ''Series/{{FBI}}'' reads just like ''Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders'', except the main characters work out of Hungary for some reason.

** Two even more noticeable examples happen in the second season, where Sinise is also a producer. In "Blowback," Jack gives TheMole in the FBI TheReasonYouSuckSpeech after he invokes TheNeedsOfTheMany and calls himself a soldier, telling him that he is nowhere near as honorable as the men in uniform. In the finale, he finishes with a speech about his support for the soldiers serving abroad. Sinise has been heavily involved in veterans support since he played a forgotten war amputee in ''Film/ForrestGump.''

Providing assistance in cases where the embassy's efforts aren't enough falls to the International Response Team, a [[GovernmentAgencyOfFiction fictional unit]] of the [[UsefulNotes/AmericanLawEnforcement FBI]] ([[AluminiumChristmasTrees although the FBI takes part in investigations involving Americans abroad in reality]]) led by Jack Garrett (Creator/GarySinise), a 20-year career agent. Joining him are US Army veteran and skilled profiler Matt Simmons (Daniel Henney); kind-hearted technical analyst Russ "Monty" Montgomery (Tyler James Williams), who also liaises with the victims' families while the rest of the team is on a mission abroad; cultural anthropologist and [[{{Omniglot}} polyglot]] Clara Seger (Alana de la Garza) and medical examiner Mae Jarvis (Annie Funke). Diplomatic liaison and international law expert Lily Lambert, who was played by Anna Gunn in the BackdoorPilot, [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness does not reprise her part]] as a member of the series' regular cast.

** The fictional country of Kurjikistan is a composite example of [[TheWarOnTerror Iraq and Afghanistan]].

* TheWarOnTerror:
** "The Matchmaker" features an expy of ISIS.
** The Somalis in "Lost Souls" are an expy of al-Shabaab.
** Kurjikistan in "Blowback" is an expy of Afghanistan with some of Iraq thrown in.

** Creator/GarySinise lobbied for Jack to have a happy, large family, because after nine years of ''Series/CSINewYork'' he was tired of playing brooding, lonely cops with failed relationships and tragic pasts. Daniel Henney also wanted his character to have a lot of kids.

* BittersweetEnding: The final victim is always saved in the end, but most of the time it has already seen its loved one being horribly murdered. [[spoiler:And we are told that two of the victims in "Love Interrupted" also have a hard time ahead getting rid of their Stockholm Syndrome.]]