Given that NUMB3RS is a show that deals with crimes, it will feature some nightmarish scenarios.
- "Prime Suspect" features a parents' worst nightmare when a math genius's daughter getting kidnapped and the kidnappers demanding that he use his possible solution to an old math problem. The team is forced to make up a solution of their own when Egan's doesn't pan out. Luckily, they are able to rescue the girl in the nick of time.
- The episode "Scorched" which featured a bombing and showed a close up of the burned remains of a bombing victim.
- "Thirteen", featuring a serial killer who was copying the murder of Jesus' apostles, and who horrifically tortured his victims before killing them. In the most extreme example, the victim was kept alive (and in horrible pain) for three weeks to imitate a story where an apostle "miraculously survived" being burned in oil.
- The torture scene in "Trust Metric" is a Psychological Horror version of this trope. We don't see major physical damage inflicted, but there's something extremely creepy about the way Mason Lancer carries out the torture of Colby with virtually no affect at all, asking questions and describing what he intends to do to Colby in a tone so blasé that he could be talking about the weather, really putting the "Cold-Blooded" in Cold-Blooded Torture, and it just makes him so much more terrifying.
