As one of the darker police procedurals on TV,Criminal Mindsfeatured FBI profilers working to find some of the country’s most sadistic criminals, known as Unknown Subjects, or “UnSubs.” The series first aired in 2005 and ended in 2020 after 15 seasons and over 300 episodes. However, the series didn’t stay gone from the airways for long asCriminal Minds: Evolution(which served as the 16th season)premiered on Paramount+ in 2022.
Criminal Mindsoften includes famous quotes from other people in its narration, but some of its most profound statements have come from its own characters. The team’s work as p[rofilers meant they saw the worst in people, but that also gave them great insight into how people operate. Some of the show’s best quotes were great observations about people, life in general and the things that made their jobs worth the darkness and struggle.
10"I’ve always heard every ending is also a new beginning, we just don’t know it at the time. I’d like to believe that’s true." -Emily Prentiss
Season 7, Episode 24, “Run”
In “Run,” the two-part Season 7 finale, the team continued to negotiate with a group who used bank robberies as a way to kill people. The team realized the group had a larger target in mind, all while they held Will (Josh Stewart) hostage and shot him. After the whole ordeal, Will and Jennifer (A.J. Cook) get married in an intimate backyard ceremony with the whole team present, and Emily (Paget Brewster) accepts a job with Interpol.
It was a fitting episode as Emily’s last, with an appropriate quote to go with it. Her comment about endings as new beginnings isn’t exactly a new observation, but it’s still a good one.It can easily be applied not just to her departure but to Will and Jennifer’s marriage. For Emily, the end of her time with the team means new opportunities elsewhere, while for Will and Jennifer, it was the start of a new chapter for them as a couple.
9"Life is a hell of a thing to happen to a person." - David Rossi
Season 3, Episode 10, “True Night”
A series of vigilante killings targeting gang members and other criminals in Los Angeles mirrored those in a graphic novel in “True Night,” leading the team to investigate. The UnSub turned out to be the writer of the graphic novel, who wrote the story and turned to vigilantism after a brutal attack on him and his pregnant fiancée left him with severe PTSD, and had no memory of his crimes.
Much has been said about life in general in pop culture, but no one was as succinct about it as Rossi (Joe Mantegna). His comment in “True Night”was short yet profound, with one simple statement carrying a lot of meaning, and it was open to interpretation. It perfectly summed up the unpredictability of life, both in how it can be difficult but also very beautiful, and it was a fitting quote for one of the best episodes of the series.
8“Sometimes for an artist, the only difference between insanity and genius is success.” - Spencer Reid
In “True Night,” a graphic-novel writer, Jonny McHale (Frankie Muniz) worked as a vigilante in Los Angeles, with revenge-based killings done with a katana bearing striking similarities to those in his work. After his pregnant fiancée was brutally killed in front of him and he himself was left for dead, he suffered from extreme PTSD and had no memory of his killings. After a psychotic break, the team recommended he receive treatment as opposed to being sent to prison.
Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler) commented on the ways art is perceived, including by artists themselves,and it was an especially apt comment given the ways McHale’s life was imitating his art. His graphic novel could have easily been dismissed as dark and disturbing, the work of a troubled man, but traditional markers of success, like good sales and critical acclaim, would validate McHale as an artist, not just for himself but for others, too.
Season 3, Episode 17, “In Heat”
The team searched for a serial killer in Miami targeting gay men in “In Heat” and worked to catch him before he could kill again. They discovered that the killings were tied to the UnSub’s own conflicted sexual identity and that he had grown up in a religious household and was abused by his father because of his sexuality. Meanwhile, Jennifer attempts to hide her relationship with Will from the team, even though they already knew about it.
The team ofCriminal Mindsonly saw a snapshot of their victims’ lives, all depicted through their interactions with a killer and the state they were in when they were found. Emily commented on this in “In Heat,” noting that everything about a victim, all of a person’s nuance and the pieces of a full life, was stripped away, with only the items they were carrying at the time to show who they were.
6"You know, we forget half of what they teach us in school, but when it comes to the torment and the people who inflicted it, we’ve all got an elephant’s memory." - Derek Morgan
Season 3, Episode 16, “Elephant’s Memory”
When a small town in Texas was the site of a killing spree in “Elephant’s Memory,” the UnSub was a teenage boy who was being bullied and carried out the killings as revenge against the people who had tormented him.Reid identified with him, having been a victim of bullying himself, and he and Morgan (Shemar Moore) bonded over their high-school experiences, with Reid sharing a traumatic story of being tied naked to a goalpost.
Reid’s horrible experience was one he hoped he would forget, but that proved to be just about impossible. Morgan sympathized andspoke about how experiences like that stay with a person,and how one doesn’t have to have an amazing memory to carry such things for the rest of one’s life. His response to Reid addressed how what we learn in school often fades, and instead, what really sticks with us is how our peers treat us.
5"I think, deep down, we’re all capable of unspeakable things." - Aaron Hotchner
Season 4, Episode 17, “Demonology”
In “Demonology,” a childhood friend of Emily’s died, and although it at first appeared to be from a drug overdose, the team’s investigation uncovered other similar deaths, all tied to apparent exorcisms. The victims had all recently traveled to Spain on a pilgrimage, and it turned out they had all been poisoned by a priest seeking revenge for the death of another priest, and he had diplomatic immunity, complicating the team’s ability to hold him accountable.
Through their work, the team saw just about the worst things people were capable of,but they also had insight into what those people were like, including their motives. If there’s one thing the job made clear, it was that nothing truly separates a criminal from everyone else, something Hotchner (Thomas Gibson) understood. While one would think a priest wouldn’t be a murderer, Hotchner felt that everyone is capable of doing something horrible.
4"Like I said, sometimes there are no words, no clever quotes to neatly sum up what’s happened that day. Sometimes the day just…ends." - Aaron Hotchner
Season 4, Episode 25, “To Hell and Back”
In the two-part Season 4 finale, “To Hell and Back,” a man in Detroit posed as a killer and offered up a false confession to get the FBI to investigate a string of murders. The man’s information led the team on a chase into Canada to find a serial killer, where he targeted homeless people, addicts and sex workers. They ultimately discovered the victims were all fed to pigs on a farm owned by two brothers.
Criminal Mindsoften featured quotes from famous figures which dealt with elements of the team’s case, making Hotchner’s observation here that much more fitting. Sometimes,there is no famous quote, no way to wrap things up neatly, and as “To Hell and Back”was one of the bestbut also most disturbing episodes of the series, Hotchner was all too right. No inspirational quote could soften this brutal episode, and that’s also often the case in real life.
3"How many more times will they be able to look into the abyss? How many more times before they won’t ever recover the pieces of themselves that this job takes?" - Aaron Hotchner
As the team investigate a string of murders in the season four finale “To Hell and Back,” they end up in Canada. The victims were all people unlikely to be reported missing — such as homeless people — and the evidence led to a pig farm owned by two brothers, one of whom, Mason (Garret Dillahunt), was quadriplegic and was forcing his brother Lucas (Paul Rae), who had an intellectual disability, to abduct and kill people to use them for stem-cell research for a potential cure for Mason.
This chilling episode offered up a few memorable quotes, including some from Hotchner in particular. Here,he acknowledged the difficult nature of the joband the fact that the team was constantly dealing with the worst of humanity and that everyone has a breaking point and, eventually, the work would take a toll. The job might come at a high cost for some, it could leave them forever changed, and not in a good way.
2"The people I go after are cowards. They often prey upon the weaker members of society, such as women and children. There is nothing I would rather do than put the bastards away." - Elle Greenway
Season 1, Episode 5, “Broken Mirror”
The team investigated after one of a district attorney’s identical twin daughters was kidnapped, and her boyfriend killed in “Broken Mirror,” and they learned her abductor was also targeting the other twin. Despite the UnSub’s demands for ransom money, the team discovered he actually wanted both girls. The case got more complicated when the UnSub revealed knowledge about the team’s personal lives, leading them to believe he was part of the FBI.
Even though the job proved difficult, as Hotchner pointed out, for some,it was worth it to get the worst UnSubs off the streets. That included Elle (Lola Glaudini), who was dedicated to finding UnSubs and ensuring they couldn’t hurt anyone ever again. And although UnSubs could be brutal and terrifying, Elle saw them a little differently, she considered them cowards because of who they chose as victims, making her all the more determined to catch them.
1"Helps me go to sleep thinking of the victims we save. Don’t always beat the monsters to the babies, but we do enough to make the job worth it. Keep the nightmares bearable." - Jason Gideon
Season 1, Episode 10, “The Popular Kids”
In “The Popular Kids,” after two teenagers were killed in a small town, their deaths were thought to be related to a cult due to how the bodies were staged, but the team thought otherwise. The investigation shifted gears when a teenage girl went missing, and the UnSub was ultimately found to be a fellow teen whose crimes spiraled out of control, and who was the sheriff’s son. Meanwhile, Reid was experiencing a recurring nightmare.
Criminal Mindsoften featured cases that could be nightmare fuel, so it’s no wonder the characters were sometimes impacted and had trouble sleeping themselves. But for Gideon (Mandy Patinkin),it helped to focus on his own loved ones and the lives they saved by catching UnSubs, as opposed to the victims harmed, even if they couldn’t save every single person. To him, the lives they did save made the job worth it and kept the nightmares from taking over.
All 16 seasons ofCriminal Mindscan be streamed on Paramount+ in the U.S.
