Best episodes

Criminal Minds best episodes: the 15 that rank highest

15 episodes from seasons 1–11Reviewed Oct 22, 2026

These 15 are the episodes outside rankings agree on most. Two make every list we read: season 5, episode 9, the show’s 100th episode, and season 6, episode 18. Season 5, episode 9 also shares IMDb users’ top score for the series with season 11, episode 11: 9.2 out of 10 as of October 22, 2026. We give season and episode numbers only, because this show’s titles often give the case away.

See the 15 episodes ↓Criminal Minds: all episodes and paths →

Choose your route

01 Just the listFifteen episodes, by number, with no titles.02 Dipping in?Which ones need earlier episodes first.03 Want the story instead?The Essentials path: 178 of 364.

Coverage & selection notes

A round-up of outside rankings, reviewed October 22, 2026. It is not BingePath’s own cut: it counts how often five editorial lists and IMDb users agree. “Best” here means most praised, which is not the same as essential. A few of these are one-off cases the ongoing story doesn’t need, and our Essentials path keeps many episodes no list mentions. Episode numbers follow the original airing order, which IMDb and TVmaze share. IMDb ratings change as votes come in; these were read on October 22, 2026.

The 15 episodes outside rankings agree on

The 15 episodes outside rankings agree on
Episode	Why it ranks	Lists (of 5) · IMDb	In the Essentials path?
Season 5, episode 9	The 100th episode, and the high point of the Reaper story. It tops WatchMojo’s list and makes the top three on Slashfilm’s, Looper’s and ScreenRant’s.	5 · 9.2	Yes
Season 6, episode 18	Directed by Matthew Gray Gubler, and the high point of season 6’s story about Prentiss’s past. Looper ranks it first, and both Looper and Slashfilm praise Paget Brewster’s performance.	5 · 8.7	Yes
Season 11, episode 11	Close to a two-hander: Reid in a battle of wits with Aubrey Plaza’s guest character, much of it across one table. Slashfilm likens it to a short film and ranks it second.	4 · 9.2	Yes
Season 2, episode 15	The second half of a two-part case, and one of the most important hours for Reid. Slashfilm credits Matthew Gray Gubler’s performance and the guest star’s.	4 · 8.9	Yes
Season 8, episode 12	The peak of a Reid story that builds quietly through the first half of season 8. Slashfilm singles out Matthew Gray Gubler’s performance.	4 · 8.6	Yes
Season 3, episode 8	A grim case in Florida, with a side story about Morgan’s faith. WatchMojo ranks it fifth.	4 · 8.2	Yes
Season 2, episode 12	A trip home to Chicago puts Morgan under suspicion, and the team sets out to clear him. Slashfilm wishes Shemar Moore had more hours like it.	4 · 8.2	Yes
Season 5, episode 16	Matthew Gray Gubler’s first episode as director: a child-abduction case. ScreenRant ranks it first of its 10, and WatchMojo second.	3 · 8.9	No
Season 1, episode 14	A race against an execution date, led by Mandy Patinkin’s Gideon. All three lists that name it put it in their top ten.	3 · 8.7	No
Season 3, episode 9	An hour built around Garcia, the team’s technical analyst, with Kirsten Vangsness at the centre. ScreenRant ranks it fourth.	3 · 8.7	Yes
Season 2, episode 1	Part two of a story that starts in the season 1 finale: a puzzle-driven case that pulls in the whole team. Slashfilm ranks it first of 25.	3 · 8.7	Yes
Season 10, episode 21	Directed by Matthew Gray Gubler: murders in three states, and three suspects who tell the same strange story.	3 · 8.7	Yes
Season 2, episode 11	Anton Yelchin guest-stars as a troubled teenager, and Slashfilm singles out his performance.	3 · 8.5	No
Season 8, episode 24	The second hour of the season 8 finale, which aired as two episodes on one night. A thread that runs through the whole season comes to a head here.	3 · 8.2	Yes
Season 1, episode 22	The season 1 finale, and part one of the story that season 2, episode 1 finishes. Two of the three lists that name the story count both halves.	2 · 8.5	Yes

The table is ordered by how many of the five lists name an episode, then by IMDb rating. It is a count of agreement, not our verdict, and the ratings are as of October 22, 2026.

Nine more episodes have an IMDb rating of 8.5 or higher, but no more than one list names any of them: season 9, episode 24 (8.7); season 4, episodes 1 and 18 (8.6 each); season 15, episode 6 (8.6); season 3, episode 20 (8.5); season 7, episode 24 (8.5); season 13, episode 22 (8.5); and both halves of the season 4 finale, episodes 25 and 26 (8.5 and 8.7, though the second half has far fewer votes).

We leave titles out on purpose. In Criminal Minds a title often names the case, the killer or the turn it takes. The season pages list them if you want them.

How we built the list

We read five editorial rankings in full: Slashfilm (25 episodes, updated March 2026), Looper (15, October 2025), ScreenRant (10, July 2024), Den of Geek (10, January 2023) and WatchMojo (20, no date shown). Where a list names a two-part story as one entry, we counted both halves.

An episode is here if at least three of the five lists name it, or if two do and IMDb users rate it 8.5 or higher. Fourteen episodes clear the first bar. The season 1 finale is the only one that clears the second.

IMDb ratings are IMDb’s own figures, taken from its public data files on October 22, 2026. Every episode in the table had at least 2,000 votes.

We left out lists we could read only in part, lists limited to one character or one season, and fan polls whose votes we couldn’t see. Ten of the 15 come from the first five seasons, and none is later than season 11.

Can you watch them out of order?

Mostly. Criminal Minds runs on cases of the week, and five of these are complete cases you can drop into knowing only who the team is: season 1, episode 14; season 2, episodes 11 and 12; season 5, episode 16; and season 10, episode 21.

Six come in pairs that follow straight on from one episode to the next, so watch each pair together: season 1, episode 22 then season 2, episode 1; season 2, episode 14 then 15; season 3, episode 8 then 9; and season 8, episode 23 then 24. That last pair also brings a thread that runs through all of season 8 to a head.

Three are the high points of longer stories and lose most of their force on their own. Season 5, episode 9 is the peak of the Reaper story, which starts in season 4, episode 18. Season 6, episode 18 is the peak of a Prentiss story that starts in season 6, episode 13. Season 8, episode 12 is the peak of a Reid story that starts in season 8, episode 4.

Season 11, episode 11 works as a single hour, but it sits inside a thread that runs through season 11, so some of it lands harder in order.

Best is not the same as essential

Our Essentials path keeps 178 of the 364 episodes: the ones the ongoing story depends on, with notes that stay hidden until you reach them. Twelve of these 15 are in it.

The other three, season 1, episode 14, season 2, episode 11 and season 5, episode 16, are complete cases the larger story doesn’t need. That is why the path leaves them out, and why they are worth adding back if you want the show at its best.

The path also keeps plenty of episodes no list mentions, because later seasons build on them.