Criminal Minds: 25 Best Spencer Reid Episodes

Summary

• Spencer Reid’s journey from socially awkward genius to beloved team member shows depth & growth.
• Reid’s pivotal moments include solving cases, battling addiction, & facing personal challenges.
• Reid’s complex relationships, vulnerabilities, & intellect make for memorable & compelling episodes.

Throughout the 15 seasons of Criminal Minds, fans met and fell in love with Dr. Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler), and many of the best episodes of the series double as some of the best Spencer Reid episodes of the show. Spencer Reid began his time on the show in the pilot episode as the youngest member of the Behavioral Analysis Unit. The team uses psychological profiles to analyze both victims of crimes and the unknown subjects who commit them. Reid became a valuable member of the team thanks to his eidetic memory, speed-reading skills, and puzzle-solving abilities.

Reid becoming a fan favorite might have seemed unlikely when he was a socially awkward and neurotic member of the show in the beginning. However, out of everyone on Criminal Minds, no one was a more well-rounded and complex character than Reid. Thanks to his quirks, insecurities, and tough life, he was a perfect member of the BAU to put front and center. Whenever a Reid-centric episode arrived, fans knew they were in for something special. Though he hasn’t appeared in Criminal Minds: Evolution yet, it’s likely the series will have episodes to rival the best Spencer Reid episodes when he does.

Conflicted

Season 4, Episode 20

“Conflicted” is an apt title for this episode because, years later, the Criminal Minds fandom is conflicted on the portrayal of Dissociative Identity Disorder in the episode. What is great, however, is how involved Reid is in this particular story. It’s Reid who actually figures out that the unknown subject of the episode has DID in the first place. While the rest of the team is so focused on finding someone who fits their profile exactly, it’s Reid who realizes that Adam is missing chunks of his memory and exhibits signs of someone with DID.

It turns out that Adam’s second personality is actually the unsub, and that personality eventually becomes the dominant personality by the end of the episode. While Reid uncovers that truth, it’s also Reid who bookends the episode attempting to interview Amanda, the persona of Adam’s that committed the murders in the hour. Reid, the episode implies, has been periodically checking in on Amanda with the hope of getting Adam to reemerge, but has not had luck. The episode demonstrates Reid’s commitment to helping people who became criminals in ways that might not entirely be their fault.

Rock Creek Park

Season 10, Episode 19

It’s a great episode for showing how he’s changed, but how his character is still the same at his core.

One of the reasons this is one of the best Reid episodes of Criminal Minds isn’t because Reid is at the center of the action, but because he’s not. Reid actually spends most of the episode separated from the rest of the team while they investigate. He ends up helping with the surveillance of members of Russian organized crime who are suspected of kidnapping a congressman’s wife on someone else’s orders.

Reid gets to show just how far he’s progressed in social interactions since the beginning of the series. While he is still a little awkward, even spoiling the ending of a classic novel his surveillance partner is reading, he is making much more of an effort to find common ground with people and engage compared to his very first season on the show. It’s a great episode for showing how he’s changed, but how his character is still the same at his core.

After all, Reid is also someone who has a hard time standing idly by while someone they’re surveilling is in danger. He’s also someone whose attention to detail and near photographic memory means that he’s developed an interest in learning languages. He switches between speaking English, Russian, and even Yoruba in the episode, giving a nice look at how he’s been expanding his mind.

Spencer

Season 12, Episode 13

Having a character being framed for murder seems to be a rite of passage in crime procedurals. Due to the long-running nature of Criminal Minds, it’s happened more than once, and in this season 12 episode, it’s Spencer Reid’s turn to face the false accusations. The episode is a crossover with the shortlived spinoff Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders as it is set in Mexico.

While in Mexico, Reid finds himself having lost chunks of time due to drugs in his system and it’s hard for the team to figure out just what he’s been up to and if he’s really innocent. It’s great to see Reid going through many of the same processes that the team uses for witnesses and survivors, trying to piece together what happened himself while authorities hold him and the team investigates.

Though the team is able to get him transferred to their custody because he’s a US citizen and so is the person he’s accused of murdering, he’s still on the hook for a horrible crime. The episode ends on a cliffhanger, leaving the audience invested in Reid’s future and freedom.

Jones

Season 2, Episode 18

It’s clearly meant to be a turning point for him…

Reid is not the primary focus of this episode, but he has an important part of his story arc play out here. “Jones” sees the team travel to New Orleans to investigate a killer who had seemingly been inactive for 15 years, but had written a letter about their latest victim to a detective who had already died, but whose son had become a detective as well.

While the case is going on (and JJ is meeting Will for the first time), Reid is reconnecting with a childhood friend who had once considered joining the FBI as well. His friend immediately clocks that Reid has a substance abuse problem, even if he doesn’t know exactly what it is. It’s the culmination of the behavior he’s exhibited in the last two episodes, snapping at Prentiss and ignoring the advice of his teammates in general. He skips a flight that he’s supposed to take to help investigate a lead in Texas.

Reid finally admits that he’s struggling after the talk with his friend in a great scene with Gideon at the end of the episode. Gideon tells him that he’s considered walking away from the job before because it can get to him, but Reid promises he’ll never miss a flight again. It’s clearly meant to be a turning point for him, and while some fans have argued that Reid’s addiction storyline is too short, it’s one that gets referenced repeatedly throughout the series. This isn’t the only time he struggles, but this episode really set the stage for him.

The Uncanny Valley

Season 5, Episode 12

While Reid is often integral in helping to solve the case by following patterns in the evidence, he isn’t always the person who actually talks the unknown subject down from doing something drastic. He does in this episode.

The episode follows the team as they investigate an unknown subject who “collects” women who she then can use as stand-ins for the dolls her daughter gave away as a child. Because of her own background of abuse by her father and her own mental health struggles, she believes collecting her dolls again can help her regain some of the control in her life. She doesn’t set out to hurt anyone, but more than one of her “dolls” die from the drugs she uses to control them.

It’s Reid who figures out that her father gives away toys as gifts to the patients he assaults. It’s also Reid who is sent in to talk to the young woman in the middle of a tea party with her new dolls. He’s able to make sure she doesn’t hurt anyone and go with authorities with the promise of her recovered set of dolls. It shows how well Reid is at understanding the unknown subjects who have been victims themselves.

Somebody’s Watching

Season 1, Episode 18

“Somebody’s Watching” was a first-season episode with Reid still building a friendship with Gideon. This episode showed the two agents at a profiling seminar when they were asked to consult on a series of murders. A stalker had targeted a Hollywood actress, and she developed an attraction to Reid that he reciprocated. This put Reid in danger when the stalker came for him. It is rare to find Reid crossing into a romantic situation, especially early in the show, and his awkwardness is always charming when it does happen in the earlier episodes of the series.

This episode also marks one of Amber Heard’s earliest roles as she plays the actress Reid is tasked with protecting. The two have great chemistry, and it’s a great hint of how talented Heard and Gubler are at early points in their respective acting careers.

Saturday

Season 15, Episode 4

Criminal Minds fans will most likely think of the best Spencer Reid episodes as those that center him in the main story, but that’s not the case in “Saturday.” While the rest of the team was working, Reid was tasked by his psychologist to have a conversation with a person outside the dark subject matter of his job, and he struck up a conversation with Rachael Leigh Cook’s Maxine at the park when he encountered her nephew.

Max and Reid hit it off and end up spending the day together, which is unusual for Reid. The episode allows the audience to see a more playful side of Reid, something that hadn’t been present in the show for a long time as the weight of his job settled on his shoulders. Though his is the B storyline of the episode, it provided Reid with a new relationship and some growth for him near the end of the series.

Sex Birth Death

Season 2, Episode 11

In the second season episode “Sex Birth Death,” a vigilante is killing prostitutes to help clean up the streets. However, the more interesting part of this Criminal Minds episode about Reid is a young man who approached him to help him understand the murderous urges he has suffered throughout his entire life.

This makes the young man look like he is the killer, but the truth is that he isn’t. It seems that broken people gravitate toward Reid and in this case, Reid shows up in time to save him after he slit his wrists to try to stop the urges. It is a tragic episode and one that has developed Reid as someone who wants to help people, not put them away.

The real tragedy is that so many of these characters who Reid vows to help don’t get to appear in the series again. The audience certainly would have loved to see how Reid might have been able to maintain relationships with characters like this one.

The Instincts

Season 4, Episode 6

Reid’s biggest struggle in life is his relationship with his mother. In “The Instincts,” that relationship hits one of his biggest breaking points. A young boy is kidnapped and while the team is investigating, Reid begins having nightmares that start to pull up repressed memories from Reid’s childhood.

These nightmares are about a dead boy, and this reminds him of his childhood imaginary friend, Riley Jenkins. Morgan helps him understand this better when he reveals that Riley was a real missing child. That is when Reid dreams about the child again and this time sees his dad, which leads to some huge moments in later episodes that almost breaks Reid completely.

This episode works as a great hint at what’s to come with Reid. Because Criminal Minds is an ensemble series and doesn’t have time to delve into every single character in every episode, bits of backstory are revealed throughout the series, providing whole pictures of the characters over a longer amount of time. This episode fills in some of those gaps for Reid.

Amplification

Season 4, Episode 24

For many of the Reid episodes of the series, Reid is the person focused on analysis and research, not the person in the field jumping in front of someone in danger and making big sacrifices. In “Amplification,” however, Reid did both – to a degree – which is why it’s one of his better episodes, even if the idea of biological warfare isn’t usually the style of episode that Criminal Minds fans are most engaged with.

Here, Reid ended up exposed to a fatal strain of anthrax while investigating just who could have released it in the park. Rather than allow the authorities to treat him immediately, he sealed himself in the unsub’s house and went through all of his research.

Reid refused to wear any kind of protective gear since he was already exposed, and his work helped to make sure that the team found the right person and a treatment. His logical approach to the possibility of his death from exposure was offset by the more emotional reactions of the team members, making for some great team interactions as well.

52 Pickup

Season 4, Episode 9

The Criminal Minds fourth season episode “52 Pickup” allows Reid to find another love interest, if only for the one episode. In this case, it is a bartender that Reid hits on by using the magic trick of pulling a card with his number on it from behind her ear. It is quirky moments like this that made Reid such a fan favorite. It also shows that Reid maintains his particular interest in illusion and sleight of hand throughout the show as he continues to use this same skill in different ways throughout the show.

As for the episode, there was a man gutting women and then forcing them to clean up the blood before he finally killed them. The case isn’t what makes it a good Reid story though. What made this such a great Spencer Reid episode was him getting a chance to flirt with the woman, even if it only lasted for one episode.

Corazon

Season 6, Episode 12

In Season 6, “Corazon” was another important Criminal Minds episode about Reid. This was during the time when Reid’s headaches were getting worse, and they were getting in the way of his work. During the case of a serial killer in Miami, one of the suspects told Reid that he thought spirits caused the headaches.

This is a huge moment for Reid because he also learns his headaches are not caused by medical issues. Because of Reid’s logical nature, he doesn’t necessarily believe that spirits are causing him harm. Instead, he worries that he might be developing the same issues that have affected his mother her entire life, and that terrifies him because he doesn’t want that to interfere with his work or his ability to lead an independent life. Many of Reid’s later B storylines in the series focus on his own mental health, and this is really the start of that.

True Genius

Season 7, Episode 11

Reid spent most of this episode not in the field with his team, but in an office decoding letters sent by an unknown subject. The case the team took on was very similar to the unsolved Zodiac murders, complete with letters that didn’t appear to make much sense. While decoding the letters, however, Reid’s storyline focused on him turning 30 and having something of a quarter-life crisis as he wondered whether he was where he was supposed to be.

“True Genius” demonstrated a more vulnerable side of Reid as he considered whether he had done enough with his life

Reid turned to Prentiss to discuss the milestone age with her, and the fact that he could be doing more with his genius-level intellect. “True Genius” demonstrated a more vulnerable side of Reid as he considered whether he had done enough with his life, and it also showcased how much his team appreciated him as they celebrated his birthday after his momentary crisis.

L.D.S.K.

Season 1, Episode 6

After Criminal Minds got rolling, it was time for fans to get to know Reid a little better. While most of the team was adept at fieldwork, Reid was not ready for action outside of using his big brain to help solve crimes and figure out unsubs. In “L.D.S.K.,” that was shown when he was trying to get his gun qualification and failing before he ended up killing his first unsub, saving a room full of hostages.

It’s the first step in Reid being able to physically hold his own with the other members of his team in the field, and it’s also one of the earliest episodes to build his relationship with Hotch. While Reid and Hotch weren’t as close as other members of the team, Reid trusted him as a leader, and this episode proved that Hotch trusted Reid even when Reid didn’t trust himself.

Revelations

Season 2, Episode 15

One thing that remains twisted about Criminal Minds is how the show works over Reid, breaking him down over and over again. If something tragic is going to happen to a character, it’s more than likely going to be Reid. If someone is going to be tortured, it’s even more likely to be Reid (though Prentiss takes quite a few beatings in their line of work as well). The first time came in Season 2 when the terrifying serial killer Tobias Hankel kidnapped and tortured Reid.

Tobias had Dissociative Identity Disorder, with one of his manifesting personalities being the violent one. He forcibly injected Reid with the drug Dilaudid, which Reid ended up addicted to after his rescue. What hurt more was that Reid was unable to save Tobias, whom Reid felt bad for due to his inability to control his manifesting personality. Reid’s empathy shines through in this episode despite all the things done to him.

Damaged

Season 3, Episode 14

In Season 3, Reid has a hard time dealing with the fact that Gideon left without saying goodbye and feels the same rejection he felt as a child with his father leaving him and his mom. Feelings of rejection and abandonment are something Reid continues to deal with throughout the series as more teammates come and go. However, Reid pushes himself into his work and ends up once again saving Hotch in the episode “Damaged.”

In the episode, the unsub has Hotch and Reid and plans to kill them both, but Reid starts talking and delivers an impressive 13-minute lecture on the medical reasoning for the unsub’s behavior. The delay helps them survive, although Reid admitted he might have made up some of what he was saying. Even if he did, he demonstrates quick-thinking and a persuasive nature that he hones later in the series.

Elephant’s Memory

Season 3, Episode 16

In “Elephant’s Memory,” Reid is still affected by the fact that he couldn’t save Tobias Hankel in Season 2 and determined that he would help others who had been diagnosed with mental disorders like his, and those who hadn’t yet. When the team sets off after an unsub that Reid connects with, in “Elephant’s Memory,” he jumps into action.

Owen is a high school student who is bullied by both kids in his school and his father, a Deputy Sheriff. He finally snaps and starts to kill the people who pushed him for so many years. When Owen finally decides he will commit suicide by police, Reid steps between him and the police and talks him down. It’s one of Reid’s most powerful moments for talking a suspect down because he puts himself directly in the line of fire.

The Fisher King Part 1 And 2

Season 1, Episode 22 and Season 2, Episode 1

For starters, it’s “The Fisher King” that provided the audience with their first big dose of Reid backstory.

Two-part episodes aren’t as common in Criminal Minds as they are in other crime dramas, but these two make for some of the best early Spencer Reid episodes of the series. For starters, it’s “The Fisher King” that provided the audience with their first big dose of Reid backstory.

It’s in these episodes that information about Reid’s relationship with his mother and his mother’s schizophrenia were first revealed, which definitely helped the audience to get to know the character a lot better beyond the “boy genius” label of the first season.

Likewise, this episode also marked the first time puzzles and riddles were used so heavily in Criminal Minds, primarily by Reid. While most of the episodes focus solely on the psychology behind particular crimes, this two-parter also gave the audience a new kind of puzzle that was used sporadically throughout the series as some unsubs preferred to communicate in riddles.

Minimal Loss

Season 4, Episode 3

In Season 4, Criminal Minds took on the idea of a polygamist cult-like church in “Minimal Loss.” In this episode, Luke Perry starred as Benjamin Cyrus, the leader of the church and one of Criminal Minds’ most memorable unsubs. While the BAU was there to infiltrate the church and free young girls, it turned into a hostage situation when the members of the church refused to leave.

Reid and Prentiss were inside when the state police showed up, and a Branch Davidian-styled siege took place in one of Criminal Minds’ best Spencer Reid episodes. The episode was also a great one for Prenitss as she and Reid hadn’t been paired up much at this point in the show. The two developed a great rapport largely because of their work together here as she allowed Reid to maintain his cover while she took on the brunt of the anger from Cyrus for being there to spy on him.

Memoriam

Season 4, Episode 7

It took Reid a long time to open up to his teammates at the BAU about his personal life and problems, and that included his mother. Diana was a person with schizophrenia who was institutionalized. Reid had a fear that he would develop the same symptoms due to genetics. While he made every effort to get her the best medical treatment and to regularly visit her, he didn’t want to share her fate.

In “Memoriam,” one of Criminal Minds’ weirdest cases introduced Reid’s father, William. When Reid believed his dad might have killed someone, he learned something about his mom that changed everything. The episode built on the backstory for the character the audience already knew and made the family dynamic of the Reids even more interesting. Every time the show decided to pull back another layer of Reid’s history, the audience just wanted to know more.

God Complex

Season 8, Episode 4

In Season 6, Reid started suffering from headaches and was beginning to feel ill. He even started having hallucinations and believed that he was starting to lose his mind, the long-standing fear that mental illness was hereditary, and he was beginning to break. This lasted for a long time. By the time Season 8 rolled around, it looked like Reid was finally going to get help. In “God Complex,” he learned that there might be a treatment to help him.

The woman offering to help him was Maeve, and the two of them ended up in a romantic relationship. This episode, however, teased Maeve without ever completely showing her face and seeing her and Reid exchange secretive phone calls. It built up an air of mystery for her that would eventually pay off in an incredibly tragic way.

Zugzwang

Season 8, Episode 12

It seemed that Reid wasn’t allowed to remain happy for very long in Criminal Minds. Many of the best Spencer Reid episodes demonstrated that with tragedy. Just eight episodes after Maeve told Reid that she loved him, the woman that she was worried about stalking her attacked in “Zugzwang,” one of the best episodes in Criminal Minds history.

This was Diane Turner, played by Michelle Trachtenberg, who ended up killing herself and Maeve at the end of the episode despite Reid doing everything he could to save her. This broke Reid for the rest of Season 8, sending him on a path to learn how to deal with his grief.

Despite how sad the episode is to watch unfold, it became a fan-favorite because of how well acted it was. Between Gubler, Trachtenberg, and Beth Riesgraf as Maeve, there’s an immense amount of talent on display in the final confrontation. The audience likely knew that Maeve and Reid weren’t going to get a happy ending as soon as all three characters were in the same room.

Entropy

Season 11, Episode 1

Cat Adams, played by Aubrey Plaza, is a fan-favorite character and her interactions with Reid are part of the reason why. While Plaza is primarily known as a comedic actress, she plays the cold and calculating Cat very well. Cat and Reid are evenly matched when it comes to intellect and manipulation, so when the two are pitted against one another in this episode, it makes for an incredibly fun watch.

“Entropy” is the first time that Cat challenges Reid, but not the last. This episode sets her up as a recurring villain who personally challenges Reid, and that’s what makes it so fun. Her return later in the series might be a surprise to the audience, but it shouldn’t be because “Entropy” is such a standout episode, and one of the absolute best Spencer Reid episodes.

Red Light

Season 12, Episode 22

Moving ahead to Season 12, Reid became the center of attention for much of the season. In this season, Reid was arrested and ended up in prison. The charges were drug possession and intent to distribute, and he ended up behind bars, where his life was in danger.

In “Red Light,” it turned out that Reid’s old enemy Cat Adams set him up. What makes this one of the best Criminal Minds episodes is that Reid spends this episode in a battle of wits with her. It’s rare for anyone to be able to keep Reid on his toes, which is why the audience loves Cat Adams so much.

She only physically appears in a handful of episodes of the series, but she pulls a lot of strings when it comes to Reid, manipulating events to get under his skin or put him in danger. She makes for a fascinating nemesis for him, and it’s a shame the show didn’t have her actually appear opposite him more.

300

Season 14, Episode 1

The Season 13 finale had a significant cliffhanger where Reid was forced to help a double agent inside the FBI break a cult leader out of custody, or they would kill Penelope Garcia. This led to the Criminal Minds Season 14 premiere.

The cult kidnapped both Reid and Garcia, and it turned out the leader and cult was an offshoot of the one led by Benjamin Cyrus a decade before, bringing the show right back to one of its best episodes. They wanted revenge against Reid for his part in destroying it, and what resulted was one of the best Spencer Reid episodes of the entire series.

This

Criminal Minds

episode combined backstory for the character, connective tissue between seasons, placed Reid in very real danger and examined his relationships with his teammates

This Criminal Minds episode combined backstory for the character, connective tissue between seasons, placed Reid in very real danger, and examined his relationships with his teammates – all the hallmarks of the best Reid episodes.