List of Criminal Minds characters

This is a list of characters in the television series Criminal Minds, an American police procedural drama that premiered September 22, 2005, on CBS and that is also shown on A&E and ion Television in the United States. Criminal Minds consists of ten seasons and 232 episodes as of April 29, 2015.

Main characters

Aaron Hotchner

Played by Thomas Gibson, Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) and Unit Chief Aaron "Hotch" Hotchner used to be a prosecutor and was formerly assigned to the FBI field office in Seattle. After stepping down for a period of time, he returned to lead the unit. He has a son named Jack (Cade Owens) by his deceased wife Haley (Meredith Monroe). The two eventually divorced and remained on good terms until Haley was murdered by George Foyet (C. Thomas Howell), Aaron's Nemesis. Aaron's attempts to balance his family life and his job have been something of an ongoing struggle on the show. But in the episodes "Closing Time," "A Family Affair," and "Run," it is shown that he has moved on and is currently in a romantic relationship with Beth Clemmons (Bellamy Young). HIs nickname (Hotch) turned into "Hotchscotch" by JJ's son Henry.

Derek Morgan

Played by Shemar Moore, SSA Derek Morgan is a confident and assertive everyman character, the son of an African-American father and white mother. He went to Northwestern University on a football scholarship, holds a black belt in judo, runs FBI self-defense classes, and served in a bomb squad unit and as a Chicago police officer. In season 2 it was explained that after the death of his father when he was ten, Derek struggled somewhat: youthful fighting earned him a juvenile offender record. He was taken under the wing of a local youth center coordinator, Carl Buford (Julius Tennon), who acted as a surrogate father to Derek and helped him to obtain a college football scholarship. But he also sexually abused him; the episode "Profiler, Profiled" revealed this. In season 3, it was revealed that he hated religion because, as he said, something bad happened to him when he was 13. He went to church every day and prayed for it to stop, but it didn't. Because of this, he had a resentment towards God and church. He prayed for the first time in 20 years at exactly the time, he later found out, that Penelope Garcia was being operated on after being shot. Former unit chief Aaron Hotchner promoted him to unit chief in Aaron's place, a promotion Derek saw as only temporary until the "Boston Reaper" was captured. Aaron again took his place as unit chief when he returned after grieving over his ex-wife's murder.

Jennifer Jareau

Played by A.J. Cook, SSA Jennifer "JJ" Jareau originally acted as the team's liaison with the media and local police agencies. She has a son named Henry (Mekhai Andersen) with detective William LaMontagne, Jr. (Josh Stewart), whom she met while the team was working a case in New Orleans in the season 2 episode "Jones" and married at the end of the season 7 two-part finale, "Hit and Run." In the second episode of season 6, JJ was forced to take a promotion to the Pentagon and left the team for the rest of the season. Jennifer returned to the show in the episode entitled "Lauren," in which she receives a call and returns to help the BAU find Emily Prentiss and capture Ian Doyle before it's too late. When Emily is stabbed by Doyle and rushed to a hospital, Jennifer announces she didn't survive. However, it is later revealed that Emily is alive and Jennifer meets her at a cafe in Paris, where she provides her with three passports and bank accounts to start a new life in hiding. She returned once again in the season finale for the sixth season before returning as a full-time cast member once again in season 7. Jennifer is now a professional profiler. She shows great skills in the field when it comes to her family and protecting other children. In 2015, the actress announced she was expecting her second child, but it is to be determined whether or not it is incorporated into the show.

Spencer Reid

Played by Matthew Gray Gubler, SSA Dr. Spencer Reid is a genius who graduated from Las Vegas High School at age 12. He is almost always introduced as Dr. Reid, even though the others are introduced as agents, because SSA Jason Gideon understood that people would not otherwise take Spencer seriously because of his young age. After an introduction, he never shakes hands. It has been revealed that he holds Ph.D.s in Mathematics, Chemistry, and Engineering, B.A.s in Psychology and Sociology, and is working on a B.A. in Philosophy. He claims to have an eidetic memory, and hints that he could one day suffer from schizophrenia, since his mother does. ^E408 Matthew Gray Gubler confirmed that Reid has Asperger's Syndrome.^[1] Reid has also said that he was bullied when he was younger

Penelope Garcia

Played by Kirsten Vangsness, Penelope Garcia is the team's Technical Analyst at BAU headquarters in Quantico. She is flamboyant and fun-loving and provides the rest of the team with comic relief whenever it is needed. She got her last name from her stepfather—hence the Latina implication—but she is not Hispanic. She was shot and almost killed in season 3. She and SSA Morgan share a very friendly-flirty relationship but never go beyond that, although Penelope shows mild jealousy when she sees him dancing with two other women, and he responds negatively when asked for proposal advice by her boyfriend, Kevin Lynch. Penelope lost both of her parents at the age of 18. Penelope taught herself to hack after she dropped out of college and was grouped with the best hackers in the world. After being caught by the FBI, she was given a choice of living in a high-security prison for the rest of her life or working for the BAU division of the FBI as an analyst. She is in a relationship with fellow FBI employee Kevin Lynch. When Jennifer Jareau leaves the BAU for a promotion to a position at the Pentagon, Garcia takes up her responsibilities as media liaison and retains this position when JJ returns to the BAU as a profiler.

David Rossi

Played by Joe Mantegna, Senior SSA David Rossi, a "'founding father' of the BAU," was in early retirement until his voluntary return to the BAU in 2007, replacing Jason Gideon, who had abruptly resigned from the BAU. He had retired in order to write books and go on lecture tours, but he returned to settle some unfinished business that was not immediately specified. It was later revealed that the case involved three young children whose parents had been murdered in a possible home-invasion case that had remained unsolved. This case haunted Rossi for twenty years and prompted him to return to the BAU, where he eventually solved it.

Kate Callahan

Played by Jennifer Love Hewitt, Kate Callahan has been in the FBI for eight years and has experience as an undercover agent, which has allowed her to establish a prior friendship with members of the BAU. Her sister and brother-in-law were killed in the September 11 attacks, leaving Kate as the legal guardian of their infant daughter, Meg, whom she raised for thirteen years along with her husband. This tragedy shaped her patriotic attitude. She is described as "smart, charming, and wise for her years" and holds a passion for making the world safer, according to showrunner Erica Messer. In the episode "Breath Play", Kate reveals she is pregnant.

Former

Jason Gideon

Played by Mandy Patinkin, Senior SSA Jason Gideon was the BAU's best profiler. He helped Derek Morgan and Spencer Reid through their nightmares. He was shown to have a very close relationship with Reid, having hand-picked him from the FBI Academy for his team, helping Reid through many difficulties (including his implied drug use), and even leaving the good-bye letter for Reid to find. Gideon did not know Garcia well, as expressed through an episode wherein he is placed with her while he is on crutches; after they are placed, Garcia complains about him, and he doesn't know her name. Through the first two seasons, Gideon was portrayed to be very good at chess, winning against Reid many times (only exception being Reid's birthday^E104) and encouraging him to "think outside the box." Prior to the series, he was said to have had a "nervous breakdown" (or "major depressive episode") after he sent six men into a warehouse with a bomb in it; all six agents were killed, and he was heavily criticized about the event. He showed particular dislike for the practice of using religion as a defense or motivation for one's crimes. Gideon participated in some field operations during his time with the BAU and had the rest of his team "think outside the box" as well, as he made a major advancement by shouting at the top of his lungs with pleas of mercy and, when questioned by his team, he said that the victims were being threatened to be kept quiet as neighbors would have heard the pleas if they were unrestrained. He blamed himself for the torture Reid received from Tobias Hankel as he had ordered Penelope Garcia to add a virus warning to the videos Hankel posted.^E215 Gideon also had a son named Stephen.^E111 The nature of their relationship has not been directly stated, but it was implied that they have not seen each other very recently. Gideon began to lose confidence in his profiling skills after Frank Breitkopf murdered his girlfriend, Sarah Jacobs. During his final case in Arizona, he further lost faith in his abilities when his decision to release the unsub resulted in the deaths of both the unsub and a young woman. As a result of his actions, Aaron Hotchner was suspended, which was the final straw for Gideon. He then left his cabin shortly afterwards, leaving his gun and badge behind along with a letter for Reid to find as he sought to regain a belief in happy endings.

In the season 10 episode "Nelson's Sparrow", it is revealed that Gideon is dead, having been shot dead at a close range by a serial killer named Donnie Mallick which prompts the BAU team to investigate Gideon's murder. During the flashbacks focusing on a young version of him for the episode which show him working at the BAU in 1978, he is played by Ben Savage.

Elle Greenaway

Played by Lola Glaudini, SSA Elle Greenaway was formerly assigned to FBI Field Office in Seattle, Washington and was assigned to the BAU, being an expert in sexual offense crimes. Her father was a police officer but was killed in the line of duty. She is half Cuban and speaks Spanish. She was shot by an unsub.^E122 Though she had physically recovered, the event still left her with psychological scars.^E201

As a result of those scars, Elle began acting even more harshly in Season 2, especially during a case involving a serial rapist.^E205 Ultimately, she killed the suspect before he could even be properly arrested.^E205 During this episode she mentioned that the unsub wrote on the wall with her blood from the wound.^E205 She handed in her badge and gun in the episode "The Boogeyman" saying that it was not an admission of guilt.

Ashley Seaver

Played by Rachel Nichols, Cadet Ashley Seaver is an FBI cadet assigned to the BAU. Her father, Charles Beauchamp, was a horrific serial killer from North Dakota known as "the Redmond Ripper" who killed 25 women over the course of 10 years before Ashley was a teenager. He was caught by David Rossi and Aaron Hotchner. Because North Dakota doesn't have capital punishment, he was sentenced to life in prison. She hasn't been to see him. Though he writes to her sometimes, she never reads his letters, though she does keep them and admittedly still finds herself unable to hate him for what he did. In the episode "What Happens at Home", the BAU investigate a series of murders in a gated community and bring Ashley along because of her understanding of the family dynamics of a serial killer. In the end, the suspect commits suicide by cop in front of her. In the next episode, she requests that the rest of her remedial training be done with the BAU and is attached to the team. In the season seven premiere "It Takes a Village", it was revealed that Ashley transferred to the Domestic Trafficking Task Force, which is led by Andi Swann.

Emily Prentiss

Played by Paget Brewster, SSA Emily Prentiss is the daughter of an ambassador and a U.S. diplomat. After Agent Elle Greenaway left the BAU permanently following a case when she had shot an unsub in cold blood, Prentiss showed up with papers stating she was the newest member of the BAU which caught both Hotch and Gideon off-guard as they hadn't signed off on her transfer. She became a permanent member of the team in "Lessons Learned" where it was revealed that she was fluent in Arabic. She also has a tough relationship with her mother. She got pregnant at the age of 15 and later chose to have an abortion. Prentiss is also skilled at chess. In 6x13 ("The Thirteenth Step"), Prentiss receives some disturbing news from her previous boss at Interpol. In the following episode, "Sense Memory", after coming home from work, she notices that someone had been in her house because her cat's back was wet and her window was open. She also received several strange phone calls, with the caller ID saying "Caller Unknown". This also leaves Agent Morgan concerned for Prentiss. Prentiss only appeared in 18 episodes of season 6. She faked her death to escape an old nemesis with the help of both Hotch and JJ while the rest of the team continued to assume she was dead. In season 7 premiere ("It Takes a Village"), Emily returns to the team when Doyle resurfaces and she rejoins by the end of the episode. At the end of the season, she leaves the team to run Interpol in London.

Dr. Alex Blake

Played by Jeanne Tripplehorn, FBI Linguistics expert Alex Blake replaces SSA Emily Prentiss. She is introduced in Season 8. Her appointment at the BAU was met with some mixed reactions as the team was close to Prentiss. She joined the BAU to restore her reputation after Blake was blamed for arresting the wrong suspect in the Amerithrax case and Section Chief Erin Strauss let her take the fall. As a result, she and Strauss do not get along, with Strauss accusing her of joining for selfish reasons, but they eventually make amends. The rest of the team recognize her expertise and are generally less antagonistic towards her. As Season 8 progressed, Blake found herself in danger when she was threatened by a serial killer, 'The Replicator', who turned out to be John Curtis: a fellow former FBI agent disgraced due to the events of the Amerithrax case, who targeted Blake out of envy that she had restored her reputation while his own was still in ruins. Curtis killed Strauss, kidnapped Blake, and tried to blow up the entire BAU team, but the team rescued her, and Rossi locked Curtis in the house to die when the bomb exploded as vengeance for Strauss's death.

Blake graduated from Berkeley with a double major and also holds a PhD. She was recruited to the FBI at the age of 24, making her one of at least two team members to join the Bureau in their early 20s along with Spencer Reid. Blake is also a professor of forensic linguistics at Georgetown, where Reid had previously guest lectured, and an SSA in the Washington field office. During her initial time at the FBI, Blake was involved in some high-profile cases, particularly the Unabomber case.^[2] Blake understands and speaks American Sign Language.^[3]

In the Season 9 episode "Bully", it is revealed that Blake is estranged from her father Damon (a retired police captain of the Kansas City Police Department) and younger brother Scott (a current homicide detective there himself); after the death of her older brother Danny (a cop killed in the line of duty) and her mother, she found it too painful to be near her father and brother, and distanced herself from them. However, after Scott is injured by the UnSub, the two siblings start to reconnect, and by the end of the episode, she reconciles with both Scott and Damon when she and the rest of the BAU team have a barbecue at her father's home.

In the Season 9 two-part finale, "Angels" and "Demons", Blake becomes distraught and depressed when Reid is shot in the neck by the UnSub after pushing Blake out of the way and nearly dies, even commenting that it should have been her who was shot instead. She is also further upset when rescuing a young boy who was being used by the UnSub as leverage against his mother. Though Reid survives, Alex is greatly shaken by the case, and reveals to Reid that both he and the young boy reminded her of her deceased son Ethan, who died of an unnamed neurological disease at age 9. Her guilt and distress over Reid's brush with death touched a major nerve with her, seemingly pushing her to the breaking point. At the end of the "Demons", she sits apart from the rest of the group on the plane ride home, and it is implied that she sends a text message to Hotch handing in her resignation. After taking Reid home, telling him about Ethan, and departing, Reid finds her FBI badge in his bag, and watches her leave, saddened but accepting, from his window.

Recurring characters

Current

Agent Grant Anderson

Played by Brian Appel, Agent Anderson appears in "Plain Sight" (1x04),"The Fisher King" (1x22 and 2x01), "The Big Game" (2x14), as well as "Honor Among Thieves" (2x20), "The Crossing" (3x18), "100" (5x09), "The Slave of Duty" (5x10), "Hope" (7x08), "Hit" (7x23), "Run" (7x24), "Carbon Copy" (8x16), "The Replicator" (8x24), "To Bear Witness" (9x04), and "200" (9x14). Agent Anderson was told to drive Elle home in "The Fisher King", and he dropped her off at her front door and left. She was soon shot by The Fisher King, as he had already been there, waiting for her. Hotch scolds Anderson briefly for not doing more, and quickly sends him back to the scene of the crime.

Agent Josh Cramer

Played by Gonzalo Menendez, Agent Josh Cramer runs the FBI Field Office in Baltimore, Maryland, as well as the Organized Crime division in that city. The two episodes which take place in Baltimore, "Natural Born Killer" (1x08) and "Honor Among Thieves" (2x20) both have him liaising with the BAU.

Diana Reid

As played by Jane Lynch, Diana Reid is Dr. Spencer Reid's mother. She first appeared as a potential target of serial killer Randall Garner, the man who shot SSA Elle Greenaway.^E122 Like her son, Diana has a genius level IQ. She was once a university literature professor, but is no longer since her diagnosis of schizophrenia. She currently resides at the Las Vegas-based Bennington Sanitarium, where Spencer committed her when he was eighteen. Her husband, William Reid, left her when Spencer was a child. The reason William left is because he was aware Diana witnessed a murder, as a family friend avenged his own son's murder. He was unable to live with this knowledge though he claims he tried; he said "the weight of knowing what happened was just too much." Much of Diana and Spencer's time while he was growing up was spent with her reading to him. Spencer writes her a letter every single day because he feels guilty about not visiting her.

Kevin Lynch

Played by Nicholas Brendon, Kevin was Penelope Garcia's replacement when she was briefly suspended and hospitalized.^E309 He is a former hacker like her, but he is far messier. Garcia is denied access to her system during her suspension from the BAU. Kevin takes over in the interim. He is immediately impressed with the system she has set up and her GUI. Garcia attempts to hack into the database under his watch. Kevin is unable to block her. They are each impressed with the others work, but Garcia establishes dominance. When they finally meet face-to-face, they fall in love instantly. Kevin remains in awe of Garcia. They've developed a dating relationship in spite of Garcia's 'special' relationship/mutual admiration with Agent Morgan. This is revealed at the beginning of Damaged, when Agent Rossi shows up at Garcia's apartment only to find the quirky twosome showering together.^E314 In the season six finale Supply & Demand, they profess their love for each other.

William LaMontagne Jr.

Played by Josh Stewart, LaMontagne is the husband of Special Agent Jennifer Jareau. He is a homicide detective who worked for the New Orleans Police Department and is now with the Metro PD. In the Season 2 episode "Jones", it is revealed that his father William Sr. was a detective himself in the NOPD and was killed during Hurricane Katrina as he was working a case in his home and refused to leave during the mass evacuations. The case later resurfaced and LaMontagne enlisted the help of the BAU.^E218 While they were there, he and JJ became romantically involved, although he wasn't mentioned again until "In Heat". In that episode, he was brought to Miami where the unsub had killed a friend and colleague of his. During the episode, it was revealed that he and JJ had been secretly contacting each other since "Jones". JJ didn't want to reveal their relationship since she believed it would complicate their personal lives, but in the end, they went public with it. At the end of the episode, it is revealed that Prentiss, Morgan and Reid already knew about it. In the episode "The Crossing", JJ discovered she was pregnant and they have a boy named Henry. The actual status of JJ and Will's relationship (engaged, married, etc.) has not been disclosed, though they exchanged rings with Henry's birthstone in season 4. In the season 3 finale, it is revealed that he transferred to Metro to move to Virginia to be with JJ and raise Henry together. To conclude Season 7, he and JJ marry in a small ceremony in David Rossi's back yard.

The character was written back in after A.J. Cook told the writers she was pregnant, and as such JJ needed a love interest. In addition, one of the original plans for the season seven finale was to kill off Will. However, this idea was scrapped due to Paget's impending departure.

Jack Hotchner

Played by Cade Owens, Jack Hotchner is the son of series regular Aaron Hotchner, his first appearance being in "The Fox". His mother, Haley Hotchner, is killed in season 5 by George Foyet (a.k.a. "The Boston Reaper") but is spared when his father gives him a secret signal to "work the case" (hide in the trunk in Hotch's office). It is shown in Season 7's episode "Painless" that Jack is being bullied. Jack is shown to have become good friends with Beth Clemmons, his father's new girlfriend.

Mateo Cruz

Played by Esai Morales, Cruz is the new Section Chief of the BAU. All that is known about him is that he worked at the Pentagon prior to Season Nine and has a past with JJ.

It was revealed in "200" that the two had worked on a task force together in the Middle East. He was the only person to know of her pregnancy and her miscarriage during her time on the task force. In the same episode, they are both kidnapped by Tavin Askari, who was a traitor within the task force. They are both physically and mentally tortured into giving the access codes given to them during the mission. He is shocked to discover that Michael Hastings, one of the men they had worked with on the task force, was the mastermind behind the plan and threatened to rape JJ in order to give him the access codes. He gives in and is later stabbed by Askari, who was quickly killed by Hotch. Cruz is taken to the hospital following the incident but survives. Cruz later appears in the season 9 finale "Demons" where he accepts a case from the sheriff who is a personal friend. When the sheriff is killed and Reid is shot, both Cruz and Garcia fly to Texas to meet with the rest of the team.

Former

Erin Strauss

Played by Jayne Atkinson, Erin Strauss was the BAU Section Chief, the direct superior to SSA Aaron Hotchner. Her job lies in administration, and she has little field experience. Strauss becomes more prominent in Season Eight. It is revealed in "The Silencer" that the newest member of the BAU team, Alex Blake, worked with her during the Amerithrax case, during which Strauss left her to take the fall when a linguistics flub led to the arrest of the wrong suspect. As a result, Blake did not get along with her afterwards. At the end of "The Silencer", Strauss tries apologizing to her, but Blake turns Strauss down. In "Carbon Copy", she specifically oversees the investigation into the Replicator, and by the end of the episode, she apologizes to Blake again, and this time, her apology is accepted. In "Brothers Hotchner", she is abducted by the Replicator, later revealed to be a former FBI agent named John Curtis, whom she left to take the blame along with Blake following the Amerithrax case. In "The Replicator", Curtis poisons her with spiked wine and leaves her to die. She is found on the streets by Hotch, and she admits that the Replicator forced her at gunpoint to drink again. She dies in Hotch's arms after begging him to stay with her as she does not want to die alone. Strauss indirectly helps defeat Curtis post mortem when Rossi uses her sobriety chip to escape his trap, leaving him to possibly die in an explosion. After her funeral, the team celebrates her life during dinner at Rossi's garden, discussing happy stories of her time with them and acknowledging her as a good woman, friend, and mother.

Haley Hotchner

Played by Meredith Monroe, Haley Hotchner was the wife of series regular Aaron Hotchner. She and Hotchner have a son, Jack.^E204 They divorced due to her inability to cope with Hotch's job and duties. In a season 3 episode, Aaron Hotchner picks up his home phone when someone calls, but when he answers it the caller hangs up. Haley's cellphone starts ringing immediately afterward. Hotch looks at Haley, but she doesn't say anything. It is implied that Haley might be cheating on Aaron, and that is why the person who called the home phone didn't speak when a man answered. She is shot and killed by Hotch's nemesis, George Foyet (a.k.a. "The Boston Reaper").^E509 She returned in the fifth episode of the 9th season in a vision while Hotch was recovering from complications from his stabbing 100 episodes earlier.^{E905 E501}

Jordan Todd

Played by Meta Golding, Todd is JJ's replacement while she's on maternity leave. She was introduced to the team in Catching Out^E405 and was mentored and trained by JJ until JJ went into labor.^E407 Prior to that, she had spent 7 years working for the FBI's counter-terrorism unit. In the end, she announced that she would return there and that JJ would end her maternity leave and return to the team.^E413

Memorable Unsubs

These are unsubs that are memorable because each one either affected and/or antagonized a member of the BAU. All of these unsubs are either dead or incarcerated, and most appeared on more than one episode.

Randall Garner, "The Fisher King"

Played by Charles Haid, he is first seen in the Season 1 Episode "The Fisher King, Part 1." Randall was originally happily married with four children and was a schoolteacher. One night, Randall and his entire family got caught up in a house fire that was caused by faulty wiring as they slept. Randall tried to save them, but he was only able to save one of his daughters, Rebecca, and was severely burned in the process. His injuries gradually drove him insane, leading to his incarceration at the Bennington Sanitarium, coincidentally the current residence of Reid's schizophrenic mother, Diana. Diana taught him about the Fisher King, mythical keeper of the Holy Grail and the obstacle of the Knights of the Round Table. This caused him to believe that he is the Fisher King, the Holy Grail being Rebecca and the Knights being the BAU, whom he also learned of from Diana. After being released by the sanitarium, Randall tracked down Rebecca, who had now forgotten about her past and was living a life of drugs and running away, and abducted her, keeping her for two years while her presence was never reported, with her foster-turned-adoptive parents believing she simply ran away again, this time for good.

Deciding it was time to initiate his "quest", Randall stalked the BAU, taking photos of them as they investigated all of their cases in Season One and finding out about their personal information, such as addresses and daily schedules to name a few. He gets one Marty Harris killed and decapitated post-mortem, later framing Elle for the act as she and Morgan vacation in Jamaica; sends a skeleton key to Reid while he attempts to visit his mother at the sanitarium; delivers Marty's head and a 1963 baseball card to Gideon as he has dinner with Sarah Jacobs; drops off a box containing a rare butterfly in a shadow box to JJ; makes a phone call to Hotch at his home; and taunts Garcia online using the alias "Sir Kneighf" (an anagram of the Fisher King), saying, "All Work, No Play." Hotch arrives in Jamaica and is able to exonerate Elle before the two of them, along with Morgan, return to the BAU headquarters to regroup with the rest of the team. They share their discoveries and contemplate on what is happening before Garcia arrives and tells them of Sir Kneighf hacking into her account, leaving the possibility that the unsub now has access to all of the FBI's files. She also tells them that she managed to find the hacker's account and names the unsub as Frank Giles. The BAU raids his house only to find him dead, impaled on his bed with a medieval sword. They also find two messages, one written in Frank's own blood and the other engraved on the sword.

They use the latter message to find a music box, which Reid unlocks with the skeleton key that was sent to him. They find a third message, a sample of Rebecca's hair, and a DVD; when they play it back at the headquarters, they are described of the quest by Randall and are told of the one rule: only the BAU members must participate in the quest and no outside help is allowed. Hotch is immediately paid a visit by Haley afterwards, who tells him that a man came to their house and gave her a paper written with many numbers. Deciding that outside help must be allowed, Gideon orders JJ to stage a press conference that Randall later sees, enraging him. When Elle starts becoming drowsy, Hotch allows her to go home and she is escorted by Agent Anderson, who unknowingly disobeys orders and drops her off instead of staying with her. Inside her home, Elle is confronted by Randall himself, who yells at her for breaking the one rule before shooting her when she lunges for her gun. He later writes a message in her own blood before leaving: "Rules."

Meanwhile, the BAU manages to apprehend the man that approached Haley, who tells them that he was approached by a seriously-wounded man in a hat. Gideon realizes that the unsub they're looking for is suffering from terrible burn marks. The BAU then receives a phone call from Randall, who accuses them of breaking the one rule. When Gideon asks about his burns, Randall quietly snarls that he shot Elle before hanging up. Gideon and Hotch arrive at the hospital to be informed by Anderson that Elle survived and she is undergoing medical surgery. He also adds that Elle's FBI badge was stolen and is nowhere to be found. Randall is later seen giving Rebecca nourishment and tells her that he loves her when she pleads to be released. Rebecca begins to cry as Randall leaves the room.

Reid manages to find out that the numbers on the paper Haley gave Hotch symbolize certain words from a book written by an author with the surname of Fowles and published in 1963. Garcia manages to find an author named John Fowles, who had a book called The Collector published in 1963. Reid realizes that Randall is sending them items that are collected, and when the two of them see the book's cover, they find that it depicts a butterfly, a skeleton key, and a sample of blonde hair, identical to the items sent to the BAU. Reid calls a librarian who finds the words symbolized by the numbers on the paper, and the final message says, "The Path to the End Began at His Start to Find Her First Calm. She Sits in a Window with Secrets From Her Knight. Is It Adventure That Keeps Him Out of Her Sight?" The BAU uses the message to find out about Rebecca's past, and they interrogate her adoptive parents, who tell them of her deceased family and Randall's full name. Garcia later finds out that Randall was institutionalized in the same sanitarium as Diana.

The BAU sends someone to retrieve Diana from the sanitarium, despite her fear of flying. Reid socializes with his mother briefly before she tells him of what she told him years ago that led to his current delusion. Diana then reveals she was sent a photo of his residence, a mansion of a medieval style located near Quantico. Reid, Hotch, and Morgan rush to the house with several SWAT agents. They find Elle's ID and gun, and Reid later finds Randall in his office with a bomb planted on himself. Randall tells Reid to "ask him the magical question"; Reid realizes that in the myth of the Fisher King, one of the knights asks the Fisher King, who was also badly injured, a question that heals his wounds. Knowing that asking the question won't work, Reid attempts to tell Randall to stand down, but he refuses. Reid asks if Randall can forgive himself of the death of his family, and Randall replies, "Can I forgive myself? No, I can't." He then blows himself up and Reid manages to escape the explosion in time. Reid immediately uses a clue hidden in the photo Randall sent Diana to find Rebecca, and she is rescued.

In "No Way Out II: The Evilution of Frank", Rebecca would be murdered by prolific serial killer Frank Breitkopf. In "Carbon Copy", the BAU would compare him to The Replicator, who, like Randall, stalked the team throughout the season he or she appeared in.

Though Randall targeted the entire team, he could be considered Elle Greenaway's nemesis, since his attack on her ultimately precipitated her resignation from the team

Carl Buford

Played by Julius Tennon, Carl was a nemesis of Derek Morgan. He managed the Upward Youth Center in Chicago, Illinois, earning several awards for his work with local children. However, he was in fact a pedophile who would molest some regular visitors (it was mentioned in Restoration that he molested over fifty boys in total), among them Derek Morgan, who became close to him after his father had died. He was also responsible for getting Morgan's small criminal record expunged. For his entire life up to the point of investigation, Morgan kept the abuse a secret.

In 2006, Carl killed his third known murder victim, Damien Walters. Before that, he had killed a boy in December 1991 and another in 2002, both remaining unidentified to this day. After Damien Walters's murder, then-Chicago Detective Stan Gordinski, who had been antagonizing Morgan for years after arresting him during a brawl, arrested him again, this time on suspicion of all three murders, using a profile submitted to him by Gideon a few months earlier as evidence. Upon hearing of Morgan's arrest, the BAU went to Chicago to try and exonerate him. As the questioning of Morgan went on, the team questioned Carl. Upon the discovery that Morgan didn't like talking about him, despite having been helped by him so much in the past, Hotch connected the dots and went to the Youth Center, which Morgan had gone to after escaping his cell.

Morgan confronted Carl, who at first claimed Morgan was relying on false memories and denied any guilt. After eventually admitting, since the statute of limitations meant that he couldn't be charged with molesting Morgan, he argued that Morgan could just have said "no". Gordinski, who had overheard the conversation, arrested Carl. When Carl asked Morgan for help, he simply replied "You go to hell" and watched him as he is hauled off. Years later, Morgan brought up Carl while comforting a teenage boy in Arizona who escaped from his abductor. Later, Morgan tells JJ that without Carl and what he did to him, he wouldn't have joined the BAU.

When four middle-aged men are murdered with the phrase "Look up to the sky" left behind in at least two of the crime scenes, Morgan traces the connection and decides to visit Carl in jail. It is revealed that sometime following his arrest, Carl converted to Islam, presumably as a way to gain the trust of other inmates since a significant portion of them seemed to be Muslims; he went as far as changing his name to Mohammed. Morgan requests a list of all of the boys Carl molested; he declines, but changes his mind when Morgan threatens to disclose unrevealed information about his arrest (molestation), therefore making him a target of the other inmates. He writes down the names of about fifty of his molestation victims, intentionally leaving out certain names for reasons unknown. To finalize the deal, Carl has Morgan shake his hand. When he does, Carl tells him that he had been "always special" before the agent breaks off and leaves.

Eventually, the unsub, identified as one of Carl's molestation victims, Rodney Harris, whose name had been left out of the list, is apprehended. Gordinski holds a live press conference regarding Rodney's motivations, and when a reporter asks if all victims of sexual assault turn out to become criminals and murderers, Morgan intervenes and states that not all such victims turn out that way. Carl and several inmates watch the press conference, and one inmate identifies Carl as the molester. Sometime later, Carl is ambushed by several inmates, who kill him.

Frank Breitkopf

Played by Keith Carradine, Frank Breitkopf is a textbook psychopath incapable of feeling any empathy towards others. He's also unable to feel any guilt or remorse, and claims no responsibility for his actions. He is Jason Gideon's nemesis, and his murder of Gideon's girlfriend Sarah Jacobs precipitates the end of Gideon's position with the team.

Like others of his type, he is highly intelligent, manipulative and narcissistic. The BAU discovers that he always travels east and west along the same highway, and all of his victims were along his route. While investigating a series of murders, Gideon and Morgan meet Frank at a remote Nevada diner. Frank is interested in Gideon's name and explains to him what it means in Biblical terms. He explains that Jason comes from the Greek word meaning "to heal", and Gideon is an Israelite who led his people against the Midianites. Frank wonders what his parents had planned for him. He then explains that Frank comes from the Germanic word for "spear".

The two agents then identify themselves and demand to know where "she" - Sheriff Davis - is. Frank explains that he is going to finish his milkshake. Gideon asks Frank if he would like to know how they caught him. Meanwhile, police cars have surrounded the diner. During flashbacks, the team realizes that Frank is sticking around town because of a local woman named Jane, an intended victim who had earned Frank's respect by not showing fear when he had previously abducted her years before. He had fallen in love with her, and had been passing through town each time he was in the area just to watch her and leave her gifts—wind chimes made of human rib bones.

Frank is led outside of the diner by Morgan and Gideon. They are met by the local authorities, including Sheriff Davis, who had been found at Jane's house. Frank tells Gideon that if he is allowed to get away with Jane, he will reveal the location of a busload of children he has kidnapped. Gideon is skeptical, but eventually believes that Frank would not actually harm children. Gideon drives the two of them to the desert, and Frank tells Gideon that the children are two miles to the west. Gideon allows them to leave, locates the school bus and calls for support. They follow Frank and Jane's footprints into the desert, where they disappear. Gideon declares "We'll find him".

Frank appears later in the season finale "No Way Out II: The Evilution of Frank" travelling to Maryland, where Gideon lives. Frank continues to taunt him, leaving a trail of victims behind as he challenges Gideon to catch him.

Frank even manages to murder Gideon's girlfriend, Sarah Jacobs in Gideon's own apartment, prompting Gideon to go on the run which also results in the BAU being shut out of the local police investigation due to "conflict of interest".

The BAU manage to call and warn the previous other victims about the impending danger. Unfortunately, they are too late to stop Rebecca Bryant, the daughter—and former hostage—of Randall Garner from becoming yet another of Frank's victims. Gideon learns that Frank is now killing all of the victims that Gideon had previously rescued, in anger for his girlfriend, Jane, leaving him after he tried to kill her. Frank also kidnaps Tracy Belle who had previously appeared in "The Boogeyman" and arranges a meeting with the team, leaving a message saying "7am, Union Station" in Rebecca's dead hands.

When the team, along with Jane, finally locates and confronts Frank at the train station, Gideon appears and intervenes. Frank then grabs Jane's wrists, tells her he loves her, and the two jump onto nearby train tracks, and a train kills them.

Left psychologically scarred and grief-stricken after losing his girlfriend Sarah Jacobs to Frank, along with the revelation that Hotch has received a two-week suspension, Gideon abruptly leaves the BAU for good at the beginning of Season 3.

Tobias Hankel

Played by James Van Der Beek, Tobias is Spencer Reid's nemesis, whose abuse and torture of Reid leads to the latter's drug addiction. Tobias originally had a happy upbringing and was a straight A student. When his mother left his father, Charles, for another man, he became abusive towards Tobias, quoting biblical scripture and used the Bible as a punishment guide. Charles once branded a cross on Tobias's forehead with a red hot poker. On another occasion, he "'baptized" Tobias by nearly drowning him in the tub. He would also take Tobias hunting against his will. Later, Charles became very painfully ill, eventually ordering Tobias to kill him in order to put an end to it. Tobias argued "Thou shalt not kill" which Charles countered with "Honor thy father". In the end, Tobias killed him and placed the body in a large walk-in freezer under their house. While his father had been around, Tobias had been addicted to the drug Dilaudid (hydromorphone) and frequently consumed it in conjunction with psychedelic drugs used as cutting agents. He later went to Narcotics Anonymous and, with the help of his sponsor, became clean. This substance abuse, combined with the moral dilemma of killing his father, caused Tobias' mind to fracture and split into three different personalities: his own, his father's as a way to keep him alive, and that of Raphael, a ruthless angel hellbent on doing God's will. At some point, he got a job as a tech support and would use his job to gain entry to the webcams of potential victims. Tobias is first seen at the house of a couple whom "Raphael" chose to kill because of their excessive wealth. While waiting for another couple that was present inside the house to leave, the Tobias and Raphael personalities argue over their right to commit murder, but the Tobias personality immediately surrenders. When the second couple leaves, Tobias gains entry to the house just as the couple goes upstairs. About to follow them, the Tobias personality takes dominant control and he calls 911, alerting the 911 operator of the couple's impending doom in a panicked tone before the Raphael personality takes control and Tobias rushes upstairs to murder the couple, recording the entire scene. The couple's death leads to the summoning of the BAU. Tobias is later seen looking through the webcam of the aforementioned couple, as Morgan looks back at the crime scene. When reviews of the posted video of the couple's grisly death aren't what he originally expected, Tobias later enters the home of a woman "Raphael" chose to kill because they witnessed her committing adultery via her webcam. Calling 911 as the Raphael personality, Tobias calmly tells the 911 operator of what he is about to do and then goes upstairs. The BAU arrives to find the man the woman was cheating with dead and the woman missing.

Later, the BAU finds a posted video of the woman held captive, and they watch helplessly as she is torn apart by three dogs. One of the local policemen recognizes the dogs from another case in which a man, Tobias, was a witness. JJ and Reid go to Tobias's to question him, but he doesn't supply much important information to them and thwarts Reid's entry inside his house in a suspicious manner. When Reid spots Tobias's webcams, he concludes that he is the UnSub and he and JJ split up when Tobias flees. JJ goes inside the nearby barnhouse to find herself standing on the remains of the adulterous woman and facing the dogs that killed her. Meanwhile, Reid, in the middle of a cornfield, hears Tobias arguing with his Charles personality before slapping himself, thinking Raphael slapped him. Upon hearing JJ's screams, Reid attempts to run out of the cornfield, only to be overpowered by Tobias and held at gunpoint. Reid watches in shock as the Tobias and Charles personalities argue again.

The rest of the BAU team arrives at the Hankel farm to find a traumatized JJ in the barn beside the corpses of the three dogs, all of which she shot, but no sign of Tobias or Reid. They set up a base at the farm to begin investigating the bank of computers, realizing they are the source of the live feeds showing the murders. They also realize that Tobias has taken Reid, but they don't know where. Tobias is later seen driving in his pickup truck with an unconscious Reid on the floorboards, reminiscing of a time in which his father took him hunting against his own will. He then deliberately stops and asks for directions, dropping a huge clue he knows the police will pick up on. He then drives in the opposite direction, effectively losing anyone who might follow.

When Reid regains consciousness, it is evening and he is sitting in a wooden chair in the middle of a rusty cabin. His wrists are handcuffed in front with a leather strap between them binding him to the chair. He is confronted by Tobias, who has been waiting for him to wake up. After introducing himself as the Raphael personality, he immediately shows him one bullet, calling it "God's Will." Tobias places the bullet in his revolver and spins the chamber, and aims it at Reid and pulls the trigger. It is a blank.

It is daylight when Tobias returns to the cabin with firewood gathered from the grounds. Reid realizes from one abusive exchange that he is Charles, and attempts to placate him fail when Reid is accused of lying. Reid denies this, saying he is neither a liar nor a sinner. Angered, Tobias strips Reid of his shoes and one sock, and tortures Reid by beating the sole of his foot to extract a confession of sin from him. This is the first step towards Tobias's justification of murder: once the sin is confessed, the sinner can be executed. Reid's attempts to stave off the inevitable by quoting Bible scripture don't succeed, receiving only the reply, "the Devil knows how to read, too". When the Tobias personality takes control, he tries to ease Reid's pain by injecting him with dilaudid. The drug causes Reid to have flashbacks of his childhood.

Later, Tobias, as the Raphael personality, kills another couple in their home, then returns to the cabin. As the Charles personality, he sets up a camera and beats Reid, streaming the video feed to the rest of the BAU team back at Tobias's home. Tobias then shoves Reid, still tied to the chair, to the floor. As a result, Reid begins convulsing and is unable to breathe. The Tobias personality takes over again and revives Reid. He (as Raphael this time) compares the BAU team to the seven Archangels of the Book of Revelation in the Bible. He orders Reid to choose one of his teammates to die. Reid chooses Hotch, calling him a classic narcissist, and misquotes a verse from Genesis in order to send the BAU a clue to his whereabouts.

Reid then has a flashback about him sending his mother to the asylum. Tobias, as Charles, tells him that he has dishonored his mother and broken one of the Ten Commandments. Tobias then drags Reid to a cemetery and forces him to dig his own grave, but is distracted by the arrival of the BAU, who had realized where Tobias was keeping Spencer due to Reid's aforementioned tip-off. Realizing that they were there, Reid pretended to be too weak to keep digging the grave, causing Tobias to become frustrated, causing the Charles personality to take over again and snatch the shovel off of Reid, calling him weak. Then, when Charles was distracted, Reid grabbed his gun. The Charles personality, who apparently didn't know that the three personalities were not separate people, told Spencer that he could not shoot all of them because there was only one bullet in the gun he was holding. However, Reid, knowing the error of that statement, pulled the trigger. The personalities of Charles and Raphael were killed instantly; Tobias just had time to thank Spencer for killing them and hope that he would be reunited with his dead mother. Spencer also had time to apologize to him for what had happened. Just before leaving, Reid takes with him Tobias's Dilaudid, eventually leading to his drug addiction.

In the season 4 episode "Conflicted", Tobias Henkel is revealed to have stuck in Reid's memories. "Conflicted" features an unsub who has dissociative identity disorder and has been raping and killing men on spring break while in his alternative personality.

Jason Clark Battle

Played by Bailey Chase, Battle is Garcia's nemesis, who nearly kills her multiple times. It is revealed about Battle's past that he did military service from 1992 to 1996, took a job in law enforcement on December 29, 1997, and has a BA in Administration of Justice. In July 2002, he earned a Meritorious Award for Bravery in the Line of Duty, and in October 2005, he earned an Award of Valor. He had enough legal knowledge to use legal terms, but he apparently dropped out of law school or didn't qualify for a higher education. Prior to Lucky, he was a Deputy Sheriff, not having been able to be further promoted since his superiors noticed that there was something wrong with him, not knowing that he had taken up serial killing as a way to get himself fame.

Penelope Garcia met Battle by accident in the café she goes to every morning. His computer glitched, but Garcia used her computer knowledge to fix it. He then asked her out, recognizing her name as one of the people involved in investigating his murders. After a date at a restaurant, when they were walking together towards Garcia's home, they started talking about coincidences and how lucky it was that his computer glitched when she was around. When Garcia replies that she believes everything happens for a reason, Battle, thinking she was on to him, becomes nervous and shoots her in the chest outside her house, saying before shooting off, "I've been thinking about doing this all night".

Later, Battle returns to the scene to learn that Garcia has survived and begins stalking her after her release from the hospital. He attempts to break into her home, killing a police officer in the process, but is chased away by Morgan, who had been staying at Garcia's apartment for her protection. Meanwhile, at the BAU headquarters, JJ is heading to her office as Agent Adam Fuchs is escorting a uniformed Battle into the bullpen area, Battle having approached him to discuss FBI interference with his cases. Fuchs introduces him to Kevin Lynch, who was brought in to fill in for the wounded Garcia. Kevin hesitates, looking right into Battle's eyes for a moment and recognizing him as Garcia's attacker before he escorts the two into the bullpen. There, Battle asks for his files to be removed from the FBI's computers until Fuchs' investigation of Garcia is completed. Kevin agrees to do it, but instead takes the opportunity to warn Garcia, who then warns the rest of the BAU team.

As the scene progresses, Hotch comes out of his office and heads toward Rossi's to meet up with him; both know that he will start shooting the moment he feels that his bluff has been called. Hotch and Rossi then make their way down to the main floor, pretending to discuss a file, but Battle is still watching them carefully. Kevin then turns to Battle to tell him that all of his files are now erased from the FBI computers. Fuchs, the only man who doesn't know what is going on, moves to lead Battle out of the office. Reid, Prentiss, and Morgan know that it will culminate into a shootout, and they head out to get back to the BAU offices. As expected, Battle grabs Fuchs from behind and pulls his gun out. Holding him at gunpoint, Rossi tells Battle that he doesn't want his decorated career to end like this, but Battle arrogantly taunts that even the best minds in the FBI cannot stop him. He doesn't notice JJ making her way carefully towards him, her own gun drawn. Rossi and Hotch, standing directly across from him, see her clearly and these motions prompt Battle to turn his head to look behind him. JJ instantly shoots him right between the eyes, killing him.

George Foyet, "The Reaper"

Played by C. Thomas Howell, he is considered to be Hotch's nemesis on the show due to his murder of Hotch's ex-wife. Foyet is first seen in the Season 4 Episode "Omnivore." Ten years earlier, Hotch and a local detective named Tom Shaunessy had been hunting a serial killer known as The Boston Reaper, who always wore a mask and black clothing and would kill couples along highways in Boston at night. Between 1995 and 1998, he had attacked 21 people, only one of which survived, until Shaunessy made a deal to stop hunting him, which was successful. As a result, the FBI, having never developed a working profile, was unable to catch him. Hotch and his team are called up to Boston because Shaunessy is dying and knows that his demise will cause the Reaper to start killing again, which is proven true that night.

George Foyet is supposedly the only surviving victim of The Reaper. Hotch and Rossi pay him a visit to get information. Hotch and Rossi offer him protection, but he refuses to let The Reaper's attack drive him out of Boston. Hotch gets a call at his hotel from The Reaper, who offers him the same deal that was offered to Shaunessy. Hotchner blows him off, and in anger, The Reaper steps onto a nearby coach bus and shoots everyone on board. When the team arrives at the crime scene, they find each of Foyet's three addresses written in blood on the windows. The team then rushes to Foyet's latest address, where Morgan is knocked out by The Reaper. The Reaper vanishes, but not before stealing Morgan's badge and leaving a bullet behind to taunt him. After Morgan regains consciousness, the BAU finds a large amount of Foyet's blood. It appears that Foyet had been murdered by The Reaper, but his body is not found.

Garcia digs through Foyet's records, and finds out that he had been a substitute high school teacher, but was fired for sexual assault on a girl. Hotchner then recalls Foyet's earlier statement about his fiance's murder: "Do you know long it takes to stab someone 67 times?" Based on the sexual assault charge, and knowing too many details about the murder, Hotch concludes that George Foyet is The Reaper, and that he had stabbed himself to inject himself in the investigation. A reporter named Roy Colson who is writing a True Crime novel about The Reaper is meeting with Foyet at a previously unknown fourth address, and Garcia tracks it from the reporter's cell phone. George Foyet then reveals his true identity to Colson, angry because he had written that The Reaper was either dead or in jail. While holding Colson at gunpoint, the BAU storms the house and arrests Foyet without incident. However, while in jail, he inflicts an open cut on his hand and makes himself appear to be vomiting blood. When he is rushed to the infirmary, he escapes the prison.

Foyet later reappears at the end of the Season 4 episode ("...And Back"), when he surprises Hotchner at gunpoint in his own apartment, saying "You should've made a deal." A shot is heard as the episode cuts to black. In the Season 5 premiere episode ("Nameless, Faceless"), when Hotch does not show up to work, Prentiss goes to his apartment to check on him. She finds a pool of blood and a bullet in the wall. Prentiss coordinates with Garcia, who has been calling ERs with Hotch's description, and Garcia finds out that someone dropped off an "FBI Agent Derek Morgan." However, Morgan is accounted for, meaning that The Reaper dropped off Hotchner at the ER with the credentials previously stolen from Morgan, and let Hotchner live. Through flashbacks, it is revealed that Foyet had shot the wall next to Hotchner. Hotch tried to take him down, but Foyet prevailed in the struggle. He then stabbed Hotch 9 times, but did so only to wound him. When Hotch wakes up, he figures out that Foyet let him live because he intends to go after Haley and Jack. The BAU then raid Haley's apartment, where they find her and Jack unharmed. At the end of the episode, Hotchner places his family under the protective custody of the US Marshal Service.

At the end of the Season 5 episode "Outfoxed", it is revealed that Foyet had been sending letters to Karl Arnold a.k.a. The Fox, a serial killer Hotch and the team put away in Season 1. In the following episode, "100", the team becomes hot on Foyet's trail again after finding an alias, Peter Rhea, that Foyet had been using to buy painkillers with at area pharmacies. They find his apartment and storm it, but find that he has already left, and is carrying several guns. They go to the home of US Marshall Sam Kassmeyer, the Marshal assigned to protect Haley and Jack, where he has been shot three times, missing two fingers, and has been left for dead by Foyet. Right before he dies, he reveals that Foyet took his phone and had gotten a hold of Haley. Foyet called Haley, posing as a US Marshal, and stated that Hotch was dead and that she needed to relocate. He manages to lure her to her own house.

Hotch figures this out, and rushes there to save them. Foyet has Haley call Hotch, and she then determines that she is in danger. Hotch manages to tell Jack in code to hide in a hope chest until he gets there. Hotch arrives at home too late to save his ex-wife, and finds Foyet hiding behind a curtain. He shoots Foyet in the chest several times, but he lives due to the bulletproof vest he is wearing. A struggle ensues between Hotchner and Foyet. Hotch gets the upper hand and forces Foyet to the floor, at which point Foyet says "I surrender." Hotchner, however, knowing it is simply another ruse of Foyet's to escape and keep killing, beats Foyet to death. When the team finds him, he is stricken with grief and still thrashing the corpse of Foyet. Morgan pulls Hotch off of Foyet's dead body and briefly comforts him, telling him "it's over." Section Chief Erin Strauss refers to the crime scene as a "bloodbath". Foyet returns in the 9th season through flashbacks.

Billy Flynn, "The Prince of Darkness"

Played by Tim Curry, Billy was born in 1955 in Southern California. His mother, Nora Flynn, was a prostitute who would put him in the bedroom closet while she had sex with her clients. She would also pimp him out to them on occasions. When he was 13, he finally snapped and shot her and a client to death, making the latter beg for his life before shooting him anyway. He was arrested and found guilty, but was released from juvenile detention when he turned 18, never making any statement as to why he killed his mother. In 1984, he began burglarizing houses across California (coinciding with the first known murders committed by real-life serial killer Richard Ramirez, on whom Flynn appears to be based) and quickly escalated to murdering the residents of the houses as well as robbing them. He would strike when it was dark, either during blackouts or by cutting the power himself, torture his victims, rape the female ones and kill everyone in the family, usually leaving behind a single survivor (unless there are more children, as he never kills children), usually killing them using a .44 revolver. After a number of murders, he left California in an RV and continued his killings across the U.S. In 2010 (Our Darkest Hour), after 26 years of seemingly unconnected murdering, he returned to California upon learning that Detective Matt Spicer, one of his survivors, had a daughter, Ellie, and feeling responsible for her since she would not have been born if he had not let Matt live.

Upon returning to LA, he begins recreating his original murders before abducting Ellie and her aunt, Kristin, and taking them to the home where he killed Spicer's parents. As the BAU has figured out his goals, Derek and Spicer goes to the house while the others are stuck in traffic as the power had gone out all over LA. Inside, Flynn ambushes Morgan and ties him up. When Spicer arrives, Flynn holds Ellie at gunpoint, forcing Spicer to surrender. After Derek promises Spicer he wasn't going to let anything happen to Ellie, Flynn executes Spicer with a single shot in the chest and leaves, taking Ellie with him. After taking her to his RV, killing another couple on the way using an unknowing Ellie as bait, he shared his twisted philosophy with her, saying him choosing who lives and dies makes him like God. He then kills a motorist about to call the authorities after hearing about Billy's RV on the radio. Flynn then takes her along on his next home invasion, trying to form a "team" with her. After he kills the father, he learns that Ellie sent one of the family's sons to the neighbors to call the police. They leave and find that the residents have rallied together outside. Flynn steals the family's car and drives away with Ellie.

When the BAU learn Billy's identity through newspaper clippings about his mother's murder found in his RV, they contact Flynn by having JJ talk to him using the city's emergency broadcast system. She reminds him that what he is doing to Ellie is just what his mother used to do to him and reminds him that he is in charge and can choose to spare Ellie the suffering he endured during his childhood. In response, he lets Ellie go and takes a couple hostage in their home. He calls the LAPD outside and requests that Morgan enter, alone. He complies and confronts Flynn. When he shares more about his mother's death, he recounts how she looked relieved when he killed her and asks whether or not he just imagined it to make killing her easier to live with. He then asks whether or not Morgan believes in heaven. During his monologue, he is crying. Morgan raises his gun, realizing Flynn's intention to die. Flynn stands up and lifts his gun in an ambiguous motion - aiming it at one of the hostages - and is then shot ten times by Morgan, his eyes rolling back in his head and his mouth gaping open as he falls back onto the bed and dies. Ellie is secured outside, and Morgan takes the child into his arms, letting her know it was over.

Though Billy's presence affects all of the BAU members, he is overall a nemesis of Morgan, who makes it his personal mission to bring Flynn down.

Ian Doyle

Played by Timothy V. Murphy, Doyle is Emily Prentiss's nemesis, who nearly killed her and forced her to fake her death and go into hiding for months. Doyle is the leader of a breakaway IRA faction and considered to be a highly dangerous criminal by Interpol. He was a Captain in the Army and later adopted "Valhalla" as his personal moniker. When Prentiss went undercover to capture him, her undercover identity was an arms dealer named "Lauren Reynolds". They became involved, and later even engaged. He confessed to her that he had a son, Declan after discussing having children. Although she was undercover, she slowly started falling in love with him as well. In "The Thirteenth Step", Doyle had escaped from a political prison in North Korea and was "off the grid". He then made his way into Russia, where he stabbed a driver to death for his car. In the next episode "Sense Memory", after returning home from work, Prentiss receives several hang-up calls on her cell phone from an "Unknown Caller", prompting her to turn off the lights and sit at the end of the hallway with her gun. Upon her return home on a subsequent night from a case, Prentiss finds an anonymous gift on her doorstep, containing a single purple flower. She experiences a flashback to a past undercover job in France, during which she was gardening at her lawn in order to keep Doyle under surveillance. Doyle was arrested by the French police, but not before he realized that Prentiss was an undercover agent. Recognizing that the gift of the purple flower means Doyle knows where she lives, Prentiss picks up her cat and her bag and leaves her apartment. Prentiss then enlisted two former Interpol colleagues in hunting him down while also insisting that she would not drag her BAU colleagues into the mess.

In the episode "Valhalla" when a series of murders happened around the DC area, Prentiss knew it had to be Doyle, who was assassinating former operatives involved in his capture. Prentiss still hasn't told her team that she has a connection with Doyle because she was trying to save her team after he threatens to kill them if she said anything. Tsia Mosely, one of her Interpol colleagues, gets shot in the head by Doyle while visiting someone and it took a lot for Prentiss not to break down and cry. She also discovered that her other Interpol contact, Clyde Easter, knew more about Doyle than he was telling Emily and she couldn't trust him anymore. After the end of the episode, Prentiss looked around the BAU room at her team with tears in her eyes because she was worried about them, she didn't want them getting hurt or killed by Doyle because of her so she just turned around and walked out of the BAU, not even looking back. It was better for her to leave and solve this thing once and for all with Doyle and that was her plan. In the episode "Lauren", Prentiss confronted Doyle, tracking down a low-level Irish mobster and learning from him where Doyle was. When she attacked their car, Doyle flanked her and shot her in the abdomen. Because she wore a bullet-proof vest, she survived, but was abducted. As the BAU approached the building where she was held, she revealed to Doyle that she was responsible for getting his son out of his life; she staged some photos of him and his caregiver being executed, pictures that were used by the North Koreans to interrogate him while he was in captivity. When she reveals that he is still alive somewhere, Doyle begins furiously beating her. During the fight, she is stabbed in the abdomen with a sharp wooden stick. When Doyle hears the sound of gunfire (Morgan, accompanied by SWAT, gunning down his remaining henchman), he fled the building and wasn't seen for the rest of the episode, suggesting that he had gone into hiding again.

In the first episode of Season 7, "It Takes A Village", Doyle is eventually killed by Chloe Donaghy who was one of his former lovers, and is also the mother of his son, Declan. Chloe is shot by Lachlan McDermott, but not fatal, her accomplice who was intending to go through with the exchange where the BAU offered them Doyle in exchange for Declan. Chloe shoots Doyle and then gets shot herself by Spencer Reid seconds later. Prentiss looks heartbroken as she witnesses him die.

The Face Cards

Played by Tricia Helfer, Josh Randall, Evan Jones, and Seth Laird, The Face Cards were group of bank robbers notable for hitting small branch banks in numerous areas. Their leader Izzy Rogers a.k.a. the Queen of Diamonds is a former assassin turned serial killer and her two teammates are Oliver and Chris Stratton, The Jack of Clubs and Kings of Hearts respectively. During the season seven finale, the group joined by Izzy's boyfriend Matthew Downs and robs a bank at Quantico, only to get interrupted by William LaMontagne Jr. who wounds Oliver but is taken hostage himself. When the FBI arrives David Rossi is the lead negotiator who attempts to free the hostages in exchange for medical help for Oliver but he dies from his wounds. Chris and Izzy then kill several hostages before learning more about Will, including his relationship with JJ and their son Henry. Deciding that this new information could work to their advantage, Izzy and Chris release the remaining hostages, which included Matthew, and escaped with Will before blowing the bank up.

Shortly after, Izzy kills Chris when she reveals she and Matthew plan to escape using Will as leverage. Picking up Matthew, the three head on over to JJ and Will's apartment, with Izzy posing as Will's cousin to keep Henry safe so that Will would cooperate. While Izzy stays behind Matthew takes Will to Union Station and attempts to strap Will with a bomb to blow up the station proving a distraction for escape. However the B.A.U. manages to figure everything out and Prentiss, Morgan, and Hotch stop and kill Matthew while Prentiss successfully disarms the bomb, and JJ and Rossi rescue Henry and arrest Izzy.

Though they attacked and injured several BAU members, they are considered to be JJ's nemeses, since they threatened her and her husband and son.

Rodney Harris

Played by Keith Tisdell, Rodney was a drug dealer who grew up in the same area as Derek Morgan. Growing up, he used to pick fights with Morgan, which resulted in Rodney getting a head injury and Morgan getting arrested several times. Unlike Morgan, who would grow up to be a cop, Harris became a known drug dealer and eventually marry and have a son, though the drug dealing would end all that. He made a brief appearance a Profiler Profiled first confronting Morgan when two kids are seen with him and then interrogated when Morgan is accused of murder.

Harris would appear again in "Restoration" after a swim coach was accused of molesting his son and resulting in Harris killing him. He then would go on to kill three other men, when Morgan discovers a crucial clue, a saying that his old mentor Carl Buford, who molested him, used. After some digging, the BAU learns that Rodney was another one of Buford's victims and dealing drugs was Buford's way to keep him quiet about the whole thing. Realizing that Buford's jailing, combined with the head injury and his son's molestion, caused him to go on a killing spree, Morgan confronts him just as he's holding his family hostage. After Morgan confesses that he was a victim of Buford and that continuing his killing spree would only scar his son for life, Rodney surrendered peacefully and embraces his son before going to jail, where he sees Morgan giving a live conference.

John Curtis, "The Replicator"

Played by Mark Hamill, John Curtis was an FBI Agent who worked on the 2001 anthrax attacks, which Strauss and Blake also investigated. When the case turned south, both he and Blake were demoted when Strauss managed to put the blame of the failure on them, saving herself and her career. This left Curtis understandably angry and he begin stalking Strauss's team when he learned that there was going to be an opening in the BAU as Blake was being considered for the position, and he was, once again, being overlooked. The photos seen in his darkroom at the end of "The Silencer" suggest that the stalking began sometime after Prentiss's departure, but before Blake's joining of the team since there are pictures of the latter, but none of the former. This is further supported by his photo of Garcia, in which she is wearing the clothes she wore during the events of the bank robbery in "Hit" and "Run", which may be where Curtis first saw them; in "Carbon Copy", a good number of the photos he keeps seem to have been taken during the bank robbery as well.

He was taking over and controlling the team. After killing Strauss, he disabled the helicopter that Hotch, Reid, Blake and a pilot were flying in. Using a smoke bomb that knocked them all out, he captured Blake, chaining her to a chair that had a pressure sensor. When she came to, Curtis explained his rage and motives to her. He left her to die, along with the team who would come to rescue her. When Blake was freed, she got out of the chair, which started a timer linked to explosives. Garcia managed to delay the timer, but only for a short time. Curtis later came back to learn that they had escaped. He was then confronted by Rossi, who had freed his teammates. Curtis attempted to trap himself and Rossi the same way that had the team, by sitting on the pressure-sensor chair then getting back up. Luckily, Rossi revealed how he had blocked the door locking mechanism, using Strauss's AA coin and as such, Rossi left Curtis trapped in the room, who presumably died in the subsequent explosion.

However his body was never shown by the end of the episode, as much of the main cast and Hamill stated that they do not believe Curtis is dead, but showrunner Erica Messer has stated that the intention was leave Curtis' fate up in the air, however they will most likely reveal whether or not he survived in the upcoming ninth season.

Like Randall Garner, the Replicator targeted the entire team; however, overall, he is the nemesis of Alex Blake and Erin Strauss, due to his extreme hatred and special targeting toward them.

The Regime Squad

A group of terrorists led by ex-C.I.A. Michael Hastings (Tahmoh Penikett) and Tivon Askari (Faran Tahir). The two were members of the divisional task sent to help find Osama bin Laden with late Section Chief Erin Strauss, State Department member and future section chief Mateo Cruz, and Jennifer Jareau who was on temporary duty during this time. During this time JJ tries to get the wife of a dead terrorist to reveal some names for the group. However just as she was about to reveal valuable info, she was killed by Hastings, who was a traitor but the rest of the group never knew about it. Knowing Hastings' position was in danger Askari managed to fake his death and allowed himself to be captured to avoid suspicion. But JJ, who was shaken by the ambush, saw Askari kill several troops revealing him to be a traitor. After the ambush and the death of Bin Laden, JJ successfully returned to the BAU.

Two years later though JJ's past would come back to haunt her. When Cruz became Section Chief he and JJ learned that Askari was still at large and they had to keep it a secret to keep JJ's team safe (though she did mention the situation to Will at some point.) At the end of The Road Home, an unknown figure kidnaps her just as she was making a call and Cruz is soon missing as well prompting the BAU to launch a search team, despite the State Departments objections. During this time JJ and Cruz are hold hostage by Askari, who wants the codes to the Departments files to presumably sell to terrorists. They are joined by Hastings who reveals himself to be a traitor and in cahoots with Askari. Despite JJ's best efforts, Cruz eventually gives the codes, and Hasting starts loading them to his phone, just as the BAU and Emily Prentiss, who joined the team and helped lead them to Askari, arrive. Askari attempts to kill both Cruz, and JJ, but is killed by Hotch just as hes about to stab JJ. Despite being in bad condition, JJ and Prentiss pursue Hastings and face-off at the rooftop, resulting in him falling from the roof to his death. The rest of the Regime Squad is killed in a shoot-out by Reid, Morgan, Rossi, and Blake.

They are nemeses of JJ and Mateo Cruz, kidnapping and torturing them for important and classified information.

The Rogue Deputies

A group of corrupt Sheriff's Deputies in Briscoe County, Texas, headed by Owen McGregor (Michael Trucco), they secretly were involved in a wide variety of criminal activities in the town they were at. A year prior to "Angels", their Sheriff became suspicious of what was going on and McGregor arranged his death. The Sheriff was replaced by Peter Coleman, a friend of Section Chief Mateo Cruz, who later called the BAU when prostitutes were killed by the Deputies. The group initially deduced that the murders were of a preacher by the name of Justin Mills, and attempted to apprehend him, which sparked a shootout that wounded Reid and Morgan, while Sheriff Coleman was killed by McGregor under the cover of the shootout. Morgan, whose injuries were minor, managed to shoot and kill the preacher moments later.

The BAU then realizes that the Deputies are behind everything and attempt to figure out who is actually corrupt. McGregor attempts to derail the BAU by grabbing the son of an accomplice of the preacher's, who led the prostitutes, but the Deputies sent were stopped by Rossi and Blake, who retrieve the son and enable the leader to reveal everything. He also attempts to kill Reid, but is stopped by Garcia, who even shoots a gun when a dirty nurse attempts to inject Reid with a fatal dose of medications. McGregor makes a last-ditch attempt to escape with his accomplices, but Hotch and JJ, followed by Morgan, find him and kill his accomplices, with Hotch killing McGregor.

Since they affected the whole team and attempted to kill them, this is the first nemesis of the team as a whole.

Donnie Mallick

Played by Arye Gross, Mallick's single mother Zettie was institutionalized for schizophrenia when she was eighteen. As a result, he was sent to live with his wheelchair-ridden aunt Gertrude, who was a founding member of a bird-watching club in Roanoke, called the Flappers. However, Mallick was socially isolated, with only Gertie to depend on, and he developed an affinity for birds. He also became delusional. On March 29, 1973, Gertrude died from natural causes, leaving Mallick alone in their house. Four years later, he snapped and began stalking women around his age, abducting them, dislocating their legs, and leaving them bound in a wheelchair with hopes that the victims would be replacements for Gertie. However, when they couldn't fit his fantasy, he killed them and dumped their bodies in the forests. The deaths caught the attention of then-fledgling FBI agents Gideon and Rossi, who at the time were two of only three agents in the Behavioral Science Unit. When Mallick abducted another woman, Tara Barnett, Tara's mother Mary Ellen pleaded Gideon and Rossi to investigate the case, but in the end, they couldn't launch one due to the short numbers in the unit's ranks, much to Gideon's distress. Meanwhile, Mallick held Tara captive for the next 37 years, his fantasy having been fulfilled by her.

On January 25, 2015, Tara died from cancer, causing Mallick to snap again and go out searching for another woman to abduct and use as a replacement. The discovery of Tara's dumped corpse caught the attention of Gideon, who by that point had resigned from his position following his girlfriend's brutal murder. Having obsessed over the case in the past, Gideon decided to conduct his own independent investigation and deduced that the killer behind the 1978 murders was back. Hoping to lure him out, Gideon ordered some food at a café that was frequented mostly by locals, which he deduced the unsub to be. Coincidentally, Mallick was at the café at the same time. Recognizing him from the newspaper clippings that he kept of his killings, he became threatened by the former agent's presence, tracked him down to a house he owned in the wilderness, and shot him with a high-powered rifle from outside. Wishing to taunt Gideon before his death, Mallick entered the home, allowed him to see his face, and executed him with a shot to the head. Afterwards, he resumed his search for another replacement for Tara, while the BAU was called over to investigate Gideon's murder. Rossi eventually shoots Mallick, killing him and saves another one of his victims.

Characters from Suspect Behavior

Samuel "Sam" Cooper

Portrayed by Forest Whitaker.

Beth Griffith

Portrayed by Janeane Garofalo.

Jonathan "Prophet" Sims

Portrayed by Michael Kelly.

Gina LaSalle

Portrayed by Beau Garrett.

Mick Rawson

Portrayed by Matt Ryan.

Jack Fickler

Portrayed by Richard Schiff.

References

Episode sources

^E104 "Plain Sight". Criminal Minds. Season 1. Episode 04. 2005-10-12. CBS. 

^E111 "Blood Hungry". Criminal Minds. Season 1. Episode 11. 2005-12-14. CBS. 

^E122 "The Fisher King, Part 1". Criminal Minds. Season 1. Episode 22. 2006-05-10. CBS. 

^E201 "The Fisher King, Part 2". Criminal Minds. Season 2. Episode 01. 2006-09-20. CBS. 

^E204 "Psychodrama". Criminal Minds. Season 2. Episode 04. 2006-10-11. CBS. 

^E205 "Aftermath". Criminal Minds. Season 2. Episode 05. 2006-10-18. CBS. 

^E206 "The Boogeyman". Criminal Minds. Season 2. Episode 06. 2006-10-25. CBS. 

^E215 "Revelations". Criminal Minds. Season 2. Episode 15. 2007-02-07. CBS. 

^E218 "Jones". Criminal Minds. Season 2. Episode 18. 2007-02-28. CBS. 

^E309 "Penelope". Criminal Minds. Season 3. Episode 09. 2007-11-21. CBS. 

^E314 "Damaged". Criminal Minds. Season 3. Episode 14. 2008-04-02. CBS. 

^E405 "Catching Out". Criminal Minds. Season 4. Episode 05. 2008-10-29. CBS. 

^E407 "Memoriam". Criminal Minds. Season 4. Episode 07. 2008-11-12. CBS. 

^E408 "Masterpiece". Criminal Minds. Season 4. Episode 08. 2008-11-19. CBS. 

^E413 "Bloodline". Criminal Minds. Season 4. Episode 13. 2009-01-21. CBS. 

^E509 "100". Criminal Minds. Season 5. Episode 09. 2009-11-25. CBS. 

Criminal Minds Jeff Davis Category Quotes Episodes Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 Season 4 Season 5 Season 6 Season 7 Season 8 Season 9 Season 10 Characters Aaron Hotchner David Rossi Derek Morgan Spencer Reid Emily Prentiss Jennifer Jareau Penelope Garcia Elle Greenaway Jason Gideon Alex Blake See also Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior Sam Cooper Criminal Minds (video game)