While none of these scenes would fly today, examining and learning from past mistakes
is the only way Hollywood will continue to get better.
With that in mind, here's a look back at some of the most cringe-worthy Criminal Minds scenes
that wouldn't make it to television today.
Penelope Garcia is the poster woman for body positivity and calling out men when they imply
that she's anything but the beautiful goddess she is.
In season 3, the technical analyst even calls out Agent Morgan, her best friend, when he
implies that it's weird when a random guy asks her out in a coffee shop.
To be fair, the guy ended up shooting her on their first date, but that's beside the
point.
"I've been thinking about doing this all night."
BANG!
If Penelope can call someone she truly cares about a jerk for discounting her beauty, she
should have no problem telling an ex to shove it.
In Garcia's backstory episode, "The Black Queen," her hacker ex-boyfriend lures her
back into his toxic web during a case.
The first thing out of his mouth is,
"Wow, you've... you've lost weight."
Garcia, who would normally fire right back at a comment like that, stays silent.
Given her epic entrance into his hacker lair, it would have been the perfect opportunity
for her to take back the power he stole from her in what was clearly a very toxic relationship.
Instead, she gulps and says nothing — and kisses a young-looking kid in the room to
get back at him.
The whole exchange could have been handled miles better and actually made Garcia more
powerful instead of belittling her.
Criminal Minds has a rocky track record when it comes to depicting women in positions of
authority as power-hungry and morally corrupt.
If it were just once, the show could get a pass.
However, both initial depictions of high-ranking FBI women are fraught with aggressive micromanaging,
condescending behavior, a thirst for power and an in-unit villain.
Section Chief Agent Strauss initially held the position of stereotypical tough woman
making the team's lives hell, but she admittedly went through a lot of character growth before
her death.
Still, all of that progress immediately ceased when Executive Assistant Director of the FBI
Linda Barnes leveraged her position to liquidate departments to further her career.
Barnes was depicted as a straight-up villain, breaking up the team, ignoring cases that
weren't "PR-friendly," and belittling everyone on the BAU.
Criminal Minds sort of makes up for Strauss and Barnes with Emily Prentiss' competent
and brilliant reign as team leader, but the other two character arcs are hard to watch.
It's not exactly a classy move for psychiatrists to dangle their unstable patients in front
of a vast crowd to sell books.
Yet that's precisely what Dr. Linda Deaton is on her way to do when her schizophrenic
patient Teddy steals an armed officer's gun and takes the train
hostage — and no one calls her out for it.
Teddy, who Deaton cites as harmless, has a violent outburst out of nowhere, killing an
officer and later shooting the good doctor herself.
Criminal Minds habitually portrays mentally ill characters as violent and dangerous, with
very few benign examples to balance out the harmful stereotypes.
Dr. Reid's mom is one of the only representations of mental disorders handled well within the
series, illustrating a more accurate idea of schizophrenic outbursts.
In the real world, people are quick to blame mass shootings on conditions like schizophrenia;
it's up to a show about behavioral health to combat those violent stereotypes.
Granted, it's challenging to have a crime show that hinges on behavioral analysis without
showcasing violence within disorders, but the show goes too far too often.
In "Derailed," Deaton is heralded as a hero while the team condemns the patient — but
no one would have died or gotten hurt if Dr. Deaton didn't put her fame above her patient's
wellbeing.
For a show centered around so much death, Criminal Minds avoided killing off most series
regulars — especially BAU teammates.
Even when the procedural wrote out characters, most didn't die.
However, Black characters were far likelier to receive a tragic fate than their white
counterparts.
In season 10, Rossi's former Marine Sergeant, Harrison Scott, passes from cancer after appearing
in numerous scenes.
Just a few seasons later, serial killer Mr. Scratch kills SSA Stephen Walker — a core
BAU team member.
After multiple seasons tormenting the team, it would indeed be unbelievable if someone
didn't perish at the hands of the notorious killer, but why Stephen?
Had his death been an isolated incident, fans could argue against a pattern, but his death
came shortly after another compelling Black character died — and right before yet another.
Following Stephen's death, a sniper from Luke's past killed his old partner Phil to get to
Luke.
Only a few "good guy" series regular deaths have transpired in the show.
Years after his abrupt departure, Mandy Patinkin's Jason Gideon died offscreen, serial killer
George Foyett brutally murdered Hotch's wife in season 5, and the Replicator executed Strauss
in season 9.
The next three significant deaths in the show were all Black men, highlighting a systemic
issue in Hollywood's portrayal of people of color.
Self-harm is one of the most misunderstood conditions that someone with mental health
struggles can live with — and Criminal Minds doesn't do anything to lessen the stigma that
sufferers face.
Instead of lashing out at other people, those who self-harm point their pain inwards, so
they don't hurt anyone else.
However, the show horrendously stigmatizes the condition in season 3's "Doubt."
"Do you like it?"
"Um… do I know you?"
"Do you want to?"
In this episode, Anna litters her dorm with photos of her deceased classmates painted
over with bloody X's.
Even more disturbing, she kills a student that she admittedly likes — just to get
serial killer suspect Nathan Tubbs out of custody.
Her end goal?
Assisted suicide.
Anna becomes a killer so Tubbs can help her die.
This kind of outrageous depiction of someone struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts
only furthers the stigma that people going through them are somehow bad and deserving.
Self-harm scars never fade, and the episode could have been a perfect opportunity to shine
a light on a condition that so many young people face.
Instead, Criminal Minds fed into stereotypes.
The episode focuses more on Anna being goth and edgy than her very real and sometimes
fatal habit.
Scenes like this are incredibly damaging to the community they represent, and need to
be done well or not at all.
No one can argue that SSA Derek Morgan is the heart and soul of the BAU — especially
when it comes to protecting kids.
As a survivor of a childhood assault himself, Morgan would throw himself into an actual
fire if it meant saving an innocent kid.
However, from an outside perspective, Morgan's fierce protectiveness might come off as a
bit problematic.
Not one to break a promise, Morgan goes through hell to honor his word to save Ellie, a cop's
young daughter whose father and aunt are killed in front of him.
Losing the only family she has left, Ellie clings to Morgan, and he doesn't have the
heart to set boundaries.
Ellie actually runs away from her foster home to see Derek.
She'd been texting him constantly, and the rest of the team insists that he stop enabling
the behavior.
When Ellie admits that the boys at her foster home were trying to watch her shower, he tracks
down her estranged mom, piecing the broken family back together.
Barring that intervention, Derek seems like he's about to adopt her himself — because
he can't stand seeing a child in pain.
Morgan's behavior is endearing because the audience knows his intentions, but it would
probably raise a lot of questions in the real world.
The Criminal Minds season 9 episode "Strange Fruit" is an attempt to be racially sensitive,
but ends up being highly problematic instead.
The episode centers around the interrogation of serial killer suspect Charles Johnson — a
Black man who kills white people because of the systematic racism he's faced his entire
life.
Feeding into the Angry Black Man stereotype Hollywood continually falls back on, the focus
shifts from the impact of racism to blaming the victim by making him a vengeful serial
killer.
Had the episode been framed in another light, it could have been incredibly powerful.
Instead, "Strange Fruit" focuses more on Agent Rossi than Johnson.
During the interrogation, Rossi tries to prove he isn't a racist by mentioning his Black
ex-wife.
After Johnson calls him out for it, Rossi finally admits a disturbing secret: He peed
on a Black classmate in school after a bout of peer pressure.
While it's clear that Rossi has grown, that's not a confession that anyone should breeze
past in 20 minutes.
Johnson confesses, and no one mentions Rossi's transgressions ever again.
Hitwoman Cat Adams and SSA Spencer Reid have a toxic will they/won't they relationship
from her season 11 debut up until the show's final season.
Cat's obsession with Reid is spurred on by the BAU, allowing her predatory behavior to
continue.
The team frequently gives in to her demands to save the lives she puts at risk for Reid's
attention.
In season 12, the Black Widow Killer manages to convince Reid that she's pregnant with
his child — using the amnesia from his drugged state in Mexico to toy with his mind.
Almost every interaction they have sits firmly in the "yikes" category, even on his end.
His worst moment in the show occurs when he strangles and threatens to kill the pregnant
Cat when her partner is holding his mother hostage.
"Which is it Spence?
C'mon, don't fumble it now that you're at the one yard line."
Cut to season 15, when Cat embroils Spencer into her schemes once again, kidnapping Max's
family for attention.
Forcing him to go out on a roller rink date, he admits that she inhabits some part of his
brain that no one else, no matter how much he likes them, can penetrate.
Things come to a head when she forces him to kiss her under the threat of killing Max's
family.
Of course, Cat makes sure that Max is there to watch.
Gross.
On numerous occasions, the BAU notes that the team is like a family — but some teammates
are treated more like estranged cousins than actual family.
The group mostly handles Elle like an outsider for much of her time on the show,
and none of them give her the time of day when she's hurting.
In the season 1 finale, suspect Charles Haid shoots Elle in her apartment after the BAU
orders her to go home and sleep.
They know that their unsub has personal information on the entire team, without doing much to
ensure her safety.
Hotch doesn't bother specifying the gravity of the situation to the agent he orders to
take her home, who leaves her there with no protection.
The team still doesn't even call her, and they don't find out she's shot until her shooter
calls them himself.
Four months later, Hotch lets her come back to work before getting cleared by her doctor,
leading to a deeper psychological descent.
Despite her apparent emotional troubles and unreadiness to rejoin the team, Hotch lets
her continue field duty — where she puts herself and others at risk.
The situation reaches a breaking point when she shoots an unarmed suspect.
After multiple missteps, she resigns with no consequences.
Society has a long way to go in accepting, validating and providing rights to the transgender
community.
And for each step forward, it sometimes seems like Hollywood takes the movement five steps
back.
In the season 4 episode "Conflicted," Criminal Minds handles a character with Dissociative
Identity Disorder just about as poorly as possible, all while portraying deeply harmful
stereotypes to the trans community.
While Adam himself never outwardly identifies as trans, his alternate personality Amanda
identifies as a woman while she kills and sexually assaults men at a hotel.
Most people would automatically register Amanda as a trans woman, whether intentional or not,
especially in 2009 when the episode aired.
Too many shows and movies illustrate trans characters as dangerous and predatory, which
only serves to alienate the community in real life.
At the end of the episode, Amanda completely takes over Adam, essentially making her a
trans woman.
Having her be the toxic killer is a damaging and unnecessary statement to make when there
are still so many misunderstandings about the trans community.
People don't need another reason to think of trans individuals in a negative light.
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