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Trivia Facts | Top Quotes | Goofs/Mistakes
  • On the show, suspects are routinely referred to as "unsubs", or unknown subjects.
  • Matthew Gray Gubler was once photographed by famed photographer Mia Grace who had a small part in the series' pilot episode.
  • CBS aired an episode after Super Bowl XLI (2007) (TV) in the hopes of transforming the series from a relatively modest hit into a top ratings performer. The episode featured cameos by Super Bowl announcers Jim Nantz and Phil Simms.
  • The character of Special Agent Reid was a child prodigy, having graduated from high school at the age of 12. Matthew Gray Gubler, describing what may form his character's genius, has said that Reid may have Asperger's syndrome and perhaps even be mildly schizophrenic. Reid's mother was schizophrenic herself.
  • JJ collected butterflies as a child.
  • Garcia isn't Hispanic, it's her step-dad's name. Elle is half-Cuban.
  • Mandy Patinkin, who plays Gideon, has a son named Gideon.
  • In the time between Lola Glaudini's departure from the show and Paget Brewster's arrival, footage is used in the opening credits that originally featured Glaudini. The footage, from episode 1.03, is digitally altered so that Glaudini does not appear.
  • The original title for Criminal Minds was Quantico, and the pilot was filmed in Vancouver. In the Quantico script, Jason Gideon was named Jason Donovan.
  • Mandy Patinkin's characters in both this show and Dead Like Me have many similar interests. They are both shown to be capable and enthusiastic chefs, and both have an affinity for art.
  • In the show's opening credits, mug shots of real-life serial killers and mass murderers are shown. Among the killers shown are John Wayne Gacy, Charles Manson, Richard Ramirez ("The Night Stalker"), Theodore John Kaczynski ("The Unabomber"), Timothy McVeigh, Lee Harvey Oswald, Susan Smith (XII).
  • When David Rossi (Joe Mantegna) joins the team, he makes a comment that their offices are better than "that bunker" the BAU used to work out of. The comment isn't metaphorical. The actual BAU (in its many earlier incarnations and titles) used to operate out of a bunker former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had built below FBI headquarters in Quantico, VA.
  • In the time between Mandy Patinkin's departure and Joe Mantegna's arrival (a span of only 3 episodes) Thomas Gibson received the "Starring" credit.
  • Kirsten Vangsness isn't formally included in the main cast until the second season.
  • In a 2012 interview in New York Magazine, Mandy Patinkin said that he greatly regrets ever having accepted his role on "Criminal Minds": "The biggest public mistake I ever made was that I chose to do Criminal Minds in the first place. I thought it was something very different. I never thought they were going to kill and rape all these women every night, every day, week after week, year after year. It was very destructive to my soul and my personality. After that, I didn't think I would get to work in television again. I'm not making a judgment on the taste [of people who watch crime procedurals]. But I'm concerned about the effect it has. Audiences all over the world use this programming as their bedtime story. This isn't what you need to be dreaming about. A show like Homeland [on which Patinkin began appearing in in 2011] is the antidote. It asks why there's a need for violence in the first place."
  • One of the signature images of this show is the brief shot of a business jet flying the team to a crime scene. Often these shots are paired as book-ends at the beginning and end of an episode, with voice-over of a cast member reciting a famous quotation. The jets shown are always Gulfstream products, including models G-IV, G-V, and G-450. Occasionally the shots are reversed left-to-right (e.g., episodes "A Thin Line" and "I Love You, Tommy Brown"). The tail numbers shown are often registered to Gulfstream Corporation, indicating that the shots are taken from Gulfstream publicity materials.
  • In this episode, Gideon profiles a killer and correctly predicts that he would have a speech impediment. This was based on a real life case, investigated by FBI agent John Douglas, former chief of the FBIs Investigative Support Unit.
  • The title of this episode alludes to a song by The Who, "Won't Get Fooled Again."
  • The unsub in this episode mirrors Mark Hofmann, who in 1985 went on a bombing spree in Salt Lake City, Utah to conceal his forgeries of historical documents. Like Walker, he committed several unrelated bombings to throw suspicion off his trail.
  • The killer in this episode is nicknamed the "Tommy Killer" after the rock opera Tommy by The Who. The killer glues his victims' eyes open, which reminded the authorities of the rock opera's recurring line, "See me, feel me, touch me."
  • L.D.S.K. stands for "Long Distance Serial Killer."
  • We learn that Reid went to public school in Las Vegas and was bullied in school.
  • It is revealed that Hotch was part of SWAT.
  • Patrick Kilpatrick's part is based on The Iceman, Richard Kuklinksi, a sociopathic serial killer, who made a living killing people for the Gambino crime family, when he wasn't killing people because they ticked him off. Kuklinski was partly made the way he was, because of the extremely violent and terrifying upbringing he received. When he wasn't killing people, he maintained a seemingly ordinary home, with a wife three children, who believed he was a successful businessman.
  • The episode's title refers to Oliver Stone's 1994 film Natural Born Killers.
  • The character Mike Zissou is a reference to the movie The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), in which Matthew Gray Gubler played a part.
  • It was revealed that Gideon has been a profiler since at least 1985.
  • The book about recovered memories that Dr. Reid refers to during the flight to the crime scene is probably 'Michelle Remembers', published in 1980 and marketed as the recollections of Michelle Smith, who claimed to have suffered ritual abuse by a Satanic cult in which her mother was involved. The book and the "events" it supposedly described have since been almost totally discredited, but not before it was used as a reference in over 1,000 cases, some of which resulted in prosecution and imprisonment of innocent people. Reid also uses the term "satanic panic". This also refers to a book, 'Satanic Panic: The Creation of a Contemporary Legend' by Jeffrey S. Victor, which documents the hysteria regarding Satanic activity which swept the nation in the 1980s and 1990s, most of which was a result of the publication of 'Michelle Remembers'.
  • Reid mentions Richard Trenton Chase, a paranoid schizophrenic who was convicted of murder in 1978. He started out killing and eviscerating animals and eating their entrails, and moved up to humans. The bloody rings made by the unsub's containers in this episode were found at Chase's crime scenes. He suffered from many delusions including the "alien" one mentioned by Reid.
  • Jacob has a tattoo on his right arm - a heart with Sarah Jean's name. Beneath it are the words: "Til Death Do Us Part."