Episode 1: Mayhem
Original Air Date—24 September 2008
As the city is on high alert, the team begins to believe that they have made a mistake with the profile and that everything the terrorists have done so far may in fact just have been diversion for something even bigger.
Episode 2: The Angel Maker
Original Air Date—1 October 2008
On the anniversary of a serial killer's execution, a murder spree which appears to be connected to him begins and the team must try and understand his mind in order to stop it.
Episode 3: Minimal Loss
Original Air Date—8 October 2008
Reid and Prentiss, having gone undercover into an underground cult to investigate child abuse, get trapped inside the compound when a federal raid on it goes bad.
Episode 4: Paradise
Original Air Date—22 October 2008
A serial killer targeting couples stages their bodies in a way to make their deaths look like car accidents.
Episode 5: Catching Out
Original Air Date—29 October 2008
A man is jumping trains along Highway 99, brutally killing couples in their homes whenever he stops.
Episode 6: The Instincts
Original Air Date—4 November 2008
A child abduction case in Las Vegas causes Reid to have strange nightmares which appear to be connected to an event in his past.
Episode 7: Memoriam
Original Air Date—12 November 2008
Driven by his nightmares, Reid stays behind in Las Vegas to find his father in order to find out the truth about Riley Jenkins' murder.
Episode 8: Masterpiece
Original Air Date—19 November 2008
A serial killer turns himself in and challenges the team to find five people he has hidden somewhere before they die.
Episode 9: 52 Pickup
Original Air Date—26 November 2008
A greatly sadistic serial killer who disembowels women and forces them to clean it up before killing them proves difficult to catch thanks to his social charm and simple, yet clever, disguises.
Episode 10: Brothers in Arms
Original Air Date—10 December 2008
Morgan, being an ex-cop, takes it personal when a serial killer targets police officers in Phoenix, Arizona.
Episode 11: Normal
Original Air Date—17 December 2008
A serial killer known as the Road Warrior is gunning down blonde women on roads in Orange County, California and the BAU suspect that the victims are surrogates and that it's only a matter of time before he kills the real one.
Episode 12: Soul Mates
Original Air Date—14 January 2009
To his Sarasota Florida neighbors, William Harris is a model family man and upstanding citizen. However, he is taken into custody on suspicions of being the murderer of young women, accusations which followed him from Atlanta, where his family was forced to moved from because of the previous accusations. Harris denies any involvement and is confident that his wife can (and will) post the $5 million bail as she does not believe he had anything to do with the murders. The victims are held for two days before they are strangled to death. The victims are also alternately a white woman then a black woman. The latest possible victim is Missy Dewalt, who has been missing for a few hours. However, her dead body is found within the day, the time of death being when Harris was in custody. Based on a secret blog found deleted from Harris' computer and Missy's death, the BAU are certain that Harris is the murderer but has an accomplice. Harris daughter, Andrea, grows suspicious of his involvement in the murders and sees the signs provided to her by the BAU of her father's possible accomplice.
Episode 13: Bloodline
Original Air Date—21 January 2009
Ten year old Cate Hale is abducted from her rural Alabama home while her sleeping mother and stepfather are killed, their throats slashed. Although the BAU realize that time is of the essence since most abducted children do not survive past the first 24 hours, Cate is later released, physically unharmed. The BAU believe her release was due to the fact that she has epilepsy, which the unsub did not know of prior to her abduction. Cate recounts that her abductors were a family: a mother, father and son around her age. From Cate's stories of the abduction and later evidence found, the BAU piece together that the abduction and murders have a ritualistic nature to them. During the investigation, a second young girl in the area is abducted, her parents also killed in a similar manner. It isn't until Garcia does a search of past similar cases - abducted young girls with their parents killed - that the BAU begins to understand the full nature of this case and the rituals involved, in addition to who the mother abductor potentially could be.