The Saddest Criminal Minds Exits in the Whole Show, Ranked

Criminal Minds dominated the airwaves for over a decade before concluding its original run with a 15th season. Over the original 15 seasons of Criminal Minds prior to the revival titled Criminal Minds: Evolution, multiple agents have joined and later departed the Behavioral Analysis Unit. These agents played a big role in shaping the story of Criminal Minds and crafted personal storylines that allowed viewers to connect to the series’ main characters.

Throughout Criminal Minds, certain agents have had incredibly emotional tenures on the series. These emotional connections added more poignancy to the circumstances of their exit from Criminal Minds and affected fans as much as the characters themselves. One of the best parts of Criminal Minds is its strong character development, exemplified by how certain characters left the series.

10 Ashley Seaver Didn’t Make a Mark on Criminal Minds

Ashley Seaver Had a Great Backstory and Not Much Else

The character of Ashley Seaver is often regarded as a wasted character by superfans of Criminal Minds. Seaver had the shortest tenure of any main character of Criminal Minds, with only ten episodes. Her character did have an incredibly interesting backstory, and was acted well by Rachel Nichols. Seaver’s backstory is that she was the child of a notorious serial killer dubbed The Redmond Ripper, who was arrested by SSA’s Hotchner and Rossi when she was a teenager.

Seaver joins the BAU when Rossi then seeks her out for help on a case when she is in the FBI academy, and she remains with the team on a probationary agent status. Seaver was written off the show off camera after the finale of Season 6 when her former teammates mentioned she transferred to a new FBI team that focuses on human trafficking. Seaver’s short tenure on Criminal Minds and her inability to be more than her backstory made it hard for fans to connect with her and care about her absence.

9 Kate Callahan Had a Good Final Performance On Criminal Minds

Kate Callahan Was a Solid Addition to the BAU

SSA Kate Callahan brought sass and an endearing edge to Criminal Minds’ 10th season. Callahan stepped into the position left by Alex Blake after she exited the FBI at the end of the prior season. Similar to former original Criminal Minds team member SSA Elle Greenaway, Callahan comes from a Sex Crimes background and specializes in working undercover operations in that department.

Callahan was a fine addition to the BAU, and actress Jennifer Love Hewitt gave her a personality that meshed well with the other team. Her season-long run on Criminal Minds saw her give her best performance in her final episode when her niece and her best friend were kidnapped by traffickers. Callahan shone in this episode, and it was a good finale for her character. At the end of her last episode, she announced she would be taking a year off to help her niece recover and for maternity leave. Callahan left on a good note, but it is tough to say that she truly filled the shoes left by Alex Blake.

8 Alex Blake Deserved A Better Exit From Criminal Minds

Alex Blake’s Exit Lacked Necessary Details

SSA Dr. Alex Blake was a great addition to Criminal Minds. Blake is well-versed in linguistics and criminal investigations, making her one of the most academically skilled investigations on the scene, second to only her friend and colleague SSA Dr. Spencer Reid. Blake is an incredibly confident agent whose intellect is well on display without coming off as showing off. Alex Blake fit in seamlessly with the BAU team and helped elevate the show intellectually in the second half of the original Criminal Minds run.

SSA Dr. Alex Blake was very close-mouthed about her past prior to working for the FBI. After Reid is shot in the line of duty after taking a bullet meant for her in Season 9, Episode 24, “Demons,” she calls him Ethan as she tries to stifle his wound. It is then revealed she had a son who died in childhood of an unknown ailment. Almost losing Reid took her back to this time, and she decided to leave the FBI and take a teaching position in Boston. Blake’s exit made sense, but after such a great run on Criminal Minds, she deserved a more impactful exit instead of having her exit weaved into a busy finale episode that sidelined her exit instead of centering it in the story.

7 Elle Greenaway Had an Intense Exit From Criminal Minds

Elle Greenaway Was the First Original Team Member to Leave Criminal Minds

SSA Elle Greenaway is one of the original team members of Criminal Minds and was the first of that core team to exit Criminal Minds in the second season. Elle Greenaway is a street-smart and savvy agent from New York City who began her law enforcement career working in sex crimes. Greenaway joined the team at the beginning of the pilot episode, making her the most recent addition to the BAU.

Elle Greenaway was an incredibly complex agent who remained resilient through several traumatic experiences. These previously mentioned traumatic experiences include being taken captive in Season 1, Episode 9, “Derailed”. Unfortunately, Elle hit her breaking point after developing PTSD after being shot in a home invasion in Season 1, Episode 22, “The Fisher King, Part 1,” by a killer stalking the BAU team. In Season 2, Episode 5, “Aftermath,” Elle shoots a serial rapist in an act of vigilantism. She pushes a narrative of self-defense to avoid culpability and then skips an ordered psych evaluation. Hotch seeks her out, and she later faces him and resigns. Elle’s exit felt rushed but definitely packed a punch that matched her character’s personality.

6 Aaron Hotchner’s Exit Was Poorly Executed

The Criminal Minds Writers Were Restricted When Writing Hotch’s Exit

SSA Aaron Hotchner is the team leader of his BAU unit on Criminal Minds. Hotch is a protective and mentoring figure to his subordinates, and he uses his background as a prosecutor and storied FBI career to navigate dangerous situations in the field and the boardroom. Hotch is the center cog of the wheel of Criminal Minds, keeps his team spinning, and looks after them to make sure they are at their best.

Hotch’s exit was severely restricted due to the drama behind the scenes of Criminal Minds regarding actor Thomas Gibson’s alleged workplace behavior. Hotchner was written out of the series offscreen. Criminal Minds writers used escaped serial killer Mr. Scratch to force Hotch and his son Jack into witness protection. Hotch would remain in witness protection until Scratch was killed and then would have him officially exit the series by deciding to remain severed from the FBI to spend time with his son. Unfortunately, real-life circumstances behind the scenes forced fans to endure a subpar ending to Hotchner’s time on Criminal Minds.

5 Penelope Garcia Had an Emotional Exit on Criminal Minds

Penelope Garcia Earned Her Time Away from the FBI

Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia is one of the most popular characters in Criminal Minds. The bubbly tech whiz got her start as a hacker before being arrested by the FBI and turned into a government asset. Now reformed, Garcia uses her genius to help the BAU save lives and take down serial killers. Garcia is a very emotionally vulnerable character which makes her compassionate, but also very affected by the horrors she sees on a daily basis. At the end of what was meant to be the final season, Garcia leaves the BAU to work for a charity organization. Her sendoff is handled well, and it feels like an appropriate end to this chapter in Garcia’s story.

Garcia would later return in the revival series Criminal Minds: Evolution. Her returning to the FBI does make sense for her character, as she will always help friends in need. Garcia provides an essential service for her team, and it’s hard to see the BAU solving this new mystery at the core of the revival series without Garcia’s tech skills. Since the Criminal Minds revival series is set years after the original series finale, her reintroduction in the revival does not invalidate the emotional nature of her exit from the original series.

4 Section Chief Erin Strauss Left Criminal Minds in a Shocking Manner

Fans and Erin Strauss Did Not See This Twist Coming

Section Chief Erin Strauss is one of the most complex recurring characters to appear on Criminal Minds. Originally, Strauss operates in an antagonist role within the story as a politically motivated authority figure who sees the team as dysfunctional under the leadership of team leader SSA Aaron Hotchner. Strauss even goes so far as to plant SSA Emily Prentiss on the team as a spy, though Emily resigns as a result and only returns when she is no longer tasked with this objective.

As the series goes on, Strauss approaches the BAU with less scrutiny and becomes a cautious ally of the team. The BAU supports her when her struggles with addiction are discovered. Unfortunately, Strauss’s addiction is weaponized when a serial killer known as The Replicator forces her to drink poisoned alcohol at gunpoint. Hotch finds her too late and stays with her, fulfilling her last wish of not dying alone. Strauss’ murder contributed to the idea that the serial killer The Replicator was a threat unlike any they had faced before and made him one of the deadliest killers the BAU had ever faced.

3 Derek Morgan Left the FBI For a Powerful Reason

Derek Morgan’s Exit From Criminal Minds was Bittersweet

Derek Morgan is another of the original BAU team members in Criminal Minds. Derek Morgan is the unofficial muscle of the team and has an experienced law enforcement background from his time as an officer in the Chicago Police Department. Morgan’s strength is not just physical but emotional as well. He has a grounded personality and kept the team level as they handled some truly horrific cases. Morgan is a fan-favorite character and helped make Criminal Minds a popular show, so his exit needed to be handled perfectly.

Morgan’s exit was a well-thought-out operation. In the 11th season of Criminal Minds, the team is working to capture a network of hitmen. Morgan and his pregnant wife Savannah are targeted by Chazz Montolo, the father of one of the deceased hitmen, Giuseppe Montolo. Morgan being targeted by a UNSUB’s father on the brink of his own impending fatherhood was a great parallel. Montolo was eventually defeated and Morgan was able to be there for the birth of his son. Morgan shared an emotional goodbye with his team before resigning to spend time with his family. It was a beautiful and sad exit but a well-done sendoff for a great character.

2 The Original Profiler of Criminal Minds Jason Gideon Bent Until He Eventually Broke

Jason Gideon Had a Storied Career and Experienced Great Losses

Jason Gideon is a living legend in Criminal Minds. Jason Gideon is one of the founding members of the Behavior Analysis Unit and has been with the unit he helped found for decades prior to the start of the series. Gideon has seen more acts of violence than any member of the current team, and he does his best to turn the negative experiences into teaching moments to make him a better profiler. Gideon is arguably the best profiler in the series, but there is only so much death any man can take.

After losing his girlfriend at the hands of a particularly brutal serial killer, Gideon is in a dark place. His mental stress is only amplified when an investigation is botched due to an investigative error. Gideon simply cannot take it anymore and resigns from the FBI after leaving a note for his mentee, Dr. Spencer Reid. Gideon’s exit is quiet and unassuming, but that does stay true to the psyche of his character, who repressed his emotions towards those he was closest to. It was a depressing way to see his character off as the man who had withstood so much finally snapped. Seasons later, Gideon would be murdered offscreen by a serial killer from his and SSA David Rossi’s past in Season 10, Episode 13, “Nelson’s Sparrow.” The killer himself would be arrested by the BAU team, and Gideon received justice at the hands of the team he left years prior.

1 Emily Prentiss Had a Brutal Temporary Exit From Criminal Minds

Prentiss Had a Secretive Past That Came Back to Bite Her

SSA Emily Prentiss is one woman who has lived many lives. She’s a confident and brilliant woman with a charming personality that makes her an enjoyable addition to the team, which she would go on to lead seasons later. Prentiss has a background in spycraft and uses it to her advantage as a profiler. It’s her background as a spy that would go on to spark her initial exit from Criminal Minds.

Emily Prentiss was an agent on a secretive Interpol unit dubbed JTF-12 where she went undercover into the operations of Irish terrorist Ian Doyle. After being imprisoned, Doyle learned of Prentiss’ betrayal and began targeting former members of JTF-12 as revenge. Doyle abducts and tortures Prentiss, impaling her on a stick before fleeing arrest in Season 6, Episodes 17 & 18, “Lauren”. Hotch and JJ decide to fake Prentiss’ death and hide her while they search for Doyle. The majority of the team believes her to be dead and takes her passing hard. She is revealed to be alive at the beginning of the next season, but the ramifications of faking her death impact the team greatly, both professionally and personally. Emily’s fake death packed an emotional punch that saw one of the fan’s favorite characters die on camera. Even though Emily’s death was faked, fans experienced it for real, and it made her eventually return that much more powerful.