Moments You Missed In The First Episode Of Criminal Minds

Oftentimes, the name of a TV series episode has a specific meaning to the show or that specific episode's plot. That's the case with the pilot of Criminal Minds; the first episode is titled "Extreme Aggressor," a phrase that has several possible meanings in the context of the plot. The most obvious meaning is that the episode's unsub, or killer, is very aggressive — violently killing women left and right. The other meaning? Dr. Spencer Reid says it in the episode.

About halfway through the pilot, the agents discover that the suspect they have in custody plays a game called "Go". For some context, Go (according to the American Go Association) is an "ancient" Chinese board game that uses black and white stones that move in lines and circles. The game is incredibly complex and, as stated in the episode, was favored by Chairman Mao for its strategic applications. Reid says that, "Go is considered to be a particularly psychologically revealing game," and is able to deduce that the subject is an "extreme aggressor" in the way he plays the game. Three cheers for Reid!

Criminal Minds set itself apart from the multitude of other crime shows out there by beginning and ending almost every single episode with famous or meaningful quotes from cultural, philosophical, or historical figures. These quotes have been lovingly dubbed the "bookend" quotes, and were used to frame each episode's thesis and to help viewers get into the mindsets of the fast-thinking characters. Even the pilot episode has bookends — four of them, in fact. This is noteworthy because almost every other episode of the entire series had just one or two quotes. Maybe the writers really wanted to draw people in?

What were the bookends from the pilot? All four were read by Mandy Patinkin as Jason Gideon, and they varied from dark to super dark. Like the first one: "Joseph Conrad said, 'The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary. Men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.'" Or the final one: "Nietzsche once said, "When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks into you." Yikes.

Any Criminal Minds fan probably adores Penelope Garcia. Played by Kristen Vangsness, the adorable, chipper, and crazy-intelligent Garcia appeared in every episode of the show — except for one. Vangsness told Parade that she only missed out on that episode because she wasn't originally going to be a main character, but since she had so much chemistry with Shemar Moore, the writers decided to make her a series regular. 

But that decision came after the first episode, and it shows. When the audience first sees Garcia in "Extreme Aggressor," she's missing all of her trademark brightly colored clothes and eye-catching chachkies. Instead, she's dressed in a bland button-up shirt and sweater vest, and her office is full of boring FBI techie junk. She still shows some of her sass, though, as her first line is, "You've reached Penelope Garcia in the FBI's office of the supreme genius." 

Even though Garcia took some time to develop, we're so glad she stuck around. Vangsness is too, as she told E! News that her costars are "her family" and making the show was a "wonderful, joyous, friendly and creative experience."

It's been quite a while since Criminal Minds first premiered. And while 2005 might not feel like a long time ago, the outdated tech from the first episode makes it clear that 2005 was practically the dark ages. Take, for example, the show's cold open in which we see a woman IMing (that's instant messaging for all the youngins out there) someone to ask about buying a used car. These days, it would be all Craigslist and DMs. Next, there's the moment where Hotch gets a fax alerting him about the missing woman, and the subsequent scene showing Morgan pulling out a cell phone that's so chunky and outdated it actually shocks.

Finally, there's a large piece of plot that centers around CDs. When trying to hack into an unsub's computer, Morgan takes a gander around the bad guy's bedroom and finds a portable CD player right next to the bed. He gets the genius idea that maybe the password is related to the unsub's favorite music — so the team spends time going through CD after CD. This plot wouldn't have been possible in our modern world of Spotify and Apple Music.

The federal agents in Criminal Minds that work in the BAU are all geniuses that rarely make mistakes. The Criminal Minds editing team might be geniuses, but they do make mistakes, specifically geography goofs. The first episode is supposed to begin in Seattle, Washington with the killer kidnapping a woman by having her climb into his car. While the overhead shots in the first few scenes are definitely of Seattle, the closer shots are not. In fact, the shot in which the victim gets into the bad guy's car is clearly in Vancouver, because it shows a street sign that reads "Burrard St." According to Google Maps, Burrard St. is downtown Vancouver. 

The last few scenes of the episode have a geography goof, too. Gideon is supposed to be driving in Virginia, where the BAU is headquartered. However, when he stops for gas at a small gas station, there's a detail that shows it was actually filmed somewhere in Canada: the "No Cigarettes Under 19" sign. (40m5s) The legal smoking age in Canada is 19.