Criminal Minds: Why Was Reid In Prison?

There are, arguably, not many members of the "Criminal Minds" BAU team that series fans don't, on some level, adore. But it's safe to say Dr. Spencer Reid is pretty much a unanimous favorite amongst viewers. There's good reason for that, as Matthew Gray Gubler's portrayal of the BAU's big-brained profiling machine was regularly the highlight of the action.

So too, were many of Reid's storylines, though his legions of supporters were no doubt shocked when a Season 12 arc found the virtuous special agent arrested south of the border, accused of drug trafficking and murder. Given what "Criminal Minds" fans had learned of Reid, neither of those charges seemed possible. However, his BAU buddies were understandably perplexed about what he was doing off the radar in Mexico. It turned out he was there to procure experimental Alzheimer's drugs for his mother, though that didn't account for the narcotics and the bloodshed.

Nonetheless, the multi-episode storyline put Reid through a physical and emotional wringer as he relied mainly on his shaky memory and the detective work of his allies to get him out of the jam. And it indeed soon became apparent that not only had Reid been ingeniously framed for the crimes, but the frame-up was engineered by a very familiar foe, the vengeful unsub known as Cat Adams.

Despite the precarious circumstances surrounding Cat Adams' return to the "Criminal Minds" fray, many fans were happy to see her back in the mix, mainly because the character — played with devilishly hubristic delight by Aubrey Plaza — became an instant favorite among the series' various unsubs during her Season 11 debut. Although Spencer Reid came out on top, that appearance put Cat on uneasily intimate terms with the good doctor.

Even still, Adams was not the first suspect to come to mind when Reid's BAU buddies were conjuring a list of suspects, with the team initially believing the at-large Mr. Scratch to be behind the ordeal. That hypothesis wasn't so far-fetched either, as Cat was in jail then. And yes, she plotted the elaborate frame-up as revenge against Reid for putting her there. But, their initial showdown proved Cat a rare villain capable of meeting him as an intellectual and psychological equal. She cemented that fact during her Season 12 return by orchestrating murder, mayhem, Reid's arrest, and even his mother's kidnapping from behind bars. 

Cat had a little help in those endeavors, naturally, with Lindsey Vaughn (a ruthless contract killer played by Gia Mantegna whom Reid encountered during a Season 3 storyline) doing the heavy lifting on the outside. Though the BAU eventually unravels the duo's tightly-wound plan, Reid's prison stint remains an emotional highlight in his 15-season narrative — not to mention another decidedly evil feather in the cap of one of his fiercest foes.