The Adam Rain Scene That Went Too Far On Criminal Minds

Americans seem to be fascinated by all things dark and twisted, which is apparent in the abundance of crime TV series, documentaries, podcasts, and books. In the slew of crime procedurals, "Criminal Minds" stands out as a decidedly more psychological thriller. Rather than a focus on assessing crime scenes and interviewing witnesses, the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) attempts to catch offenders before they commit their next crime by using criminal profiling and psychology.

In each episode, the BAU team typically tackles a new suspect, or what they refer to as "unsub," meaning unknown subject. These unsubs are usually responsible for some of the most violent crimes you'll find on network TV, including serial murders and horrific abductions. Due to the violent nature of the crimes, "Criminal Minds" fans know that the episodes can get pretty disturbing, to say the least. But even compared to the high bar set throughout the series, the Season 8 unsub Adam Rain (Brad Dourif) pushes the limits to the extreme. 

One "Criminal Minds" episode that particularly pushes the limits is the Season 8 installment titled "The Lesson." This episode sees the BAU team called to investigate several male bodies that were disposed of in wooden boxes with their limbs dislocated. The victims' hair was dyed black, their nails were painted, and they all wore similar clothes. This eventually leads Dr. Spencer Reid (Matthew Grey Gubler) to suspect their unsub is attempting to turn the victims into human marionettes. 

With this lead, the team's tech wizard, Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness), uncovers a man named Adam Rain (Brad Dourif) who was forced to watch his father's murder as a child. Then after a horrific car accident, he fell into a coma but woke up suddenly acting childish and asking for his dead father. Lacking empathy and judgment after the accident, Rain wants to avenge his father's death by putting on a puppet show reenacting the event, only he decides to use real people as his stars.

While the entire episode is arguably one of the darkest of "Criminal Minds," one scene is particularly gruesome and may even be too much for some fans to watch. While Rain is preparing his victims as "puppets," he uses a stretching device attached to his victims' wrists to suspend them in the air. In the process, the scene fully shows the victim's shoulders dislocating and rotating 180 degrees in the wrong direction. Later on in the episode, Rain continually pulls on his victims' dislocated joints, surely making anyone squeamish.