After shutting the campus down, Gideon, Hotch and the BAU team create a detailed profile of their UnSub, but when the killings on campus continue after they take a suspect into custody, the team begins to doubt themselves. Meanwhile, Gideon struggles with the after effects of Sarah's death and Strauss continues to try to gather more information to use against the team.
Hotch requests a transfer, Prentiss resigns and Gideon is missing, leaving the team three people short as they track a serial killer in Milwaukee who abducts women in very public places using his son as bait.
Hotchner and the team track down a serial killer who exploits his role as a psychiatrist to find out his victims worst fears, then uses that fear as a means to kill. Reid continues to try to deal with the fact that Gideon abandoned him. Morgan worries about Hotchner's behavior and when he confronts him, Hotchner admits that Haley has left him.
Hotchner and the team suspect that two suspects may be working together in a series of brutal home invasions and murders taking place in a Denver suburb. As they investigate they learn that they are trying to "save" children from foster care by killing them. As their crimes escalate, they go after their foster parents.
A child is abducted at a local mall. The BAU locks down the area and profiles the people at the scene in order to retrieve the child before it is too late.
Hotchner and his team must find a murderer who posts "Missing" fliers of his victims, where he knows they will see them before he kidnaps and kills them.
When one half of a serial killing duo, a former militia member, commits suicide when caught by authorities, Hotchner and his team must race to identify and apprehend his partner and save his victim.
The pursuit of a cannibalistic serial killer forces Morgan to question his faith. Meanwhile, Garcia meets the man of her dreams in a coffee shop and is unsure whether she should go out with him. She does go to dinner with him, but at the end of the evening he pulls a gun and shoots her.
While Garcia recovers from her gunshot wound, the team searches for the shooter and in the process learns that Garcia has been using her position at the FBI to help children who were victims of crimes. As the team continues their investigation, they learn her shooter is a Deputy Sheriff who was shooting people so he could rescue them. He believed Garcia was onto him, because she had flagged his cases.
Garcia comes back to work and tries to straighten out her office, while the team heads off to catch a serial killer who is murdering gang members in alleys. There investigation leads them to a comic book writer who has had a psychotic break after his fiance was murdered when they were attacked in an alley.
A series of murders in rural Virginia has the BAU team investigating a link between this killing spree and a similar case two decades ago.
The Behavioral Analysis Unit profiles a serial killer who abducts two teenagers and murders one. The team must find him before he kills the second teen. The case becomes more complicated when they learn that the teen that is still alive is in witness protection with her father.
When the contents of a self-storage unit reveal the grisly early makings of a serial killer, Hotchner and his team must profile the contents in order to catch him.
When Rossi decides to revisit an unsolved case from his past involving two young parents who were murdered nearly 20 years before, the BAU team steps in to help him. Through a visit with the now grown children, the team gains a piece of information about a traveling carnival that helps them to find the killer. Meanwhile, Hotchner and Reed visit a prisoner on death row.
When the suicide rate spikes in a Pittsburgh neighborhood, the BAU team suspects the deaths may actually be the result of a serial killer who believes he is an "Angel of Death".
Hotchner and his team investigate a spree of killings in a small Texas town involving a teenage boy and his girlfriend. Reed continues to struggle with his drug problem.
Hotchner, Rossi and their team travel to Miami to catch a serial killer whose conflicted sexual identity fuels his crime spree. During the trip, J.J. meets up with a former colleague and finally admits to the team that she's been dating him.
Morgan, Prentiss, Reid and J.J. attempt to stop a stalker before he gets close to the woman who is the object of his affection. Meanwhile, Hotch and Rossi consult on a murder case to determine if a wife who killed her husband can claim battered-woman syndrome.
The team uses brain fingerprinting to see if a suspected serial killer who wakes up after four years in a coma really doesn't remember any of the crimes he supposedly committed.
When people who seemingly have nothing in common are shot at random in New York City, the BAU team is called to investigate whether a single serial killer or a team is responsible for the killing spree. Morgan learns that he may be on the promotion track. The investigation leads the team to believe terrorists are involved.