CBS Criminal Minds Has Reached A Whole Other Level

This week's episode will leave you afraid of the dark (and quite possibly your own shadow)

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Wednesday's new episode of Criminal Minds, "Mr. Scratch" has brought the show to a new level of horror. Anyone who is a fan of the show knows just how dark some episodes can get. It's hard to forget scenes of childhood abuse (Season 7, Episode 6 "Epilogue") and victims being lobotomized and pierced in the eye with a long needle (Season 9, Episode 4 "To Bear Witness"), but writers Jeff Davis and Breen Frazier have outdone themselves this time.

"Mr. Scratch" tells of three people that have recently suffered the loss of a loved one (a boyfriend, a mother, and a wife) to the terrifying titular creature with what they described as two-foot long talons, when in truth they had unknowingly committed the crime themselves. They had been drugged and their minds subsequently controlled by the UnSub.

When Mr. Scratch is first introduced in the beginning of the episode, the strange sound that it makes as it lurks about is enough to send shivers down your spine. Add the long talon-like claws slithering around and its game over. Your heart is pounding, your adrenaline's pumping and its still only the first 10 minutes.

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When asked to draw what Mr. Scratch looked like, one victim drew this. (Drawn in Real Life by Matthew Gray Gubler)

Things mellow out for a little bit until Mr. Scratch rears its ugly hand yet again and it seems that each encounter with Mr. Scratch is scarier than the last. The creep level only goes up from there. When one of the victims, a young women who was traumatized by the event, has a psychotic break, claiming that Mr. Scratch is coming for her at the BAU (Behavioral Analysis Unit). At the same time that this occurs, the lights in the entire building begin to eerily flicker with no explanation. When Mr. Scratch supposedly arrives , the power in the entire building goes out, leaving everybody in the dark (though we soon find out that it was because of the UnSub hacking his way into the FBI server's and corrupting the system in order to try and cover his tracks).

Now I don't want to give away anymore than what I already have, but from start to finish, "Mr. Scratch" will leave you on the edge of your seat in suspense and terror. This is one episode I recommend watching with the lights on.