One Criminal Minds Episode Is So Creepy, Fans Can't Even Finish Watching It
Some fans were so horrified by the episode that they had to read the synopsis instead of watching it to the end.
Back when Criminal Minds was a "monster of the week" show, its main feature that attracted millions of viewers was a deep dive into the minds of serial killers, some of whom were based on real criminals. Watching the human mind go to the darkest of places was both thrilling and disturbing.
For some viewers, it was too disturbing. So disturbing that they had to stop watching the show because of the nightmares it gave them.
So it's no surprise that Criminal Minds was one of the top series mentioned in a Reddit discussion dedicated to hard-to-watch scenes from TV shows. Among the episodes that were too graphic and even made fans nauseous because they were too relatable, there was one that some fans felt falls more into the seriously disturbing category than others.
It is episode 2 of season 7, titled Proof. The episode tells the story of Ben "Cy" Bradstone, brilliantly played by Andy Milder, a mentally disturbed serial killer who kidnapped blonde teenage girls. He would tie them up and torture them with sulfuric acid, burning various parts of their bodies and eventually killing them.
The victims served as substitutes for the girl Lyla, whom the unsub had been in love with since high school. As they grew older, the woman married Ben's brother. After learning that his brother and Lyla were having some marital problems, Ben tried to make a move on the woman, and her rejection became the trigger for him to begin killing. Eventually, he finds the perfect Lyla replacement, his own niece.
The episode's details scarred many fans, and some couldn't even finish watching.
"I was watching the episode on my iPad and when it went to commercial I caught my reflection in the screen. I looked so mortified and I think I ended up just reading the wiki summary," one of the fans commented.
Those who have watched the episode all the way through agree that the worst part comes at the end, when Ben's brother, who has always been kind and accepting of him, watches the tape of his brother torturing his daughter.
"The ending was probably the worst and this is very high on my list of TV show episodes I will be skipping," a fan commented.