Cat Adams

"They all deserve it."

Catherine "Cat" Adams, a.k.a. "Miss .45" and "The Black Widow Killer", is a misandristic, psychopathic serial killer and hitwoman who first appeared in Season Eleven of Criminal Minds. She later reappeared in Season Twelve as the mastermind in a vendetta against Spencer Reid.

Background
As a child, Cat was abused by her father Daniel, who later went away for manslaughter related to the death of her mother and his wife Laila. She was sent to a foster home, but she was abused by the foster father, who she eventually killed. At some point, Daniel was released and left the U.S. shortly afterward. As a result, Cat traveled around the world in search of him, hoping to kill him as punishment for his actions. When she couldn't, however, she channeled her rage towards other men. Cat eventually became a member of an online network of hitmen (though Garcia would later say that connection was "loose") that cropped up after the dismantlement of the Silk Road by the FBI in 2013, and became known as "Miss .45". Having developed psychopathic tendencies, Cat was the only member of the network who preferred to kill her targets up-close and personal, in contrast to the long-distance kills carried out by her colleagues. Though she was faithful to a vast majority of her contract kills, she actually double-crossed three of her clients when they wanted her to kill their wives, as said clients reminded her of Daniel, who she was still searching for.

Entropy
Cat is first seen meeting an undercover Reid at the Harry & Glenn's Grill and Bar. As they sit down, Cat asks about Reid's wife and asks how long he has been married, and he replies that it has been four years. Then, Cat asks Reid to show her his ring, which he does. Rossi and JJ are in the restaurant as well, watching the both of them. Cat looks at the ring, and tells Reid that a four-year-old ring would have scratches while his is clearly new. She then says that she knows Reid isn't married and that she knows that Garcia is overhearing her through the microphone hidden on Reid's tie, going on to greet Garcia. Next, Cat pulls out a gun, points it at Reid under the table, and says to him that she didn't walk into the BAU's trap; they walked into hers. She discreetly takes Reid's gun as the waiter comes by. She innocently tells the waiter that she and Reid are having so much fun to know one another and that they will let him know when they're ready. Once the waiter leaves, Cat tells Reid that she knows JJ is in the restaurant and orders him to have her walk out. As soon as JJ leaves, Cat expresses her knowledge that the BAU's plan is to have her walk out the door where the police are waiting. Reid confirms this.

Reid profiles Cat, and she asks him if he likes games; he replies by saying that he does. Cat sets a timer on Reid's phone, and tells him that he has thirty minutes to answer every question she asks him and that if he lies, she will know. Then, Cat sets up the rules of the victor: if Reid wins, then he will drag her out in handcuffs; but if she wins, then Reid will escort her out like a gentleman, making sure she exits safely. Reid tells Cat that she is going to have to shoot him in the face before she walks out. She replies "Game on", then she starts the timer. First, Cat asks him about the time he was out of work and Reid tells her how the BAU used the flash-drive retrieved from NSA Director Brian Cochran to show the other members of the network. Zac Rubenis and Barry Plyman were taken care of and Barry Winslow, the group's captive technical analyst, was rescued. Cat asks Reid about why he took time off from work, but he tells her that she can ask him the same question as many times as she wants, but he will not answer, adding that she is not the first woman to point a gun at him. When Rossi gets up from his seat and approaches their booth, Cat sits towards Reid, turns off the microphone on his tie, and tells him that she will kill Rossi. Reid finally tells Cat why he took time off from work: his mother's new medication for her schizophrenia seemed to agitate her, so he went to the treatment center to help her.

However, Cat doesn't believe his story and thinks Reid is holding something back. She adds another ten minutes and tells Reid that she flushed out the other agents in the restaurant, but unbeknownst to her, Lewis and Morgan are in the restaurant as well. The timer runs out and Cat tells Reid that he forgot to ask her why she would make him sit in the booth for thirty minutes. Reid replies that she is stalling, but Cat says that he doesn't know her at all. She then reveals that she came to the restaurant with a partner who planted bombs in the building that are connected through the city's gas lines, which can blow up the whole block. Cat taunts Reid about her victory, which is to remove all backup away from the building because if she walks out and sees one cop, she will incinerate all of them. She then threatens into the microphone that the FBI will be responsible for the disaster. As a result, Lewis tells the employees about the situation, tells them to not rush and overreact, and orders them to give every customer their check and tell them that they will have to leave due to a situation in the kitchen. Meanwhile, Cat walks up and is about to leave, but Reid tells her that he found her father.

According to him, Reid found a homeless Daniel in Washington, D.C. The alcoholism in his brain had been shredded, rendering him unable to remember Cat. Reid apologizes, but Cat doesn't accept it. She asks Reid more about his mother, and he reveals that he found out she has dementia, most likely Alzheimer's. Cat thinks that Reid came to show up to help her, but she tells him how many men told Cat that they wanted to help her, but in the end, she wound up killing them. Meanwhile, her partner arms the bombs and prepares to detonate them, but Morgan and Lewis stop her before she can do so, which causes Cat to hold Reid at gunpoint. Morgan manages to talk Cat down from shooting Reid by telling her that they have her father outside in an armored van. She drops the gun and has Reid escort her out. However, when they step outside and approach the van, Cat realizes that they lied to her. As Reid cuffs her and puts her in the truck, Cat becomes devastated. Reid confesses that he did look for Daniel, but he couldn't find him and he made up the story about him being found as a homeless drunk. However, Cat taunts that she still won because she will be out in twenty years, but Reid replies that will only happen if she is lucky. Cat then adds that in twenty years, she will remember Reid's name, but he will not remember hers, referencing the fact that dementia could be a genetic disorder.

Green Light
"Ta-da. Didn't expect me, did you?"

It was revealed that sometime after being imprisoned in Mount Pleasant Women's Correctional Facility, Cat had to be put in solitary confinement for six months, which left her mentally unhinged. A year later, Cat somehow got into contact with Lindsey Vaughan and they, along with a prison guard named Lionel Wilkins, put together a plan to frame Reid, apparently as retribution for his involvement in both of their lives. They found out about Peter Lewis, an escaped serial killer by proxy, and his connection with the BAU, and decided to use his M.O. for the plan as a temporary red herring. When Lindsey abducted Reid's mother Diana, the BAU raid a house where a couple who resemble Peter and Lindsey show the team a video message on a live iPad recording of Cat, who taunts them and then demands that Reid visit her in prison, since he was the one who arrested her and they therefore have unfinished business. At the end of the episode, Reid and JJ go to the prison and find Cat waiting in the interrogation room. As they both enter the room, Cat smiles and greets Reid, calling him "Spencie".

Red Light
At the beginning of the episode, after Cat greets Reid, he demands her to tell him where his mother is and what did she and Lindsey did to her, but she stops him from asking anymore questions and doesn't respond to any of them. Then, Cat tells Reid that he doesn't get to walk in and hiss at her like she is a criminal. Adding that she wants to do it her way. Then, she kicks the chair towards Reid and tells him to sit down. Afterwards, Cat asks him how was prison and if he liked it, to which he replies that he didn't. Adding that unlike her, he didn't deserve to be there. Cat asks Reid how did he stayed sane, to which he replies that he worked in the laundry room and played chess. Then, she tells Reid that he has to go somewhere in his mind or he would go crazy. Cat asks Reid if he wants to see where does she go. She tells him to close his eyes and when he opens his eyes, Cat wants him to look at her as the first woman to see after being imprisoned for three months.

When Reid opens his eyes, he and Cat are sitting at a table in a fantasy world in Cat's mind. Afterwards, Cat asks Reid if he would kill her if she lets his mother die, to which Reid replies that he is not that kind of person. Then, Cat tells Reid to tell JJ to leave the interrogation room as they are going to play another game and find out what kind of man Reid is. JJ leaves the interrogation room and they both start a game. As JJ watches, Cat sets up the rules: Reid asks Cat questions, which is that she knows a secret about Reid and can ask her as many questions as he likes to figure out what, but only gets one guess as to what it is and if he guesses correctly, Cat will take Reid's phone and call Lindsey to have her release Diana unharmed. However, if he guesses wrong, Lindsey will kill Diana.

Cat tells Reid that he has four hours. Afterwards, she tells Reid that it is a secret that he will never admit to. Later, Reid tells Cat he knows what the secret is, which is Reid is going to have Cat walk through a scenario and her face is going to tell Reid how close he is. From the moment he arrested her, Cat watched and waited for the right time to get revenge and when Cat learned that Reid was going to Mexico she and Lindsey framed him for murder, put him in prison, treated like a criminal and had his mother abducted so he would know how it feels to have a parent manipulated as Cat wants to prove that she and Reid are the same. However, Cat yawns and becomes bored, which makes Reid say to Cat that psychopaths get bored easily. Afterwards, Cat has Reid think about all the pain he suffered in his life. First, Cat asks about his late mentor, Jason Gideon, but Reid replies that the team caught the man who killed him. Then, she asks about Morgan and the guilt about not visiting his son. Reid replies that he was in prison and got distracted as he was trying to help Diana. The last thing that Reid didn't want to admit to is love, and realizes that Cat wants Reid to admit that he is in love with her. Then, Cat reveals to Reid that she had Lindsey leave a clue for him in his scrapbook in Reid's residence, which he remembers from earlier.

This makes Reid realize that Cat is pregnant, but he denies that the child is his. Afterwards, she has Reid ask her how she got herself pregnant. When Reid asks Cat, she tells him that she had Lindsey dose Reid in Mexico and pretended to be his late girlfriend, Maeve Donovan. Later, Reid tells Cat that she is keeping him in the room to play her game, guess like a fool and assume that his mother is dead when he walked in. Cat denies it, adding that it would be cheating and she doesn't cheat. Just as Reid is about to walk out of the room, Cat tells him that she will let Reid talk to Diana. Then, Cat calls Lindsey and when she answers the phone, Cat tells Lindsey to have Diana talk to Reid. While doing so, Lindsey burns her car and the corpse of a man she was forced to kill, and then steals the man's truck with Diana in tow, which Reid is unaware of. Assuming that his mother is dead, Reid asks Cat if that was a prearranged signal to kill his mother and yells at Cat to tell him the truth, which she replies that she is. Then, Cat insults Diana, causing Reid to furiously push away the table, shove Cat against the wall and strangle her in an attempt to kill her. However, JJ bursts into the room and stops Reid from killing Cat by reminding him that she is pregnant. Reid releases Cat and leaves the interrogation room.

Reid returns to the interrogation room and he tells Cat to dance with him because he doesn't want people to watch them to hear what he will say next. While doing so, Cat tells Reid that his team won't get to the cabin in time because they are walking into a trap, as Lindsey has rigged the cabin with bombs and waits for Cat to call her. Then, the BAU find Wilkins' cabin where Lindsey is holding Diana captive and Wilkins' corpse after being shot by the latter. While Lindsey waits for Cat to call her, Prentiss shows Lindsey a recorded conversation with Cat and Reid. There, he reveals that he knows Cat was lying about him indirectly fathering the baby, and that Wilkins was the real father, which shocks Lindsey. When she calls Cat, Lindsey tells her about her being pregnant and Cat finds out that she is being watched through the security camera. Cat tries to justify herself by telling Lindsey that it is complicated, but she doesn't buy it. This convinces Lindsey to surrender and Diana is rescued. Afterwards, Reid takes his phone back from Cat and just as he and JJ are about to leave the interrogation room, Cat tells Reid that they do deserve each other and he guessed right. But, Reid tells Cat that she lied as she was going to kill Diana. Then, Cat tells Reid that he liked hurting the men that he poisoned and when he crosses that line, he can never go back. Reid approaches Cat, says to her "Watch me", and then leaves the interrogation room.

Modus Operandi
Cat targeted various people through her capacity as a hitwoman, though her favorite target was married fathers who actually hired her to kill their own wives, because they reminded her of her father. Once she had her victims in a highly compromised position, she would kill them by shooting them with a .45-caliber handgun, hence her nickname. She briefly mentioned that she would be so good at manipulating that she could get her targets to kill themselves, though it is unknown if that is indeed the case. During the standoff at Harry & Glenn's Grill and Bar, she held Reid at gunpoint with a .40-caliber Springfield Armory XD handgun and coordinated her actions with Sharon Mayford. Throughout the latter half of Season Twelve, she coordinated her actions with Lindsey Vaughan and Lionel Wilkins.

Profile
According to Reid, Cat is a "black widow"-type hitwoman who specializes in seduction and is extremely patient. She learns everything physical, psychological, and emotional about the men she is hired to kill because she wants them to be in as compromised a position as possible so they do not see it coming when she pulls the trigger. She sometimes double-crossed her own clients and killed them because they wanted their wives, making those kills personal. In all of her contract kills, she is up-close and personal, much unlike her colleagues, and she knows that she has to be more careful because she actually wants to kill her targets.

Known Victims
{{scroll box|

Personal Victims

 * Unspecified dates and locations:
 * Her unnamed foster father
 * Daniel Sparman
 * Jared Gratton
 * Warren Korting
 * Unspecified dates and locations from 2005(?) to 2015: Numerous unnamed victims, estimated to be around or over 200
 * January 13, 2016, Washington, D.C., U.S.: The Harry & Glenn's Grill and Bar standoff:
 * Spencer Reid
 * David Rossi

Victims by Proxy
}}
 * January 13, 2016, Washington, D.C., U.S.: The attempted Harry & Glenn's Grill and Bar bombing committed by Sharon Mayford:
 * Spencer Reid
 * David Rossi
 * Jennifer Jareau
 * Derek Morgan
 * Doctor Tara Lewis
 * Several unnamed police officers
 * Numerous unnamed employees and customers
 * Thousands of unnamed bystanders
 * October 2016(?)-February 2017, various locations in the U.S.: Spencer Reid
 * 2017:
 * February 14, Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico: The motel attack committed by Lindsey:
 * Spencer Reid
 * Nadie Ramos
 * April 15, Washington, D.C., U.S.: Diana Reid

Appearances

 * Season Eleven
 * The Job
 * 'Til Death Do Us Part
 * Target Rich
 * Awake
 * Internal Affairs
 * Future Perfect
 * Entropy
 * Derek
 * The Sandman
 * A Beautiful Disaster
 * Season Twelve
 * Spencer
 * Collision Course
 * Alpha Male
 * Assistance Is Futile
 * In the Dark
 * Hell's Kitchen
 * True North
 * Unforgettable
 * Green Light
 * Red Light