"God Complex" is the fourth episode of Season Eight and the 166th overall of Criminal Minds.
Summary[]
When a legless corpse is found outside Albuquerque, New Mexico, and an unwilling amputee is later found in a motel, the BAU sets out to profile an amateur surgeon before he can prey on his next victim. Meanwhile, Reid's phone calls to a mystery woman leave the team intrigued.
Guest Cast[]
- Heleya de Barros - ER Doctor
- Liz Jenkins - Triage Nurse
- Marion Kerr - Donna Sullivan
- Stefan Marks - Doug Smith
- Chris McGarry - Carl Timmons
- Lou Richards - Ben Hughes
- Jamie Rose - Linda Nelson
- Regina Saldivar - Maria Rodriguez
- Paul Sanchez - Detective Gonzalez
- Arjay Smith - Tony Anders
- Ray Wise - Doctor John Nelson
Referenced Criminals[]
Bookend Quotes[]
- Spencer Reid: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote, "When a doctor does go wrong, he's the first of criminals. He has the nerve and he has knowledge."
- Jennifer Jareau: "Body and soul cannot be separated for purposes of treatment, for they are one and indivisible. Sick minds must be healed as well as sick bodies." — Dr. Jeff Miller
Trivia[]
- A God complex is an emotional characteristic associated with an inflated sense of ego. Someone who suffers from a God complex believes that he or she has the ability to overcome any problem or task, despite the high impossibility and probability for failure.
- Stefan Marks, the actor who played Doug Smith, previously appeared on Criminal Minds, starring as Bill Thompson in the Season Three episode "In Name and Blood".
- During the episode, Spencer Reid says that transplanting a leg onto an amputee is medically impossible. This is an erroneous statement, as leg transplants are possible and had been done in the past at the time of the episode's airing.