‘Criminal Minds’ Season 13 Episode 15 & 16 Spoilers: BAU Deals With Quadruple Homicide, Linda Barnes

Criminal Minds Season 13 will be back next week after more than a month of hiatus, and the Behavioral Analysis Unit will be handling an intense case involving the murders of four roommates. Not only that, the team will also be under the watchful eye of FBI executive assistant director Linda Barnes (Kim Rhodes).

Episode 15, which is titled “Annihilator,” will explore a quadruple homicide involving roommates in St. Louis, according to a synopsis from Spoiler TV. It is believed that four people who were found dead were killed by only one UnSub. What makes this particular Criminal Minds Season 13 episode more interesting is that Barnes will supervise the case and physically join the team in the investigation.

With Barnes around, it remains to be seen how the BAU members will react, especially knowing that she had suspended unit chief Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster). It can also be recalled that Barnes put J.J. (A.J. Cook) in-charge of the unit and asked her why Prentiss should be promoted and not her.

Viewers should also look forward to how Matt Simmons (Daniel Henney) reacts to the fact that Barnes is joining the investigation since she was responsible for the disbandment of his previous team, the International Response Team (IRT) from Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders.

But how long will Barnes be around, and how much longer will the team and Prentiss be under her crosshairs? It turns out that Rhodes will still be playing the authoritarian for a few more episodes, including Criminal Minds Season 13 Episode 16, “The Last Gasp.” This should let viewers know that the BAU is not quite safe from Barnes’ agenda, who will do whatever it takes to make sure that the unit operates in a manner she prefers.

Episode 16 will also see the BAU doing a secret investigation away from Barnes. They will try to find an UnSub whose modus operandi is to kidnap young women and photograph them. Thinking about the repercussions of meeting in secret and having Barnes find out about it will be interesting. After all, she had made it clear to J.J. in the Episode 15 trailer that every decision made by the unit chief should go through her first before the team can act on it. Hopefully, Episode 16 will be an episode where Barnes realizes that the BAU is doing fine on its own and that it doesn’t need to be watched over. More importantly, Barnes should realize that the team is loyal to each other and that they cannot be broken.

Criminal Minds Season 13 returns on March 7 at 10 p.m. ET on CBS. Watch Episode 15’s trailer below.