Criminally Insane Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jewelry store

The robbery of a jewelry store doesn't seem like a case the Major Case Squad would be taking. However, during the robbery, Karl Atwood shot one of his accomplices and a couple that intended to have some "private time". After the bodies were found, Goren and Eames started an investigation that culminates in the arrest of Atwood.

The premiere episode of "Criminal Intent" was pushed due to the 9/11 attacks. It was first aired on September 30, 2001.

Answer: Decapitation

Ilana Yushka was a writer. Her father was part of the Russian mob, and the first book Yushka wrote provoked his arrest. After a package with Ilana's head was delivered to her publisher's office, it looked as though she was planning to write a second book about the mob, which led to her murder. However, even though she was indeed writing a second book, it was about an old friend called Kenneth Strick, who poisoned his mother at a very young age because she was having a baby with his stepdad. It was found that he was the murderer, although the Russian mob also had plans to kill Yushka.

The episode was partly based on Susan Berman, an American journalist and writer who wrote about her father, a mob figure in Las Vegas. She was found dead in 2000.

Answer: Terry Randolph

"Faith" showed how Barb and Toby Windemere managed to create a girl called Erica, who was supposedly sick, in order to get donations of medical equipment and drugs which they could sell. Lafferty visited Erica, but the parents said she was not able to meet him (as she didn't exist). Lafferty was killed because he suspected Erica wasn't real. The killer was found to be Christine Wilkes, a book editor who felt Erica was an extension of her.

This episode was based on the Kaycee Nicole hoax case. Nicole was a fake persona created by Debbie Swenson. Nicole was portrayed as a girl who suffered from leukemia. After her "death", the Internet community discovered that Kaycee never existed and that all the donations they gave only went to Swenson. After the hoax was discovered, she publicly apologized. The FBI was asked to investigate but they declined, as the combined amount of money Swenson had received from donations did not exceed the threshold for financial crimes.

The character of Terry Randolph appeared in the episode "Badge", where a city auditor was found dead in his home along with all his family.

Answer: Teacher

Nicole Wallace, who used the pseudonym of Professor Elizabeth Hutchens, was revealed to be an international criminal after the murders of a university president and his assistant. Although this episode was Wallace's first appearance on the show, she became a recurring character, often being accused of several murders but never convicted.

She had quite a story behind her: she was born in Australia; Detective Goren implied she could've been molested by her father; she met a psychopath in Thailand with whom she started a relationship and murdered tourists.

It has been speculated that the episode was lifted from the real life case between Harvard University President Lawrence Summers and Professor Cornel West.

Answer: Michelle Trachtenberg

The real girl's username was "lonelygirl15". The lonelygirl videos were made famous when it appeared that the main character had been kidnapped in real life. But it turned out to be a hoax. It was revealed that supposedly 16-year-old "Bree" was really a 19-year-old actress called Jessica Rose.

After the hoax, the video blogs continued and she even become a participant in a United Nations campaign to fight poverty.

Megan Wheeler, played by Julianne Nicholson, was one of the detectives who handled the case, and Stephanie Sengupta was one of the writers of the episode. McNiven also acted in the episode as Suzie.

Answer: Meena's brother

What initially looked like a hate crime turned out to be more than that. After the September 11 attacks, the Hasni family had to close their restaurant. Although Meena was set to marry a guy named Tariq Amir, she got involved with Rudy Ventano. At first, he was a suspect, which led Meena's father to kill him, but it was proven he was innocent, so Amir is the next prime suspect. He tried to flee the country but was caught; however he had an alibi, which made him innocent.

Later, Meena's father confessed to the murder, but as he couldn't recall details of the murder, it was clear he was protecting someone: his own son. We learned that after 9/11, he had to drop out from college, and was upset by the fact Meena "defied" her father by being in a relationship with Rudy. The "4911" message was obviously a distractor.

Answer: Goren had been working in another undercover operation without telling her

Goren started working for Mr. Testarosa, the owner of a brothel. He told him there were policemen trying to enter the brothel, for which Testarosa gave Goren some cocaine as a reward. Eames was investigating the officer who initially offered Goren the job for illegal activities like bribes.

Goren was ordered by his new boss to shoot someone who had been caught with a wire, but just before he shot him, the police entered, with Eames pointing her gun at Goren and vice versa, a very dramatic scene. Goren and Ross revealed that Goren was working on an undercover operation that Eames couldn't know about, which infuriated her.

Answer: Frank

Detective Robert Goren thought Nicole Wallace was the killer. Then he found a human heart in a hotel room that he had supposedly reserved. He thought it belonged to his nephew Donny, and was deeply scared about it. However, the medical examiner said it was Nicole Wallace's heart.

It was discovered that Declan Gage, a criminal that had already appeared in previous "Criminal Intent" episodes, had killed both Frank and Nicole. He said he did it for Goren to be free, finally, and that as Goren was the son he never had, he had given him a new puzzle to solve. Gage was imprisoned, and Goren looked grieved as the episode ended.

Answer: Ross was murdered

Captain Danny Ross was really on an undercover operation with the FBI, but he was caught and murdered. The episode focused on religious beliefs, terrorism, weapon dealing, and more. It was a very complete episode in my opinion.

Captain Ross became the first main character to be taken off the cast by being murdered.

Answer: Kizmate

The episode was about how the Gaffney twins (based on the real-life Winklevoss twins) claimed that an idea for a website, Kizmate, was stolen from them. The Gaffneys were found dead, revealing secrets about the website and its creators.

In real life, the Winklevoss twins asked Mark Zuckerberg to help them with a new social networking site (Facebook), but Zuckerberg made the website by himself, using the ideas of the twins. He was sued many times but the lawsuits were settled, and it never got to murder.

"To The Boy in the Blue Knit Cap", for many including myself, was a mediocre case, but the point of the episode was to show Goren's and Eames's growth as characters, which was perceivable, giving a rather emotional series finale for all fans.