‘Criminal Minds’ Fans ‘Not Sleeping’ After Killer Clown-Themed Episode

Criminal Minds took on killer clowns in a terrifying new episode.

During Wednesday’s new episode, the Behavioral Analysis Unit takes on the case of a killer who murdered two people in two different states and then carved a smile on their faces. The case takes the team to Oklahoma.

Viewers caught a peek at the killer during the opening sequence, when a clown pops out from the bottom of a man’s bed in the middle of the night.

For the second victim, his son was there to witness the murder and claims the murderer was a clown. At the hospital, Spencer (Matthew Gray Gubler) tries to get information from the young boy, flashing to terrifying scenes of the killer clown committing the murder.

As the team searched for the killer, viewers saw a familiar horror scene with a couple arriving to their home late at night, when a man goes to the fridge to grab a drink and as he closes the door, the killer clown is revealed as the show went to commercials.

Fans on Twitter were terrified by the killer clown storyline, many claiming they won’t sleep after the scary episode.

After the third murder, the team realizes the killer keeps the kids alive for a reason. The show then reveals the killer has a submissive accomplice, who helps the killer under the assumption they are just robbing people.

The show then recreates a scene from Stephen King’s It when a group of children are seen breaking into a graveyard in the middle of the night. The kids are terrified when they see a floating balloon and are confronted by two clowns. The police arrest them, but they are not the killer clowns.

Later, viewers see that the accomplice has a family and the only reason he’s helping the killer is to get enough money to move his family to Florida for a better life.

He confronts the killer, who tells him if they do one last job, they’ll get enough money to finish their partnership and no one else needs to get hurt.

Things take a turn for the heartbreaking after the job goes wrong and the men find themselves in hiding. Viewers find out the men are brothers, and the older brother would let his dad beat him up to protect the younger one.

“I got this so you wouldn’t have to,” the man said pointing to a smile-like scar on his face.

The killer, drunk after the fight, confronts his younger brother’s wife, telling her she stole his brother from him. He starts to strangle her but runs away after his nephew wakes up from a nap.

The BAU finds the clowns fighting and arrest the brothers, the unsub is last seen laughing as he is taken away.

Criminal Minds airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS.