Episode Of ‘Criminal Minds’ Chock Full Of Phish & Grateful Dead References

Jam fan Dania Bennett was tapped to write the episode of CBS police procedural crime drama Criminal Minds that aired on Wednesday night. Bennett took to Instagram ahead of the premiere to advise she worked Phish and Grateful Dead references into the script. Dania wasn’t kidding as many of names used within the episode came from song titles and members of both bands and their extended families.

Live For Live Music rounded up many of the references with help from the Phish Tour 2014 Facebook group. Let’s start with the title of last night’s installment which was In The Dark, the same title of the Grateful Dead’s 1987 studio album. The show focuses on FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) and the team headed to Burlington, Vermont for Wednesday’s episode, the city that birthed Phish.

Throughout the episode many names of victims, suspects and local police were derived from the Phish and Grateful Dead worlds. There’s talk of “Ron Carini,” “Jerry Hornsby,” “Reba Wilson,” “Paul McConnell,” “Janis Weir,” “Jim Ernesto,” “Tom Pollak,” “Lynn Anastasio,” “Trey Gordon,” “Sergeant Suzanne Kuroda” and more. Here’s video from L4LM via Kevin Emery featuring just some of the references: