Cold Case backdrop
Crime•Drama•Mystery

The Best Episodes of Cold Case

Every episode of Cold Case ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Cold Case!

Binge this in 4d 19h•Peaking at 10.0/10

The Philadelphia homicide squad's lone female detective finds her calling when she is assigned cases that have never been solved. Detective Lilly Rush combines her natural instincts with the updated technology available today to bring

Airs on
CBS
BestEpisodes
WorstEpisodes
BestSeasons
AllEpisodes

Seasons7

All1234567

Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
    Click to reveal
    Cold Case Season 7 Episode 6 - Dead Heat
    10.0/10(1 votes)

    #1 - Dead Heat

    S7:E6

    The 1986 murder of a jockey is investigated after his body is discovered in a mass grave for horses. The victim disappeared shortly after losing a race that he had planned to be his finale before retiring.

    Director:Nathan Hope
    Writer:Adam Glass

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  2. Cold Case Season 7 Episode 22 - Shattered
    10.0/10(1 votes)

    #2 - Shattered

    S7:E22

    Valens partners with Rush to locate her abducted, drug-addicted sister, while Jeffries tries to bring justice to the case of a murdered teenaged girl that has haunted him for 17 years.

    Director:Jeannot Szwarc
    Writers:Elwood Reid, Greg Plageman

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  3. Cold Case Season 3 Episode 14 - Dog Day Afternoons
    9.0/10(1 votes)

    #3 - Dog Day Afternoons

    S3:E14

    The case of a female bank teller shot to death in her work in 2000 is reopened when the same bank is robbed again by perpetrators wearing identical masks and equipped with identical weapons as six years earlier.

    Director:Craig Ross Jr.
    Writer:Sean Whitesell

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  4. Cold Case Season 4 Episode 21 - Torn
    9.0/10(2 votes)

    #4 - Torn

    S4:E21

    The team re-investigates their oldest cold case yet, the 1919 murder of a young woman who was a passionate advocate for women's right to vote.

    Director:Kevin Bray
    Writer:Tyler Bensinger

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  5. Cold Case Season 7 Episode 21 - Almost Paradise
    9.0/10(1 votes)

    #5 - Almost Paradise

    S7:E21

    Rush tries to ignore her father's appeals to give her troublemaker sister another chance after she suddenly resurfaces.

    Director:Alex Zakrzewski
    Writers:Christopher Silber, Adam Glass

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  6. Cold Case Season 1 Episode 22 - The Plan
    8.9/10(9 votes)

    #6 - The Plan

    S1:E22

    The 1999 drowning death of a military academy's swim coach, which was originally ruled as accidental, is reinvestigated after the homicide division receives a note that suggests it was murder. Back at the office, Valens searches for Elisa after she goes missing.

    Director:Agnieszka Holland
    Writer:Veena Sud

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

    7. Trending NowTRENDING NOW

    The 20 WORST Episodes of Cold Case

    READ
  7. Cold Case Season 1 Episode 12 - Glued
    8.8/10(9 votes)

    #7 - Glued

    S1:E12

    Det. Stillman asks Lilly to re-open a case he couldn't solve, wherein an 8-year-old boy, Tim Barnes, was murdered in 1980. The prime suspects included a catholic priest, three glue-sniffing teenagers, one elusive suspect, and the boy's own parents.

    Director:Peter Markle
    Writer:Tyler Bensinger

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  8. Cold Case Season 2 Episode 10 - Discretion
    8.8/10(5 votes)

    #8 - Discretion

    S2:E10

    The team re-opens the 2000 case of a prominent Puerto Rican assistant district attorney when rumors about his connection to a large amount of money gone missing at the time of his death start to circulate. However, his widow insists that the claims are not true. The re-investigation reveals that the victim was prosecuting a murder trial and the man convicted for the crime after his death may possibly be innocent.

    Director:James Whitmore Jr.
    Writer:Henry Robles

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  9. Cold Case Season 2 Episode 2 - Factory Girls
    8.7/10(7 votes)

    #9 - Factory Girls

    S2:E2

    On the eve of the 60-year reunion of women who worked in a weapons factory during World War II, Lilly is asked to re-investigate the death of Alice Miller, one of the worker girls. The death was deemed accidental at the time, but her friend pleads to Lilly to look closer into the case.

    Director:David Von Ancken
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  10. Cold Case Season 3 Episode 17 - Superstar
    8.7/10(3 votes)

    #10 - Superstar

    S3:E17

    When a poison-soaked towel turns up at the station, Lilly re-opens the 1973 case of a murdered female college tennis star.

    Director:Bill Eagles
    Writers:Jason Tracey, Craig S. O'Neill

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  11. Cold Case Season 3 Episode 21 - The Hen House
    8.7/10(3 votes)

    #11 - The Hen House

    S3:E21

    The 1945 case of a murdered newspaper reporter is reopened when new evidence suggests that the woman was thrown in front of a passing train by someone she knew.

    Director:David Von Ancken
    Writer:Craig Turk

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  12. Cold Case Season 2 Episode 4 - The House
    8.6/10(7 votes)

    #12 - The House

    S2:E4

    When human remains are found outside a former state prison, the team re-opens the 1968 case of a dead inmate, murdered on the night Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Concert was broadcast to prisons throughout the country. However, when it's revealed that the bones don't belong to the person everyone had assumed, the team must start the probe anew by first identifying who the victim was.

    Director:Alex Zakrzewski
    Writer:Sean Whitesell

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  13. Cold Case Season 4 Episode 17 - Shuffle, Ball Change
    8.5/10(4 votes)

    #13 - Shuffle, Ball Change

    S4:E17

    When a body is found in a dumpster, the team re-opens the 1984 case of a murdered teenage boy who wanted to become a dancer against his father's wishes.

    Director:Mark Pellington
    Writer:Liz W. Garcia

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  14. Cold Case Season 6 Episode 18 - Mind Games
    8.5/10(2 votes)

    #14 - Mind Games

    S6:E18

    The team suspect a 2004 arson that killed a psychiatrist may have been caused by her former patient.

    Director:Donald E. Thorin Jr.
    Writer:Gavin Harris

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  15. Cold Case Season 7 Episode 17 - Flashover
    8.5/10(2 votes)

    #15 - Flashover

    S7:E17

    Realizing that the missing Vera has finally hit rock bottom, his worried team members hope that a new twist to a 2006 arson case, which he was secretly obsessing about in recent weeks, might supply leads to his whereabouts.

    Director:Jeannot Szwarc
    Writer:Greg Plageman

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  16. Cold Case Season 1 Episode 15 - Disco Inferno
    8.4/10(8 votes)

    #16 - Disco Inferno

    S1:E15

    Construction workers discover a skull with bullet hole under the ruins of a disco club burned down in 1978. 22 people died in the fire. Rush and Valens come to the conclusion that the burning of the club was arson, meant to cover up a murder leaving them with not one, but 23 cold cases.

    Director:James Whitmore Jr.
    Writer:Tyler Bensinger

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  17. Cold Case Season 2 Episode 8 - Red Glare
    8.4/10(5 votes)

    #17 - Red Glare

    S2:E8

    The 1953 murder of a white school teacher, a communist sympathizer who was involved in civil-rights issues, is reopened after the victim's youngest son asks for it to be reinvestigated. The probe reveals that the slain man was killed on the same day that the Rosenbergs were executed and was set to testify the next day before the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

    Director:Tim Matheson
    Writers:Jay Beattie, Dan Dworkin

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  18. Cold Case Season 2 Episode 9 - Mind Hunters
    8.4/10(5 votes)

    #18 - Mind Hunters

    S2:E9

    The headless torso of a woman who disappeared in 1985, on the same day she filed domestic-abuse charges against her husband, is found by hikers in a wildlife preserve. The investigation quickly leads to the grisly discovery of 8 more decapitated bodies, the victims of a serial killer.

    Director:Kevin Bray
    Writer:Veena Sud

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  19. Cold Case Season 2 Episode 11 - Blank Generation
    8.4/10(5 votes)

    #19 - Blank Generation

    S2:E11

    The team re-opens the case of Matthew Adams, a teen-aged cult member who apparently committed suicide back in 1978, when his sister comes forth with new evidence about the deprogrammer her family hired to rescue her brother.

    Director:David Barrett
    Writer:Chris Mundy

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  20. Cold Case Season 2 Episode 13 - Time to Crime
    8.4/10(5 votes)

    #20 - Time to Crime

    S2:E13

    After a murder weapon connected to the 1987 drive-by shooting of a little girl turns up, Det. Rush and her team re-open the case. The team slowly tracks back the gun's previous owners until the shocking original owner is finally revealed.

    Director:Tim Hunter
    Writer:Tyler Bensinger

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  21. Cold Case Season 2 Episode 14 - Revolution
    8.4/10(5 votes)

    #21 - Revolution

    S2:E14

    Rush and the team investigate the 1969 murder of a 19-year-old girl whose body was found in her boyfriend's apartment the day he fled to Canada to avoid fighting in Vietnam.

    Director:Alex Zakrzewski
    Writer:Liz W. Garcia

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  22. Cold Case Season 3 Episode 5 - Commited
    8.4/10(5 votes)

    #22 - Commited

    S3:E5

    In 1954, 9-year-old Otis Petrowski last saw his mother in a mental institution. Now over 50 years later, after the death of an elderly woman who had been using Otis' mother's identity, Det. Rush sets out to discover what happened to the boy's real mother.

    Director:Alex Zakrzewski
    Writer:Liz W. Garcia

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  23. Cold Case Season 1 Episode 18 - Resolutions
    8.3/10(7 votes)

    #23 - Resolutions

    S1:E18

    Lilly investigates an unsolved hit-and-run accident from New Year's Eve 1999 that left a man dead, after a recovering alcoholic comes forward and claims she is the one who hit him. But the evidence points to the guy being murdered, not accidentally run down.

    Director:Alex Zakrzewski
    Writer:Kim Newton

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  24. Cold Case Season 1 Episode 20 - Greed
    8.3/10(7 votes)

    #24 - Greed

    S1:E20

    The team reopens the 1985 case of a wealthy stock broker. At the time it was deemed that Charles Danville was killed when someone attempted to steal his car, but new evidence suggests that he may, in fact, have been murdered.

    Director:Karen Gaviola
    Writer:Stacy Kravetz

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  25. Cold Case Season 3 Episode 3 - Bad Night
    8.3/10(3 votes)

    #25 - Bad Night

    S3:E3

    The 1978 murder of a young man is re-opened after the victim's mother finds a letter suggesting that his death wasn't random.

    Director:Kevin Bray
    Writer:Andrea Newman

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

Best Episodes Summary

"Dead Heat" is the best rated episode of "Cold Case". It scored 10/10 based on 1 votes. Directed by Nathan Hope and written by Adam Glass, it aired on 11/8/2009. This episode scored 0.0 points higher than the second highest rated, "Shattered".