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The Best Episodes of Without a Trace

Every episode of Without a Trace ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Without a Trace!

Binge this in 4d 19h•Peaking at 9.5/10

The series follows the ventures of a Missing Persons Unit of the FBI in New York City.

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
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    Without a Trace Season 6 Episode 2 - Clean Up
    9.5/10(4 votes)

    #1 - Clean Up

    S6:E2

    The team considers if a father who cleans crime scenes for a living led to his disappearance with his daughter.

    Director:Chris Long
    Writer:Unknown

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  2. Without a Trace Season 6 Episode 7 - Absalom
    9.5/10(4 votes)

    #2 - Absalom

    S6:E7

    When a college student disappears after making racial remarks in a class, the team wonders if those may be directly connected to his disappearance.

    Director:Martha Mitchell
    Writer:Unknown

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  3. Without a Trace Season 2 Episode 13 - Life Rules
    9.3/10(3 votes)

    #3 - Life Rules

    S2:E13

    The team Search for a missing motivational speaker only to find that there is an abundance of suspects,The find out that they man is no who he appears to be.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Erika Johnson

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  4. Without a Trace Season 3 Episode 20 - The Bogie Man
    9.3/10(3 votes)

    #4 - The Bogie Man

    S3:E20

    Seven years ago, a thirteen-year-old girl named Amber Bryce went missing, and suspicion fell on her boyfriend, then-seventeen-year-old Curtis Horne. When Daisy Thorpe, who had become obsessed with getting justice for Amber's death, also ends up missing, the team is called in to investigate. While Martin and Danny work from the office, Sam and Jack work in the field, starting their investigation with the local cleric, Amber's father, and trying to find out why Curtis Horne has stayed in town all these years. While Vivian is home having troubles with Reggie, Martin makes a decision about his relationship with Sam.

    Director:Rob Bailey
    Writer:Unknown

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  5. Without a Trace Season 5 Episode 5 - The Damage Done
    9.3/10(3 votes)

    #5 - The Damage Done

    S5:E5

    Jack and the team investigate when Sadik Marku's son goes missing along with the boy's mother, and Samantha worries that Jack is more interested in settling an old score with Marku than with finding the missing woman and boy.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. Without a Trace Season 6 Episode 1 - Lost Boy
    9.3/10(3 votes)

    #6 - Lost Boy

    S6:E1

    The four-year-old adopted son of a celebrity couple is kidnapped, and the team must determine if the reason has to deal with the parents' status or the boy's own Sudanese origin.

    Director:John Polson
    Writer:Unknown

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    The 20 WORST Episodes of Without a Trace

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  7. Without a Trace Season 6 Episode 3 - Res Ipsa
    9.3/10(3 votes)

    #7 - Res Ipsa

    S6:E3

    The team searches for a missing mother who they believe may be searching for her son, who is also missing.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Greg Walker

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  8. Without a Trace Season 6 Episode 8 - Fight/Flight
    9.3/10(3 votes)

    #8 - Fight/Flight

    S6:E8

    The disappearance of an ultimate fighter leads the team to investigate his background, where they learn the man had a number of enemies.

    Director:Jeannot Szwarc
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. Without a Trace Season 1 Episode 1 - Pilot
    9.0/10(7 votes)

    #9 - Pilot

    S1:E1

    Maggie Cartwright appears to have simply walked away from every thing in her life, having left everything of hers behind. Later a ransom note appears on her mother's email list demanding a million dollars for her safe return.

    Director:David Nutter
    Writer:Hank Steinberg

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  10. Without a Trace Season 1 Episode 13 - Hang On to Me
    9.0/10(4 votes)

    #10 - Hang On to Me

    S1:E13

    Chet Collins has been searching for his son since the boy was kidnapped four years earlier on a camping trip, and is the one case that Jack has never been able to forget. When Chet disappears, leaving behind only his wedding ring and the mountains of debt he had accumulated in his search, Jack will go to any lengths to find Collins and save him from himself.

    Director:Paul Holahan
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. Without a Trace Season 1 Episode 20 - No Mas
    9.0/10(3 votes)

    #11 - No Mas

    S1:E20

    The team find themselves up against the ropes as multiple mysteries arise in the case of a boxer. Dante Jones disappears moments before a bout with a $500,000 purse that which could have made him a title contender. Jack suspects it's stunt, but Vivian, a Jones fan, can't believe that the charity-loving, straight-arrow fighter would go doewn that low road. The search goes in a new direction when his younger brother who he is always bailing out of trouble, vanishes. Then it's learned he has made 2 million dollers in the past five years,but he only has $6000 in his bank account.

    Director:Paul Holahan
    Writer:Greg Walker

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  12. Without a Trace Season 3 Episode 3 - Light Years
    9.0/10(2 votes)

    #12 - Light Years

    S3:E3

    This time, the team searches for a delusional appearing Sci-fi fanatic who disappeared from his appartment after ranting on about those ""out to get him"" (before peeling back the tinfoil covering his windows). Jack also has to deal with the consequences of his actions in the affair and how it affected the rest of the team.

    Director:Craig Zisk
    Writer:Greg Walker

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  13. Without a Trace Season 3 Episode 7 - Nickel and Dimed (2)
    9.0/10(2 votes)

    #13 - Nickel and Dimed (2)

    S3:E7

    To find a missing young mother who was recruited as a drug mule, Samantha goes undercover to lure the drug trafficker who recruited the young woman.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  14. Without a Trace Season 3 Episode 10 - Malone v. Malone
    9.0/10(2 votes)

    #14 - Malone v. Malone

    S3:E10

    Things with Jack and Maria's divorce are getting nastier as Maria's attorney forces Jack to relive not only his childhood traumas, but also throw his affair with Sam in his face and attack his dedication to his job.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  15. Without a Trace Season 3 Episode 12 - Penitence
    9.0/10(2 votes)

    #15 - Penitence

    S3:E12

    When Mac, a prisoner only two weeks from parole, disappears during a fight in the yard along with another prisoner, his sister contacts the FBI for help. No one can figure out why a member of the Aryan gang would escape with a black prisoner. While Martin and Viv talk to the other prisoners and Jack tries to wade his way through the sister's lies and half-truths where her brother is concerned, Danny focuses on a new prisoner who Mac had been protecting.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Allison Abner

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  16. Without a Trace Season 3 Episode 16 - Manhunt
    9.0/10(2 votes)

    #16 - Manhunt

    S3:E16

    Martin is swamped with guilt after a young boy is kidnapped shortly after he jogs by. The team tries to reassure Martin that his presence was a help rather than a hindrance as they search for the kidnapped child, but Sam's continued reluctance to admit to their relationship partnered with Martin's jealousy of her relationship with Jack only cause more problems.

    Director:Jeannot Szwarc
    Writer:David Amann

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  17. Without a Trace Season 3 Episode 23 - Endgame
    9.0/10(2 votes)

    #17 - Endgame

    S3:E23

    Paige was last seen sneaking out of her office at the same time as an NYPD detective was asking her boss to direct him to Paige for a routine inquiry. To the team's surprise, the NYPD detective turns out to have been an imposter, causing them to question why Paige chose to run from this mystery man, what he wanted -- and if he caught up with her. Further investigation uncovers that the seemingly upstanding and socially conscious Paige was involved in a lucrative identity theft ring with close ties to a terrorist on a watch list who was recently seen in New York with her. Meanwhile, the remaining team members are gravely concerned about Vivian, who is undergoing open-heart surgery on that very day.

    Director:Jeannot Szwarc
    Writer:David Amann

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  18. Without a Trace Season 4 Episode 2 - Safe
    9.0/10(3 votes)

    #18 - Safe

    S4:E2

    The team searches for a missing teenager who was paranoid about his own personal safety and left an ominous message behind.

    Director:Jeannot Szwarc
    Writer:Unknown

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  19. Without a Trace Season 4 Episode 4 - Lost Time
    9.0/10(2 votes)

    #19 - Lost Time

    S4:E4

    After evidence surfaces suggests that a woman believed murdered by her lover seven years earlier may be alive, Jack wonders if he went too far trying to get a confession.

    Director:Martha Mitchell
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. Without a Trace Season 4 Episode 7 - The Innocents
    9.0/10(2 votes)

    #20 - The Innocents

    S4:E7

    The team worries about a grieving father who couldn't accept his daughter's death, especially after child pornography is found in his home.

    Director:Martha Mitchell
    Writer:Unknown

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  21. Without a Trace Season 4 Episode 13 - Rage
    9.0/10(2 votes)

    #21 - Rage

    S4:E13

    When a school teacher goes missing, the team's investigation leads them to suspect that she may have been too closely connected to a student.

    Directors:Eric Close, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Kate Woods
    Writer:Unknown

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  22. Without a Trace Season 4 Episode 18 - The Road Home
    9.0/10(2 votes)

    #22 - The Road Home

    S4:E18

    The team searches for 18-year-old Brandon Parker only to learn that 15-year-old Matt Jameson had stolen his former teammate's identity in order to get a job to support his three younger siblings after his mother had taken off. They manage to connect Matt to an old friend from a former foster home, Casey Miller, and soon realise that Matt has gotten in over his head while trying to keep his younger sisters and brother together. Sam starts to get suspicious of Martin's behavior and confronts him on his drug addiction. She goes to Danny looking for help, but Danny is reluctant to get involved in Martin's problems.

    Director:Chad Lowe
    Writer:Unknown

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  23. Without a Trace Season 4 Episode 21 - Shattered
    9.0/10(2 votes)

    #23 - Shattered

    S4:E21

    The team searches for a teenage figure skater who disappears after practice one day and discover that many people in her life had reason to worry. The team's investigation leads to the rink's operator, a convicted rapist who was the last to see the girl.

    Director:Jeannot Szwarc
    Writer:David H. Goodman

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  24. Without a Trace Season 5 Episode 4 - All for One
    9.0/10(2 votes)

    #24 - All for One

    S5:E4

    The team investigates when Malia Norton, a teenager at a detention center, disappears after being threatened by one of the other residents. Malia had been involved in a drinking and driving accident that had seriously injured her sister's boyfriend and killed another young man. The investigation at the detention center uncovers a lot of secrets that some of the residents would prefer to keep well hidden.

    Director:Kate Woods
    Writer:Unknown

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  25. Without a Trace Season 5 Episode 9 - Watch Over Me
    9.0/10(2 votes)

    #25 - Watch Over Me

    S5:E9

    The team investigates the disappearance of social worker Eric Hayes, who had given thirty days notice to his job not long before. When their investigation leads them to a young pregnant woman who had already lost one child to the system, the agents begin to believe the disillusioned social worker may have been having an affair but soon discover that he may have been trying to right the wrong that drove him from his job. Danny has trouble with the investigation, as it reminds him of his own experience in foster care. Jack confides in Samantha about his relationship with Ann, but it may be too late.

    Director:Bobby Roth
    Writer:Unknown

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Best Episodes Summary

"Clean Up" is the best rated episode of "Without a Trace". It scored 9.5/10 based on 4 votes. Directed by Chris Long and written by Unknown, it aired on 10/4/2007. This episode scored 0.0 points higher than the second highest rated, "Absalom".