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The Best Episodes of Without a Trace Season 3

Every episode of Without a Trace Season 3 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Without a Trace Season 3!

Binge this in 16h 46m•Peaking at 8.1/10

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
    Without a Trace Season 3 Episode 1 - In the Dark
    7.4/10(195 votes)

    #1 - In the Dark

    S3:E1

    The team searches for a recently blinded girl and her companion who disappeared during a camping trip. Vivian takes over as the supervisor, while Jack struggles to say goodbye to his family.

    Director:Paul Holahan
    Writer:Unknown

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  2. Without a Trace Season 3 Episode 2 - Thou Shalt Not
    7.5/10(174 votes)

    #2 - Thou Shalt Not

    S3:E2

    The team search for a nurses' aide who who disappeared from a rural road while changing a flat tire, only to discover that she is actually a fugitive wanted for the bombing of an abortion clinic.

    Director:Randall Zisk
    Writer:Unknown

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  3. Without a Trace Season 3 Episode 3 - Light Years
    7.3/10(322 votes)

    #3 - 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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  4. Without a Trace Season 3 Episode 4 - Upstairs Downstairs
    7.5/10(185 votes)

    #4 - Upstairs Downstairs

    S3:E4

    When a nanny, and the child she took care of, disappear from her employers' home after being fired by them, the team must determine if the nanny is a kidnapping victim, or a kidnapping suspect.

    Director:Timothy Busfield
    Writer:Unknown

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  5. Without a Trace Season 3 Episode 5 - American Goddess
    7.6/10(200 votes)

    #5 - American Goddess

    S3:E5

    The winner of a plastic surgery make-over T.V. show vanishes during a publicity event, which was all about her.

    Director:Tony Goldwyn
    Writer:Maria Maggenti

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  6. Without a Trace Season 3 Episode 6 - Nickel and Dimed (1)
    7.9/10(205 votes)

    #6 - Nickel and Dimed (1)

    S3:E6

    A young mother disappears after leaving her three year old son with a babysitter.

    Director:Martha Mitchell
    Writer:David Amann

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  7. Without a Trace Season 3 Episode 7 - Nickel and Dimed (2)
    8.1/10(197 votes)

    #7 - 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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  8. Without a Trace Season 3 Episode 8 - Doppelgänger: Part 2
    7.8/10(167 votes)

    #8 - Doppelgänger: Part 2

    S3:E8

    When a homeless woman disappears from a shelter, the team is forced to re-examine the case of twin brothers Greg and Rick Knowles. Five months earlier (Doppelganger), Greg Knowles had confessed to a series of brutal murders, but the team was always convinced that it was Rick who had actually performed the killings. When Greg is released from jail and exonerated of the crimes, the team has to work against the clock to prove that Rick is the guilty party and to save one twin from the other.

    Director:Timothy Busfield
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. Without a Trace Season 3 Episode 9 - Trials
    7.5/10(164 votes)

    #9 - Trials

    S3:E9

    When a juror disappears, the initial belief is that his disappearance is connected to the trial that is being covered, where a young man named Terrell Brooks has accused of murdering Janelle Billingsley. When the team investigates further, they learn that not only did Ducek change his will to leave his younger lover a fortune, but he has been rather mysterious about a painting from his youth in Czechoslovakia. The team soon begins to believe that Ducek is really a former Nazi soldier named Klaus Reinhardt.

    Director:David Von Ancken
    Writer:Unknown

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  10. Without a Trace Season 3 Episode 10 - Malone v. Malone
    7.6/10(195 votes)

    #10 - 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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  11. Without a Trace Season 3 Episode 11 - 4.0
    7.5/10(188 votes)

    #11 - 4.0

    S3:E11

    Tara Patterson disappears from a bus stop on her way to an S.A.T. prep course, and the team is called in to investigate the disappearance of the 4.0 student. While investigating, the team soon finds out that Tara is in deeper then they think when they start learning about smart drugs and married men with secrets.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  12. Without a Trace Season 3 Episode 12 - Penitence
    7.7/10(190 votes)

    #12 - 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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  13. Without a Trace Season 3 Episode 13 - Volcano
    7.4/10(174 votes)

    #13 - Volcano

    S3:E13

    When Ian Norville disappears on a field trip to a museum in Manhattan, the team gets involved, but it isn't long before Jack turns his suspicion to his father, Daniel, who soon admits that he didn't take the necessary precautions with his son, who happens to be autistic.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Greg Walker

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  14. Without a Trace Season 3 Episode 14 - Neither Rain Nor Sleet
    7.4/10(165 votes)

    #14 - Neither Rain Nor Sleet

    S3:E14

    After postal worker Rosie Diaz goes missing during what seemed to be a regular workday, the team initially connects her disappearance to her cargo, which include $12,000 worth of the game Demon Storm, which all the kids were after. But when the team gets in touch with child protective services, they learn that Rosie recently had her foster children taken away after an anonymous abuse call. A search of her home uncovers a DVD containing child pornography, and the team starts to look at the case from another angle. Danny comments on Martin and Sam's obvious closeness, and wonders why they're keeping it quiet.

    Director:Timothy Busfield
    Writer:Unknown

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  15. Without a Trace Season 3 Episode 15 - Party Girl
    7.2/10(174 votes)

    #15 - Party Girl

    S3:E15

    When a spoiled heiress in her early twenties is kidnapped, the team has to work against the clock to save Chelsea, who is being featured on a website giving fans the option to choose whether she lives or dies. As they continue to investigate her disappearance, the team learns that Chelsea had finally been starting to grow up, but she may not have time to enjoy her new life.

    Director:Rob Bailey
    Writer:Unknown

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  16. Without a Trace Season 3 Episode 16 - Manhunt
    7.7/10(169 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 17 - Lone Star
    7.7/10(172 votes)

    #17 - Lone Star

    S3:E17

    Lance Hamilton is a successful real estate agent in his early thirties who disappears one day after showing a house. When the team gets involved, they soon realise that Lance had more than one dealing with a local hood, Jimmy 'The Tooth' Fusco, and begin to suspect that Lance may not have been the good guy everyone thought he was. After tracking down the woman Lance had recently been spotted kissing in his office, the team needs to revise their opinion, knowing now that Lance is one of the good guys, but wondering if he's died for his beliefs.

    Director:Paul Holahan
    Writer:Unknown

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  18. Without a Trace Season 3 Episode 18 - Transitions
    7.4/10(163 votes)

    #18 - Transitions

    S3:E18

    When Stephanie Healy doesn't show up for choir practice, the team heads in to investigate and soon learns Stephanie had recently had a fight with her boyfriend. While speaking with Eddie, the team is shocked to learn that Stephanie used to be Stephen Patrick Healy. Convinced that the truth to what is happening in Stephanie's present lies in her past, the team investigates who Stephen was. Vivian has trouble hiding her worsening problems from the team, and is upset that Martin has been talking to Sam about his suspicions.

    Director:Timothy Busfield
    Writer:Unknown

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  19. Without a Trace Season 3 Episode 19 - Second Sight
    7.1/10(152 votes)

    #19 - Second Sight

    S3:E19

    After a young woman named Agnes Deschamps goes missing, the team takes a look into her disappearance and learns that the young woman was believed to be a psychic. Sam has trouble accepting that one of their witnesses purports to be a psychic, although she is thrown when the woman correctly points out her problems with Martin. Jack, Martin and Danny pick up the extra hours with Vivian out awaiting heart surgery and together the team manages to track the young woman down after a supermarket parking lot kidnapping yeilds an unlikely clue.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. Without a Trace Season 3 Episode 20 - The Bogie Man
    7.7/10(195 votes)

    #20 - 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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  21. Without a Trace Season 3 Episode 21 - Off the Tracks
    7.7/10(170 votes)

    #21 - Off the Tracks

    S3:E21

    Danny is skeptical when the pregnant girlfriend of his missing estranged brother, Rafael ""Rafi"" Alvarez, and mother of their 9-year-old son, tells him that Rafi has transformed himself into a responsible family man, who recently obtained a loan to open his own body shop. But Danny's investigation uncovers that Rafi has been seen with a convicted car thief, and the large sum of cash he'd been flaunting for his purchase of a body shop didn't come from the bank. Though Jack makes the point that Rafi may have legitimate explanations for the suspicious circumstances, Danny braces himself for the very real possibility that his brother may have put himself in harm's way.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Greg Walker

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  22. Without a Trace Season 3 Episode 22 - John Michaels
    6.7/10(251 votes)

    #22 - John Michaels

    S3:E22

    John Michaels is a 71-year-old insurance investigator who went missing after last being seen getting into a car with two strange men. While investigating his disappearance, the team finds that he had recently tried to make amends with his ex-wife and has been trying desperately to get his older daughter on the straight and narrow. Things get strange in the case though, and all is not as it seems.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  23. Without a Trace Season 3 Episode 23 - Endgame
    7.8/10(176 votes)

    #23 - 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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Season 3 Ratings Summary

"In the Dark" is the best rated episode of "Without a Trace" season 3. It scored 7.4/10 based on 195 votes. Directed by Paul Holahan and written by Unknown, it aired on 9/23/2004. This episode is rated 0.1 points higher than the second-best, "Thou Shalt Not".