Mission: Impossible

10 Worst Episodes of Mission: Impossible

Mission: Impossible is an American television series that was created and initially produced by Bruce Geller. It chronicles the missions of a team of secret government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force. In the first season, the team is led by Dan Briggs, played by Steven Hill; Jim Phelps, played by Peter Graves, takes charge for the remaining seasons. A hallmark of the series shows Briggs or Phelps receiving his instructions on a recording that then self-destructs, followed by the theme music composed by Lalo Schifrin.The series aired on the CBS network from September 1966 to March 1973, then returned to television for two seasons on ABC, from 1988 to 1990, retaining only Graves in the cast. It later inspired a popular series of theatrical motion pictures starring Tom Cruise, beginning in 1996.

Written by Sophie and last updated on jan 04, 2023.

PS: The following content contains spoilers!

PPS: I will admit that parts of this page was written with the help of AI - it makes my work so much easier to not start from a blank page!

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Mission: Impossible - S5E4

#10 - Homecoming (Season 5 - Episode 4)

When Jim returns to his hometown of Norville to donate family property to the community, he finds it plagued by a serial killer. Jim secretly brings in Barney to help investigate. A disturbed Vietnam vet is the suspected killer but Jim and Barney figure out he's innocent and get him out of jail one step ahead of a mob, then call in the rest of the IMF team to find the real killer.

The episode was rated 6.30 from 27 votes.

Mission: Impossible - S2E20

#9 - The Counterfeiter (Season 2 - Episode 20)

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Raymond Halder is the owner of a chain of clinics and runs a drug counterfeiting ring. Gant Pharamaceuticals released a drug that helps against primary vascular disease, but the drug is being withdrawn since Halder flooded the market with potentially fatal counterfeits. Gant plans to resissue the drug and the IMF must stop Halder from counterfeiting the new version. The IMF as Federal agents put pressure on Halder, but he escapes. Cinnamon pretends to be a Gant employee in charge of protecting against counterfeits. Gang bribes Rollin the Federal Agent to frame Cinnamon to force her to give him Gant's anticounterfeiting strategy. However, the team use an ultarsonic laser to make Halder think he is suffering from primary vascular disease, and he ends up at one of his own clinics where Barney-as-a-doctor prescribes one of Gant's counterfeits. Terrified for his life, Halder confesses so that he won't get a dose of his own medicine.

The episode was rated 6.26 from 23 votes.

Mission: Impossible - S7E12

#8 - Crack-Up (Season 7 - Episode 12)

Peter Cordel, a hitman and grandmaster chess player, has evaded capture - the IMF must bring him to justice and determine who in the Syndicate he works for. Using a hypnotic drug given by guest-agent Sandy, the IMF condition Cordel to blackout every time he is told "When in doubt, take a pawn." Then they set it up so it looks like he kills several people during his blackouts and have him awaken in a mental hospital where an IMF orderly stages an assault to make it look like Cordel's boss wants him dead, so Cordel tells Sandy to warn his boss to call off his hit men, and the IMF capture the man.

The episode was rated 6.04 from 24 votes.

Mission: Impossible - S6E6

#7 - The Miracle (Season 6 - Episode 6)

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Only two Syndicate men know where $8 mil in heroin will be arriving - narcotics dealer Alvin Taylor an dhis executioner, Frank Kearney. When Jim approaches Kearney to make a deal and he refuses, Willie "shoots" Kearney - Barney as a surgeon then operates providing a heart transplant and covertly uses drugs and hypnotism to make Kearney mild-mannered. Kearney can't bring himself to shoot Jim and hears on the radio about people taking on the traits of persons they received organs from - with the aid of new girlfriend, the church-hating Kearney finds out the man who donated a heart was a priest! Realizing he can't do his job and the Syndicate will wipe him out, Kearney leads Casey and the rest of the team to the beach where the heroin drop occurs, and the police arrive just before Taynor can kill Kearney.

The episode was rated 5.96 from 27 votes.

Mission: Impossible - S6E14

#6 - The Connection (Season 6 - Episode 14)

Reese Dolan is the new Syndicate heroin distributor on the East Coast. Dolan uses an island base off the coast of northwest Africa and is going to use it as a distribution point for heroin into the U.S - the IMF must identify his overseas opium source and get the evidence to convict him. Dolan is being financed by an underworld figure, Madame Renada, whom he has never met, so Jim and Barney fly him and his men not to the island but to a lookalike off the coast of Georgia, where Casey assumes the role of Renada. Reese calls his distributor in Istanbul and the IMF has the delivery plane taken into custody. An IMF flyer makes the delivery which Dolan apparently converts to heroin and sends on its way, while Reese's supplier, Hajii, suspects a double-cross when his pilot doesn't return and calls Dolan's distributor, Cleff. Willy tries to sell heroin to Clegg and then is "forced" to tell that Dolan still has it, then lead Clegg to the fake island. Dolan finds out he still has the opium, and

The episode was rated 5.84 from 25 votes.

Mission: Impossible - S2E22

#5 - The Killing (Season 2 - Episode 22)

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Burt Gordon has set up a new version of Murder, Inc. for the Syndicate. The IMF need to get evidence of his actions. Jim and Cinnamon become Gordon's new neighbors, and their brother Rollin claims they are being haunted by the ghost of their long-dead sibling. Cinnamon seduces Gordon and wants him to kill her husband. A provoked Jim then attacks Gordon and is "killed" by Gordon's hitman, Connie and fake-disposed of in an incinerator. But then Jim's ghost comes back to haunt Gordon, "killing" Cinnamon. Gordon follows Jim's ghost-voice to his body and shoots it again...only to find out that the IMF disguised Connie as Jim. The police arrive and arrest Gordon for murder.

The episode was rated 5.79 from 24 votes.

Mission: Impossible - S1E11

#4 - Zubrovnik's Ghost (Season 1 - Episode 11)

The wife of a deceased scientist, Kurt Zubrovnik, is being pressured by Eastern forces to work for them. They are using a phony psychic to convince the wife her dead husband wants to defect! Accompanied by IMF "psychic consultant" Ariana Domi, Rollin and Barney try to disrupt the fraud and convince her to return to working for the U.S. The psychic, Poljac, is torturing the husband for information to use to convince his wife Poljac's powers are real. Ariana senses a real ghost present. In the end, Rollin sets up a final seance and Barney prepares to use a technological projection of Zubrovnik to decry Poljac. However, a blackout causes his equipment to fail, and Ariana's alleged powers, plus some ghostly phenomena, allow them to complete their mission.

The episode was rated 5.70 from 37 votes.

Mission: Impossible - S2E24

#3 - Trial by Fury (Season 2 - Episode 24)

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The head of a country's freedom party, Manuel Delgado, has been imprisoned by the dictatorship of his country. Cardoza, Delgado's assistant and liaison with the outside, has had himself arrested but is now believed to be an informer by the other convicts. The IMF must keep Cardoza from being killed by his fellow inmates and expose the real informer. Jim and Barney go in as prisoners, while Rollin goes in as a guard and Cinnamon as a Red Cross officer. Barney talks about his escape plan, and Rollin sees a guard recover a piece of foil with a message from one of the prisoners. Cardoza is beaten and humiliated by the convicts despite Jim and Barney's best efforts. Rollin smuggle the foil to Jim who uses it to clear Cardoza and find the real informer. Jim and Barney then use Rollin and Cinnamon as hostages to escape themselves.

The episode was rated 5.69 from 16 votes.

Mission: Impossible - S6E12

#2 - Nerves (Season 6 - Episode 12)

Wendell Hayes, the brother of an imprisoned Syndicate enforcer, has stolen a canister of nerve gas and threatens to use it if his brother Cayman isn't freed - the IMF must stop him and recover the gas. Worse, the canister has a defective casing that Wendell is unaware of, and will release the gas in 43 hours anyway. And...Cayman dies of a heart attack in jail, forcing the IMF to have guest-agent Bill Williams take his place. The IMF has Hayes' imprisoned girlfriend Saretta "escape" with prisoner-Casey handcuffed to her. Saretta takes Casey to a winery in a IMF car with a bug on it that Barney traces. Jim delivers "Cayman" but Hayes doesn't turn over the gas. They track Hayes to an observatory but he gets word via his partner Tully that his brother tied and he unmasks Williams-as-Cayman. Hayes and Tully shoot it out over an argument and with his dying breath Hayes tries to shoot open the canister...hid in the observatory roof, revealing its location to the IMF.

The episode was rated 5.26 from 23 votes.

Mission: Impossible - S6E4

#1 - Mindbend (Season 6 - Episode 4)

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Alex Pierson, a rising Syndicate member, has recruited Dr. Burke, a psychopathic behavioral psychologist who has developed a way to program men into killers. Pierson lures in underworld criminals with an offer of plastic surgery and turns them over to Burke, who programs them to kill Pierson's targets three times then kill themselves. Barney infiltrates as a crook on the run but when he fails to dose himself with a counter-drug, he is converted into a psychotic killer as well. They lose contact with Barney - Jim plants evidence on Burke making him look like he's turning against Pierson and another IMF agent made up to look like Barney goes after but fails to kill Pierson before fake-killing himself. Pierson confronts Burke while Jim gets the info on Barney's location out of Burke's assistant, and Willy stops the tech expert from killing his target in the nick of time.

The episode was rated 4.88 from 24 votes.

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