Criminal Minds (TV Series) No Way Out (2007) User Reviews

Excellent... up until the end that is.

[rwk2 · 8/10 · 30 June 2010]

This could have been my favorite episode but the ending just killed it. First of all, the dude from Dexter who played the world's best serial killer hunter is the serial killer here in a wonderful performance matching his brain against Gideon's. Actually, all the actors do an excellent job. The failure here is the script. For the first 50 minutes it's edge of your seat entertainment as the episode starts with the BAU team cornering the unsub in a diner. It progresses from there with flashbacks gradually coming closer to the present. So you're all set to see a great ending... and then total irrationality hits.

The unsub somehow managed to hijack a bus loaded with kids, apparently ALL the police force children, all the kids of the town in fact, ride one bus that somehow drives right through a police road block. Their explanation? "We weren't looking for a bus, just a big camper or trailer or RV or some other big room on wheels. Damn." Wouldn't you look at EVERY large vehicle, just in case? To say nothing of the common knowledge that a killer is on the loose and everybody is cool with their kids running around town.

Following that oddity, the unsub strikes a deal with Gideon: he'll take him to the kids in exchange for the chance to WALK out into the desert with the woman he loves. What? How about they never let him have the "love of his life?" He's a kidnapper of children. Do we want a guy like that running around? Probably not. Also, they mention this dude is the most prolific serial killer of all time, having tortured and murdered HUNDREDS of people. And they just let him waltz out of town. Even if that were an option, what about satellites? What about thermal tracking? What about high altitude planes? What about the fact that they WALKED away from a perfectly good SUV (seriously). And then the kicker: the footprints just disappear. Yep, that's it. The unsub and his crazy girlfriend just meander up into the stars apparently.

There you have it, excellent episode... right up until the end that is.

Want a strawberry milkshake?

[Tentacula · 8/10 · 20 April 2011]

Watching Gideon at work has never been this interesting. This episode is special from the very beginning, as the happenings unfold before the viewer in flashbacks - we know the unsub from the start. As far as I can recall this has never been done to such extend and it makes the episode very exciting. Once more an episode refrains from using the famous "from picture to crime scene"-zoom but there are many interesting shots, particularly a simple mirror-shot that shows what the victims see.

What disappointed me was the end. I would agree that it is "necessary" in the course of the storyline but it just does not seem very realistic to me.

This episode is a MUST for every Criminal Minds enthusiast and despite the end it is remarkably done.

Favorite quote of the episode: "[...]but on the inside, we all look the same." (literally meaning the inside of a body)

-Tenta

Absolutely scintillating, such a shame that it falters at the end

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 25 October 2016]

Season 2 of a personal favourite show of mine is one of the stronger seasons overall of 'Criminal Minds'.

Mostly, in fact for almost the whole duration of the episode, "No Way Out" is one of the season's best in a list that includes "The Boogeyman", "North Mammon", "Revelations", "No Way Out II: The Evilution of Frank", while the underwhelming "Honor Among Thieves" is a rare disappointment from the season.

As ever with 'Criminal Minds' "No Way Out" is made impeccably, stylish yet gritty without being schlocky. The music is haunting while never being melodramatic, too much of one tempo or mood or intrusive. The script is very taut, with intrigue, mystery, suspense and tension aplenty. Reid also has a hilarious line regarding a psycho with a whistle not being that weird.

The storytelling is similarly edge of your seat stuff with no scenes feeling irrelevant or like filler, while also brilliantly executing a story device very different, for then in the show's run, from usual, with the unsub already cornered and being told in flashback structure reconstructing the previous events. Frank Breitkopf is one of the show's most prolific and frightening serial killers for a reason, his dialogue sends chills up the spine and in a way that's fairly subtle but still scary and his way of killing his victims is horrifying, one of the most horrific MOs of any unsub on 'Criminal Minds'.

Uniformly good also is the acting, Keith Carradine is brilliantly scary as Frank while his chemistry with Mandy Patinkin's authoritative Gideon (with a riveting "battle of the minds" chemistry with Carradine's Frank) and Amy Madigan as Jane, a character almost as nuts as he is but in a different way.

It is just such a shame that "No Way Out" falters at the end, especially as the rest of the episode was so mind-blowingly. It just came over as very irrational, if there was an unsub who deserved to be apprehended and should have been it was Breitkopf and it felt like a cop out for him to escape, and especially with not so much of a trace. It also felt very open-ended and crying out for a follow-up, which did happen later on in the season and it was every bit as great an episode (though like this episode, but not quite as infuriatingly the ending also was a let-down).

Overall, a scintillating episode and one of the best of the season that falters only, and frustratingly, at the end. 9/10 Bethany Cox

I agree with most of the reviewers but want to add

[Hrajeepers · 9/10 · 28 April 2021]

What an excellent job Amy Madigan did on this episode as Crazy Jane. She is a talent that is so underused in movies and TV.

Besides that I was totally engaged up until the plot twist at the end. Though on a human level I can see them letting the killer go off into the night. I think most police would trust in their ability to find the kids and would hold him in a cell. Though this twist also demonstrates how manipulative and diabolical this killer has been for the last 30 years.

This has been one of the best episodes since I started binge watching this series. But please other producers, look for a way to work Amy Madigan into your shows, you will be very glad you did.

Facing Off: Brilliance beyond measure...

[MistressH · 10/10 · 14 October 2018]

Even almost 12 years later, this is still one of the best episodes from the early years...or perhaps the entire series as far as Keith Carradine's calmly cold and vastly prolific serial killer Frank is concerned. He is seriously such an underrated actor. His role in this and his role as Agent Lundy (the serial killer profiler) in Dexter could be considered two of the best performances of his career as far as I'm concerned. I think he works particularly well in this case, because he is facing off against the equally calm and calculated brilliance of Jason Gideon (Mandy Patinkin). The moments of just pure dialogue between the two of them in the diner, along with the excellent close up shots in the cinematography, work together to craft a masterpiece of storytelling worthy of highly esteemed recognition. It's a damn shame that neither one of them were nominated for an Emmy for these roles. Or the writers. A shame. I know a lot of people feel like the end of this episode is a letdown...but I knew from the first moment I watched it that it happened this way only so Gideon and Frank would have to face off again at a later date...in an even MORE grand and final battle....and they most certainly do not let us down....in the finale of season 2: Now Way Out, Part II: The Evilution of Frank. 🖤🖤 (And a little FYI tidbit just for fun...Frank was a serial killer for 30 years, and Lundy tracked serial killers for 30 years. That's just good stuff right there. 😉)

Can't help but see the parallels...

[jmdarden-25102 · 8/10 · 26 November 2019]

I had a little trouble following this story, the flashbacks threw me off a bit but that's just me, way too literal finding zig zagging time frames difficult to keep straight. But one thing I noticed for sure when the BAU and local law enforcement busted into that torture chamber of a trailer. Can anyone say David Parker Ray? I can't remember the details in terms of year or exact location (other than the Southwest) but a serial killer named David Parker Ray lured an untold number of women to their deaths in a trailer much like the one shown in this episode. I'm not implying any issues with this, so many tv and movie scripts are based on real life characters. DPR had a torture chamber complete with those mirrors on the ceiling, the medical grade saws and other tools for dismemberment - all in all just chilling to the bone - ooh! Probably not the best choice of phrasing here! If you know nothing of DPR and this stuff interests you or gets to you whichever rings your bell, do some internet searches. It's mind-blowing.

Unsettling but odd pacing

[lottiemarshalllm · 6/10 · 12 August 2020]

Disclaimer:I am no expert reviewer, I just need a show to binge watch and I'm going to Write a review for every episode I watch.

I respect that the writers of the show wanted to mix up how this episode was told going back between present and past but I didn't really enjoy that. In my personal opinion I feel like when shows do that it makes the ending somewhat anti-climactic since you know where they'll eventually end up.

This episode was just sort of all over the place in some good and some bad ways like it had a lot going on so it was very interesting at parts but it's some parts of the episode it just felt really drawn out.

A few things I really did enjoy about this episode was crazy janes plotline and I also really enjoy getting to watch Emily connect with victims like she did with crazy Jane. I always hoped that Elle in season one would have this kind of connection with victims especially women but she never did so it's nice seeing the only female agent on the field be able to connect with victims.

I also really thought that the actor playing Frank the killer was incredibly unnerving and portrayed the killer incredibly.

Overall it was a good episode but I didn't love how it was set up and how it ended. really really did not like the ending I felt it was rushed and not something I feel like Gideon would never let happen and also how do foot prints just disappear that didn't make sense to me but whatever

No Way Out

[nebohr · 6/10 · 18 December 2021]

There is a 40% +/- chance that Gideon will express some kind of human emotion. I am very confident in my estimate.

I don't see a USDA stamp on that meat, right?

We think JJ did it. For no particular reason.

The police standoff is just so absurd ROFL.

Like, is that the brother who hanged himself? They all look alike to us.

Who's Ari Stoddil?

Wait! What!? Isn't the tip of an iceberg ice?

It's harmless. What is it? Pure genius there, Emily.

Round robin briefing time. "Totally spontaneous", like.

Not much of a roadblock. We counted three trucks passing by.

At 25:46- Hollywood cliche #169: obviously fake typing.

Why do they keep talking in front of the unsub?

The dot on the map is too small to show the middle of town.

Chocolate and peas.

The path Hotch took should have had him tripping over the coffin.

Drive on the road Gideon. Genius.

A good episode ruined by a horrible ending

[j_cary88 · 5/10 · 6 July 2021]

I thought this was a pretty good episode. It kept me thinking throughout and the acting was incredible. The main issues were the strange pacing, and the ending. It keeps going back and forth between past and present, and sometimes you aren't sure which one you are watching. They don't make it look like a flashback or anything, and sometimes it got rather confusing. The ending was bizarrely terrible. It really feels incomplete, but not in a cliffhanger kind of way. It's completely out of character for Gideon to let a serial murderer just walk away, especially with somebody else he could potentially kill, just to get kids, who are conveniently all just sitting in one place for all that time, still all together and quiet over a hill. Just absurd.