Criminal Minds

Scenes from No Way Out (1) show the victims and history of the serial killer known only as Frank, who escaped by taking a busload of school children hostage in Golconda, Nevada. He was known for drugging his victims with ketamine, which kept them awake and unmoving while he dissected and dismembered them and removed one right rib bone to give to his "love interest," Jane. He and Jane fled through the Nevada desert, and Frank claimed he would never harm anyone else as long as he had Jane by his side.

On a busy street, Gideon is trying to make up his mind about what flowers to buy as skateboarders and pedestrians swirl around him. A very impatient man waits behind him, hurrying Gideon along as he keeps changing his mind. Gideon's phone rings and he puts it to his ear as he speaks sharply to the waiting patron, "Hey, back off, pal." "What did I do?" asks Hotch from the other end of the phone. Hearing that Gideon is considering roses, Hotch asks him if he's on a date. Gideon tells Hotch that he's just meeting an old school friend, and asks Hotch what kind of message roses would send. Gideon asks the florist if she has any button mums, nervously describing them as "the yellow flowers, little yellow flowers that look like dandelions or weeds, but they're not weeds, they have a little black spot in the middle but they don't have a black spot, they're sort of round and puffy" while Hotch listens and laughs from his office at the BAU.

Finally, Gideon asks what Hotch needs. Hotch is concerned. He tells Gideon that Safeguard has asked for personnel files on certain BAU team members. Gideon brushes it off as a routine evaluation, but Hotchner has his doubts. It's six months early for a routine evaluation and he believes it is an assessment of the BAU. He's worried they are redistributing funds and making cuts. Gideon wonders what they can take – the jet? Gideon chuckles that he'd rather take the train anyway. "I think we may lose more than that," responds Hotch. It's been a hard year for the BAU: Morgan's experiences in Chicago, Reid's issues, Elle Greenaway killed a suspect. "The only file they didn't request was mine," adds Hotch. Gideon insists that Hotch is the best unit chief he knows, and, as he continues to try to reassure Hotch, Gideon looks across the crowded street and sees a lonely figure that he immediately recognizes: Crazy Jane. When he looks again, she has disappeared. Hotch agrees that both of them need a break. And, "button mums are something you give your mother."

After he hangs up, Gideon's phone immediately rings again, and the caller is identified as "Sarah." Gideon answers and apologizes for his lateness, but it's not Sarah calling – it's Frank. "What is your fascination with birds, Jason?" he asks. Frank is in Gideon's apartment, looking at the etchings and prints of birds, the model train cars, and other items on display. Gideon begs for Frank not to hurt Sarah, saying she is innocent – someone he knew a long time ago - as Frank goes on and on about birds. "Birders can be extremely single-minded in their pursuits. Almost obsessional." "Are you obsessional, Jason? Do you lie awake at night and think about the bird that got away?" He asks Gideon if he's seen Jane – Frank knows she came to Washington to see him. "I want her back," he snaps, and hangs up the phone. Gideon drops the bouquet of button mums onto the wet street.

"I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, my enemies for their good intellects."

Hotchner is examining the items on display in the office of his superior, Section Chief Erin Strauss. His eyes flick to the family photographs, certificates, a bonsai tree, modern art, carefully placed magazines. He paces around the office, his eyes darting here and there, and his hands are nervous. She comments that she's never seen him like this before. "You've not seen what I've seen," he replies. Although he chose the BAU, and enjoys his work, even when he has to try to understand why people choose to do the horrible things they do to each other – to children, to families. He explains that unsubs, when caught, believe it is only the BAU who understands them. They do, otherwise they wouldn't be able to catch them. Section Chief Strauss wants to know what happened on Friday, and Hotchner begins to explain.

At 7:15 P.M. he was instructed that the BAU was needed at 181 Arthur Street, which is Gideon's apartment. When he arrived, Maryland police were already there, checking for evidence and taking photographs. From the living room, Hotch could see a female victim lying on the bed and blood splashed up on the walls. He notices the dining table set for two and Gideon's cell phone on the table. His eyes roam over the model trains displayed on shelves. Morgan arrives and demands to know where Gideon is. Hotchner tells him Gideon's cell is on the table: "It seems he left in a hurry." The police have six witnesses that saw Gideon running down the street covered in blood, wielding a gun. Morgan suggests Gideon was chasing a suspect. As they talk, Prentiss, JJ and Reid arrive and look in horror at the bloodbath in the bedroom. Hotch tells the team that they are under strict orders not to get involved in the case – Gideon is a suspect and they are his colleagues, so it is a conflict of interest. Prentiss and Reid enter the bedroom to get a better look at the body. They are going to have to help Gideon without getting in the way of the investigation, so they must observe all they can while they can. Reid makes a quick evaluation of the body – "Evisceration of the torso, the removal of various organs, the guy is clearly a sexually sadistic psychopath." Prentiss agrees, and it looks as if the unsub has done this before. Hotchner advises JJ to use her cell phone to get as many pictures as she can and send them to Garcia immediately.

Garcia walks into her office speaking on her phone after being summoned from a date with "the cute guy in counter-terrorism." "Three cocktails in I am looking at second base – this better be good." JJ counters with, "it's far from good." She tells Garcia she's at Gideon's apartment as she watches Hotchner and Morgan quietly role-play what went on in the room. There's no forced entry because Sarah, the victim, opened the door for the assailant because she was waiting for Gideon. There won't be any defensive wounds because she didn't have a chance – the killer came looking for Gideon and found her, instead. The sexual sadist needs to kill just like he needs to breathe. He started cutting on her lower torso, and moved to her throat. She was awake the entire time until she died and there will be high doses of ketamine in her system. He removed her lower right rib bone – which Morgan notices is in the victim's left hand. "Frank's back," Morgan can't believe it even as he says it. Reid wonders, since Frank took the ribs of his victims to give to Jane as gifts, why he didn't take this one. "It's not for Sarah, it's for us – it's a message," says Hotch.

Garcia quickly reviews the pictures JJ sent and notices one of a small notebook with the first page ripped out. Only a portion of the first page is still there along the book's staples – it looks like the page included a numbered list.

Prentiss tells Hotchner they need to tell the police what they've found. He and Morgan disagree – they have to wait – Frank will not have left a trace of his DNA and the scene could be interpreted a number of ways – all of which leave Gideon as the prime suspect. They can't stop looking for Frank long enough to explain everything to the local police. Frank had been doing everything for Jane, but now this appears to have changed. Perhaps they had a quarrel and Frank killed Jane. Reid is afraid that, since Frank came here looking for Gideon, he may have found him. Prentiss and Morgan leave to look for traces of Gideon as Hotchner's phone rings. Answering it quietly, he asks who it is. It's Gideon calling from a pay phone on the street. "I nearly had him," he pants. Gideon is bloody - his face and hands are stained with Sarah's blood. He's horribly upset, and his thoughts and words are disjointed, his breath comes in gasps, and he's on the verge of tears. He tells Hotchner that Frank dumped something in the trash on the street. Gideon knows Sarah's death is his fault, that if he hadn't been late she'd still be alive. Hotchner comforts him by saying that Frank is out of his comfort zone and he's in a big city with feds who know what he looks like.

"I'm coming in," says Gideon. "No, do that and this investigation moves inside an interrogation room and, by the time the cops catch up, we're going to be looking at more dead bodies. He's going to change who he goes after, he has to. We know who Frank is, we don't know the why – you help us find out the why and we'll catch him." Hotchner tells Gideon he will have Garcia bring him his files, and that Gideon should go to a safe, quiet place where he can figure out Frank's profile. It's the only way they'll catch him.

On the street near Gideon's apartment, Morgan, Prentiss and Reid realize that, if witnesses saw Gideon, they must have seen Frank, but Frank will do whatever it takes to blend in. Although he must have splashed himself with blood while eviscerating Sarah, Frank could have taken clean clothes from Gideon's closet – yet he left none of his own things behind at the crime scene. Hotchner approaches carrying a white plastic bag and tells the team that Gideon called and told him Frank had dumped the clothes on his way from the crime scene. When asked where Gideon is, Hotchner will only tell them that he's safe. Prentiss again insists they turn everything over to the MPD, but Hotchner knows Frank will be long gone if they do that.

A young boy, Leopold, skates up on a skateboard and asks for Agent Morgan. He quotes something Frank had said to Morgan in the diner back in Golconda, Nevada. He tells them if they don't give him Jane, he'll "kill them all." The team now realizes Frank no longer has Jane. Leopold then asks for the $10 that the man promised him. The team looks around, knowing that Frank is somewhere watching them.

Parked in a dark alley, Garcia is alone in her vintage convertible, and appears to be frightened and shaken. She tries to calm herself down, but only makes herself more nervous, imagining the headlines when her mutilated corpse is recovered. Suddenly, Gideon opens the door and jumps in and she screams. He tells her to drive – just drive.

At the crime scene, the MPD is packing up evidence as the team discusses their next move. If they find Jane, they'll find Frank. Prentiss points out the first time they found him, Frank had outsmarted them by taking a busload of children hostage. Reid wonders what Frank's message, "I'll kill them all," could have meant. At BAU headquarters, Garcia had left copies of the photos of the crime scene on the round table for JJ. The photo of the torn notebook page had been marked especially for her to examine. JJ dials Prentiss' cell phone to tell them about it. She tells them about the book and the numbers from the list, and Hotchner and Reid immediately recognize it. It is Gideon's "murder book," a list of all the people he's saved, including names, dates, and personal details. And now Frank has it – these are the people he's going after. Any of these former victims who live nearby are now at risk. Hotchner tells JJ to start locating and warning all the people who could be on that list. They can't tell Gideon about this until they figure out who Frank is.

As Gideon cleans up in the bathroom of the Smithsonian Institute, the sight of the bloody water sends him back to scenes of Sarah's bloody murder. Samuel ushers Gideon and Garcia into a large conference room where the walls are lined with exhibits depicting predatory behavior in animals. Samuel is concerned about his friend, and Garcia ensures him she will take care of Gideon. Garcia had brought all the files that pertained to Frank, and she sits at the table with her laptop, ready to help. Gideon gazes at the familiar etching of the mockingbird, and tells her its study helped form insights into the origins of syntax, and the evolution of human language. They must now try to understand the evolution of Frank – what created him.

At the BAU, JJ has taken some framed photos from Gideon's office and compiles a list of Frank's possible targets. Hotchner and Morgan arrive, and JJ tells them she has distributed Jane's photos and descriptions to all media outlets and the Washington and Maryland police departments. Hotchner tells her to be sure that the BAU has a chance to interrogate Jane before any other police agency. When Morgan asks if that is wise, he says, "No, but it is an order. Whatever you do, bring her here first. She's the only one who knows where Frank is." Reid and Prentiss enter carrying FBI files. They've narrowed Frank's possible targets down to nine people and they all need to start calling them.

Rebecca Bryant, the Fisher King's hostage, was one of the former victims on the list. In her apartment, she spoons five teaspoons of sugar into a cup of coffee for Frank who is masquerading as Agent Gideon. He tells her the BAU likes to follow up on their victims. Rebecca tells him she doesn't think of herself as a victim. Frank responds that that is a "sound strategy." Rebecca is happy to have a chance to thank him because he is the only member of the team she didn't meet face to face. Frank has a letter Rebecca sent to Gideon thanking him, but he says he would like to know more details. He begins to quote statistics about female rape victims and asks for specifics about her ordeal, and Rebecca begins to feel uncomfortable. Finally, Frank grabs her hand and demands to know what fear feels like. Rebecca gets up to answer the ringing phone. JJ quickly identifies herself and Rebecca replies, "He's not Agent Gideon, is he?" Hotchner and the team know Frank is there, and Hotchner tells Rebecca to very calmly excuse herself and get out of the house. Before she can react, Frank comes up from behind and injects her with ketamine. Frank picks up the phone and tells the team to move Rebecca's name to a new list. Hotchner tells Frank they do not have Jane, but Frank only repeats that he will not stop killing until he has her back.

With flack vests and guns, the team breaks into Rebecca Bryant's apartment - it's too late. Rebecca's body is on her bed and covered in blood. Morgan tries to get Hotchner to understand there was nothing they could have done to stop this. Examining the body, Prentiss finds a note clutched in Rebecca's hand, which reads 7 A.M., Union Station. According to Reid, all the other names on Gideon's list have been accounted for, but Hotchner knows they missed someone. They know Frank will now raise the stakes, just as he did before. Frank will make it impossible for them to not trade him Jane. JJ calls Hotchner to tell him Jane has been picked up. She had been demanding to speak with the BAU and she had assaulted one of the police officers. If Frank is true to form, he'll know to go after what people value most – children. Hotchner sends Prentiss and Reid to pick up Jane, while JJ goes through all the files again, looking for possible relocations of families to the D.C. area.

Garcia believes the search for information about Frank is hopeless – they don't even know his surname. Gideon tells her they know about the only person who ever survived Frank – Jane - and he is prepared to risk everything to have her. There's something about her that caused him to break his pattern.

Jane is ranting and raving in the holding cell, and annoying her fellow prisoners. Prentiss opens the cell door and calms her, telling her they will take her to see Agent Gideon. "Agent Gideon is right, you know. Frank – he can't feel love. He wants to, but he can't." She is frightened when Reid tells her that Frank is already in the area looking for her.

JJ searches file after file, and comes across one on Tracy Belle, who almost became a victim of child serial killer Jeffrey Charles in Ozona, Texas. She and her parents recently relocated to McLean, Virginia. She's the only one not accounted for. The SWAT team and the BAU arrive at the Belle home to find Tracy has been abducted. Hotchner is leaving the house just as Tracy's parents get home, and he assures the hysterical couple that they will find Tracy and that she'll be fine.

Jane lights a cigarette in the BAU interrogation room. Prentiss tries to get her to sit down, and JJ brings Jane her belongings in a brown paper bag. As Hotchner enters the room, Jane asks if Frank has hurt anyone else – she doesn't think he will since he still has her. "He doesn't have you, we do," explains JJ. Prentiss asks Jane what changed to make her leave Frank. Jane tells them that Frank changed just like Agent Gideon said, and that Frank is angry because he knows Agent Gideon was right about him all along. When Hotchner asks Jane if Frank wants to be stopped, Jane replies if anyone can stop Frank, Agent Gideon can.

Gideon explains to Garcia that there are three factors that determine behavior: biology, psychology and socialization, or life experiences. Frank's victims are very important – they reflect back on him. Gideon asks Garcia to chart the victims' ages. The files show that Frank killed 43 in their fifties, 51 in their forties, 64 in their thirties, and 12 in their twenties. Gideon is shocked concerning the last fact: statistics say the number should continue to increase as age decreases. Why? Garcia quickly guesses that he wasn't attracted to them – but then Frank doesn't feel attraction. Gideon says she's on the right track – there has to be an explanation. The only woman he didn't kill – Jane – was 22 when he abducted her. And he came back year after year to bring her gifts and make sure she was okay. He didn't kill Jane because he sees her as his mother.

Jane tells the team that Frank is from Manhattan, he talked about it all the time – he wanted her to know everything. He lived with his mother, Mary Breitkopf, a German immigrant, and he never knew his father. He talked about her constantly – about Sundays at the fair, dinner parties. Prentiss and Hotchner are very gentle with her, and they assure her she wasn't responsible for falling in love with Frank. She wanted to change Frank, but the desire to kill eventually overwhelmed him. She admits that Frank tried to kill her, but he stopped himself. She had to run from him, but she didn't believe that he would kill again. When the team tells her he has killed again, and he won't stop until he gets her back, she is distraught.

When Garcia tells Gideon that Frank's mother's name is Breitkopf, he remembers something Frank said in the diner in Golconda. He was obsessed with facts. He mentioned Manhattan, and a story about a woman whose body was found in an apartment on the Upper East Side after she had been dead for a year. This is the only story that seemed to move him – he was talking about his mother. Frank had explained the origin of his name was Germanic – so Garcia checks for German immigrants. She finds three Mary Breitkopfs, but none of them were lawyers, as Frank had described the woman found dead. One was a prostitute who had been arrested 63 times. There is no death certificate for her. Garcia searches for the story about the woman found dead in Manhattan, but, when she finds none, Gideon realizes that Frank was hiding his mother's existence from everyone.

Hotchner puts a call through to Gideon from Tracy Belle. Frank has Tracy, and wants her to tell Gideon to save her. "Please, Mr. Gideon, you saved me once, don't you remember?" Gideon tries to comfort Tracy, and then turns on Frank when he takes the phone. "You son of a bitch. I swear to you I will find you and I will stop you." Frank says he'll see him at the train station. Garcia is upset that she can't trace the call for him. Gideon hurriedly writes something down and hands it to her, telling her to call Hotch and read it to him – he'll know what to do. Gideon checks his gun and heads out. When Garcia asks him what he's going to do, he replies, "End this."

Armed law enforcement officers swarm Union Station. SWAT, federal, and district police move through hallways and crowds, trying to find the suspect. Morgan, Hotchner, and Prentiss still don't have Frank or Gideon in sight. Prentiss asks Hotchner if Gideon is planning to show up as an agent or an executioner. They find Frank on platform 11, sitting calmly on a bench. Morgan and other officers clear the platform of civilians as Hotchner advises the officers not to shoot.

At 2087 East 78th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, JJ, Reid, and the NYPD walk down the hallway of an apartment building. Before they reach their target, JJ stops Reid. "Wait. No matter what happens this time, we don't split up, clear?" "Crystal clear," he responds.

Hotchner approaches Frank and asks him the whereabouts of Tracy Belle. "Do you have something for me?" asks Frank. When Hotchner denies having Jane, Frank tells him he will never see Tracy again. Hotchner radios Prentiss and asks her to bring in Jane, and asks Frank the same question.

In New York City, JJ and Reid enter the apartment, with their guns drawn.

Frank tells Jane that he is lost without her. He refuses to tell them where Tracy is until he and Jane are safely away. Jane tells Frank she isn't going with him and he replies he will not stop killing unless she comes with him. Before she can respond, Gideon walks between them, pointing his gun at Frank. He tells Frank about Sarah. "Sarah was a doctor, the mother of three boys. She worked and ran a treatment center for patients with terminal cancer. She dedicated her life to easing the pain of others." He goes on to taunt Frank. "You took the life of hundreds all because your mother was a whore." Frank listens angrily as Hotchner describes his mother, a woman who had worked three jobs to provide for her strange child who she wouldn't let out into the world. When Frank's mother became a prostitute, he witnessed everything.

As Gideon and Hotchner describe Frank's mother, JJ and Reid open the bedroom door of the apartment only to find a decayed corpse surrounded by bouquets of flowers lying on the bed. Hearing a sound from the closet, they aim towards it and open the door. They find little Tracy Belle - bound and gagged inside – but she is alive and unharmed.

Frank is surrounded by drawn guns, and seems to have no way out. Holding his hand out to Jane he tells her that there is no place in the world for people like them – no one understands them. "Have you ever been happier than when you've been with me?" "It doesn't have to end here." Jane walks between Gideon and Frank, forcing Gideon to lower his weapon for a moment. Frank tells Jane he loves her, and she looks into his eyes and replies, "I love you, too." A train rumbles down the track towards them and Frank grabs Jane's hand just before they hurl themselves onto the tracks and under the train.

Inside the station, Hotchner hands his cell phone to Gideon. It's Tracy Belle. "I just wanted to call and thank you." JJ ushers Tracy out of the apartment as Reid walks back into the bedroom to gaze down at the desiccated corpse of Frank's mother.

In Section Chief Strauss' office, Hotchner looks out the window and tells his superior, "Once again the team had battled a monster and won." Strauss tells him "the future of the BAU is not in the balance here. The residual impact as a result of the investigations into the crimes and criminals you pursue is. Every cause has its effect." She also tells Hotchner he is no longer effective in his post. Hotchner then gives a brief profile of her. He tells her the modern furniture, magazines and art are in conflict with her family photos, and that she favors one of her three children – her son. He continues, but she cuts him off by saying as his superior, she questions his ability to lead his team.

"Let me tell you about my team." Hotchner proceeds to describe each of the BAU members as a playful scenario is acted out in the BAU bullpen. He tells her that Morgan shielded his past from his teammates because trust has to be earned, and he doesn't trust easily. He tells her that Reid shields his emotions behind his intellect, and that shield is still being repaired. He tells her that Prentiss overcompensates because she doesn't feel a true part of the team, but she is. He tells her that JJ fields dozens of requests for the team every day and struggles with the hope that she's made the right choices. He tells her that Garcia fills her office with color to remind herself to smile as the horror fills her screens. He tells her that Gideon is wounded by his profound knowledge of others, which is why he doesn't share himself easily, but he completely surrenders himself in every single case. And Gideon has another notebook, one in which he keeps the photos, names, and dates of those he cannot save. Jane is in this notebook now as well as Rebecca Bryant. And, removing a photo from his wallet, he adds Sarah's photo to the book, writing on the page "Sarah Jacobs - May 14th, 2007."

In Section Chief Strauss' office, Hotch maintains, "I stand by my team, and if you think you can find a better person for the job, good luck." Hotchner has proved he is good at his job by profiling his team, and then profiling her.

However, Section Chief Strauss isn't finished yet. Speaking to an unseen agent seated across her desk, she reminds the agent that she had pulled the strings to get that agent into the BAU because the agent had insisted on getting the position, even when some people stood in the way. And now it was time to pay back the favor. "Your team is in trouble. I believe they are reckless and, at times, out of control." Section Chief Strauss tells the agent it is time for Hotchner's career to end and that the agent was going to help her end it. SSA Emily Prentiss is speechless.