Criminal Minds season 14: How can Reid, Garcia escape cliffhanger ending?

To say that Criminal Minds season 13 ended in dramatic fashion isn’t really doing it justice. The closing scene features both Garcia and Spencer Reid in enormous danger, with guns pointing in their direction and it certainly feels that one wrong move will lead to an untimely death. Is it true that both of these characters have been in harrowing, life-altering situations in the past? Absolutely, but with a show like Criminal Minds these situations never get any easier.

For this CarterMatt article, the question that we pose today is this: How are these two characters going to get out of this particular situation alive? There are no indications out there that either Matthew Gray Gubler or Kirsten Vangsness are going to be leaving the show, so with that we imagine that the writers have quite a difficult situation to unpack. How are they going to do it?

There are a couple of different things that the writers could do. For starters, why just assume that the other members of the BAU are going to show up in time in order to save them? It certainly seems possible that this could just be a situation Reid and Garcia find a way to talk their assailants down. There could be something interesting from a sociological standpoint here in seeing them figure out a way to work themselves out of the situation with words. Not everything on Criminal Minds has to end in a gunfight.

Beyond just that, one of the other possibilities here is that someone shows up in an unexpected way and manages to act quickly enough so that there isn’t any retaliation. They could distract the attackers, or just commence a shootout themselves. The problem with any sort of gunfire is mostly just that it’s harder to justify Garcia or Reid not getting killed off in the process, especially with Garcia being held by gunpoint inside a car.

What we would love to see is Garcia saving herself before the car drives away. Garcia being abducted is not a storyline we are excited about, but instead if she is able to act swiftly in a moment it could show her that even though she spends most of her time behind a desk and she’s a bit of a nervous person, that she has the courage to get out of a situation like this all on her own..

Basically, the writers have to figure out a way to resolve this situation that is realistic, but also hopeful for the two characters’ future if they’re sticking around. That is no easy task, but like many other violent confrontations on Criminal Minds, things often end in either a shootout or with a verbal standoff where the BAU is able to prevent any loss of life. The stakes are just higher than usual here given that there are two long-running characters in jeopardy.

Related – Be sure to see more speculation about family members of the BAU

How do you think that Criminal Minds should resolve this cliffhanger? Share below, and be sure to come back in the days to come for more entries in our Cliffhanger Questions series.

Meanwhile, be sure to like CarterMatt on Facebook to get even more updates regarding Criminal Minds. It’s a great way to keep up to date with all of our coverage on the show and connect with other viewers. (Photo: CBS.)