CRIMINAL MINDS: OUTLAW

The “Outlaw” episode of CRIMINAL MINDS is a powerful episode about two murderous robbers on the loose in a small New Mexico town, where the sheriff uses alcohol as a crutch because he feels guilt in not having saved his own daughter six years before when one of the robbers first struck before going to prison. “Outlaw” ends on a strong emotional note in a church, where the words to “Amazing Grace” are sung, with the sheriff having been able to stop his reliance on alcohol. However, there is a lot of rough content in the show, including strong violence, murder, references to rape, and drug abuse.

Six years after two armed robbers took the lives of the daughters of Sheriff Raoul Montoya of Las Vegas, New Mexico and his best friend, another armed robbery and three murders occur. The FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit is called in to help track down the murderers.

Agent Reid notices the MOs between the two crimes are slightly different. Sure enough, he and his fellow agents discover that Duke, one of the two men who committed the first crime, went to jail for another crime in Texas and picked up a new partner, Lester. Both are addicted to meth. They returned to New Mexico because Duke has an old girlfriend, who is now taking care of Duke’s young son alone because Duke split town shortly after he helped committed the first murders.

Meanwhile, Agent Rossi, a recovering alcoholic himself, notices that Sheriff Montoya is using alcohol as a crutch because of the pain over his daughter’s murder and his inability to solve the first case six years ago. Rossi advises Montoya to go home and dry out, because his community needs to have him sober at this crucial time. Montoya does just that, the two murderers are shot dead in a shootout, and everyone attends the church service for the funeral of the female victim in the latest armed robbery. A woman sings “Amazing Grace” as everyone lights a candle for the poor dead girl, and Sheriff Montoya is satisfied that he finally got some justice for her and his town.

“Outlaw” is one of the most intense and most powerful CRIMINAL MINDS episodes. It also has the most Christian ending among the many episodes MOVIEGUIDE® has watched. Therefore, it deserves at least some special recognition despite some foul language, intense violence and disturbing content. This rough content warrants extreme caution. CRIMINAL MINDS is a TV series for mature viewers, especially adults.