‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’: BAU’s Dynamic With Voit & 6 More Burning Questions for Season 19
A lot can happen in a year. Such is likely going to be the case for Criminal Minds: Evolution, which is going to be jumping forward between Seasons 18 and 19, showrunner Erica Messer told TV Insider.
The Season 18 finale ended with Voit (Zach Gilford) now back in prison, and while brain scans say he’s no longer a psychopath, him imagining killing a fellow prisoner on the bus strongly suggests that his Sicarius side is somewhere deep down. The season also set up another Criminal Minds wedding — which hopefully we’ll see — brought back a major character (and we hope it’s just the beginning of that), and saw the team’s relationships with Voit drastically change as a result of who he had become and the information they needed from him.
So what does that all mean for Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 19? Well, the cast is already filming the new episodes — that started while Season 18 was still being released — so hopefully we’ll see what’s next sooner rather than later. Until then, scroll down to see our burning questions for the show’s future.
Criminal Minds: Evolution, Season 19, TBA, Paramount+
Will Voit give in to his Sicarius side again?
When Season 18 began, Voit was in a coma. He woke at the end of the premiere, and in subsequent episodes, tests showed that he was no longer the psychopath the BAU knew and hated. Rather, he became a vital source of information for them throughout the season, ultimately helping to take down the disciple, Tessa (Jordana Spiro), who was running his network (and wanted him to return to his old self), as well as all the killers on it by setting them up to be tracked by Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness). The finale ended with Voit sitting on the prison transport thinking about what he’d imagined he’d done to another prisoner, but who is Voit really now?
“It could have ended there honestly, because it felt like, ooh, what’s going to happen? Is he going to wake up or not? But we just felt like there was a little bit more to explore,” showrunner Erica Messer told TV Insider after the Season 18 finale.
Season 19 will see Voit being “as famous as Ted Bundy,” she continued. “So what do we do with that character? And again, always reflected in, how are our heroes dealing with this new challenge? And now they’re dealing with a guy who’s essentially got celebrity status as a killer. He doesn’t like the spotlight. I think even old Voit wouldn’t have necessarily liked the spotlight, but the new Voit who’s struggling with these instincts that he has to kill, but he’s also got this conscience that’s louder than the instincts right now, it felt like we had another 10 episodes to explore that.” Might that celebrity status push his instincts to beat out his conscience?
Will Tara and Rebecca get married?
Tara (Aisha Tyler) proposed to her girlfriend Rebecca (Nicole Pacent) in the eighth episode of the season, after she’d been recovering a bit from being shot. Tyler refused to answer after that episode dropped if we’d see a wedding in Season 18, and there wasn’t one. Messer also was hesitant when discussing what’s coming up in Season 19. And with a time jump of a year, it’s very possible that they’re already married when it begins.
“I think Aisha’s keeping this a little bit in the dark, so I don’t want to put it out there in the open, but there is a reason to celebrate, meaning we’re not going to put them through the drama that they got put through in the seasons prior, certainly in Episode 8 when she was shot,” the showrunner allowed. “But we took a page from something that happened to one of our writers who shared something with us in the writers’ room when we started on Season 19. So we’re like, I think that’s how we’re going to handle that. And that’s a little bit of a tease, but you’ll get to see when we get there.”
Will any other past cast members return like Matthew Gray Gubler did in Season 18?
Matthew Gray Gubler returned as Dr. Spencer Reid to be there for JJ (A.J. Cook) at the funeral for her husband, but it was a small part of the episode as a whole. We’d love to see him back for a longer amount of time, preferably tied to a case to once again watch his mind work. Plus, it would be great to see Daniel Henney reprise his role as Matt Simmons — like Reid, he was with the BAU when the original series ended — or Shemar Moore pop up as Derek Morgan again.
For Season 19, “we got going in the writers’ room in February of this year, and we’re now shooting. So when we’re figuring out our season, we don’t know,” Messer explained. “We can’t really count on those guest stars because they can’t tell us if they’d be available or not, six months from then or whatever. So we don’t have any plans right now, but you never know.”
How will the BAU’s dynamic with Voit change?
Despite how he’d terrorized them — especially Rossi (Joe Mantegna) — in the past, the BAU needed Voit in Season 18. To make things complicated, he wasn’t the same Voit they knew, with brain scans showing he was no longer a psychopath. Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) even went to see him when both were dealing with the aftermath of a tough loss on the job! Now he may be back in prison, but he’s still very much still part of the show.
“It’s not normal that the BAU has to consult with a psychopath,” Messer pointed out. Furthermore, now, in Season 19, he’s going to be famous. When it comes to how to deal with that, it’s “always reflected in, how are our heroes dealing with this new challenge? And now they’re dealing with a guy who’s essentially got celebrity status as a killer.”
Not only will the BAU be interviewing him, but there’s the fallout of a serial killer becoming a celebrity. “Because of that sort of unwanted attention that he has, there’s darkness that sort of lurks in and becomes a part of this season. And our plan right now is that that darkness that sort of comes in that’s not network related but is sort of, Voit is a celebrity now, that would be finished by the end of this 10-episode run,” she added.
What trauma will Alvez face with the season focused on him?
In Season 16, Rossi was grieving his wife’s death and was kidnapped by Voit. In Season 17, Prentiss was put through it to the point that she was ready to quit before she could be fired — and that was before she was kidnapped. And in Season 18, JJ lost her husband and Tara was shot. It’s going to be Alvez’s (Adam Rodriguez) turn in Season 19. Aside of what’s in store for him, there’s, of course, the question of what this might mean for his and Garcia’s relationship (there’s always the possibility of them revisiting that).
He “has a lot going on this season, and it really kicks off in the second episode of the season, which we’ve already shot. I think it’s his year to sort of grow and shine a little bit more. And Adam’s so good. I think there wasn’t a dry eye when we screened the second episode,” Messer revealed.
Will there be any surprising developments with that one-year time jump?
Messer told us that during that year between seasons, “there’s been healing, there’s things to celebrate. There’s always having to learn how to navigate something new. We’re all challenged every year with something we haven’t done before.” Something tells us that there will be at least one surprising reveal in the Season 19 premiere (or before), like Rossi’s wife dying before Evolution began. Let’s hope it’s something happier, like a new relationship or professional development.
When will we meet Prentiss’ sister?
In Season 17, Prentiss (Paget Brewster) mentioned to Doug Bailey (Nicholas D’Agosto) that she has a sister, and it was the first time we’d heard about her existence. Brewster wants the character to be introduced, but it doesn’t sound like that will happen in Season 19.
“We talked about it, and we just haven’t explored it enough to do it for Season 19. But here’s hoping we have more seasons to tell that story,” said Messer.
