Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 3 Finally Starts To Justify The Existence Of Its Newest BAU Member

Tyler Green has been helping the BAU with the Sicarius case since Criminal Minds: Evolution season 1, but it’s taken until season 3 for him to feel fully incorporated part of the team. Tyler served as a consultant in Criminal Minds: Evolution season 2, having infiltrated the Sicarius network after his sister became one of Elias Voit’s earliest victims. Tyler officially became part of the BAU in Criminal Minds: Evolution season 3, episode 2.

Tyler and Penelope Garcia had a muddled, messy, illicit romance in seasons 1 and 2, which complicated his initial rapport with the other main characters in Criminal Minds: Evolution. However, Criminal Minds: Evolution season 3 is moving away from its divisive love triangle, finally allowing Tyler to develop into a more fully formed and better-integrated character. For the first time, Tyler was crucial to solving a case that had absolutely nothing to do with the Sicarius network.

How Tyler Green Is Critical In Solving BAU’s Non-Sicarius-Related Case In Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 3, Episode 4

Tyler Green Has A Beautiful Moment With A Victim Before Her Death

Tyler Green was still training during the season premiere, but now he is comfortable as a team member, contributing his own theories early in the case around the BAU’s famous round table. Emily Prentiss has Tyler and Luke Alvez accompany her to Tucson, which makes sense as they are the current muscle of the BAU.

While working the case, Tyler has several insightful hunches, such as using the trace metal filings on the third body to determine exactly where the organ harvesting is taking place. As Emily notes, narrowing down the geography was key to determining the unsubs. Once they identify one of the team members, Tyler has local PD run a search for doctors, and they find the surgeon responsible for the murders: Dr. Malcolm Ramsay, who is butchering women to save his daughter.

As helpful as Tyler was during the investigation, it’s what he does afterward that truly proves he’s grown into his role as a BAU agent. When Tyler, Luke, and Prentiss catch Dr. Ramsay with his latest victim, his daughter Arielle shockingly turns on her father and stabs him before anyone can act, horrified that he was hurting others in her name. Luke rescues the latest victim, but it’s Tyler who is watching Arielle closely enough to catch her when she passes out from her autoimmune disease.

As a final request, Tyler carries Arielle outside so she can see the night sky — she hasn’t seen stars in six months. Tyler compassionately assures Arielle she is not a monster, but she killed the real one. Prentiss consoles Tyler with some hard-won words of wisdom: the job isn’t about bravado and staring down evil, it’s about loss, and feeling the weight of that fully that makes the best agents. The moment of compassion he showed Arielle proves that he doesn’t just have the intelligence background but also the empathy to be a member of the Behavioral Analysis Unit.

Tyler Green Has Been Building Rapport With The Rest Of The BAU

Criminal Minds: Evolution Turned Its Awkward Love Triangle Around

Tyler Green entered the BAU with an angry, guarded presence, which made sense given his singular focus on uncovering his sister’s murder. Luckily, Criminal Minds: Evolution season 3 is beginning to make Tyler more of his own character by fleshing out his relationships with everyone at the BAU.

Luke Alvez originally had a tense, territorial rapport with Tyler, but now Luke and Tyler are becoming Criminal Minds: Evolution’s newest bromance, a gap that has needed to be filled since Derek Morgan left. Luke teasing Tyler about his training gun in the season premiere turned into a bonding session about Bruce Springsteen’s discography in Criminal Minds: Evolution season 3, episode 3. The show very smoothly pivoted out of a tired romantic triangle into a refreshing friendship.

This also signals a clear choice to move away from the Garcia-Tyler romantic tension, which is great, because she is always at her best with playful banter and not true flirtation. I like the new normal Tyler has found with Garcia this season, where she no longer feels like she has to keep him at arm’s length. They still have great banter (“Say please.” “Pretty please?” “Oh, with flair!”), but without dragging down the already very serialized storytelling with a secret, clandestine romance.

Emily Prentiss’s heart-to-heart with Tyler on the plane ride home crystallized how far Tyler has come on his own inner journey, as well as how much he’s managed to build relationships with everyone in the team. Criminal Minds’ greatest strength has always been the bonds between the BAU teammates.

Why Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 3 Needs To Keep Tyler Beyond The Sicarius Case

Tyler Adds Value & Humor To The BAU Beyond His Expertise

The BAU was alerted to Sicarius’ existence by an anonymous message from Tyler, and his intimate knowledge of the case is why Prentiss requested that he be assigned to the BAU. However, Tyler has demonstrated he’s a fully competent and capable agent even outside of his Sicarius expertise.

Tyler’s background in military intelligence makes him adept at research when Garcia is otherwise occupied. In Evolution season 2, Prentiss turned a blind eye to Tyler’s use of illegal channels, but this season, he has proven that he gets results even when coloring inside the lines.

Tyler Green was a recurring character in Evolution season 1, then bumped to main for seasons 2 and 3. Criminal Minds: Evolution has already been renewed for season 4.

Tyler has endured the kind of loss that makes the best, most compassionate agents. He needs to be able to get into the minds of the unsubs they’re chasing, but he also needs to show tenderness to the victims. Whatever happens after the Sicarius case is closed, Criminal Minds: Evolution season 4 needs to keep SSA Tyler Green around.