‘Criminal Minds’ Fans Are Devastated After ‘Evolution’ Drops Heartbreaking Plot Twist for JJ
Criminal Minds: Evolution loves to deliver jaw-dropping moments whenever it can. But no one ever expected this plot twist to occur for one pivotal BAU member!
As season 3 of the Criminal Minds reboot airs every Thursday on Paramount+, fans are excited to be back in step with the FBI agents that comprise the BAU. But as folks know from the original series, J.J. Jareau (A.J. Cook) has been in a loving relationship with her husband, Will LaMontagne Jr. (Josh Stewart). While the couple has experienced ups and downs in their romance, their love for one another has stood the test of time … until now.
As viewers learned in the May 15 episode (titled “Swimmer’s Calculus”), J.J. received news that changes her life forever. While Will finds himself with a headache throughout the episode, he suddenly collapses close to the end of the installment. When J.J.’s co-workers rush to the hospital in order to support her, she delivers heartbreaking news about the state of Will’s health. He unfortunately had a surprise brain aneurysm, leading to his unforeseen death.
When fans discovered J.J.’s life-changing plot twist, they immediately went to Reddit to voice their explicit shock about Will.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE’S DEAD,” one person screamed in the comments. “I don’t even watch Evolution but???? !!!!! ?! Nooooooo,” another exclaimed. “They could have simply not shown him on screen if he wanted out of the show. It pissed me off to have them kill him,” a different viewer added.
As some may remember, Will’s ending on Criminal Minds: Evolution has been teased for quite some time. Back in January 2024, Josh went on X (formerly Twitter) to announce his exit from the show after fans wondered if his likeness will appear back in season 2.
“No, sadly, my days of playing Will LaMontagne Jr. are over,” he wrote at the time. “You guys have been the absolute best. 🙏.”
Now that fans know Will is no longer on Criminal Minds: Evolution, how will his death affect J.J. throughout the rest of season 3? Paget Brewster teased to TV Insider that viewers should expect J.J. to try and keep things together for both herself and her sons.
“J.J., if you know the character, is a really intensely strong person who understands loss, who is a wife and mother and law enforcement, and she’s great at her job and she doesn’t want to let that grief in,” she noted. “She wants to keep it all together to take care of her boys and do her job, and she won’t let herself grieve ... But we all need each other’s support. I think they did a beautiful job with it, and I hope we honored it. I remember all that. It was hard. There’s some hard emotional scenes coming up.”
Looks like we’ll need to tune in next week to see how Will’s death will continue to play out on Criminal Minds: Evolution. And who knows? Maybe this is the perfect time for Matthew Gray Gubler to show up as Dr. Spencer Reid …
