After a trio of episodes with the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) chasing their tails, Criminal Minds: Evolution finally sheds some light on the Gold Star conspiracy at the heart of the revival series’ second season. But despite this big break in the case, tiny cracks are spreading through the individual BAU members. While this would be dangerous for them at any point, Season 2’s fourth episode, “Kingdom of the Blind,” will bring the previous season’s villain right into their midst. From here on out, things will only get worse for the BAU.
The Season 2 premiere episodes of Evolution revealed that David Rossi (Joe Mantegna) is still working through his trauma from Season 1. Similarly, Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) continues to try to move on from Tyler Green (Ryan-James Hatanaka), a vigilante she fell for. Tara Lewis (Aisha Tyler) and her now-ex Rebecca Wilson (Nicole Pacent) also have some unresolved issues. Luke Alvez (Adam Rodriguez) and Jennifer Jareau (A.J. Cook) are reeling from the discovery of a website dedicated to the BAU with deepfake porn. J.J. Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster) tries to hold them all together, but she was just framed for assault by her next-door neighbor and notorious online conspiracy theorist Brian Garrity (Paul F. Thompkins). In fact, the only people who seem to get any kind of closure at all are the Voit family, who are off to Witness Protection and a fresh start.
Elias Voit Is Still Central to Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 2
Sicarius Is the BAU’s Best Chance to Break Open the Gold Star Case
The BAU’s prime suspect for Season 1’s Sicarius killings, Elias Voit (Zach Gilford) is now their best “asset” for hunting down the mysterious Gold Star. Despite being caught red-handed in the murder of Deputy Director Doug Bailey (Nicholas D’Agosto) and facing the maximum penalty, Voit seemingly is able to withhold his help in this investigation. He forces Alvez and J.J. to bring him his wife, Sydney (Kylie Sanchez), and his daughters, Hollie (Allison Nordahl) and Harlow (Mia Coleman), in exchange for what he claims would be helpful information. Hollie, who had been cutting herself, smuggles a blade to their visit and tries to kill her father with it.
Prentiss is able to use the promise of behavioral therapy for Hollie to finally break through Voit’s smug confidence and force him to help the investigators. In fact, Voit’s frantic plea to get Hollie professional help so that she doesn’t turn out like him is the strongest evidence that he’s not lying when he says he’s not Sicarius. Of course, he’s a master manipulator and liar, even if he has genuine affection and concern for his daughter. It will be interesting to see him in the midst of the BAU, especially since Rossi has been seeing Voit already in visions and dreams. It’s easy to imagine how Rossi might see the real Voit and think it’s his hallucination. This is, understandably, something he’s been keeping from the team. The inevitable clash between Rossi and his team because of this secret will be something to look out for.
Rossi tells his Voit hallucination in “Kingdom of the Blind” that his existence is not a trauma response, but rather how he “figures [him] out.” He also mentions that Voit is the first vision he’s had “riding shotgun” with him. This isn’t much of a surprise to longtime viewers, since Rossi has been dealing with visions of the dead and manifestations of his guilt ever since the original series. In Evolution’s Season 1 finale, he sees his late wife Krystall Richards (Gail O’Grady) in one of his visions. Similarly, in the series finale of the original Criminal Minds, he had visions of a young Gideon, the character originally played by Mandy Patinkin. Whether Rossi is talking to the real Voit or the one in his mind, Mantegna and Gilford’s chemistry sells the characters’ tense dynamic and makes every encounter a nail-biter.
Penelope Garcia Isn’t Really Moving on From Tyler Green
Tyler’s Inclusion in Season 2 Still Feels Forced and Unnecessary at Best
Tyler’s return is still the most underwhelming story in Evolution Season 2. The former US Army drone pilot and black ops operator is back with the BAU to help track down Gold Star. The opening scene of “Kingdom of the Blind” is almost uncomfortable to watch, because he’s all but forced himself into Penelope’s apartment. She even tells him that she doesn’t “feel safe” around him. Later, when she needs his help to break into a cloned phone tied to Gold Star, Tyler “humorously” has to stand in the server room while she works.
Setting aside how Tyler derailed the fan-favorite “Garvez” Criminal Minds ship, it’s unclear why he’s working with the BAU. He’s not an official agent, so by the series’ own logic, he’s not precisely bound by the same rules the rest of the team must follow. However, the show and the other BAU members treat him like he’s one of their own. The stand-out example of this was when he vanished from a stakeout and then the team altogether, only to show later up with a phone belonging to Sebastian Gasper (Anthony Mark Barrow): a financier for mercenary operations, including the strike team killed in the Season 2 premiere by Gold Star. Prentiss seems put out by the extralegal way he obtained this information, but isn’t that the point of having Tyler around at all?
The best moment in this particular storyline should’ve happened in the premiere, specifically when Penelope finally faces Tyler. She tells him to “make amends” rather than simply apologizing. Again, this feels like what Tyler is already trying to do. Yet, Tyler’s story is so scattered it’s unclear if he’s making amends or doing more of the same underhanded things that supposedly put him on the outs with Penelope in the first place. Thus far, Tyler only seems to be present in the season to give Garcia more to do than just “computer stuff” in her office hideout. Though this is a noble and understandable effort, it’s more tiresome and annoying in execution.
The Gold Star Mystery Connects to the Series’ Theme of Conspiracy Theories
Season 1’s Take on Conspiracy and Disinformation Carries Over to Season 2
Prentiss’s neighbor, Brian, first appeared in Season 15 of Criminal Minds, in the episode “Saturday.” While that was a lighthearted affair, he returned in Evolution as a dangerous peddler of online conspiracies. Worse and based on what Brian knows and says, Prentiss figures out he’s being leaked real information. The only silver lining is that Brian weaved a crank’s narrative around the leaks, thus inadvertently invalidating the real incriminating intelligence and evidence he got. Brian has plausible deniablity on his side, but this is pushed to its illogical breaking point. Like Voit’s refusal to cooperate, a senior FBI agent being arrested thanks to Brian framing her for assault stretches the suspension of disbelief.
Luckily, Evolution wastes little time on this subplot, chalking it up to an annoying night at the precinct. It’s also interesting that Brian’s call to Prentiss in which he apologizes is the first time it’s mentioned that “Gold Star” is a program, not a person. Disinformation and conspiracy theories played a large role in how the Sicarius killings played out, whether Voit was the mastermind or just one of the program’s many followers. That Voit gave the “BAU-Gate” information to Alvez shortly after discussing the power of conspiracy theories is no accident. Still, the attempt to frame Prentiss is the clearest sign that the BAU is being actively targeted. This is also why the team’s schisms and traumas can and will probably lead to a disastrous crash, especially with Season 2 nearing its endgame.
Prentiss is the BAU’s formidable leader, so framing her for assault was never going to seriously damage her. At worst, such an assassination of her character would hinder her investigation for a bit before she got things back on track. However, the same can’t be said for those in her life. Case in point, Brian got himself killed while he was trying to further investigate the conspiracies at hand. Collateral damage such as Brian would be a major crack in the BAU’s armor, and a morale killer for even someone as tough as Prentiss. It goes without saying that the stakes have never been higher for the BAU than in Evolution Season 2, especially now that they face an existential threat that hasn’t even revealed its face yet. Fortunately for fans, this means that the series is only going to become more intense as it goes along.
The Gold Star Conspiracy Was More Than the BAU Thought
There Is a Group of Gold Star Killers Connected to the Episode’s Cases-Of-The-Week
The previous episode, “Homesick,” featured a classic Criminal Minds case-of-the-week, and one that could’ve used more narrative space. Although the case was nostalgic, it was ultimately unnecessary filler since it ground the central case to a halt. This episode followed a similar outline but, this time, the seemingly unrelated cases were connected to the main Gold Star plot. The opening kill in “Kingdom of the Blind” was another classic Criminal Minds fakeout. Casual viewers might have expected the young woman asking for help with her car to be the victim, but BAU loyalists likely saw the reveal that she was the killer coming from a mile away. What even the latter may not have seen coming was that the men she attacked weren’t random victims, but law enforcement officers with dark ties to her past. The young woman, identified as Jade Waters (Liana Liberato), even killed her own father.
What’s more, the Gold Star program is tied to the Steward House, which was where the team found Aiden Keller in the premiere episodes. Five kids were institutionalized at the Steward House. They were a part of the Gold Star program and, after everything was shut down, marked for death. While these subjects are now less unknown, the masterminds are still unsubs (Unknown Subjects) looming over the rest of the story, and possibly into a potential Evolution Season 3. Thanks to these new revelations and connections, the season’s central mystery finally feels like one worthy of Evolution’s season-long arc.
So far in this season, Evolution’s cases-of-the-week felt like distractions from the larger story. They weren’t given enough space to capture the audience’s attention, and the Gold Star investigation stalled for throwbacks to Criminal Minds’ heyday. But by uniting these aspects with the attacks on the BAU and the contemporary themes of conspiracy theory in this episode, Evolution Season 2 not only found its footing, but it’s also telling a much tighter and better story than Season 1 did. Putting the previously obstructive Voit in the BAU’s nerve center for the next episode is another great way to ratchet up the tension and surprise even the show’s biggest fans. Should things continue on this upward trajectory, a strong case could be made for Evolution Season 2 being the best Criminal Minds yet.