'Criminal Minds: Evolution' Boss Answers Burning Questions About Season 2

Adam Rodriguez, A.J. Cook, Kirsten Vangsness,, Paget Brewster, and Joe Mantegna

Even though the BAU cracked the Sicarius serial killer case in Season 1 of Criminal Minds: Evolution, the team is getting no respect from new FBI Director Ray Madison (Clark Gregg). Rather, Madison is willing to make a deal with Sicarius, aka Elias Voit (Zach Gilford), when a new serial killer comes along —Gold Star—who is perceived as a threat to national security.

The BAU tells Madison that they don’t need Voit’s help, especially since the deal includes Voit only having to do five years in prison for his crimes, which are many and should get him life, but Madison insists. So, Prentiss (Paget Brewster) and Rossi (Joe Mantegna) decide they need to beat the clock. They need to solve the case before any assistance on the part of Voit puts the deal into effect.

Criminal Minds: Evolution showrunner Erica Messer tells Parade that Madison, as well as previous FBI bosses—Jayne Atkinson as FBI Chief Director Erin Strauss, and Nicholas D'Agosto as Deputy Director Doug Bailey—feel as if they have more important things to worry about than the BAU, which is why they get such little respect.

“If the BAU is a little bit of a thorn in their side, they’re like, ‘Whatever! If they get mad at me who cares?' But it’s also creatively we don’t typically argue amongst ourselves. We don’t have a hierarchy on our team that’s like, ‘I’m going to tell you what to do.’ So, the director role brings that conflict to the team that we wouldn’t normally have. It gives us an internal common enemy a little bit.”

In our Zoom chat with Messer, we got her to address five key storyline points for this season. Read on to get the answers to these burning questions.

Related: Zach Gilford Reveals the One Part He Hates Most About His Killer Role on Criminal Minds: Evolution

When did you decide to make Voit a Hannibal Lecter-type character? Was it as soon as you introduced Sicarius or was it that Zach did such a great job that you thought, “We want to keep him around?”

Definitely, the second part. We thought Sicarius would go away at the end of Season 16 and Zach was just so good, we said, “There’s more story to tell here.” And when we knew we were going to have him kill Doug Bailey, which was hard because we all loved him so much, we were like, “Okay, if he’s going to do something as big as that, it has to be for a reason, what’s the reason?” And that’s when we built Gold Star in. I think it was only mentioned in the last episode of last season, but we knew it going into that episode.

It was really because we wanted to keep Zach around, making him more of a Hannibal Lecter-type this season. But there he is saying, “It was Benjamin Reeves. You guys even arrested him for it. He was Sicarius, I just helped him create this network. How did I know what it was going to be?” He’s such a good liar and manipulator that it’s hard to catch him in his untruths.

We said Voit was always going to have a plan B if he ever got caught, and Gold Star became his plan B. Now we need him. The director made a really great deal and that will be hard for the BAU to swallow. Rossi especially does not want his help in catching Gold Star. It’s like, “We don’t need him, let’s just go catch him on our own.”

Prentiss, obviously, is feeling that pressure, as well. As the season continues and we do have to work with him and we—spoiler alert—take him into the field, it all just keeps getting ratcheted up and heightened. But it was like, “We have to go there.” We’re not going to keep him in the cell the whole time. But even in the cell, he is so powerful.

Related: Which Criminal Minds: Evolution Cast Member Will Not Return for Season 2?

This idea of a race against time with the BAU saying, “We have to keep him in jail,” that is something that builds tension. But what else does that add to the story?

I think for us it’s the tension ratchets up, but there’s something that he does. He tries to get the team to second guess themselves, second guess how strong they are as a unit. At the end of episode two he says to Alvez (Adam Rodriguez), “I’ve got a secret. You have to decide if it’s true or not.” We don’t know what that secret is at the end of two, but then what you realize in three is that he’s telling Alvez’s secret. If Alvez shares the secret, it’s going to hurt someone. And if he doesn’t share it, he’s protecting that person. He says, “That’s what I did, I didn’t tell any secrets to my family because I wanted to protect them.”

I feel like Voit is good at holding up a mirror sometimes to say, “How different are we really?” And that’s, again, a relationship that we have with the killer that we’ve never had before. We’ve never had anybody make us question our values. He has found this way to do it, and it’s unnerving.

Rossi’s having hallucinations. He’s dealt with serial killers before, why is this one so much worse for him to get over? Is it because he was buried alive?

I think that’s what we were playing with, that this is unprocessed trauma. It’s different from previous ones. Throughout the seasons, Rossi might have dinner with an unsub that he’s already locked up. But he’s trying to still get in his mind. So, it felt natural for him to do that again with Voit because he’s done it with other unsubs. But the big difference here is he’s not processing the trauma of being a victim himself. He went through that journey in the container where he saw his wife and sort of made amends with the grief that he was having over her death, but now it’s this whole other thing of the trauma of having this guy who’s now possibly going to get out or only do five years for the abduction of a federal agent and is going to get away with killing Doug Bailey because he said he was standing his ground. It’s awful.

So, it feels like we are watching Rossi try to process all of that on his own. And then eventually will talk about it. And we’ll eventually see Voit for real. So, until then he’s imagining him.

There’s a little comedic relief with Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) and Tara (Aisha Tyler) trying to deal with their love lives, the end of their romances—and those people are still in their lives, which makes it impossible. We need that, but we also do want to see them in successful relationships.

Absolutely. And I think certainly for Garcia, and I say this only because an actual BAU member has never had to work with an ex-partner in any way. So, for Garcia, she’s the first to have that experience. Where Tara at least she says, “Well, I’m avoiding the elevator and I’m avoiding this floor and that floor and everything else.” So, we really are looking at where do we want Tara and Rebecca (Nicole Pacent) to end up at the end of this season, knowing where they ended last year? And then where do we want Tyler (Ryan-James Hatanaka) and Garcia to end up? We’re rebuilding those bonds. I’d say that’s what this season’s about for them.

Related: Felicity Huffman Returns to TV in Her First Major Series Since College Scandal

Felicity Huffman is going to be joining the cast as Dr. Jill Gideon. Why does the team need to turn to her for help? What does she bring to the story?

I can say it’s Gold Star related, but she doesn’t come along until episode 7, so a whole lot has happened by the time she comes on board. But essentially, she has some insight to who Gold Star might be. And it was so great to have her. We only got her for three episodes, but, oh, my gosh, she’s incredible and we had the best time. So, hopefully, more of her next year. That would be amazing.

The 10-episode second season of Criminal Minds: Evolution begins streaming today with the first two episodes. Subsequent new episodes will drop weekly on Thursdays on Paramount+.

Next, There's a New Big Bad When Criminal Minds: Evolution Returns for Season 2