Yep, That’s Who You Thought It Was on Criminal Minds: Evolution
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Season 2 of Criminal Minds: Evolution just introduced a new character to the franchise and fans might recognize her. Who does Felicity Huffman play on Criminal Minds: Evolution? Here’s everything to know about the actress’ new role, including how she is connected to several original BAU members.
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Who does Felicity Huffman play on Criminal Minds: Evolution?
Felicity Huffman stars as Jr. Jill Gideon, a brilliant biological psychiatrist and the ex-wife of the late Jason Gideon (Mandy Patinkin). Viewers never met Jill during Criminal Minds‘ original run, though she was often spoken about up until Gideon’s death in Season 10.
The psychiatrist finally made her debut in the reboot’s Season 2 episode “Piranha,” in which the BAU brought her in to help with the Gold Star case. As it turns out, Jill worked with Gideon and David Rossi (Joe Mantegna) back in the ’90s when the BAU was first starting out. Around the same time, Gideon and Rossi drafted an unpublished assignment called North Star, which outlined a hypothetical scenario that would generate serial killers. This document has now landed in the wrong hands, leading to the creation of Gold Star.
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In addition to her relationship with Gideon, Jill also has a complicated romantic past with Rossi. She was initially reluctant to return to the BAU given her history, but she realized that her specific skill set could help the team uncover another clue to the elusive Gold Star mystery.
The Desperate Housewives alum is set to appear in several more episodes of Season 2, so we can expect the show to delve deeper into Jill’s complex relationships with both Gideon and Rossi.
“Jill airs her dirty laundry in front of sort of everybody,” Huffman told TVLine ahead of her debut. Mantegna chimed in and teased: “There’s a lot of ground we dig up, a lot of backstory to be told, involving Jill, my character, Gideon’s character, and with the rest of the people on the team.”
Showrunner Erica Messer also noted that introducing Jill has been a long time coming. “It never made it to air, but there was this idea that Gideon’s ex was his therapist,” she told the outlet. “So it’s been stuck in my mind for a long time, ‘Oh, that thing exists,’ and I always felt like it’d be a fun nod to the fans who’ve been watching a long time — hey, we have this really deep pull! — but it also works if you never knew Gideon, because you’re learning it through the eyes of Rossi and everyone else who knew Gideon.”
While Jill and Rossi clearly have a strained dynamic, the actors who portray them are actually longtime friends. Mantegna and Huffman’s husband, actor William H. Macy, starred together in the 1988 crime comedy Things Change and the 1992 drama The Water Engine, and have remained close ever since. While speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Huffman recalled her first time meeting Mantegna in the early aughts. “I had my first kid and I was kind of a basket case … Bill wanted to go to Joey’s famous Christmas party and I was like, I can’t go anywhere with this new baby,” she recalled. “We walked in and it was a big party and Joey came over, and because I was a new mom — my husband took off by the way — Joey was like, ‘Come over, sit down. What do you need for the baby?’ He got me food. I was in love. I was like, this is a gentleman.”
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Mantegna added of getting to work together on the show: “We have a history of working together and knowing each other over the years, so it’s the best of all worlds to be put into a relationship like this …. It’s a meaty, exciting aspect to our show. I love when we get into these personal stories.”
Criminal Minds: Evolution is available to stream on Paramount+.
Watch ‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’
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