Criminal Minds: Evolution just killed off a character introduced in Season 12 in one of the most heartbreaking moments of the revival’s run. It’s a loss that’s going to continue to affect Luke (Adam Rodriguez, who delivers a stellar performance). TV Insider spoke with Rodriguez and showrunner Erica Messer about just that. (Plus, read about more about the premiere here.) Warning: Spoilers for Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 19 Episodes 1 and 2 ahead!
Near the beginning of the second episode, Luke is at a cemetery, sitting on a bench in front of a grave. Once he’s called into work, he’s still upset, visibly emotional, even hitting the panel of the elevator after stopping it before steadying himself. At one point, Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) checks in with him, pointing out the others were starting to notice. Flashbacks throughout the episode show him at a hospital, with a doctor giving him bad news. It’s finally revealed that it’s his dog, Roxy, who died, after a tumor spread and there was nothing else to do.
“We really wanted to play the loss of something close to him, and in the history of the show, the closest thing to him has been Roxy. And just anyone who’s ever lost a pet before, it’s just such a universal feeling and you’re not sure the sun’s going to rise the next day, it’s that visceral,” Messer explains. “And to play that felt more genuine to that character than introducing some family member that we haven’t talked about before.”
It was tough for Rodriguez, who admits to being brought back to that place while discussing it.
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“It’s funny because you haven’t even seen her visually a lot, but she was present. She was always talked about and mentioned and you knew what a big part of Luke’s life she was. Outside of Garcia, Roxy really was pretty much the bright light in his life,” he says. “I don’t think there’s much else there for Luke. I think it’s a pretty lonely place when he goes home, pretty spartan existence. As an actor, I was really glad to get some real meat on the bone to have to play for the scenes and really just get to pitch in on the show in that way. It felt great.”
We see Luke’s last moments with Roxy before the vet puts her to sleep. It’s devastating to watch him hugging and comforting her. Then, as he talks the UnSub, David (Richard Cabral), down, recalling his own military experience, he talks about what ARC (Army Recovery Care), a program that helps ill and injured service members reintegrate into civilian life, did for him and how it paired him up with Roxy. That made a big difference, he says. Garcia joins Luke at the cemetery near the end at Roxy’s grave, which reads, “Forever Loyal, Forever Loved, 2011-2026.”
He tells only her because, according to Rodriguez, “I think Garcia is the only person Luke’s really willing to be that vulnerable in front of. I just don’t think that he feels safe sharing that with anybody else. I think everybody else is about as close to him as you can be as a friend of his, but Garcia obviously has a very special place and she’s just also a special personality in that way. Yeah, I think it just makes sense that she’s the only person that he shares that with.”
Plus, it was Garcia who was wondering who Roxy was back when she first heard her name. “It’s a nice full-circle moment,” Rodriguez agrees.
Luke’s grief will continue to play throughout the season, “along with some other storylines that come up and bring some things up for him that compound with that. I think it takes him a while. When you have that kind of relationship — I think what Roxy meant to him is one of those things that you kind of never get over it. It really is the closest thing to a life partner that he had,” the star shares. “I think she really helped him through some dark times to the point that his fear is whether or not he can handle moving forward without her in it. It’s like that support system. And I think that’s where Garcia comes in as that other saving grace in his life that if it wasn’t for Garcia, maybe Luke is really wondering what he’s got left to give.”
This episode touches on that, too, with Luke opening up to David about his struggles after returning to civilian life and even his thoughts of suicide.
The agent opened up because “I think he saw somebody that was just like him except making a bad choice instead of a good choice, somebody that felt like they maybe had even less choices than Luke might’ve felt that he had,” says Rodriguez. “And I think there was, in a crazy way, a camaraderie there. There was really something that he could see as himself and he could relate. He could relate and he felt like that person could understand what he had to say. And funny enough, in a situation like that, he chose to be honest and vulnerable and share something that he probably wouldn’t have even told Garcia.”
He also praised Cabral’s performance, adding, “He did an incredible job. I mean, he’s a great actor. He’s got so much soul, so much feeling. I was really glad to play those scenes with him. We really connected.”
This episode also introduces Tom Milligan (Jamison Jones), a retired army grunt Luke met in ARC (and who got RJ Hatanaka‘s Tyler through the basic field training course). That is an important relationship for Luke, Messer tells us.
“It’s somebody he’s really close to, and that will come back into play later this season,” she teases. “He will come back in Episode 5, and yeah, then that’s a whole ‘nother thing for Alvez to wrestle with.”
What do you think of Criminal Minds killing off Roxy? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
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