“They’re not thrilled, obviously,” Criminal Minds: Evolution showrunner Erica Messer says of the BAU having to work with serial killer Elias Voit (Zach Gilford), who’s behind bars but “a living resource” who can help them catch others like him.
But such is life for the profilers when Season 19 begins on Thursday, May 28. And it’ll especially be key when it comes to the Fan, awoken by Voit’s newfound infamy; there are podcasts about him. As Paramount+ teases, this UnSub is “precise, calculating, and relentlessly dangerous” and “pushes the BAU to the brink and back under the shadow of Elias Voit. But how far will the Fan go to prove his superiority over his idol?”
So, while the BAU is dealing with having Voit “darken their door again,” their focus is on, as Lewis (Aisha Tyler) will say this season, “You are a living resource and we have to have a relationship whether you’re excited about it or we are excited about it, it doesn’t matter because there’s a greater purpose out there,” Messer tells TV Insider. “[The BAU and Voit] both navigate the season not loving that they have to talk to one another, but at the same time, really just being forced into it, being into a forced relationship that has all this baggage.”
She also notes that we’ll really see Voit and JJ (A.J. Cook) as “two sides of a coin” this season when it comes to their families. With the series picking up a year after Season 18’s finale, it’s been that long since JJ’s husband Will (Josh Stewart) died and now she’s going to be preparing to send her oldest son, Henry (Mekhai Allan Andersen), off to college. It mirrors what Messer and series’ crew members are dealing with as well.
“We’re sending our kids to college, and just what a big shift that is in your life and as a parent and as a working parent and all those things that, did I do it right? Are they prepared to go? So that whole journey for JJ feels like it kind of ripples into just this sense of time and how quickly it goes and how it feels like a thief in so many ways, and you just don’t get to control that as much as you feel like you’ve been able to control the decisions that you make,” she explains.
She continues, “At the end of the day, this is the natural order of things. Your kids are going to leave you, but you’re never quite prepared for it. So I think that’s a huge arc for her. And then obviously Voit, in contrast to that, is basically having to lose any right to ever see what has become of his family.”
Since Criminal Minds returned with Evolution, characters like Rossi (Joe Mantegna) and Prentiss (Paget Brewster) have certainly gone through it. “I do feel like we spread it around a little bit more in Season 19, but then we’re talking about Season 20, and it’s right back,” Messer admits.
What are you hoping to see in Season 19? Let us know in the comments section below.
Criminal Minds: Evolution, Season 19 Premiere, Thursday, May 28, Paramount+
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