Voit (Zach Gilford) may be behind bars when Criminal Minds: EvolutionSeason 19 begins, and it may seem that he’s changed from the serial killer he was when the BAU first met him, but something introduced at the end of Episode 2 suggests that he’s plotting something behind the profilers’ backs. TV Insider spoke with showrunner Erica Messer about that and more. (Plus, read about the death here.) Warning: Spoilers for Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 19 Episodes 1 and 2 ahead!
After their history resulted in Rossi (Joe Mantegna) hallucinating Voit in Season 17, the tables have now turned. One year after the events of Season 18, Voit’s seeing his version of Rossi, and while he thinks, at first, that he’s the angel on his shoulder, the hallucination corrects him: “That’s adorable. You think I’m the angel.”
As Messer points out, Voit was “unknown to everyone” when he was first introduced in Season 16, with his shipping containers underground and no bodies. However, now with podcasts all about him, including Brian’s (Paul F. Tompkins).
“This is somebody who doesn’t want to be in the spotlight, who doesn’t want anyone to know his biggest shame and yet everybody knows it. So he went from unknown to household name and with that journey comes a lot of mind games for him. And I think it just felt right that we were having Rossi be the voice that came through in his head,” the showrunner explains.
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Voit doesn’t take too kindly to the aforementioned podcast, smashing The Sicarius Files lit-up sign (which hadn’t been approved) and saying, on record, that while he may be pathetic, what’s more so is someone who makes a show about him and anyone who listens to it. He puts an end to it. Later, however, Hallucination Rossi remarks that he liked his “little show” with the “performative violence.” He also brings up what he did to the victim whose mother he agreed to talk to and calls Voit out on analyzing his cell, the guards, doors, and vulnerabilities. As the Rossi in Voit’s head can see, Sicarius is planning his escape. Messer confirms that’s the case.
“This is a guy who it’s all the things we’ve said about him. He likes to be in control. The last thing this healthy guy wants to do is run away in jail, and yet that’s exactly the path he’s set for himself. So whenever there’s an opportunity — counting the footsteps, counting the whatever — he can’t turn it off,” she says. “Hallucination Rossi was aware of that: ‘I know you, I know you better than you know yourself and I’m going to call you out on that.’ There will be an attempt this season to escape, I’ll say that.”
What we’re seeing with Voit and Hallucination Rossi isn’t the only change in dynamics. There’s also this weird balance now with the serial killer where, for example, he congratulates Lewis (Aisha Tyler) and Rebecca (Nicole Pacent) after seeing their wedding rings and Prentiss (Paget Brewster) finds herself siding with him against Brian, which she hates.
The ends of the first two episodes of Season 19 introduce The Fan, the new recurring UnSub who is a Sicarius copycat. This UnSub is described as “their most formidable nemesis yet” and “precise, calculating, and relentlessly dangerous.” As Lewis talks to Voit at the end of the premiere about the high he chased with what he did (killing), what he did to take the edge off (smoking, drinking), and how he played the part to seem like a good guy (getting married). But once it goes beyond fantasy and starts, he warns, it can’t be stopped. He knew that as they were talking, there was someone new out there … and he was right. That person strangled a woman in her home. Then, in the second episode, he was not happy to hear Voit’s words on Brian’s podcast.
It will be “a minute” before we see The Fan, Messer tells TV Insider. “We won’t meet him face-to-face until Episode 8. So it’s really Episode 8, 9, 10. We’re aware of him, which is why we’re talking to Voit a lot, but the audience won’t see who it is until Episode 8.”
What do you think of what’s going on with Voit in Season 19? Let us know in the comments section below.
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