'Criminal Minds: Evolution' Creator Teases Elias Voit 'Losing Control'

The Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) may currently be steps behind Unsub Elias Voit (Zach Gilford) in Criminal Minds: Evolution, but showrunner Erica Messer has teased how the villain will start "losing control" in the wake of their investigation.

Messer, who created the Paramount+ show and serves as writer and executive producer, told Newsweek how she wanted to approach the 10-episode series, which features a season-long villain for the first time in the franchise's history.

Not only that, but viewers would be brought into Voit's family home and get to see how his personal life contrasts with his role as the leader of a serial killer network that was created during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Warning: This article contains some spoilers for 'Criminal Minds: Evolution' Episode 4

'Criminal Minds: Evolution' Creator Teases Elias Voit 'Losing Control' as BAU Draws In

It was moving from CBS to streaming platform Paramount+ that allowed Messer and the writers to consider what it'd be like to approach an Unsub in a unique way.

"I think one of the things that attracted us to the Paramount+ opportunity was the streaming order would only be 10 episodes," Messer said. "And I feel very strongly [that] our show is about the heroes getting the bad guy. It's not about the bad guy, it's about the heroes.

"But within that thought process, I feel like there's no world where—in a normal broadcast season of 22 episodes—we would allow an Unsub to get away with it for 22 episodes. But for 10 episodes, it felt like a little more believable."

While Voit is the mastermind that the BAU are after, Evolution has also included an Unsub a week, killers who work with Voit that the team can take down as a way of showing that the good guys will still come out on top.

"That was important to us, to show that the team is back together and they're saving lives and they're catching bad guys," the showrunner went on.

Messer also explained that Voit's storyline was intended as a nod to the show's beginnings in 2005, and the situation that the characters were in at the time.

She explained: "I really wanted to approach the first half of our season, the first five episodes, like the BAU is way behind. This guy has been active since 2005, and that was a little nod to when the show started airing on CBS.

"He's killing in Yakima County, the heroes were in Seattle in 2005. So it was definitely a nod to the history of our show."

Reflecting on what's to come for Elias, Messer teased that in "the first five episodes Elias is definitely on top even though he, as we just saw last week, has some financial struggles and concerns with the pandemic, wiping out some savings, his daughter getting into a private high school, his network needing more money.

"There's a lot that he's worried about, but ultimately in terms of Voit versus the BAU, Voit is still very much winning, because he's gotten away with it for 17 years and, as far as he's concerned, he's just going to keep getting away with it.

"But then there's a turning point, and it's really episode six through 10 where a series of events happen where we start seeing him losing some of that control that he so desperately craves."

Messer went on: "Once that happens, the devolving of any Unsub that we see, we start to see in unique ways with this one, and you're a little more invested because there's a family that you're rooting for, you want this family to survive.

"You don't want [his] wife and [his] girls to learn about this monster that they've been living with and loving, and all that, so it's ended up being a really interesting arc for him, sort of getting away with it [and being] on top of the world to his deep dark secrets are going to get revealed."

Adding Drama to the BAU's Personal Lives

Criminal Minds originally ended in 2020 with its 15th season, but Messer and the cast always knew they weren't done with the show yet.

"When this series ended we all felt kind of cheated out of an opportunity to keep working together," the creator said. "And we knew the stories weren't complete yet, there's always going to be a story to tell and so, now, I think we just feel very fortunate to be able to all be together to bring the show back in an exciting new way that's a bit unexpected."

One of the unexpected aspects about Evolution is the way in which it approaches the personal lives of the members of the BAU.

So far, the show has revealed that David Rossi's (Joe Mantegna) wife died in between the events of the original show's last season and Evolution, while Tara Lewis (Aisha Tyler) has entered a new relationship, and Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) was brought back into the field after leaving for her mental wellbeing.

Now, Episode 4 has seen Jennifer "JJ" Jareau (A.J. Cook) learn that her husband Will LaMontagne Jr (Josh Stewart) is in poor health and his doctors believe he may have cancer.

These storylines were something that Messer felt important to include as a means of addressing real-life issues: "I really wanted to represent what a lot of us have experienced during these strange times.

"And I felt like Rossi going through grief, losing someone not from COVID but in a COVID adjacent way—she didn't go to the doctor check-ups because of COVID and then when she did she was diagnosed and it was like too late to do anything— [...] is a great representation of that grief that many of us [went through who] lost loved ones due to anything in the last few years.

"I think he carries that so well and brings his years of acting chops to such a great storyline for him, and then [Garcia] is the only character who had walked away when the series ended on CBS, so I really had to earn getting her back and feeling the changes that character has gone through was really important as well."

"Then JJ and Will had work opportunities elsewhere but they ultimately came back to the DC area, and that is an evolution of what it is to be like a working parent," Messer added, reflecting on the characters' ongoing storyline. "Your relationships with your kids change and you start knowing less and less [...] which is exactly what I was going through myself.

"When the premiere was shooting, my son went off for his freshman year of college, so all that stuff with JJ and Will was coming directly from when I was living in the moment, and my son was one when I started on Criminal Minds!"

"I didn't want anyone to hit pause on their life, it felt like that's just untrue, none of us did, and so just [thinking of] what's everybody been up to is a really important part of reintroducing the series," Messer concluded.

Criminal Minds: Evolution airs Thursdays on Paramount+.