Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 3 finale.“People think this job is about staring down evil, but it’s not. It’s about loss.” Special Agent Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster), the team leader of the BAU, says this to its newest recruit, Tyler Green (Ryan-James Hatanaka), and it could not be more true in this season of Criminal Minds: Evolution. Season 3 kicked off with the comeback of the Sicarius network, an online community of serial killers who learn from each other, initially helmed by Elias Voit (Zach Gilford). But with Voit in the hospital, plagued with amnesia, it begs the question of who is behind the network now and why are they targeting their attacks to the BAU and Voit? In an effort to gain answers, the BAU hunt the unsubs on the network, only to be behind at every step, suffering loss after loss, until the finale.
In the penultimate episode, the team realized that there was a mole feeding information to the Disciple, the moniker for the person running the network. They narrow it down to someone on Dr. Julia Ochoa’s (Aimee Garcia) medical and nursing staff, especially as Voit gains access to a phone, which he uses to warn two prior victims to flee, lest the network hunt them down. Prentiss is trying to identify the mole when she realizes that the BAU mistakenly spread their resources to protect who they believed were targets, which left Voit vulnerable. The penultimate episode ends on the earth-shattering cliffhanger of Voit and Ochoa getting abducted.
Who Is Behind the Sicarius Network in ‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’?
The identity of the Disciple is finally revealed in the Evolution Season 3 finale, and she shares a long history with Voit, specifically his homicidal uncle, Cyrus LeBrun (Silas Weir Mitchell). She goes by “Tessa LeBrun” (Jordana Spiro) and this name should sound familiar. In the previous episode, the BAU discovered that she was interviewed after Voit left Cyrus in regard to a local case, except, Cyrus didn’t have any other known relatives, which puzzled them. We find out that Tessa (real name, Constance) was actually one of Cyrus’ victims, held in the basement until she essentially trauma-bonded with him.
After Voit left, Cyrus filled the void with Tessa instead, turning her into his apprentice. When Voit returned to kill Cyrus, Tessa was hiding in the basement, and when she could get the courage to leave the house, she slowly hatched a plan. Adopting the moniker of the Disciple, Tessa revived the Sicarius network after finding out about Voit’s arrest and hospitalization. She coordinated murders with the serial killers on the network to demand the BAU and Voit’s attention, making sure they were in the team’s immediate jurisdiction and attaching symbolic paraphernalia like sending masks or using Sicarius spiders. It was also an effort to re-ignite the homicidal flame burning in Voit; she just wanted to reunite her murderous little family back together.
As such, abducting Voit and Ochoa was her grand finale, where she somewhat succeeds in her plan. She forces Voit to watch the Engineer (the unsub who was the mole on Ochoa’s team) on the precipice of putting spider-filled sacs in her mouth, since she was the only person Voit actually cared about. According to Tessa, killing off his last meaningful relationship would turn him back into Sicarius. However, Voit retaliates before anything can happen, brutally assaulting the Engineer until he dies while Tessa simply watches. When she asks how he feels, Voit says he feels “alive”, leaving Tessa triumphant and Ochoa horrified.
Does ‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’ Season 3 Redeem Voit?
Throughout Evolution season 3, Voit has been clawing his way into a redemption arc, and by the end of the finale, the team certainly look at him differently, but does he achieve it? While using a prohibited phone to hide away two victims whom the BAU were searching for was a step back for the team’s trust in Voit, they couldn’t deny that it was kind of a selfless thing to do, especially when he relents and cooperates. But he really earns the team’s empathy by helping them take down Tessa from the inside.
During the finale, Voit pretends to shoot Ochoa to save her life and earn Tessa’s trust, which permits him access to her online system. Unbeknownst to her, he sends out a signal that Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) can decode, exposing the locations of every unsub on the network, including his. The team track him down and arrest Tessa before she can kill herself. What cinches the empathy is that when confronted by Jenifer “JJ” Jareau (A.J. Cook) and Green, he begs for them to shoot him, afraid that Tessa has succeeded in unleashing Sicarius. He doesn’t want to hurt anyone else. JJ gives him mercy instead, and later admits that she feels bad for him, as he agrees to serve out his term in prison instead of capitalizing on the deal he made with the BAU.
By the end of the finale, Voit is as redeemed as a prolific serial killer with amnesia can be in the BAU’s eyes, but another scene may suggest otherwise. On the bus that is transporting him and other prisoners to a maximum-security jail, he has an unbidden daydream. In his mind, the prisoners recognize him as Sicarius and begin taunting him, leading to Voit lashing out. He quickly snaps out of it and looks a little afraid of himself. Perhaps Tessa’s plan had unwittingly worked, and by killing the Engineer, something in him had shifted, inciting that homicidal tendency that Cyrus nurtured and the amnesia repressed. Either way, Voit’s story is certainly not over as we await Season 4.
‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’ Season 3 Blurs the Lines of Good vs. Evil
The finale also partially wraps up the season’s major theme of exploring the blurred line between good and evil. It is most present in Voit’s storyline, where Evolution poses the question of whether he could be redeemed if he didn’t have the memories of his crimes. With the empathy center of his brain working again, it seemed like Voit transformed into a regular civilian, one who wanted to atone for his history by helping the BAU. Drawing Cyrus back into the story further nuanced Voit’s position, as the good vs. evil binary was also complicated by the ideas of nature vs. nurture, leading to the delightfully gray area where Voit is somewhat redeemed, but is still struggling.
However, the season’s major theme is also present in the BAU’s storyline, where simply being on the “good” side may not be enough. The season was pervaded by losses, even seeing the death of JJ’s husband and the near-death of Tara Lewis (Aisha Tyler). It is only in the finale that they get a win, and it is all due to Voit, the character who had taken up the arbitrary position of “evil” for most of the show. Even the fact that Green remains on the team is due to Voit’s case. Evolution Season 3 was its most morally gray season yet, ending on a bittersweet note where we still fear Voit may regress into Sicarius while the BAU stays blissfully unaware of his psychological shift.
All episodes of Criminal Minds are available to stream on Paramount+ in the U.S.
