Did ‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’ Just Introduce Series’ Most Disturbing Storyline Yet?

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 17 Episode 3 “Homesick.”]

For 17 seasons, Criminal Minds and Evolution have had storylines that sent shivers down our spines and made us look away from the screen. The UnSub who severed spinal cords? The one with young Cameron Monaghan playing a kid who killed children? The UnSub who made three friends choose which of them would die—and forced the others to commit the murder? But “Homesick” may have just introduced the most disturbing storyline thus far.

The episode quickly reveals what Voit (Zach Gilford) whispered to Luke (Adam Rodriguez): a website on the dark net, called BAUgate, with pictures and memes of the team in deepfaked pornography. It’s a problem Prentiss (Paget Brewster) inherited, she tells him. Homeland Security flagged it in 2014 and took it down. She made the call not to tell the team because it was best for everyone involved. But he knows Voit told him and not JJ (A.J. Cook) to use the secret to fracture them. Nothing good will come from her finding out, Prentiss insists and orders him to stay silent.

But Luke does tell JJ, and she already knows about it. She reminds him that before she became a profiler, she was the media liaison and heard rumors but thought it was cleaned up. Voit and his network got hands on it, he explains. She’s fine with Prentiss not telling them, calling it good leadership. Would she want to know if it was dangerous, he asks. If it involved her kids or a threat to her life, yes, she says, but otherwise, as she sees it, there’s enough rough stuff in this job, so why let stuff like that in their heads?

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Later, Luke tells JJ that the website is just photos of her—as media liaison, she was on TV more than anyone, and those running the site made her the focal point of the porn, which is pretty convincing. The encrypted link is in his report, and he leaves her to decide what to do with it. JJ then sits down with a computer and types in “injure jane fear,” realizing it’s an anagram of her name.

This is worse than all the UnSubs we mentioned above (and here) because it involves one of their own, her likeness used in a horrific way without her consent—and it’s been going on for years. Should Prentiss have told JJ or is it, like the latter had said, good leadership that she didn’t? Now that it’s been revealed it’s just her, that’s up for debate.

As for what’s coming up next with that site, “I don’t think I could say anything about how this website is going to affect the team this season,” Aisha Tyler (who plays Dr. Tara Lewis) admits.  “What’s great about season 17 of Criminal Minds is that this is really a puzzle, a mystery that’s going to unfold over the whole season. What’s been so great about moving to Paramount from CBS is that we really get to build a mystery every season. And even for us as cast members, every time we would get a script, we’d be like, oh my God, did you read number six? Because there’s always these incredible reveals and cliffhangers and surprises.”

Elsewhere in the episode, Lewis and Rossi (Joe Mantegna) are tasked with tracking down an UnSub (not connected to Gold Star). And on the jet ride back, Rossi once again hears Voit’s voice in his head. When will Lewis catch on to what’s going on there?

First of all, Tyler raves of this episode, “I get to hang out with Joe, who I love.” As for what’s going on with Rossi, she points out, “Dr. Lewis, don’t forget, is a psychiatrist and she’s able to spot signs of trauma and stress in her teammates. I think one of the great things about the BAU is they really do care about each other’s mental health. We’ve spoken to real profilers about what dark work this is and how they survive. And a big part of it’s that they rely on their teammates and their support and their understanding because they know what they’re going through in a way that other people don’t. So I think you will see Dr. Lewis start to, well, maybe do a little head shrinking. She hasn’t done it in a while. She’s only been talking to bad guys. It’d be nice to talk to a nice guy for a while.”

Right now, “Gold Star is consuming everybody’s lives,” Tyler admits, “for Prentiss especially because she and Rossi feel a lot of responsibility for what happened last season. I think this season is really about that guilt and trying to right those wrongs. We lost our deputy director last year. I think there’s a lot of guilt and responsibility about that, and there’s this intense pressure to figure out who Gold Star is because this person, this they them—we don’t know who they are, it could be multiple people—is taking lives.”

Michael Yarish / Paramount+

Deputy Director Bailey’s (Nicholas D’Agosto) death is a major point in this episode—Rebecca (Nicole Pacent) shows Prentiss a conspiracy video about the events surrounding it, by none other than her neighbor, Brian Garrity (Paul F. Tompkins). Prentiss meets him in a parking garage and tries to get him to give up who’s leaking him information, but he refuses. She insists there’s no conspiracy; it’s just a tragedy he’s making worse for his family. He does relent, to say that since he’ll be busy writing a book (about the guy who supposedly replaced Paul McCartney in the Beatles after Paul died in a car accident in ’66) for four to six weeks. But unbeknownst to both, someone’s watching and taking photos.

Then, Brian calls Prentiss and tells her the situation has turned critical and they need to talk. He learned about the director’s deal with Voit. When she goes to meet him, however, she finds three men attacking him. They run, and she calls 9-1-1, then the police arrive and she identifies herself (though her ID is in the car). Then, when an officer asks Brian who hurt him, he says Prentiss did! “F**king Brian, that’s not true, I did not!” she exclaims.

How concerned are you about that website? What do you think will happen next with Prentiss? Let us know in the comments section, below.

Criminal Minds: Evolution, Thursdays, Paramount+