What makes Criminal Minds stand out from other police procedurals is its in-depth look into the twisted mind of a serial killer, from the abuse they suffered in their childhood to the compulsions they face in the present. The BAU’s profiling techniques stem from the field of psychological epigenetics, which studies how environmental factors interact with genetics. In Criminal Minds’ case, this can frequently be seen as childhood abuse or stressors being the environmental factors which trigger the criminals’ genetic predisposition to homicidal tendencies — namely in psychopaths. Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 2 finally uttered the word epigenetics, and though the series is technically based on the concept, it was satisfying and exciting to see the term finally be explored.
The entirety of the recent season revolved around the Gold Star case, which was a dark program that exploited the principles of epigenetics to groom psychopathy in selected children. The mere mention of the science opened up new possibilities of how the show could investigate serial killers. However, the season ended up being consumed by “the hunt,” wasting a valuable opportunity to delve into the unique relationship between genetics and homicide. Considering what makes Criminal Minds truly special is its psychological analysis of these criminals, it is particularly disappointing that adrenaline triumphed over true psychological investigation.
‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’ Season 2 Focused on the Wrong Story
In lieu of focusing on one case per episode, Evolution Season 2 really delves into one overarching case throughout the whole season, with only a couple of standalone cases being littered in. We were introduced to Gold Star at the end of Season 1, where Elias Voit (Zach Gilford) innocuously uttered the term that would later haunt the BAU. The team discovered that the Gold Star program was used to cultivate psychopathy in adolescents and children who were already predisposed to it. Throughout the season, they chase down five members of Gold Star who had grown up in the Stuart house, but when the program ceased, they were taken in by Frank Church (Tuc Watkins) who molded the psychopaths into fully-fledged assassins. He had falsely promised that he was taking down institutions like the Stuart House, but when his lies were unraveled, he was forced to hire mercenaries to hunt the team down. However, the Gold Star killers wrought their own vengeance instead, and as such, the BAU was able to start tracking them down, namely Jade (Liana Liberato) and Damien (David Garelik).
With the entire season revolving around Gold Star, it would have become the perfect opportunity to hone into their psyche and their past. Criminal Minds managed to successfully do this in Elias’ prolonged storyline, giving us an unsettling insight into the jarring mechanisms that make him a psychopath and the side that still loved his family. But with Jade and Damien, the show primarily reveled in the hunt, only offering a brief snapshot of what their tumultuous psychology was really like, mainly through Liberato and Garelik’s tortured performances when their characters get caught. While the profiling techniques used to determine Jade and Damien’s next moves are a thrilling, race-against-the-clock, adrenaline rush, the exploration into how they transformed into killers is incomplete, especially considering the amount of time spent on them. New characters, foreshadowed revelations, and fitting Elias into the premise are all exciting prospects, but they shouldn’t replace the psychological aspect that is the essence of Criminal Minds.
Epigenetics Is Introduced and Forgotten in ‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’
When epigenetics was introduced alongside Jill Gideon (Felicity Huffman), it broadened how Criminal Minds could portray its psychoanalytical tools by linking it to genetics. It is only in Episode 8 that we see echoes of how promising epigenetics could be, where Jill and David Rossi (Joe Mantegna) sit together and discuss potential candidates for the Gold Star program using biographies. They read about children who experienced neglect and abuse and also demonstrated a tendency towards psychopathy through behaviors like setting fires and torturing animals. Traditionally in the show, we see this called the “homicidal triad,” and as such, it is rewarding to learn how it is connected to real science rather than theory. Jill exhibits the physical application of this by deconstructing Damien’s beliefs in conspiracy theories. However, the scene feels incomplete, since we only briefly see how these beliefs were instilled in him in the first place.
We just have a vague sense of the Stuart house creating the right environment to groom psychopaths, with the only examples being sexual assault and electric shocks – there was no other real insight into what occurred there. When Criminal Minds explored the psyche of Elias throughout a season, it delivered flashbacks of his relationship with his uncle and his childhood, explaining a great deal of his behavior. Jade and Damien’s flashbacks were extremely limited in comparison, especially considering the extent of their grooming. While torture is an element to ingraining conspiracy theories into them, gaining insight into their schedule, the living conditions, and the actual brainwashing at both the Stuart house and Church’s compound would have fleshed out their psychologies and their characters immensely.
The idea of linking epigenetics to conspiracy theories is also an intriguing idea that was underdeveloped in the show. Touching on what sort of qualities made them more susceptible to brainwashing would have benefited the show’s exploration into how they interact. The only explanation offered was that Church preyed on the group’s need for vengeance on the Stuart house, mixed with wanting to save other children from their fate. However, with no real insight into the trauma they endured in the Stuart house, it all feels fairly vague and arbitrary. Truly, the only issue here is that the show reserved more time for the BAU hunting them down, rather than allowing us to fully understand them.
The White Papers’ Scandal Is Underplayed in ‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’
Another aspect of epigenetics that Criminal Minds vastly underplays is the white papers. Written by Rossi, Jason Gideon (Mandy Patinkin) and Jill, the papers were a theoretical thought experiment on what the perfect conditions would be to nurture a child’s predisposition to psychopathy. While Rossi and Jason tried to bury it after recognizing the potential consequences of its release, Jill used it to establish the Stuart house and many others like it — a program that would curb growing psychopathy in children. However, she soon discarded the idea, not realizing that the experiment had continued without her knowledge and had grown into something more sinister.
While the FBI director points out the catastrophic impact it would make on the BAU’s already precarious reputation, the team only glosses over the concern of being the root cause of this program — or, as Elias puts it, the North Star. Delving into the BAU’s accountability for the white papers would have been a fascinating development for Rossi’s character. The profiler is already at the forefront of Evolution as his mental state deteriorates with Elias’ presence, but casting light on his writing ventures and its potential impact would have been a compelling arc.
The show already touches on this through Elias, who hints that he learned to hide his psychopathy by perusing Rossi’s books. And now, the Gold Star program creates a more concrete link between the BAU’s work and the growing sophistication of serial killers. It almost becomes a meta-commentary on how police procedurals, like Criminal Minds, could potentially impact real-life crime. But like everything related to epigenetics, it loses valuable screen time and gets lost under the folds of the hunt. Though the season was fresh in its approach to dissecting criminal minds, a more insightful look into the intriguing concepts it introduced would have given the season the analytical flavor we love so much.
Criminal Minds: Evolution is available to stream now on Paramount+ in the U.S.