Over the course of nine episodes, Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 2 delved deep into its central conspiracy that sought to turn a group of troubled teenagers into ruthless killers. However, the mastermind behind the Gold Star killers’ upbringing created an entirely different kind of conspiracy theory to drive them. Jade Waters (Liana Liberato) and Damien Booth (David Garelik) are merciless serial murderers, but they were also the heroes in the story they told themselves.
Despite spending almost all of Season 2 in a cell, Elias Voit (Zach Gilford) is still a big presence in the Criminal Minds revival. He was the “big bad” of Season 1, and his knowledge of the Gold Star program helped him secure a sweetheart deal with the authorities despite killing Deputy FBI Director Doug Bailey (Nicholas D’Agosto). While this storyline stretches the audiences’ suspension of disbelief, it does serve the overall narrative by showing how powerless the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) team is when trying to crack the Gold Star case. The other big theme in Evolution has been the power of conspiracy theories, and “Stars & Stripes” makes it clear why. There is a real conspiracy afoot, but it’s a lie wrapped in a little bit of truth that’s driving the series to its (literally) explosive finale.
Doctor Jill Gideon Deals With Her Guilt After Damien Booth’s Death
The Episode Continues to Explore the Season’s Topical Themes and Issues
“I had the profile that was going to take the gun out of that boy’s hand.” – Dr. Jill Gideon
Despite exiting the show after only a few seasons, Jason Gideon (Mandy Patinkin) made such a huge impact that his presence can still be felt in Evolution. The newest character on the show is his ex-wife, Dr. Jill Gideon (Felicity Huffman) who, it turns out, was central to the creation of the Gold Star program. She left the BAU for a myriad of reasons, one being the toll the work took on her. But this is only partly why she was so desperate to save Damien that she went as far as risking her own safety to do it.
In the previous episode, Jill revealed she was the one who leaked the white paper written by Jason and David Rossi (Joe Mantegna) way back in the ’90s. After being surrounded by so much death and violence, she hoped the paper could be used to help save troubled kids before they turned violent. This revelation is a character-defining moment, because it shows how catching or stopping killers simply wasn’t enough for her. As a biological psychologist, she wanted to be a doctor and save as many people as she could, including the criminals themselves. To Jill, treating psychopathy and preventing the killers seen on Criminal Minds from ending up that way was what really mattered.
This also touched on another theme highlighted in Evolution: how the BAU treats the women in its ranks, and how the show handles them as characters. The reason the show was able to introduce Dr. Jill as a person who was actually a part of the BAU from the beginning, but heretofore unheard of, is because of how women’s contributions in fields such as forensics can be erased from history. In the episode “Conspiracy vs. Theory,” Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster) and Jennifer Jareau (A.J. Cook) talk about their own checkered past in the series. Both actors were written out of the show but brought back for the revival, and their characters acknowledged this prior disrespect. The same thing happened to Jill. She was part of the foundational team that created the BAU, but she was never acknowledged. Leaking the white paper that created the Gold Star program was a way to get her work out there instead of leaving it buried.
The Mastermind Manipulated the Gold Star Kids in Deep Ways
The Episode Reveals the Characters’ and the Focal Case’s More Complex Depths
“It was like a mutually-agreed-upon mercy kill… Because now Jade must feel confident enough to know she can go on without him.” Dr. Jill Gideon
Despite her guilt, Jill understood that Damien’s death was not her fault. She successfully talked him down from killing her like he and Jade had done to the other doctors and scientists who were tied to Gold Star. She showed him compassion and truly wanted to help him, despite the awful things he’d done. However, because their incarceration in Stuart House, a children’s home, was torturous, both Damien and Jade believed they were better off dead than in the custody of the FBI.
This is yet another payoff of a theme that ran through Evolution Season 2. The BAU wasn’t just at the heart of the Gold Star conspiracy. They were, in a roundabout way, responsible for it. In the episode “Homesick,” Prentiss’ neighbor Brian Garrity (Paul F. Thompkins) was revealed to be an online conspiracy theorist vlogger who talked about the “deep state” and corruption in the FBI. In another storyline that was difficult to believe, he successfully framed Prentiss for assault. Again, this works in the context of the season because audiences were meant to feel like the BAU itself was under attack. That being said, it still feels ludicrous that someone as experienced and high-ranking as Prentiss would be so easily outplayed by a fringe conspiracy theorist.
Thanks to computer genius Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness), the BAU discovers the true mastermind behind Gold Star. A former military contractor called Aida Limited, run by Frank Church (Tuc Wilson), is behind it all. As it turns out, Frank couldn’t care less about the BAU. Instead, he’s using the blueprint the Gideons and Rossi created to turn troubled kids into merciless killers under his employ. In fact, when Dana Howe (Nikko Austin Smith) brings Jade back into the fold, Frank kills her without a thought. To him, these kids were just loose ends meant to be cleaned up. Of course, he also has an even darker side to him.
Elais Voit Pointed the Gold Star Killers at the BAU
Criminal Minds’ Heroes Are the Villains of the Killers’ Stories
“This is the end of the conspiracy.” – Jade Waters
Episode 7, “Piranha,” was the darkest Evolution episode of the season for its standalone case that was unrrelated to the Gold Star conspiracy. But in that episode, another kind of case — specifically, the kind where things are kept in — was retrieved by Elias’ lawyer, Vincent Orlov (Brian White). This served as the episode’s only Gold Star link, and it finally paid off in “Stars & Stripes.” The purpose of this case was revealed when Jade and Dana discover one of Elias’ “Sicarius” bunkers, which contained information about the BAU. As it turns out, Elias was actually tricking these kids into attacking the unit that took him down. It also helped that the BAU’s shady past and current actions fit nicely into the “deep state” conspiracy Frank sold to them. In essence, Elias was using them as his weapons and vengeance.
Instead of helping them realize that they were being manipulated and tortured by Frank’s people, Elias made them believe that the government was behind it all. This all tied back to the fact that the original Gold Star victims were a group of crooked law enforcement officers who were hired to kill these kids in the first place. As far as they were concerned, there really was a clandestine government force trying to kill them. Perhaps Frank was trying to tie up loose ends, but his actions also reaffirmed the kids’ belief that those behind their hellish experiences were agents of the state. Elias seemingly hopes that, by directing Dana and Jade to this bunker, they will kill the BAU team for him.
Instead, Dana takes Jade “home,” which is to a training center run by Aida. It’s clear that Frank isn’t concerned about the BAU nor is he even aware of Elias. His purposes are his own, and his ruthless murder of Dana shows that he sees these assets as very expendable. Frank tells Jade that Dana is out hunting for “Peter B.,” the final original Gold Star test subject. Whether Peter is already dead or truly in the wind is a question Evolution Season 2 may leave open for next season. These penultimate revelations twisted and turned Evolution Season 2’s overall plot in unexpected ways, raising the stakes for both the case and the characters.
The Gold Star Killers Are Perpetrators & Victims
Jade Waters May Be the Most Compelling Criminal Minds Killer Yet
“She wants us to feel her pain.” – Jennifer Jareu
“Stars & Stripes” begins with Jade driving alone, emotionally torn about Damien’s death. She’s stopped by a state trooper, but instead of a bad break, it’s another part of her plan. Rather than killing him and taking his eyes, she leaves him alive. While analyzing this latest act of violence, Doctor Tara Lewis (Aisha Tyler) and J.J. realize that this “escalation” is indicative of more than just trauma in her past. Jade’s struggle is still ongoing. Ironically, it’s also a sign that her acts of violence have a purpose.
Once she’s back in the fold with Frank and the new group of troubled kids, Jade learns a very dark secret. Another young girl named Mila Sandoval (Josie Nivar) approaches her because Jade is apparently a legend to these newcomers. Frank tells stories about her to them, and Mila idolizes her. Mila tells her about a “nightmare” she had in which her eyes are covered by goggles, and she’s sexually assaulted by Frank. Jade realizes this happened to her, too. Instead of going after the BAU to “save the children,” she talks Mila into taking the other kids and escaping.
The episode ends with Jade seemingly sacrificing herself to destroy the Aida training grounds. Unlike so many of Criminal Minds’ unsubs (i.e. unknown subject), Jade doesn’t want to just inflict pain on others like was done to her. She truly wants to save kids like Mila, and she’s willing to risk her own life to do it. This makes her a much more sympathetic “villain” than killers like Elias, and arguably one of the most interesting and complex killers in the series’ years-long canon. However, with one episode left in Evolution Season 2, her mission may not be over yet.
Criminal Minds: Evolution will debut its Season 2 finale, Thursday, July 31, 2024 on Paramount+.