Warning! Spoilers ahead for the Criminal Minds: Evolution season 2 premiere.
Summary
TheCriminal Minds: Evolutionseason 2 premiere resurrects an Aaron Hotchner issue from the original show, leaving Emily Prentiss to deal with it. On the heels ofThomas Gibson’s firing fromCriminal Minds, the CBS show had to scramble to explain his exit while also setting up a future for the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) without him. Ultimately, the show revisited Scratch’s case to write off Hotch while also bringing back Paget Brewster’s Prentiss to take over his spot as the new BAU leader. Since then, the team has solved many cases and weathered so many more crises.
By the time the Paramount+ revival picked up,Prentiss remained to be the BAU leader. The team was hampered by budget constraints, not to mention bothMatthew Gray Gubler and Daniel Henney’s Matt Simmons being inaccessible. Still, the profilers were able to make it work, successfully taking down Elias Voit and his network of serial killers. There is no doubt that Prentiss is great as the team leader, and no one would have been able to take over the squad after Hotch’s departure better than her. However,Criminal Minds: Evolutionseason 2 is starting to question that.
Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 2 Gold Star Mystery Makes Spencer Reid’s Absence More Absurd
How the FBI categorizes the Gold Star mystery in Criminal Minds: Evolution season 2 makes Spencer Reid’s continued absence more ridiculous.
Rossi Undermines Prentiss' Power As Team Leader In Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 2
Prentiss Claims Rossi Would Never Do That To Hotch
As the BAU races against time to solve the mystery of Gold Star, Prentiss becomes overeager, prompting Dave Rossi to openly oppose her in front of local law enforcement officers in theCriminal Minds: Evolutionseason 2 premiere. This leads to Prentiss calling out his behavior in a private moment, saying thatRossi would never do what he did to her to Hotch. Regardless of the truth, this highlights the lack of friction when she took over the team. Normally, this would be great, but this prevented her from properly establishing herself as a worthy successor to Hotch.
Since Prentiss started as a colleague, and she was essentially just thrust into the position of team leader, her squad sees her more as a peer, hence why she tells Rossi that he would never openly oppose Hotch the way he did to her.
On paper, Prentiss is qualified for the job. Her effectiveness and loyalty as a leader are unmatched. Still, the major difference between her and Hotch is the way the squad perceives them. Hotch was the boss. There was a separation between him and his profilers that made it easy to decipher the hierarchy in the BAU. Since Prentiss started as a colleague, and she was essentially just thrust into the position of team leader, her squad sees her more as a peer, hence why she tells Rossi that he would never openly oppose Hotch the way he did to her.
Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 2 Accomplishes An Impossible Task After 19 Years (& It Isn’t Good)
Criminal Minds: Evolution season 2 does something for the first time in its over 19 years of history, and unfortunately, it isn’t a good thing.
Prentiss' Leadership Being Questioned Is Integral To BAU’s Future
Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 3 Is Already Confirmed
Aside from being composed of highly skilled individuals, the BAU’s success is rooted in the camaraderie that the profilers have. This doesn’t mean, however, that conflicts within the squad don’t happen.Questioning Prentiss' thought process is a good thing, as long as they find a way to work past it, which she and Rossi can do in the season 2 opener. Difficult as it may be, this would only strengthen their relationship and help Prentiss be more confident with her convictions as a leader, especially since the BAU will move forward withCriminal Minds: Evolutionseason 3 now confirmed.
Criminal Minds: Evolutionseason 2 drops new episodes every Thursday on Paramount+.
Criminal Minds: Evolution
Cast
InCriminal Minds: Evolution, the FBI’s elite team of criminal profilers come up against their greatest threat yet, an UnSub who has used the pandemic to build a network of other serial killers. As the world opens back up and the network goes operational, the team must hunt them down, one murder at a time. Original cast members continuing their roles include Joe Mantegna, A.J. Cook, Kirsten Vangsness, Aisha Tyler, Adam Rodriguez and Paget Brewster. Zach Gilford joins the dynamic cast as a recurring guest star in a season-long arc.
