The newest season of Criminal Minds: Evolution finally premieres this week, and stars Adam Rodriguez and Aisha Tyler spoke to PopCulture.com all about it.
Season 3 of the Paramount+ revival, which is the 18th overall season, premieres on Thursday, with one episode dropping weekly.
It picks up six months after the events of the Season 2 finale, which saw prisoners attacking Zach Gilford’s Elias Voit. It leads “his restless followers on the dark web to begin wreaking havoc all over the country. In order to stop this nefarious group from killing more innocents, the BAU is forced to work alongside an increasingly unpredictable Voit who has his own agenda.”
When asked what he can preview for the new season and how it will kick things off in the first episodes, Rodriguez, who plays Supervisory Special Agent Luke Alvez, told PopCulture the “short answer is everything.” He continued, “Because it just keeps getting better.”
“I feel like we’re able to tell stories now that we’re on Paramount+ that we didn’t have the time to tell when we were on CBS,” Tyler, who plays Supervisory Special Agent Dr. Tara Lewis, added. “And so every season, the level of storytelling has just gone up and up and up. This season, we really lean into the psychology of these killers. So there’s a lot of really intriguing puzzle-building that happens this season. But then also, we got your unsubs. You want unsubs? We got your unsubs right here. It’s gonna be a really progressive season.”
“There’s a really nice sprinkling of unsubs,” Rodriguez shared. “And the fun part is we’ve got to try and continue to figure out now if they are operating in cahoots with other people or if they’re operating on their own. And there’s the big question marks this season. So for the fans that love to dig in and try and figure it out either before us or as we are, there’s a lot of that this season.”
As previously mentioned, the last season ended with Voit getting attacked, meaning that Gilford’s unsub will be sticking around to cause more havoc for the BAU. “Havoc he does continue to wreak,” said Rodriguez. “Voit has done a good job at wreaking havoc. I think he just continues to provide us with big questions about who he is, what he’s about, and also how that makes each of us feel as individuals. It’s really interesting in that way.”
“Joe’s [Mantegna] character, Rossi, said it on one of the previous episodes that, ‘The lawman and the criminal, they need each other to exist.’ Right? That there’s some strange symbiosis in their relationship,” Tyler stated. “And I think you really see that with us and Voit. We need him to understand how people like him operate. We need to understand how his mind works, but we hate that we need him because he’s a serial killer. He’s a sociopath. And so everybody has their own emotional reaction to working with this guy, and he’s a smartypants. I mean, he’s good.”
“I think he’s the best we’ve ever been up against,” Rodriguez explained. “And I think that’s where those question marks come into play, because we know that we are quite advanced in the field of staying a step ahead of these guys. And this is the first person that’s come along that is making us question our aptitude at some junctures. And so, that’s where it gets interesting when you start questioning your own ability, and someone’s good enough to make you question that. That’s competition. That’s good competition.”
The last season finale also included Lewis revealing to the team that she and Nicole Pacent’s Rebecca Wilson were officially together. Unfortunately, Tyler couldn’t say too much about what’s next for the couple, admitting, “Everything is a secret.”
“I will say that I love that relationship,” she said. “I think that Nicole’s such a great actress and that it’s been really fun to play Dr. Lewis, kind of letting go a little bit. She’s tightly wound. She’s a career lady, and I understand that because I’m very driven in terms of my work as well. So to see her relax a little bit, to see her open up and be more vulnerable, it’s been really fun to watch, really fun to play, and I think people are gonna love where that relationship goes this season.”
Meanwhile, both Tyler and Rodriguez have revealed that they did direct an episode each once again this season. Tyler shared she directed the second episode, “so people have that to look forward to. I’m really happy with it. I just watched it again the other day, and I was like, ‘Oh, snap. This is really good.’ And then it all came flooding back from the season a long time ago. So it’s a great episode. And Adam’s directing is coming up.”
“Yes, I’ll be able to love on myself in my own episode this coming season,” Rodriguez said. Tyler added, “We’ve been friends for a long time, but what’s been really nice as we both moved through our directing careers is I go to him for creative input. And I just directed a movie, and I got Adam to give me some notes on it, and they were lovely notes, and they really help me.”
Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 3 premieres on Thursday on Paramount+, where all episodes of Criminal Minds are streaming.
