There are only a few days left before Criminal Minds: Evolution returns with a second much-anticipated season and lots of teasers are already out, including a few from showrunner Erica Messer. Speaking with TVLine, Messer hinted at what’s to come for one of the series’ lead characters, Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster), who is to have a personal storyline focusing on her channeling parts of her “clandestine past.”
Messer pointed out how Prentiss would become like David Rossi (Joe Mantegna) who, in the past season, was “in a pretty dark place, where he was in a grief-induced depression and became a workaholic,” thereby returning to his old ways of doing everything by himself without depending on the team. Messer revealed that Prentiss will go down that same path as she struggles with “a little survivor’s guilt” in the new season.
“When this season opens up, you realize that in these two weeks [Prentiss] has kind of gone down that path of ‘I’m putting these puzzle pieces together, and I don’t want to tell the team about it yet. One, because I don’t want anybody else to die. I know that Doug Bailey being killed wasn’t exactly my fault, but it wasn’t exactly not my fault.’ She’s having a little survivor’s guilt over, ‘Was there something I could have done to stop him from going to talk face-to-face with [Elias] Voit ( Zach Gilford )?’ She’s struggling with that quite a bit. The deeper she digs into all of this, the more intricate the web becomes.”
Emily Prentiss Will Have a Lot Going on in ‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’ Season 2
Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 2 will pick up with the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) looking into the mystery of the Gold Star; however, they encounter an unanticipated complication when Elias Voit negotiates a deal that transfers him to federal custody. This season will contain ten episodes like its predecessor and will premiere on Thursday, June 6, exclusively on Paramount+.
All the main characters from the first season are set to return, including Prentiss, who has a lot going on as teased by Messer.
“To have [neighbor] Brian Garrity ( Paul F. Tompkins ) even mentioning names and code words when there’s no reason this person should have any idea what this is – How the hell does he know this stuff? — it’s a little nod to the Emily Prentiss of old who had a bit of a clandestine past. It’s kind of bringing up a bit of that in her character. She didn’t trade places with Rossi, because Rossi has his own trauma going on after being a victim of Elias Voit’s, so they both have a lot going on.”
Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 2 premieres on June 6 on Paramount+, while season 1 is currently available to stream on Paramount+.