Yahoo News Criminal Minds’ Adam Rodriguez Talks Aftermath of Episode 2: What Voit Whispered Leads to a ‘Really Tough Moment for [Spoiler]’
The following contains spoilers from the second episode of Criminal Minds Season 17.
A not-so-happy reunion was happening when TVLine visited the set of Paramount+’s Criminal Minds: Evolution in late February.
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Hunkered down behind the crew in a small, dark parking garage situated beneath a defunct Glendale church, we watched cast member Adam Rodriguez direct a clandestine — and yet often amusing — rendezvous between Special Agent Emily Prentiss (played by Paget Brewster) and her former neighbor, conspiracy theorist Brian Garrity (Thrilling Adventure Hour‘s Paul F. Tompkins, reprising his Season 15 role).
Giving TVLine the lay of the land during a break (and outside in the sunlight, thank God), Rodriguez shared, “We’re in the third episode of the season, and we’re filming a scene where Prentiss is meeting up with Brian Garrity, who is a bit of a kook, an Alex Jones type — but like anything, a broken clock is right twice a day. And this clock is actually right in this moment, because he called Prentiss with some information that is concerning, and piques her interest.”
For his third time behind the camera for Criminal Minds, “My aim was really to create some tension and suspense” à la Enemy of the State or All The President’s Men, said Rodriguez. “We come off the end of Episode 2 with a really big moment — Voit whispers something in my ear that sets me off — and that leaves Alvez with a dilemma about whether or not to follow orders he’s been given about keeping information to himself, because morally it doesn’t feel right to him. He has to make a choice about whether or not to toe the line for his boss and the job, or to do what he feels is honorable as a person and a friend to JJ (A.J. Cook).”
Wait, what does this have to do with JJ?
Well, as closed captioning (or cranking up the volume on your telly) revealed, Voit lured Alvez to the bars to cryptically whisper, “injure, fear, jean, dot, Z, Y, Q.” The first three words, some fans were quick to glean, are an anagram for JENNIFER JAREAU, while the rest of the phrase seems to complete the URL for a website. Confused in the moment, Luke asked Voit to elaborate, and what the BAU’s most unwelcome consultant said next was inaudible to us but “really got Alvez’s goat, as he expected,” Rodriguez notes.
Having already violently lashed out at Voit at the close of Episode 2, “you see Alvez struggling” with what Voit whispered to him that second time, and to where/what that URL leads. Ultimately in Episode 3, “[Luke] makes a choice, and then that choice has its repercussions” — including “a really tough moment for JJ.”
In other words, though captured (but not convicted!), Elias Voit “absolutely, 100 percent” continues to be a malevolent force to be reckoned with, Rodriguez attests, as Season 2’s Gold Star mystery unfolds.
“In Season 1, the threat for Elias was the physical violence, the people that he was actually killing. It’s a mania, he can’t stop what it is that he does,” Rodriguez notes. “He’s got to find ways to do it, so even while locked in a cage, he designed things in a way, just in case this was to happen, where he could continue doing what he’s doing. And the challenge for our team is trying to stay ahead of that.”
But as Rodriguez alluded to above, this new phase of Voit’s plan involves sometimes pitting BAU agents against one another.
“What I really love about this season is that the personal [storylines] aren’t so much outside of the BAU; we’re seeing more personal dynamics within,” Rodriguez notes. “There’s some personal dynamics between Alvez and Prentiss as a result of him getting these orders to remain silent about this thing that was revealed to him, so he’s got to make a choice. Am I going to honor my boss, or am I going to honor what feels true to me?”
Want scoop on Criminal Minds, or for any other TV show ? Email InsideLine@tvline.com, and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line!
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