Criminal Minds season 19 has been working its way through another plot that heavily features Elias Voit (Zach Gilford), but this season’s storyline has broken the show’s formula at the seams. Throughout Criminal Minds: Evolution’s run, the BAU has taken pride in working toward capturing, convicting, and analyzing the revival’s long-running serial killer. While Voit hasn’t been dangerous for the past two seasons as he’s worked through his actions after suffering a traumatic brain injury that reinstated his sense of empathy, his behavior has become far more suspect as he’s reckoned with the darkness that lives within his general psyche.
While Voit’s story has become embedded into the fold of Criminal Minds: Evolution, it hasn’t always worked well with the episodic nature of the long-running series. When Paramount+ revamped Criminal Minds for streaming, it was announced that the show would bring its episodic formula to the table, enhanced with some serialized elements. The serialized elements have boiled down to Voit’s ongoing storyline, and while it’s been interesting to see where the series has gone with a long-term storyline, Voit has been a tough sell as his story has progressed and the BAU has often struggled to keep up with him.
Though Criminal Minds: Evolution has benefited from having a serialized piece of the puzzle, it’s often tough to rationalize what’s next with Voit. In the show’s most recent outing, Voit’s story felt as though it was breaking Criminal Minds existing format so much that it may truly be beyond repair.
Criminal Minds Has Broken Its Boundaries With Season 19’s Voit Plot
Although Voit has been a part of the show since Criminal Minds: Evolution’s start, the former serial killer’s plot line this season has been breaking boundaries in interesting ways for the long-running series. Rather than the BAU being involved in everything Voit is up to, the way they have been for the majority of his time on the series, Voit has been isolated for a lot of his time on screen. While he hasn’t always been alone, Voit’s stories have felt more separated from the BAU’s cases, especially as they’ve been exploring The Fan and his potential motivations.
Voit’s plot has moved into an interesting place within the show’s format. While the BAU is involved at some junctures, Voit’s also been brought into storylines that don’t entirely make sense for him to be a part of. With a previous episode this season bringing Brian Garrity (Paul F. Tompkins) directly to Voit, creating a story dynamic that felt strange and off, and the last episode bringing a man who’s presumably The Fan into Voit’s territory, Criminal Minds has had more standalone Voit than ever. Without the BAU being involved, Voit’s on-screen presence breaks the formula of Criminal Minds entirely.
Isolating Voit’s Story Makes Criminal Minds A Weaker Series
Although Voit has appeared with the BAU several times in Criminal Minds season 19, the way the show has chosen to isolate parts of his storyline from the rest of the cast has made the series weaker overall. Despite the fact that there’s less for the BAU to do with Voit, bringing him into a story that will ultimately connect to their big villain of the season in a way that circumvents the unit’s involvement gives the story too many moving parts. Voit was always going to be involved, but his involvement branching away from the BAU is tricky.
With The Fan hoping to either taunt Voit into submission or threaten him with their superiority and freedom, Criminal Minds upped the ante during the most recent episode, bringing something personal that has yet to be revealed into the story for Voit. While it makes sense that a serial killer who’s young in acting on their behavior would look to Voit for validation, taking the BAU out of the equation only to have to see them filled in later feels like an extra, likely unnecessary layer of the story.
Criminal Minds is serializing Voit’s story in a new way, and it’s not working with the larger picture.
- Release Date
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September 22, 2005
- Showrunner
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Erica Messer
- Directors
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Félix Enríquez Alcalá, Rob Bailey, Matthew Gray Gubler, Joe Mantegna, John Gallagher, Douglas Aarniokoski, Guy Norman Bee, Larry Teng, Nelson McCormick, Alec Smight, Charles S. Carroll, Rob Spera, Charles Haid, Diana Valentine, Rob Hardy, Tawnia McKiernan, Bethany Rooney, Karen Gaviola, Sharat Raju, Thomas Gibson, Aisha Tyler, Anna Foerster, Gloria Muzio, John Terlesky
- Writers
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Bruce Zimmerman, Virgil Williams, Edward Allen Bernero, Janine Sherman Barrois, Chris Mundy, Simon Mirren, Debra J. Fisher, Kimberly A. Harrison, Jay Beattie, Dan Dworkin, Karen Maser, Oanh Ly, Stephanie Sengupta, Aaron Zelman, Kirsten Vangsness, Erica Meredith, Andi Bushell, Holly Harold, Alicia Kirk, Jeff Davis, Randy Huggins, Edward Napier, Jayne A. Archer, Chikodili Agwuna
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Kirsten Vangsness
Penelope Garcia
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Matthew Gray Gubler
Dr. Spencer Reid