Warning! SPOILERS for season 1 of Criminal Minds: Evolution!
Criminal Minds: Evolution wrapped its season with a perfect setup for a new mystery in season 2. With the return of the crime drama, the show has been flexing its ingenuity with new criminals and villains that push the envelope for Criminal Minds’ formatting, particularly in response to world events. This is what helped to keep the show so successful throughout its previous 15 seasons, and it seems as though the next season of the show is angling to consider another new plot thread to challenge the Behavioral Analysis Unit.
Criminal Minds: Evolution is a reboot of the original show, which ended in 2005. Much of season 1 focused on the team’s search for a new serial killer, Sicarius, also known as Elias Voit (Zach Gilford), who created a network of those like himself during the pandemic to face off against the returning Criminal Minds characters: David Rossi (Joe Mantegna), Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness), Jennifer Jareau (A.J. Cook), Luke Alvez (Adam Rodriguez), Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster), and Dr. Tara Lewis (Aisha Tyler). The season ended with a new twist which saw Voit hint at a secret known only as ‘Gold Star,’ a phrase which rattled the FBI Deputy Director Doug Bailey (Nicholas D’Agosto) deeply.
Why The Gold Star Mystery Is Perfect For Criminal Minds Evolution Season 2
This new mystery surrounding Gold Star on Criminal Minds: Evolution is the perfect continuation for the series reboot. It’s an engaging and clever way to keep returning audiences interested in season 2 by adding another level of intrigue to supplement whether or not the team can catch their killer of the week. As well as this, adding another overarching mystery related to the secrets of season 1 pays off audience investment for the current setup of Criminal Minds: Evolution while keeping the show’s format fresh.
Besides reinvigorating the structure of Criminal Minds: Evolution, the Gold Star mystery elevates the reboot by presenting new, unforeseen stakes and another layer of interpersonal conflict. The possibility of some kind of conspiracy within the FBI related to the killers the Behavioral Analysis Unit hunts offers the potential for rich drama as the team must uncover new mysteries that could lead to hard choices regarding their peers. Additionally, Gold Star also allows Voit to keep a nuanced, interesting role on the show. However, he’s been caught, adding to the potential for interesting dynamics between him and the team.
What Is Gold Star? Everything We Know From Criminal Minds Evolution So Far
So far, the show has revealed very little about the nature of Gold Star on Criminal Minds: Evolution, save that the FBI is involved in some way. It must be something high-ranking for the Attorney General, Rebecca Wilson (Nicole Pacent), and Deputy Director Bailey to know about it, and something very sensitive for Bailey to suddenly abandon all caution when approaching Voit. Furthermore, the fact that Voit managed to dig something up about the code phrase makes the entire endeavor seem highly suspicious, perhaps even criminal itself. Otherwise, Gold Star as a phrase typically alludes to military service members who lose their lines in the line of duty, as Criminal Minds: Evolution depicts by showing these stars for agents who also die in the field.