Critic’s Rating: 3.65 / 5.0
3.65
Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 2 Episode 8 is the beginning of the end of the North Star story.
While there are likely more factions involved outside of Damien and Jade, they appear to be the ringleaders despite the revelation that Stuart House was not a one-off.
Most shocking was Elias Voit didn’t make an appearance, and that, along with a message he sent the wayward youths on a killing spree groveling for their forgiveness for working with the BAU, suggests his importance to both groups is waning.
Before we get into the details, I’ve written a full recap for Criminal Minds Season 17 Episode 8, so you can click that link to get episodical details. Now, back to our regularly scheduled review!
The most significant player in “North Star” is Jill Gideon.
Her past with David Rossi is dynamic and emotionally powerful, and the two work well together, even when she’s trying to steer him clear of danger while putting herself square in the center of it.
It’s interesting that this arc works so well in context. We’ve known both Gideon and Rossi, but not together.
It’s surprising that Jason Gideon still looms large on a show 17 seasons into its various forms and 15 seasons after Mandy Patinkin left the series. It’s a testament to his skills as an actor that he made such a profound mark on the series as a whole.
Joe Mantegna joined to replace Gideon, and he’s been far more than serviceable; he’s family. He brought an emotional element to the cast that has never disappeared. He thinks with his mind and his heart, which is both endearing and sometimes frightening.
You’d think we would have heard of Rossi and Jill’s relationship before now, but it’s OK that we didn’t. We buried plenty of people in our lives in the past, and it makes perfect sense that they’d want to move on after Gideon’s death.
When you lose someone in the middle, it tears apart the outer edges of the threesome. While they weren’t really a threesome, Gideon’s charged personality invited Jill and Rossi to turn to each other for support.
I’ve had such a relationship myself, and it’s easy to grow close to someone you shouldn’t under those circumstances.
By the time Gideon died, Rossi had moved on, but when circumstances brought them together again in Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 2 Episode 7 (or Criminal Minds Season 17 Episode 7… this show is as confusing as the relationship), they were electrically charged.
Something between them needs to be further explored, and the way Rossi responded to her profiling suggests that she could join the team on a more permanent basis, like Tyler.
When they first introduced Jill, she seemed to be on the outskirts of the team, but she was as integral as Rossi and Gideon. JJ pointed out that her gender probably forced her to the sidelines.
Jill has still got mad skills. She knew Damien and Jade were coming for her, and she accepted her fate. She felt she had gotten them into this mess, and she was going to try to get them out of it, too.
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As shocking as Voit not appearing in the episode was how Damien missed the cues that he was the little boy Jill wanted him to save. That was as clear as day, as was the fact she would be taking him to the cabin she and Rossi discussed earlier.
She purposefully shared her location with Rossi so that she would have enough time to make an impression on Damien.
And she did make an impression. Damien’s emotional turmoil was palpable. It was as if he’d been waiting his whole life for someone to explain to him how things had gone so terribly wrong.
But what Jill didn’t bank on was the life-or-death link Damien and Jade created. Their bond goes beyond the trauma they shared to something much more profound.
Their suicide pact was never in doubt, and you could see it all on Damien’s face as he relinquished control of the situation to Jill and his future to Jade.
I’m not a fan of shows giving brutal killers so much backstory that we begin to feel sorry for them, but that’s what happened with Damien and Jade and everyone else in Stuart House, even if we don’t know them.
Before it was wrestled from her hands, Jill’s understanding of the project had an entirely different intention than what she was working towards, but there are kids and adults all over the world who suffer as much if not more than they do, and they work through it without becoming stone-cold murderers.
It’s dangerous to give history too much agency over present actions, especially when those actions are fatal. We’ve seen it done somewhat in real life, as the young man who shot at former President Trump and killed an innocent husband and father has been written about as having been bullied.
That term leaps out at you as a reason to commit brutal acts, but it also smothers the agency the individual had to change the course of his own life.
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We all have choices to make. If we are treated badly (and far too many experience that fate), we need the tools to turn that around and be better than our abusers.
This observation is often overlooked because we want to blame others for an individual’s actions, but that’s not how it works. We cannot change how others behave; we can only change our reaction and response to it.
Still, Jill’s story and her past with the project show how easily things can go south, no matter how good the intention.
In our society, power and money are held in too high a regard, causing people to make fatal errors in judgment and pulling others down in the process. Children should never be manipulated by adults, and Stuart House and everyone who worked there were guilty of this.
Now, Jade is left on her own to carry out the vendetta. It was she who begged Damien to promise her they’d never wind up in a cage again. Can she continue her mission without someone to take her out like she did Damien?
If she’s as adamant as she claims to be, she needs to put this behind her and restart her life. That’s unlikely to be how this all plays out, though.
She might be even angrier at Jill, blaming her for putting her in the position to kill Damien in the first place.
One thing is certain. It was Damien who felt the connection to Voit.
Jade questioned that, and Damien’s death is unlikely to change that. So, where does that leave Voit? Will he continue to be useful to the BAU in this case and others?
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That will depend on how active his network is. North Star wasn’t the only mission he was helping to instigate. Even his own attorney was playing in that vile pig pen of hatred. Who knows what else will emerge to drive Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 3?
I know you’ve been watching. What is your take on Jill, her involvement with Stuart House, and her past with Rossi?
Share your thoughts in the comments below!
