Criminal Minds finally brought the Voit mystery to an end — so where does the show go from here after that season 18 ending?
During the Thursday, July 10, episode of the Paramount+ series, Voit (Zach Gilford) and the BAU unmasked Tessa as The Disciple. After Tessa kidnapped Voit and Dr. Ochoa (Aimee Garcia), she tried to get him to channel his serial killer side — a.k.a Sicarius — again.
For those who need a refresher, Voit’s accident earlier this season made him a more empathetic person, which made him want to resist the side of him that used to kill people. Tessa thought she was successful in bringing Voit back to his old self but he actually played her as a way to save Dr. Ochoa.
On his road to redemption, Voit admitted to his crimes. So once Tessa was arrested, so was he. Before returning to life behind bars, Voit admitted he was worried his dark side would win and he would start killing people again.
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Viewers got a glimpse of that on his ride to prison when Volt had a hallucination that he killed a fellow inmate. While the finale ended with the BAU in great spirits, it raised the question of where Voit will go from here — and whether becoming a serial killer again was in his near future.
The first season of Criminal Minds: Evolution (a.k.a. season 16 of the OG Criminal Minds series) introduced Voit as the main antagonist. The BAU spent the entire season hunting down the prolific killer, who they linked to 62 murders — and for being the mastermind behind setting up an online network of fellow serial killers.
Voit’s status as the villain was left up in the air when earlier this season he had significant memory loss that caused him to no longer be labeled as a psychopath. Gilford — and the rest of the Criminal Minds cast — has acknowledged that Voit can’t remain on the show for good.
“I was supposed to leave the show a while ago and I’ve been pitching, ‘Well, I have to leave at some point. If you’re not going to kill me, we should have a spinoff,’” Gilford, 43, quipped exclusively to Us Weekly in May. “It’s called Criminal Mind: Voit and it follows what Voit is doing when he is out in the world. Somehow he either escapes or he gets released and he is this white whale to the BAU. So Criminal Minds can keep going and having their [unsub] of the week — but they’ll always be like, ‘I wonder if Voit had something to do with this.’”
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While Gilford is expected to return in the scene-stealing in season 19, he said he is just focused on where Voit is now.
“No matter what [role] it is, I try to make people like the character. No matter what they’re doing or how bad they are. It’s fun, especially with someone like a serial killer. Or even when I worked on Good Girls, I was a guy who cheated on his pregnant wife and I was like, ‘But I want everyone to like me,’” he told Us. “The thing is just about making people likable and to draw you in.”
Gilford continued: “I feel very, very fortunate and lucky — especially as the guy who started out as Matt [Saracen on Friday Night Lights] — the nicest guy in the world. For a long time, all anyone wanted me to do was be the nice guy. I am still kind of being the nice guy [but] I just happen to have done bad things [on screen as Voit].”
Criminal Minds: Evolution has been renewed for season 19 and is currently streaming on Paramount+.
