Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 3 Episode 7I am officially declaring war on Criminal Minds: Evolution. The series brought back the spider-MO with a new unsub who wanted to “pay tribute” to Voit’s (Zach Gilford) uncle Cyrus Lebrun (Silas Weir Mitchell), who was Voit’s serial killer mentor. The new unsub force feeds the Sicarius spiders to his victims in multi-layered condoms, which eventually burst, and the spiders poison the victim by trying to eat their way out of the body. There have been a lot of foul MOs on this program, but this one is absolutely diabolical. The unsub has taken over Voit’s network and is channeling Voit’s uncle Cyrus to attempt to bring the “real” Sicarius out and stop Voit from cooperating with the feds. As the network continues to make moves, Voit is becoming a more vital part of the BAU’s investigation team – something his new lawyer wants to use to increase his immunity deal and keep Voit’s prison time to a minimum. The network is going to extreme lengths to get to Voit, leaving one of our team for dead at the end of the episode. There’s definitely a leak within the office and the team needs to figure out what is their new unsub’s ultimate goal.
The Sicarius Network Finds a New Leader in ‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’

After the initial victim is found, Garcia (Kristen Vangsness) has to go on the hunt for recent purchases of illegal South African spiders, but her search comes up empty. J.J. (A.J. Cook) discovers a rare chemical used in fertilizer containers underneath the victim’s fingernails. The presence of the chemical implies that the unsub works with fertilizer in some capacity. Garcia is able to switch from spiders to finding men who work with fertilizer that have been reported missing in the past few days. That gives her the name of a trucker in the D.C. metro area. Garcia is able to track down the suspect’s truck, which leads the team to Tate Andrews (Mustafa Speaks) taped to an explosive device in an abandoned truck bed. He has a multi-layered condom full of Sicarius spiders in his stomach which the unsub will release via remote unless his message is delivered to Voit. Luckily, the team has brought Voit along for this mission and deliver him the unsub’s iPad. The unsub uses a deep fake filter to appear to Voit as his uncle Cyrus, triggering Voit’s childhood trauma in Cyrus’ care. Voit is sure that he killed his uncle years prior, but this unsub knows so much about Voit’s past that Voit is genuinely confused about who he’s speaking to. The unsub reveals that he’s taken over the network because he realized that Voit has been talking to the feds, and everything he’s been doing with this season’s henchmen is to bring Voit, or better yet Sicarius, back into the fold. Voit is really starting to crash out when Alvez (Adam Rodriguez) realizes that the explosive Tate is hooked up to is a decoy. They can get him to the ambulance to remove the spiders as Garcia works to disconnect the remote signal between the unsub and the spiders in Tate’s stomach. Garcia is so rarely fallable on a computer that it comes as a complete shock when her hacking skills detonates one of the spiders, causing the condom to burst in Tate’s stomach and the spiders kill him by trying to bite their way out. It’s a horrific death that Garcia isn’t going to forget for a long time. Like I said, this unsub is sick.

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A Mobile Truck of Victims Appears

Image via Paramount+

Before Tate dies, he reveals that he has held with seven or eight other men. That helps the team build out their profile and they realize their leader unsub has a mobile truck of victims that he dishes out to his foot soldier unsubs in exchange for getting messages to Voit when they get caught. It takes some more puzzling out, but Garcia is able to use the internet signal they found in the truck where Tate was being held to find the second truck with additional victims. The new disciples are about to pack up when the team apprehends the truck, arrests two of the foot soldier unsubs. Unfortunately, they also find the body of Voit’s former lawyer Vincent Orlov (Brian White) dead in the truck. If the new network got to Orlov, then they have a mountain of personal information they can use to get to Elias. On the bright side, the team were able to get seven men back to their families safely, but this was overall a very rough day at the office. If that wasn’t disturbing enough, the new master of the Voit network proves that he’s willing to strike first at the BAU if it means getting to Voit.
Tara Takes a Potentially Fatal Bullet in ‘Criminal Minds’

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Tara (Aisha Tyler) and Rebecca (Nicole Pacent) are called to meet with Voit’s current lawyer to discuss an issue with the Voit case. It strikes Tara and Rebecca as weird since Rebecca was taken off the case due to their romantic relationship, but the new liaison Evan (Geoff Stults) says that the meeting isn’t about the conflict of interest. The trio are joking about negotiating with unsubs vs lawyers when Tara spots one of the foot soldier unsubs in the garage with a gun. She’s able to push Rebecca out of the way, but both Tara and Evan take bullets to the chest. Tara is unconscious when Rebecca crawls over to her and Evan looks even worse. This is now a direct assault on the BAU team, but why did the new network leader target Tara specifically? Wouldn’t Green (Ryan-James Hatanaka) or J.J. be a more direct hit to Voit? It’s clear that this guy is a level up from the other unsubs the team have been chasing so far this season. The question is, will he be able to restore the old Sicarius or will Voit continue to be the BAU’s greatest asset? Criminal Minds: Evolution continues with new episodes every Thursday on Paramount+.

Criminal Minds

Release Date

September 22, 2005

Network

CBS, Paramount+

Showrunner

Erica Messer

Directors

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

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

Pros & Cons

We’re getting more mythology behind the new network
The stakes have gotten incredibly real
The team now have a personal motivation to take down this unsub

Spiders crawling out of the victim’s mouth was TOO FAR
Traumatizing Penelope after she’s already had to look up so much spider content is cruel