Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 2 Episode 8 begins with a young woman running for her life and arriving at an older fellow’s house for help.
But it’s not just any young woman — it’s Jade, and Damien is right behind her. They are here to terrorize the man who had a “big impact” on them, according to Damien. The man remembers Damien from Stuart House.
Damien is GS1, a term unfamiliar to him. They begin beating him, telling him to shut up.
The richest love is that which submits to the arbitration of time – Lawrence Durell
Emily Prentiss
At the BAU, Prentiss shares with the group what Jill Gideon told her — that she broke Rossi’s heart. They laugh over it, and then Jill erupts from an office screaming at Rossi, who is right behind her. They retreat again behind closed doors.
Tyler mentions 30 years worth of history between Rossi and Jill, and JJ remarks that back then, Jill would have had to stay in the shadows while two men took credit for her work. Ouch.
Rossi and Jill emerge screaming again, and this time, Jill blames Rossi for Jason Gideon’s death. Rossi says never to do that again.
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It was Jill who released the unpublished report on teenage psychopathy. She thought they could reverse engineer the process and intervene, stopping kids before they became unsubs or acted on violent impulses.
She wanted to open a behavioral school to do just that, but big money got in the way, possibly changing the course of the program. She was long gone before the program got going, believing she was hired because of her name.
The big reveal is that Stuart House was not the only location they were pondering. Jill is saddened to learn that they didn’t actually help the kids at all.
Rossi is sipping a glass of whiskey when Prentiss knocks. He doesn’t want to talk about it. She knew he left the BAU under a dark cloud, but not in love with your best friend’s wife dark. He denies the accusation. Back then, all they did was eat, drink, and breathe the job. He and Jill offered support when Jason ground them down.
They were never lovers, and Jill didn’t break his heart. He had “these thoughts” that Jason wasn’t good enough for Jill. He couldn’t stop them, no matter how hard he tried. He wasn’t emotionally mature back then, so he stepped away from the BAU so as not to interfere in their marriage.
By the time Jill and Jason separated, Rossi was with his second wife.
He feels like he could never get it right with anybody, and that started with Jill.
Jill gave them a list of names they could investigate about Stuart House and the other locations. Prentiss tells Rossi that, for now, he should just enjoy his drink, and she’ll catch him up when necessary.
Monica returns a necklace to Tara. They’re living together again. Did anyone else miss that nugget? Monica can’t go home to sleep since the US Marshals have been hacked. Sydney and the girls haven’t been compromised, but they still suspect Voit.
Monica suspects Voit’s attorney. Tara suggests they talk with Tyler to see what he knows. Monica sighs.
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Damien added another eyeball tattoo to Jade’s arm. He mentions their friend in Iowa. Damien talks about Voit and how lucky he was to have met him.
They discuss what was done to them at Stuart House. Damien makes Voit explain his backstory first. Jade thinks Voit’s story is pretty simple compared to theirs.
Vincent Orlov arrives, and Jade is immediately antagonistic. Damien has a high-powered weapon trained on Orlov, who opens his trunk so Jade can retrieve the kill case from Voit.
It contains a lockbox and a GPS. Voit knows working with the BAU is a betrayal and is offering a peace offering. This doesn’t end with North Star, and without the case, they’ll never know the truth.
Morgantown, WV
Alvez and JJ arrive at a remote house, where they are looking for Dr. Disella, a name Jill provided. He’s hanging in his living room. He was the man Jade and Damien killed earlier.
They begin searching the place, which shows no signs of forced entry or rummaging. But Luke finds a box of files containing an empty folder for Stuart House. North Star was just a hook to get them down the conspiracy rabbit hole. They need to follow up on the other names Jill provided.
Damien and Jade are in the woods sleeping when she awakens in a panic. She had a vision of someone holding her down. She wants him to promise her that they will never go into a cage again. He promises. They’ll show them — an eye for an eye.
Monica asks Tyler to find leverage on Orlov. How is Voit manipulating him? Once he discovers the trigger point, he needs to take it directly to Monica.
Rossi is looking through an old journal that holds a photo of Jason when Penelope knocks. She has bad news about Dr. Disella and all of his friends. They’re all dead, and they were all ruled either accidents or suicide.
Everyone Jill remembers is now dead. What does that mean for Jill? She’s the last name on the list.
She doesn’t necessarily have faith that the BAU can protect her, but she apologizes for her earlier outburst and blaming Rossi for Jason’s death.
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They need to build a profile that takes the guns out of the kids hands, so to speak. She had read assessments of the patients the program was considering, and she has the notes in her house.
Jade was a GS5 (Gold Star 5 is the level), and Damien was a GS1. Jill feels sorry for him. There were many levels to choosing these kids and the levels of manipulation they experienced. Jill wishes she had better understood what was to come.
Damien says the feds from Iowa are protecting “her,” meaning Jill. This is bigger than they knew, but they have each other.
Prentiss and Alvez get Penelope to find where Damien and Jade might be hanging out. Alvez talks about heat angles and how that helps the duo access their victims. They triangulate a point of reference and plan on releasing drones.
Orlov is in the interrogation room. He’s a little snarky, considering what he’s involved in. Monica and Tyler work well together. What did Voit have on Orlov? Photos of a girl locked in a basement that point to Orlov. Monica bets the photos are porn.
Tara can’t believe Voit found his lawyer on the Sicarius network. Tyler and Monica can. Tara says they’re twinning.
Rossi explains the Sicarius network to Jill, including how people are influenced by conspiracy theories. The kids were conned when told they could save other kids by doing what they were told. After what they experienced, they’d do anything to save the children. But who is pulling their strings?
Jill thinks she should be the bait to lure Damien and Jade out of hiding. She wants to make amends, but Rossi disagrees. He learned that with Donnie Malick, who killed Jason. She wonders why Rossi didn’t come to the funeral.
He didn’t go because he couldn’t look at her. But now, he can, and she launches herself at him for a kiss. He jumps up to leave. They can’t. They need to see this case clearly, and he can’t do that and think about Jill at the same time.
JJ and Penelope find a file photo of Damien Booth. JJ and Alvez take off to find them when they get a drone report. When they arrive, Damien and Jade are not there.
Damien is in Jill’s living room. She says she wants to take him somewhere to see something. She uses the “to save a child” theory to lure him. He points his gun at her head. Is it still happening? She assures him that he can still save this boy. Something tells me he’s that boy.
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The BAU is meeting. They know Jill is gone. Rossi is angry at himself for leaving her alone. But that kiss… Prentiss tells him to think like a profiler. She got rid of him because she knew they were coming. She’s taking them to North Star, which, although made up, is not made up to Jill. Not anymore.
Jill takes Damien to the cabin where Jason was killed, the same cabin she and Rossi discussed earlier. Was that a clue for Rossi to find her?
Inside, she reveals that the boy she was talking about was Damien. He thinks it’s a trick. She tells him how his foster father, Brooks, never gave up on Damien and tried to get him out of Stuart House. When he was a threat, Stuart House used Damien to kill the person he loved to save others.
Damien is having a hard time processing what she’s saying, but she tells him that the abuse he suffered reshaped her cerebral cortex, and although he knew Brooks would never hurt children, his brain wouldn’t let him believe otherwise.
He’s thrown by the revelation, but Jill is not safe. He thinks he was liberated when, in fact, they used him to kill Brooks. He had no choice then, but he has a choice whether or not to kill Jill.
The more someone tells a lie, the more someone will believe it. He is bereft and drops the gun. Jill says it’s not his fault and picks up the gun. When they leave the cabin, the FBI is out there. He considers suicide by law enforcement, but he ultimately raises his hands and kneels on the ground. He makes a fist, and Jade kills him.
Jill is beside herself and blames herself for what happened.
Agents find the machine gun, which was mechanically shooting as Jade made her escape. Eventually, Jade stops running and screams.
