Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | TV | July 23, 2026
Spoilers for the Criminal Minds: Evolution finale
After four seasons as the main antagonist/antagonist-consultant/antagonist-protagonist, Zach Gilford’s long-running Criminal Minds: Evolution character is finally done. For now. Maybe.
The entire serialized arc of the 4th season of Evolution (and 19th season of Criminal Minds) was basically about The Fan, an aspiring serial killer who wanted to be the next Elias Voit, at least until Elias Voit called him “pathetic” on a podcast, at which point The Fan wanted instead to become better than Elias Voit. As there was no way to realistically top Voit’s body count as a serial killer, The Fan — who we later learn is James Crowley, an author of serial killer books (Justin Kirk, now in his villain stage — see also The Vampire Lestat) — decides that the only way to do that is to kill Voit himself.
To do so, Crowley orchestrates a plan involving locating Elias Voit’s daughter, Holly, who is in the witness protection program (this was accomplished last week via an elaborate plan involving ex-spouses played by Paul F. Tompkins and Yvette Nicole Brown). Crowley kidnaps Holly and holds her hostage in a basement in a Florida town in order to lure Elias Voit out of prison, so that he can kill Voit. Crowley also kidnapped another woman and held her hostage in Philadelphia, basically as leverage to ensure that the BAU wouldn’t interfere with his plans to kill Voit.
It didn’t work.
Crowley is supposed to be some great criminal mastermind who can outsmart the BAU and Voit, but basically, the BAU used the old security-camera-looping trick we’ve all seen 350 different variations of, which allowed them to sneak into the industrial warehouse where the Philadelphia woman was being held and rescue her (after which Luke — who nearly dies in an explosion — is rescued by the ghost of his search dog. Oy).
Meanwhile, Voit uses his talents as a former serial killer to locate Crowley in Florida, knowing that the only way he can save his daughter’s life is to submit to Crowley. Crowley knows it, too. So: Game, Set, Match Crowley, right?
Not really, no. Once Crowley disarms Voit and brings him down into the basement where Holly is being held, Voit uses his super-human intelligence to outsmart Crowley by … punching him. So, Crowley’s big plan was to hope that Voit wouldn’t punch him?
A scuffle breaks out. There’s more punching and some rolling around on the floor. Voit eventually manages to knock Crowley out and rescue his daughter. Holly runs upstairs to escape, but hears Crowley wake up and attack Voit, so she runs back down and stabs Crowley repeatedly, saving her father.
The idea here is likely to potentially set the stage for a future season where Holly becomes a serial killer, having possibly inherited her father’s serial-killer gene. However, in this episode, Voit takes the knife and confesses to killing Crowley himself. He’s put away into a high-security prison in an undisclosed location and has one more life sentence added onto the 63 consecutive life sentences he already had.
The show then takes the last 5 minutes to belabor the point that Voit is out of their lives and off the show, which several characters pointedly remark:
“As far as the Director is concerned, Elias Voit shall never darken the doors of the BAU again.”
“People deserve the truth, and that will finally close the book on this guy. For all of us.”
“And the rest is history.”
Voit also appears as a Dark Passenger to David Rossi, who is finishing his book on Voit. “You honestly think you can get rid of me that easily?” he asks. “Watch me,” Rossi says, literally closing his book, as Voit disappears from the screen.
And in the final scene, the Director comes down with something urgent, and Emily reactively says, “Oh, Jesus. Voit?!”
The Director: “No, he’s gone. Forget about him.”
In other words, the show is making it very clear that Voit is gone from Criminal Minds: Evolution, at least for now. But he’s not dead, so there’s every possibility that he could return, and Zach Gilford confirmed as much in an interview with Collider:
I don’t know. Obviously, they didn’t kill me. I do know I’m not coming back in Season 20. But you never know. I hope to be back. I hope the end of his story isn’t just that he’s in a cell somewhere and gone. You never know.
In other words, Criminal Minds: Evolution will see how the ratings are in Season 20 without him and probably make a decision about whether he returns based on them. As Zach Gilford is honestly the best reason to watch Criminal Minds, I’m guessing he’ll be back by season 21.
