Criminal Minds: Evolution star Zach Gilford opens up about playing a very different version of Elias Voit. Originally introduced as the main villain for the Paramount+ revival, the crime drama has consistently come up with reasons to keep Gilford closely tied to the Criminal Minds cast. And for the third installment, that has meant introducing a storyline where Voit essentially suffers from a kind of amnesia and can’t access the memories of the monster that he used to be.

In an interview with ScreenRant‘s Alisha Grauso, Gilford was asked about the process of playing a more empathetic version of Voit as a result of the character’s brain injury. The Friday Night Lights alum gives a lengthy response, expressing how the crime drama has offered him the chance to do something different. In the quote below, Gilford also talks about the possibility that Voit could be faking it all:

ScreenRant: On TV, we see a lot of serial killers who were good family men who suddenly snap, or they were the normal neighbor. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it go in the opposite direction like this, where you literally get the empathy knocked back into you by a traumatic brain injury.

“Yeah, no, I don’t know. I’ve been so lucky this show, each season I’ve gotten to do something totally different. I remember Erica, our showrunner, when we were talking about it before we started shooting, she was telling me what was going to happen. She was like, ‘I’m going to make everyone feel bad for Voit.’ I was like, ‘Okay!’ So it’s just like, it’s been fun and it’s something different.

I joked last season, I was like, I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m just memorizing lines. I don’t know where I am with [Voit’s] memory. Everyone keeps asking, ‘Are you faking it? Is this real, or is he faking it?’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t know. They didn’t tell me!’

So yeah, it’s been fun and all this stuff. Even interacting with every one of my castmates is different, which just adds another fun thing to the scene because when you’re on a show for a while, you kind of fall in the pocket and it’s great, but you’re like, ‘Cool. Oh, it’s a scene between us. I know how we do this,’ and now it’s like, ‘Oh, how does this scene work?’”

What Voit’s Change Means For Criminal Minds: Evolution

A Twist Might Be Coming

Criminal Minds: Evolution season 3 has the benefit of playing off all the show’s previous seasons. That’s without even mentioning all of the previous movies and shows where the villain is waiting to deliver one final twist of the knife. Some fans have been speculating that Voit is unchanged and is playing the long game with Dr. Julia Ochoa (Aimee Garcia), who is not what she appears to be.

It may speak to the chemistry that Gilford has built up with his co-stars that the writers are still finding ways to incorporate Voit, even long after the character probably should have been neutralized. One way that might would to keep him around, ultimately, is to reveal that Voit is actually sincere. That will be tested, in any case, with the Criminal Minds season 3, episode 5 ending, which sees Voit face-to-face with a decibel.

Our Take On Voit’s Criminal Minds Future

His Path Is Wide Open For Now

Voit’s place in the already-confirmed Criminal Minds: Evolution season 4 will have to depend on how he concludes this installment. The twist might be that there is no twist, with Gilford’s character genuinely turning over a new leaf. On the other hand, if he’s still up to his old tricks, then that might be an argument for the BAU to wash its hands of him once and for all. But there are still many episodes that the show has to run through before arriving at Voit’s endgame. It will be interesting to see which path the writers decide to take in the long haul.

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Criminal Minds

8/10

Release Date

September 22, 2005

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

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  Kirsten Vangsness

  Penelope Garcia

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  Matthew Gray Gubler

  Dr. Spencer Reid