Warning: Spoilers for the first three episodes of Criminal Minds: Evolution ahead.
Friday Night Lights fans, be warned: Matt Saracen is no more. At times, the Zach Gilford in Paramount+‘s limited series, Criminal Minds: Evolution, may remind you of the wholesome, grandma-loving do-gooder who captured our hearts in 2006. But beneath the surface, Gilford’s new character, Elias Voit, is a cold-blooded murderer, a master manipulator, and an evil genius who spent his COVID-19 lockdown training a network of serial killers online. We’re only three episodes into the popular crime drama’s latest installment, but it’s already clear that Elias is one of the year’s most terrifying on-screen villains — not just because he’s a creepy killer, but because he knows how to turn on the charm.
In Evolution‘s two-episode premiere, we learn that a series of brutal kills is being orchestrated by one man: Elias Voit. In Episode 2, we get some quality Gilford screen time and see Elias bury “kill kits” to help his henchmen successfully commit the murders. He anonymously messages killers, delights in a video of a man’s spinal cord being sliced, and heads to a secret underground lair where he tortures and kills people. The scenes are chilling and gruesome, and without knowing much else about him, it’s easy to assume Elias is pure evil at all times. But a trip to the hardware store for $449.49 in suspicious supplies proves he’s leading a double life.
When chatting with the cashier, Tawny, Elias is a sweet, funny, personable dude. But just as Tawny is about to warm up to Gilford’s mysterious character, he snaps at her for asking him to join the store’s rewards program. Like Saracen, Gilford’s Evolution character is quiet and introspective, but he also has a perpetually simmering temper that can be set off by the smallest offenses. We catch another glimpse of his inner rage when he berates one of his men for blundering a kill, then talks him through his own suicide. It’s later implied that Elias killed the innocent hardware cashier and stole her dog. And when he heads home, things get even scarier.
Up until the end of Episode 2, the Elias we knew was nothing more than a killer running a sick operation. But when he walks inside his gorgeous Seattle house, his WIFE greets him in the kitchen with a kiss. She dubs him the “best husband ever,” and he tells her he’ll make breakfast for THE GIRLS! What’s more terrifying than a serial killer teaching others how to kill? A serial killer teaching others how to kill while hiding in plain sight, living a normal life as a friendly, beloved husband and father.
Gilford’s past projects — from Post Grad and Crazy Kind of Love to Friday Night Lights and Good Girls — prove he’s more than mastered playing an effortlessly genuine gentleman. The guy played Taylor Swift’s boyfriend in a music video for goodness sake! He’s sweet! So seeing Gilford tap into his classic good guy charm to cover up his character’s crimes and deceive people adds a whole other layer of terror to his very convincing performance, just like Jake Lacy in A Friend of the Family.
In Evolution Episode 3, viewers get to know both sides of Elias a bit better. When he’s not in kill mode, he’s an operations analyst for a global cyber-security firm. He has a charming smile, wears cozy sweaters, and plays basketball in the driveway with his daughter. Normal dad stuff! He says “kiddo,” calls his wife “babe,” and never shies away from telling his loved ones he loves them. But when he hides the family’s financial struggles from his wife, we learn he bottles his frustration, fear, and anxieties. He lets his anger build and stores it for future use, then erupts when it’s time to take another life.
Elias is the kind of guy who will spend money on a magazine subscription he can’t afford just to please a neighborhood kid who knocked on his door, but he’s also the kind of guy who envisions bludgeoning the kid’s pushy dad to death with a rock — all while remaining calm, cool, and collected on the outside. He frequently has visions of violence and flashbacks to past kills when he’s upset, and towards the end of the episode we see him smile while a dog mauls an innocent man Elias chained up simply because he resembles the neighbor he hates.
At one point, Elias’ wife asks, “What happened to that guy I married who could let anything roll off of his back?” As Elias notes in the online profile he uses to connect with his network, “I was not born this way. Someone saw what I could become and nurtured The Beast inside.” Those words, along with the fact that his wife seems so unsuspecting, leave no question that Elias has far more skeletons in his closet than we know of yet. He’s meticulous, concise, and excels at staying one step ahead of authorities. He’s a controlled killer with the intelligence, patience, and organizational skills needed to train an army. And the juxtaposition of his two realities — the warm husband/girl dad vs the empathy-lacking monster with a compulsion for killing — make an already jarring storyline all the more horrifying.
New episodes of Criminal Minds: Evolution are available to stream Thursdays on Paramount+.