Criminal Minds Evolution (3×02) The Zookeeper Review

For our review of the last episode of Criminal Minds: Evolution, click here.

Sometimes too much is not a good thing and this latest episode was certainly a testament to that. Following the cliffhanger at the end of last week’s season premiere, viewers are surely eager to see where it all goes. Leaving more questions than answers of course, the BAU are left to contend with a different Voit. Whether they wanted to admit it or not, he was different but the question as to whether or not this change is merely an act remains a valid one until proven otherwise, as far as Rossi was concerned. Having suffered a traumatic brain injury and now awakening with retrograde amnesia, Voit was likely never going to be exactly the same person and for now, where he currently stood was a mystery left for doctors and Tara to solve. Yes, Voit woke up, but no, he did not escape the hospital. He would have to know who he was in order to do that. Not remembering who he was and what he did, presented its own unique set of challenges, even more so because it is Voit. A mystery worthy of its own episode, this proved to not be the case as an unsub and other lingering developments only further muddied the waters.

The shock of the faces of the members of the BAU was real as the episode began with each getting the news of Voit’s awakening. Sparking the interest of everyone, they had to see it for themselves, but they still didn’t believe it. Struggling physically and cognitively, he presented himself as a shell of what he once was. Doing their own due diligence, the science appeared to suggest that it was not an act. However, that would be far from their only concern as the team’s chase for Voit’s lawyer found him on the run, leaving only a hard drive behind. Tyler, meanwhile, found a way to stay with the BAU as part of his insight into the Sicarius/Voit case. That hard drive generated a lead on another unsub known as ‘The Zookeeper.’ Kidnapping sex workers and holding them captive while taming them into submission, it is unclear how long he has been operating or the number of his victims.

Finding ‘The Zookeeper’ was not a big challenge as this unsub was built on a thin foundation of being smart and wanting an outlet to express his frustrations about his own many inadequacies (a description that could be used for a lot of unsubs). More of a means to an end for Rossi to express his own frustration about missing this latest unsub because of being so obsessed with Voit. Lashing out at him (the chemistry between Joe Mantegna and Zach Gilford remains strong), the team would also be presented with a unique situation. Believing Rossi to be his father, this circumstance would be something the BAU could take advantage of to leverage more information out of Voit.

Eventually apprehending ‘The Zookeeper,’ the team would be no further in their investigation of the new (or possibly never initially shuddered) serial killer network as he would also take his own life. Speaking of lives being taken, another longtime character would meet their surprising demise as Will would succumb to a bursting aneurysm as he and JJ saw Henry off to school. Coming out of nowhere, killing off Will, a character whose time across both incarnations of the series has been limited at best, seemed like a baffling choice. Potentially planting seeds for a JJ arc, that is the only scenario that makes sense. Still worried about BAU-Gate, one could only hope that this arc doesn’t become too much of a tangent.

Approaching the serial killer network from two parallel lanes, there is definitely more going on here. Remixing season 1 in a sense, the season needs to build on that, rather than deliver the same.

Score: 72/100

still courtesy of Paramount+

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.