‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’ Stars Break Down Voit’s Whisper to Luke (VIDEO)

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 17 Episodes 1 “Gold Star” and 2 “Contagion.”]

Just because the BAU has to work with serial killer Elias Voit (Zach Gilford) to catch another elusive UnSub, Gold Star, doesn’t mean they have to like it. But as much as the profilers would love to be the cats in this game, he’s able to toy with them like mice in the first two episodes of Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 17—and no one more than Luke Alvez (Adam Rodriguez).

After Voit refuses to talk to JJ (A.J. Cook) anymore, it’s Luke’s turn to visit him in prison, and the play is for the agent to pretend to be scared of him, to give him the illusion of power and control. Voit wonders if it bugs him that his entire team is smarter than he is, and off JJ in his ear telling him to pretend his ego is hurt, Luke says he knows they are. But then Voit does get under his skin by, after explaining social contagion to him, telling him he has a secret he must whisper to him, and he has to decide if it’s true or false. It will help him figure out what they’re missing with Gold Star, he teases. Against JJ’s protests, Luke steps up to the cell bars and Voit whispers in his ear. Luke insists whatever he said isn’t true and grabs Voit through the bars; JJ has to pull him off. “Who’s infected now?” Voit asks JJ.

We won’t have to wait long to find out what Voit said. “You’ll learn at the top of the third episode what Voit said and then what the truth is in that and what the fabrication is in that,” showrunner Erica Messer tells TV Insider.

Cook directed the second episode, and Rodriguez raves about her behind the camera. “She’s such a natural. You can see the passion she has for it while she’s doing it. It’s almost like the most relaxed you see her. She’s so in her power when she’s doing that, and it is right where she wants to be. And I love watching her direct and being directed by her,” he shares in the video interview above.

Michael Yarish / Paramount+

What Voit whispered “leaves Luke with a real dilemma,” says Rodriguez. “He’s really torn about what to do with this information and about who the right person to tell is or not to tell, and he cares about all the people involved.”

For Luke, it becomes a question of, “if I tell everybody what he said, then somebody might get hurt, and if I don’t tell them what he said, then I’m protecting his secret and I don’t want to do that,” teases Messer.

When it comes to his reaction to the serial killer, “it’s interesting because every character sort of gets to find out something new about themselves this year. And I think for us watching Alvez, we’ve never seen that side of Alvez, and he’s really disappointed in himself that he let Voit get to him,” the showrunner adds. “Alvez is beating himself up for reacting the way he did, but it’s also understandable when you hear what Voit said to him.”

As the one who witnesses that exchange between Luke and Voit, “JJ is very suspect of anything that comes out of Voit’s mouth,” says Cook. “Voit is a genius. He is brilliant at being the puppeteer of spreading doubt. This season is this back and forth of us all trying to work together, but him having fun and kind of batting us around like mice.”

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Jokes Gilford, “I whispered, ‘Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift break up,’ and he was pissed. He is a hardcore Swiftie.” But, on a serious note, he explains, “I’m trying to drive wedges between the members of the BAU and make them distrust each other or question people’s loyalty and where they lie. … It’s fun being this kind of master manipulator s**t stirrer.”

Cook did a fantastic job directing the episode, especially those scenes with Voit—”I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about it,” she says—and is quick to give credit to the writers. “That was on the page. Our writers just killed it this season. This whole season is so cerebral and it’s such a mindfruck,” she shares (making up a word since, as she puts it, she’s a mom).

Watch the full video interview above for more from Cook, Rodriguez, and Gilford about the BAU facing off with Voit, his whisper to Luke, and the agent’s reaction.

Criminal Minds: Evolution, Thursdays, Paramount+

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