‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’: Aisha Tyler on Exploring Tara & Her Mother’s Relationship, That Big Decision & More

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 18 Episode 8 “Tara.”]

“It’s always interesting when you get a script that has your character’s name on the front,” Aisha Tyler says with a laugh. “You’re always like, ‘What’s going to happen?!'”

After the previous episode ended with her character, Dr. Tara Lewis, getting shot, the Thursday, June 26, one sees her in surgery, then unconscious in the hospital while, in her mind, she speaks with her mother (LaTanya Richardson Jackson), who died when she was young. Their conversations — “You’re a high-functioning overachiever who became a fixer to avoid grief, but unprocessed heartbreak like yours weighs you down,” her mom warns — lead Tara to, once she’s recovering and out of the hospital, propose to her girlfriend, Rebecca (Nicole Pacent), while at the BAU for a visit.

Below, Aisha Tyler opens up about getting to explore a different side of Tara, that proposal, all the losses the BAU has suffered this season, and more.

First of all, thank God Tara is alive.

Aisha Tyler: Tara’s alive! She lives.

Talk about playing those scenes of Tara dying and as a daughter with her mother, because we still see the Tara we know who’s a fighter, but then we also see a different side of her. How was it getting into that mindset?

Oh, it was so great. It was amazing to have LaTanya. She’s a friend and obviously incredible actress and nominated for every award under the sun and the fact that she came into play Tara’s mom was so special. And then I also really felt like it was exciting to deliver on the vulnerable side of Tara. I mean, she is just someone who I think is so driven and angular and so guarded, which I think she has to be, and I think she’s someone who’s successful because of that. And to explore this other side of her and to explore the reasons why, like, why is she the way she is? I think we all ask ourselves that question every day. Why am I like this? Why do I keep doing this? And to explore that side of her was just really, really fun.

Michael Yarish / Paramount+

I think it was just this dimensionalization of the character rather than some kind of a flip. She’s still her tough self, you know what I mean? She’s still her kind of crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside self. But she also had a tough mom. And I think they’re both tough because they needed to be because it was a survival tactic and it worked for them, you know what I mean? And I think a lot of people, and especially a lot of women and successful, driven women, can see themselves in those characters. It’s what’s required to move through the world and be successful and not be bruised by what happens to you and what happens around you. So I loved it. I loved it. It’s always interesting when you get a script that has your character’s name on the front. [Laughs] You’re always like, “What’s going to happen?!” But it was a blast to play.

And it felt like those moments had things that Tara needed to say to her mom but also hear from her mom, especially that she’s her hero. That moment was so good.

Yeah, it was so beautiful. LaTanya is so amazing, and she just has such a gravitas and an intense kind of dignity that it was just wonderful to be around. And I think we all want to hear that from our mother, but especially everything that Tara went through, losing her mom at such a young age, and I think honestly, trying to impress or honor the specter of her mother because she lost her so young. So there were so many things she didn’t get to say to her or hear from her. And you start to create a figment in your head of who this person is or what they might’ve wanted from you.

And I think all of us remember the moment in our lives where we realized our parents were people and not giants, do you know what I mean? For so much of our lives, they’re these other worldly figures, either for good or for bad. And I think the day that you become an adult and you realize, “Oh, the feelings I’m having and the struggles I’m facing are the same things that my parents have gone through, and they’re just people and they’re doing their best and they’re flawed and they’re fallible,” I think that’s the moment when we all grow up. And it’s also the moment where we give our parents some grace and also ourselves. So it was great to have that moment on screen for Tara. I know there were things I was mad at my parents for when I was a kid that I realized as an adult, oh my God, they’re just people. They’re just muddling through. They don’t know what the hell’s going on. They’re just trying to do their best. And that’s a really freeing moment. Then you forgive them for stuff that felt like so monumental when you were a kid, and then you think, “Oh, okay, I’m the age they were then and I don’t know what the f**k I’m doing.”

And then we got the proposal, which was a nice moment of joy amidst a pretty dark season so far. So when did proposing to Rebecca first pop up in Tara’s mind as something she wanted, even if she was scared to want it?

I mean, I think that Tara understands how difficult the life she’s chosen for herself is. I don’t think she’s delusional about that. I think some people, and we’ve seen those kinds of characters come through this world, and we know them in the real world, who pick a life that is difficult and expect that they can do it all exactly the way that they would like. And I just think that’s not life for any of us. And I think we know how difficult this job is because it exists in the real world. There are real profilers that really do this work, and it requires incredible personal sacrifice. Tara is not delusional about that. Tara knows exactly the life that she’s chosen for herself. It’s something that means a lot to her. She believes in the work. And so I think there was a part of her that was frightened, and I think there was a part of her that was protective.

Michael Yarish / Paramount+

But I think she also — in going through that moment of coming close to death, you just start to realize what’s important to you. And I think what you understand is that life is fleeting and you have to love as hard as you can, even if it’s only for a brief moment. And I think that’s the realization she’s come to. I don’t think that she’s like, “This is going to be easy.” Or even the idea that we all have that everything’s going to last forever. I mean, nothing lasts forever. That’s why you have to live as hard as you can when you can while you can, because tomorrow’s not promised to you. So I think for her, there was that fear of connection, but I also think there was that fear of injury both to herself and to others. And I think she’s like, life is messy and you get punched and you’re not going to be able to be alive without taking a couple of punches, and it’s worth it.

So will we see the wedding this season and what might it look like?

You always try it, Meredith. You always try it. I respect you so much. I respect the hustle. I respect it, and you get five stars for trying it. But of course, I cannot tell you that. [Laughs]

There have been a lot of losses this season for the BAU, both the UnSubs and the victims, with Will dying, even working with Voit (Zach Gilford) is a loss in a way for the BAU. Are we going to see that change going forward? How is the BAU doing with that this season?

Well, that’s a great question and I feel like I can’t answer that one. And I think that what you’ll see is that — I feel like Rossi, Joe [Mantegna]’s character, talks about this in one of the episodes, we did it maybe last season, the idea that, and it’s also a big theme in the movie Heat, one of the greatest films of all time, which is that the criminal and the cop need each other to exist. The bad guy and the good guy do not exist in the absence of the other. And I think that what you will see in this season is we are profilers and to profile, we need to understand the sociopath. We need to understand the serial killer. So far we’ve needed Voit to dismantle the network, but beyond that, he’s a resource. And the better we understand how his mind works, the better we understand how other sociopaths work, and the better we can stop them, the faster and the more effective we can be. And so I think what you’ll see now is the symbiosis with Voit and the BAU where we’ve gotten past the rage and the frustration of this guy who has been probably the biggest and most effective foil we’ve ever come up against, but now that we’ve got him under wraps, we’re going to exploit him. We’re going to pick him apart. And that requires talking to someone who’s done some pretty terrible things. But that’s our job. We live in the darkness so that other people don’t have to.

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And it seems like they figure out a way to take those losses and make it benefit them whenever something like this happens, right?

And I think that’s a great philosophy for all of us to live by, you know what I mean? Success is not the absence of failure. It’s persistence through failure. You have to take the punches and you get back up and you get stronger. Again, another great movie, it’s from Rocky Balboa, Rocky V. It’s not how hard you hit. It’s how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. And I think that is a really good theme for this season. We’re not perfect, but we aspire to perfection and we’re always working to be better.

Are we going to see the events of what have happened change Tara going forward?

I think Tara’s always changing. She’s always growing. I think it remains to be seen how what’s happened to her changes her. But I do think that she’s someone who’s constantly evolving. I think she believes in growth, and I think that she lives in a growth mindset. I’m not going to fight this. This is being alive. And it means that you learn and your bones are strongest where they’re broken. So I think you will see her evolve, and I think that this season is a really great season for her as a profiler and as a forensic psychiatrist, psychologist, because I think she is going to take in these injuries and she’s going to turn them into strengths.

Criminal Minds: Evolution, Thursdays, Paramount+

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