Criminal Minds: Evolution – Season 2 Episode 1 “Goldstar” Recap & Review

GoldStar

Welcome back, fellow profilers! Criminal Minds: Evolution season 2 starts us off on a new mystery. Don’t worry, we will get to Goldstar in a few. First, we meet a man, Bertoli, who walks into a police station carrying his dead wife.

Based on how the police officers react, they are familiar with the man and quickly arrest him. However, Bertoli is in a catatonic state and says nothing about what happened. 

It is at this point that Emily walks in and introduces herself. She asks the officers to check Bertoli’s gun and see if there is a bullet with a five-pointed golden star etched into it. According to Emily, this is the real killer’s calling card. She is sure Bertoli didn’t kill his wife, and he is the only lead she has to Goldstar. But why is Emily looking into this all by herself?

Meanwhile, the other BAU members are all at Garcia’s house, celebrating her birthday. Our man Rossi is trying hard to act like he is okay, but he is struggling. It is not easy to get over the trauma of being buried alive, even when you are a seasoned profiler.

Everyone worries he is doing too much, especially as he wants to get back to work, but he insists he is fine. He is not! He is having hallucinations and conversing with Elijah Voit, AKA Sycarius. After the guys leave, Luke remains behind to help Garcia clean, and they talk about her ex, Tyler. Garcia is trying to forget him, but mind and heart are two different things. 

At the same time, Tara heads to Jennifer’s house, and they catch up. Like Garcia, Tara is having a hard time getting over her ex, Rebecca. She worries she missed her chance at happiness but Jennifer argues she still has time. We concur!

They also worry about Emily burying herself with work to forget about Bailey’s death. Apparently, Emily feels guilty for how Bailey ended up catching a bullet to the head. 

Speaking of Emily, her interview with Bertoli proves fruitless. She asks the officers to keep the man on suicide watch and promises to be back the next day. She is sure that the killer intentionally wanted to make Bertoli suffer but can’t figure out the motive. She calls Tara and asks to meet. Emily briefs Tara on her solo investigation into Goldstar and it is quite a profile. 

Emily believes Goldstar is a seasoned serial killer, linked to at least three open cases. He kills in different jurisdictions to evade capture and make it hard for officers to connect the cases.

Most importantly, he leaves a calling card. Tara doesn’t doubt Emily but questions why and how Voit found out and used the information to his advantage. Also, why would Bailey keep a serial killer from the BAU? It is their job to put such guys behind bars.

Emily theorises that Goldstar is probably a government assassin gone rogue, meaning he is now a national security issue. However, what has Emily tripping is the latest killing. It seems Goldstar has stopped being methodical and is being controlled by his emotions.  

The two decide to call Garcia to help them investigate the new case. Upon investigating Bertoli, Garcia learns that the DOJ has already flagged the case. To make matters worse, Rebecca requested the federal files and consulted someone in a Virginia federal prison, Stoneward Penitentiary. And yes, you guessed it right—she consults none other than Elijah Voit! 

The next morning, Emily calls the BAU into an urgent meeting and drops a few bombshells on them. First, Voit spent a few weeks on the ninth floor of their building before being transferred to Virginia. As for what Voit was doing there, they discovered footage from two weeks ago.

In the footage, Voit meets with FBI Director Ray Madison and asks for a deal. He admits that he talked to Goldstar, who was part of his serial killer network. However, Voit is too smart to phrase it as such. He claims he is not Sycarius and that all he did was unknowingly create a network which ended up being used by serial killers. 

You see, Voit knows he has the upper hand, especially since there is no proof he is Sycarius. He promises he can tell Madison why Goldstar kills; however, he wants all charges against him as Sycarius dropped.

The team quickly deduces that Madison already agreed to the terms, and they are pretty much screwed. No one is more pissed than Rossi. Tara is also disappointed in Rebecca and confronts her, but  Rebeca pulls the 5th, and things get even more intense. 

After the meeting, Rossi confronts Emily and asks her to stop carrying the burden alone. They promise to have each other’s backs and agree they need to find Goldstar before Voit does. This is the only way to nullify Voit’s deal with the director. Emily briefs the team on the other cases involving Goldstar. Other than the calling card, Goldstar likes to enucleate his victims.

The team profiles Goldstar as an unsub with no remorse and probably has no family. He is a well-trained assassin, but why did he go rogue and start killing for what looks like personal revenge? To find this answer, Emily and Rossi visit Bertoli.

Unfortunately, during the interview, Bertoli comes off his catatonic state. He gets into a fight with one of the local police, grabs the officer’s gun and kills himself. It is not a lost cause, though. Based on Bertoli’s behaviour after his wife’s death, Emily believes he is a trained military man even though it is not on his file.

Meanwhile, Luke and Jennifer look at the crime scene photos, trying to understand  Goldstar’s methodology. They figure Goldstar got off by rendering Bertoli powerless and making him watch his wife dying. It is  a brutal, sadistic, emotional torture, but why? On the other hand, Garcia and Tara dig deep into the Bertiolis to find the motive behind the attack.  

The team debriefs later that evening, and Luke suggests bringing Tyler in. Tyler is just the kind of guy who would know about secret soldiers and whatnot. The team votes, and they bring him in.

Tyler is remorseful about how things went down last time, but Rossi thinks it saved him. They agree to let bygones be bygones and focus on the case. Garcia struggles to control herself, but it is only a matter of time. They still like each other. Tyler offers to look into the files and call a few contacts.

At the federal prison, Voit goes over the case files and shares his theory with Rebecca. I suppose it takes a psychopath to know another psychopath. He tells Rebecca that Goldstar is killing for revenge and that the victims are connected. Apparently, Goldstar still has one last target before he completes his mission and disappears underground. Rebecca sneakily passes this information to Tara, but things are still awkward between them. 

Afterwards, Tyler discovers something strange in the victims’ bank accounts. He thinks the victims are part of a government’s strike team. He believes the government had paid the victims to kill Goldstar, but he found out and came for them first. There are two more names on the list and the team rushes to get the two targets in police custody. Sadly, they are late.

One of the victims was killed weeks ago and has been rotting in his house. They also get to the second victim too late. They are unable to save him as Goldstar cuts his tongue, and the man drowns in his blood. However, since they interrupted Goldstar, he couldn’t finish his sadistic ritual. He also took the victim’s police badge.

After the case, Rossi and Emily meet with Madison and confront him for making a deal with Voit. Madison gives them an ultimatum to work with Voit to catch Goldstar. Emily threatens to quit before relying on a serial killer to build a profile, and Madison dares her to go ahead. Rossi takes a different approach and agrees to Madison’s terms on the condition that they bring Tyler as a consultant. Madison agrees.

After Madison leaves, Rossi shares his plan to get Voit to admit he is Sycarius. He wants the team to trick Voit into incriminating himself when consulting with him over the case. He plans to use Voit’s ego to push him off balance and reveal his true nature. The team sends in Jennifer to take the first crack at Voit. 

The Episode Review

As always, Criminal Minds never disappoints. The first episode was well-knitted and introduced an even bigger villain than Sycarius. The writers did an amazing job tying the two villains’ stories together, and we can’t wait for the thrill that the season offers.

We are also getting Tyler on the team and soon Rebecca will have to choose a side. Once again, the BAU will have to fight some bureaucratic nonsense to get their unsubs, and it is about to go down!

Did anyone else notice that Voit knew the other target on Goldstar’s list was already dead? How did he find this out when he was under high surveillance in jail? He knew only one target remained, meaning he was still in communication with Goldstar.

Speaking of Goldstar, he seems highly dangerous, and if Madison is willing to let a serial killer like Sycarius free to catch him, then it is serious. What is Madison so afraid of Goldstar revealing?

We are also curious about Voit. He is too smart and will see Jennifer coming from a mile away. He is unlikely to fall for her tricks, but who on the team will push him to his downfall? My bet is on Rossi, but we will have to watch the show to find out.