Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 18 Episode 1 Recap: Is Voit Connected With Franklin Fowler?

Paramount+’s hit procedural thriller series, Criminal Minds: Evolution, has returned with its eighteenth season, building on the overarching plot thread of the previous chapters and bringing new cases of the week—which might or might not be tied with each other at their core. Previously, the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) used psychopathic serial killer Elias Voit to get to the bottom of the Gold Star conspiracy, which saw a secretive government program turning children into psychopaths from an early age. Veteran Special Agent Rossi, who almost became one of Voit’s victims, had to grapple with the realization that he needed to work alongside his tormentor. At the end of the 17th season, Voit was attacked in prison and somehow survived, raising questions about Rossi’s possible involvement. Senior member Emily Prentiss was kidnapped by brainwashed victims of the Gold Star program; however, a timely response by her BAU led to her rescue.

Spoilers Ahead

A New Killer Strikes

The episode begins with a mysterious stalker asking a certain David Hartle about directions in a seemingly vacant parking lot before knocking him out using a fentanyl spray and kicking him to ensure Hartle remains in no position to ask for help. A patrolling beat cop arrives at the location, who gets convinced by the attacker’s lies about David being his addict elder brother whom he wants to take home. 

The scene shifts to a beach party in Ocean City, MD, and as the narrative focuses on a drunk preppy guy trying to hit on an uninterested member who tries to leave the scene, it almost seems that a troubling situation is going to happen. However, the annoying drunk guy notices a corpse has washed ashore. Local authorities swarm at the scene, and almost at the same time, BAU senior members Prentiss, Rossi, and JJ arrive to notify them that the Jane Doe might be a victim of an unsub serial killer they are investigating. The puncture wounds in Jane Doe’s corpse match with the killer’s past victims, all of whom have drowned to their death; the team is able to confirm it is the work of the same killer. David Hartle turns up as the latest victim, prompting the BAU unit to look for possible connections in victims to find a link. 

Tyler Green might have years of experience as a military spotter, but he is still a novice FBI trainee whom Alvez and JJ need to test often to ensure he is ready for his field duty, which will begin soon enough. Tyler is sharp enough to notice from the autopsy report that the victims didn’t actually die by drowning in the ocean, and there are strong indications that they met their end in a controlled environment like a swimming pool before getting dumped into the sea by the killer. Given the way the victims suffered, it becomes clear that their last moments were spent in agony, something which the killer must have taken pleasure in watching. A common connection is found by Penelope from the intel that all the victims were recent customers of a specific beach rental company, which indicates the possibility of a user data breach that was exploited by the killer to pick their targets. Dr. Lewis uses her connection to assemble the employees of the company and inform them of the suspicion of the killer using their site’s user data to choose victims. Lewis asks for a gateway to access user data, which senior executive of the company, Travis Towsend, refuses to divulge. A hidden camera records the reaction of the employees, and from the involuntary microexpressions of the attendees, JJ suspects a certain Richard Downey to be feeling remorseful for not being able to assist. Downey has served in multiple Iraq tours, which gives Green and Alvez, both ex-military, a chance to use their common background to fish out intel by triggering Downey’s sense of responsibility—and Penelope ensures BAU’s secret access to the company’s user data doesn’t get tracked back to Downey. 

What Did Rossi and Prentiss Learn About the Assault on Voit?

In the meantime, Rossi has his own matters to attend to, as ever since the attack on Voit in prison, he has become a suspect of OPR—an internal investigation unit. Agent Beatrice of OPR grills Rossi about him possibly being involved in the assault on Voit, given the history the duo shared. An irritated Rossi can’t help but mention that if he really wanted to put a hit on Voit, the serial killer wouldn’t have been alive. Admitted to a hospital in a comatose state, Voit recuperates, and ever reliable, chirpy techie of BAU, Penelope, grows a strange fascination towards him—as she later admits to Alvez. 

Emily tries to help Rossi in his investigation on the assault on Voit in the hopes that it will allow Rossi to stay clear of the suspicions mounting against him in the final phase of his career. The attackers had no motive to assault Voit, and that too in a minimum security prison where Voit was imprisoned under a false name. Also, as Emily arranges a way for Rossi to visit the crime scene, he finds out Voit had hidden a separate weapon in the form of a drain pin from a washing machine, which the authorities couldn’t find. It seems Voit might have carefully orchestrated the hit on himself to get out of prison, despite the risks involved. 

Is Voit Connected With Franklin Fowler?

Having the backdoor access to the user data of the beach rental company, Penelope finds out the first two victims of the serial killer lived in Chesapeake, Virginia. Using this clue, Alvez suspects the killer might be based in Chesapeake as well and started picking his targets from his own backyard, a rookie mistake serial killers tend to do before getting smarter and diversifying. Penelope searches for a private pool in the vicinity, and Alvez also suggests she look for past incidents involving drowning, as he suspects the killer’s MO might have been rooted in past trauma of a similar kind.

In the meantime, the Estes family—husband, wife, and their teenage daughter—get abducted by the unsub killer from beachside around Chesapeake and are brought to his private pool. Killing the father figure by shooting him, the psycho makes the mother and daughter swim in the pool and records the entire ordeal, just like he did with his previous victims as well. As the BAU unit gets busy trying to get any lead, Penelope and Alvez bring their findings that a certain Franklin Fowler might be the culprit in question. Fifteen years ago, a young Franklin was suspected of being involved in the death of his entire family—his parents and sister drowned to death in their residence swimming pool. As it turns out, Franklin had asthma, which is why he had trouble swimming, something to which his abusive, alcoholic coast guard father didn’t pay heed and forced him to swim for prolonged periods. The abuse and neglect by his family might be the reason for Franklin’s broken psyche getting completely twisted, leading him to eliminate his family and subject victims to similar torment.

Franklin pulls a cover over the pool to torture his latest victims even further, and as they try to get out of it by tearing through the cover using a wine bottle opener, he starts shooting—injuring Mrs. Estes in the process. However, a timely arrival by the BAU unit gets Franklin cornered. Unfortunately, the killer manages to escape repercussions by shooting himself to death. Green and Alvez rescue Mrs. Estes and her daughter, both of whom have to live with lifelong trauma inflicted by a madman. Later, Emily shares shocking news with Rossi: Franklin Fowler made his final statement about his actions being part of the plan before taking his own life, and searching the private VPN cloud network where he uploaded the videos of killing his victims, it appears strangely similar to Voit’s online network, which he used to train psychopaths. 

As Criminal Minds: Evolution episode 1 comes to an end, Voit is shown to be attacking an attending nurse after gaining consciousness, which brings the inevitable question: has Voit initiated his own version of the Gold Star program by carefully orchestrating an assault on himself to get out of prison? There is a chance that Voit is manipulating psychopathic tendencies of former juvenile criminals like Franklin, which will surely be addressed in upcoming episodes. 

...