Felicity Huffman Teases Her 'Criminal Minds: Evolution' Arrival

 

Here at What’s On Paramount+ we don’t tend to cover shows episode by episode because with so many originals that tend to power things by having multiple at once it’s hard to keep up. However, Felicity Huffman is about to make her debut on Criminal Minds: Evolution on this Thursday’s episode as Dr. Jill Gideon and she’s got quite a bit to say leading up to it.

To give an idea of where the season is to this point, Joe Mantegna’s Agent David Rossi dramatically revealed to the team, that the mysterious “North Star” entity that inspired Gold Star is actually the BAU itself. To show how this could even be possible, he distributed copies of a white paper that he and Jason Gideon (original, long-departed cast member Mandy Patinkin) drafted but did not submit back in the ’90s, which essentially mapped a formula for forming a serial killer. Now, Emily Prentiss will be looking to reach out to Jill, Jason’s ex-wife, who was in the organization back then as well. However, it’s against Rossi’s wishes. Mantegna says “There’s a lot of ground we dig up, a lot of backstory to be told, involving Jill, my character, Gideon’s character, and with the rest of the people on the team.”

Jill’s arrival has long been brewing, as far back as the pilot, as showrunner Erica Messer shared that an early draft had the character built but never made it to air “There was this idea that Gideon’s ex was his therapist,” Messer said. “So it’s been stuck in my mind for a long time, ‘Oh, that thing exists,’ and I always felt like it’d be a fun nod to the fans who’ve been watching a long time — hey, we have this really deep pull! — but it also works if you never knew Gideon, because you’re learning it through the eyes of Rossi and everyone else who knew Gideon.”

Huffman, known for Desperate Housewives and the college admissions scandal, elaborated “I can tell you that she was deeply involved at the beginning of the BAU. She and Rossi and her husband were the pioneers. Then she got divorced from Gideon, because it wasn’t working, but they stayed friends — and she even kept being his therapist.” When Jason was years later killed offscreen by an Unsub in season 10, she apparently reached her limit and left. “That’s when she went, ‘OK, I’m done, I’m out,'” Huffman noted. “She just couldn’t be around it.” That means she’s been out of the game for about a decade. Recent enough compared to how long she was in that it seems like a doable pull back in. When Prentiss shows up to recruit her, the feelings are complicated.

“She likes Prentiss. They have a deep history,” Huffman said, “but initially, it’s that knock you never want to get. You’re like, ‘Oh, I do not want you at my door, because it cannot be good news. I am not answering it no matter what.” But when Emily reveals that “Controllable Variables on Emerging Teenage Psychopathy” was not successfully buried but instead, “a sense of personal responsibility” pushes Jill to listen, Huffman previewed, doing so not so willingly “kicking and screaming.” But of course, with such knowledge of the formative years of the BAU and the people involved, some of it is bound to come out, and indeed “That happens. Jill airs her dirty laundry in front of sort of everybody,” Huffman affirmed, “but particularly with [Rossi].”

Criminal Minds: Evolution releases new episodes Thursdays on Paramount+, and was renewed for a third season on the streamer and eighteenth overall shortly before this season began

Source: TVLine