‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’ Episode 5 Drags, Then Grinds

“Criminal Minds: Evolution” Season 4, Episode 5 takes its time with a slow case and frustrating detours—until the final ten minutes snap into place with a lethal twist at the bureau and a terrifying live-podcast trap that ends in screams and a confession.

By the time “Criminal Minds: Evolution” Season 4, Episode 5 finally starts to feel like it’s moving at the speed the season demands, it’s almost too late to make up for the episode that came before it.

The installment sits at the midpoint of the season and still has to juggle the BAU’s war against the Fan—one of the series’ most patient. unsettling threats. So far, the Fan has only made one major move that hints at how much danger he’s really carrying. In Episode 5, that sense of dread is kept alive, but the storytelling itself sometimes stalls.

The episode begins with a hostage situation in progress at the FBI training centers. Two FBI agents corner the perpetrator and the hostage. When Agent Lowell (Xavier Jimenez) finally gets a clear opening. he takes the shot and hits a bullseye in the attacker’s head. Then the lights flicker, and the moment collapses into something far worse than panic: this was an FBI training exercise. Lowell was supposed to have a blank in his gun. not a lethal bullet—one that killed his trainer. Milliken (Jamison Jones).

Milliken is not a random name dropped for this episode. Viewers may recognize him from Season 4, Episode 2, where he approached the BAU with a case. He and Alvez (Adam Rodriguez) were close after joining a war veteran recovery program together in the past.

Now, Alvez is plunged back into grief so soon after losing Roxy. But Episode 5 makes that grief land differently than in Episode 2, where it had more convincing weight. Prentiss (Paget Brewster) allows Alvez to work on the case anyway. and he interrogates Lowell and the witnesses with sharper pressure than usual. The tension grows when Prentiss and others learn that Milliken was a borderline abusive trainer.

Green (Ryan-James Hatanaka) and JJ (A.J. Cook) push back on what feels like the obvious story. They theorize that Milliken may have been orchestrating his own suicide rather than Lowell intentionally committing murder. Throughout the episode, Lowell is repeatedly pulled under this heavier, murkier question: was this an accident, or something arranged?.

The investigation becomes more tangled when Alvez doggedly tries to separate emotions from evidence in a glacially paced process. There’s also a redundant and predictable red herring: Milliken is suspected of being suicidal because of issues in his marriage. Alvez eventually follows the breadcrumbs back to a conversation he had with Milliken about couple counseling. then to a conversation with Milliken’s wife. Yvette Niper. who quickly dismissed rumors of divorce.

Only after all that does Alvez bring Prentiss a theory that no one else seems to have considered. What if Lowell was framed?

Milliken had a history of being borderline abusive to trainees and constantly threatened to drop them from the FBI. Lowell’s gun—and the lethal bullet where a blank should have been—becomes part of a larger pattern of pressure and elimination. In that version of events, Lowell is not the killer. Milliken is already being targeted by someone else, and the training room was the stage.

That “what if” matters because the episode’s other storyline is also pushing toward an eventual reveal—just at its own slower pace.

The elusive Fan sends new stack of typewritten letters to Bryan (Paul F. Tompkin), the host of the podcast “The Sicarius Files” and the bane of Prentiss. The letters are packed with references to The Shining. but the message snaps into something unmistakably threatening: Bryan reads that “Some may call me a FAN. But HE must call me GOD.”.

The show also lands one of its most creepily awkward moments when Bryan hits on Lewis (Aisha Tyler). Lewis tells him she is very happily married to a woman—at which point the humor that might have softened the scene only makes the discomfort stick.

Rossi (Joe Mantegna) finds his way back into Voit’s (Zach Gilford) orbit. Rossi agrees to help Lewis decipher the message by meeting with Voit.

When Rossi speaks with Voit, it becomes clear what the Fan is really doing. The Fan is challenging Voit’s careless words about his fans being pathetic. More than that, the Fan is seeking Voit’s ultimate approval. He needs Voit, his idol, to grant him the status of GOD.

The Fan chooses his targets carefully, too. He sends the notes to Bryan instead of the bureau, which is another message about communicating through the podcast. But Voit decides that instead of himself, Rossi should participate in a live podcast with Bryan.

If the Fan is paying that close attention to Voit, then he likely has read Rossi’s books. Rossi’s voice, the show suggests, may be the only one the Fan could respect—and potentially surrender to.

All of it sets something up for the season-long antagonist. But Episode 5’s central problem is pacing: the episode keeps returning to prolonged, unnecessary scenes of attempted comedy and repeated theories, dragging the tension that’s supposed to build.

Still, the final ten minutes stop dragging—and start cutting.

At the bureau. the BAU finally connects dots about who could have access to the guns the trainees were using and who would want Milliken dead. Their suspicions land on his Chief of Staff, O’Connor (Nicholas Gonzalez). Alvez pushes past his emotions and leads a cognitive interview with Lowell. The result is a discovery that reframes the entire death.

Alvez learns that O’Connor switched out the agent’s blanks for lethal rounds, confirmed by a trap proving that only O’Connor had access to the bullets Milliken was shot with.

The motive comes from the past. Milliken forced O’Connor’s brother to drop out of the program after the brother did not reach Milliken’s high standards. That history ends in suicide—and turns O’Connor’s motivation into vengeance.

Even with the bureau’s explosion of answers, the episode saves its cruellest escalation for the podcast trap.

We’re transported to a conference room where Bryan and Rossi begin their meticulously scripted live podcast episode meant to coax the Fan into calling. Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) prepares to trace the call while Voit silently observes.

Then comes the waiting—the torturous process of holding still while everyone waits for the Fan to take the bait. When the call finally comes through, the plan is not what it seems. The Fan is using Lance (Connor Storrie), the decoy placed in the previous episode, as a mouthpiece.

As Garcia pins down a location, the Fan starts to suspect that Voit is also in the room. He questions them. The room goes silent. The next sound is what the show has been building toward all along.

The conference fills with the horrific screams of Lance, who is being gruesomely tortured. Bryan breaks and goes off-script, confessing the truth despite everyone insisting he stay quiet. The phone call cuts.

Voit’s haunting final words hang after the line goes dead: “You just caused a man’s death.”

Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 4 Episode 5 Fan storyline BAU Alvez Prentiss Rossi Voit Milliken O'Connor podcast trap Lance decoy