Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 1 Episode 5 Review: Oedipus Wrecks
Instead of going “wheels up,” the BAU team is just spinning its wheels. Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 1 Episode 5, “Oedipus Wrecks,” finds the team at a disadvantage again in taking down Sicarius.
Although the show successfully ties in the case of the week with the overall Sicarius plot, some elements slow down the momentum of the season.
Retreading the love-hate relationship between Green and Garcia would be a lot more enjoyable if it didn’t feel like it erased part of their character development from the last episode. I thought they reached an understanding, but it’s back to square one.
Green takes Alvez’s place as Garcia’s most hated colleague as they have to work together to go through Sicarius’ encrypted chats and there’s lots of bickering. I really want to find their subplot charming but instead it’s annoying because it’s been done before.
For the killer of the week, high-powered DC elite Benjamin Reeves (Luke Benward) may be the scariest member of the network yet, and his special flesh-ripping dentures are nightmare fuel. We finally learn who Sicarius gets money from, and the guy is a senator’s sadist son with Oedipal issues.
Even with that juicy premise, the show feels like it’s holding back from fully breaking out of its box. It could take a few cues from Hannibal in leaning into the twistedness of its killers.
The agents are the heroes and why people watch, but it wouldn’t hurt to linger a little more on the killers to increase the intensity. Otherwise, the killers of the week risk becoming a one-dimensional profile delivered by the team.
The most chilling scene doesn’t come from Reeves at all but from his assistant Mitch who seems transfixed with the photos of his victims and is all too willing to play patsy for his boss. Richard David’s performance as Mitch is what you want out of a serial killer: reserved while still completely unsettling.
Clearly, there is more to that employer-employee relationship than just money, but the show doesn’t spend much time exploring it. The team realizes his arrival at headquarters is just to distract them from Reeves’ murder attempt on a surviving victim the BAU interviewed.
They capture him, and the subsequent scene of Prentiss playing to his mommy issues is uncomfortable but satisfying in how artfully she breaks the UnSub down. Prentiss has always been badass but Paget Brewster is really going for it in making Prentiss the most formidable member of the team this round.
Reeves could be the key to unlocking everything, so it’s frustrating for his mom Senator Reeves (Beth Broderick) to then interfere. The bureaucracy the team encounters made for some good dramatic tension at the start of this arc but it’s becoming predictable at this point.
The Senator certainly doesn’t deserve her fate of having her face half chewed off, even if I did want more gore on the show. As Prentiss points out Director Bailey could have prevented it by standing up to her, but once again he prioritizes his career over the right thing.
Like Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 1 Episode 4, “Pay-Per-View,” Episode 5 fails to utilize the season’s greatest asset, which is Sicarius himself. The scene where Rossi and Garcia search through his encrypted chats and determine he was profiling potential network members using a psychopathy checklist (PCL-R) is the most insight we get into the mastermind this time.
Sicarius’ reunion with Reeves bodes well for more excitement in the future. The fact they set up Alvez and JJ to walk right into a shipping container rigged to explode shows they’re not nearly done causing mayhem, and I can’t wait.
If you’re going to have a mid-season cliffhanger, ending with a bang is the way to go.
Additional Thoughts:
- This episode almost got me to care about Director Bailey because of his connection to the victim but alas, he’s still a spineless toad. Who is swiping right on that guy?
- Either Will is lying about his lab results or that was the most anticlimactic build-up ever.
- You have to love that Paget Brewster not dyeing her hair for the revival led to that interesting interrogation… That clip is about to take over Criminal Minds fan Twitter/ TikTok/ Tumblr.
- So many fake apps.
- I don’t care how cute the kitten adoption gesture is please do not put a living animal in a box!
- Did anyone else think it seemed a little unrealistic that Alvez and JJ would just run in there without any backup? Especially since they know how dangerous Sicarius is.
What did you think of this episode of Criminal Minds: Evolution? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Critic Rating:
User Rating:
Criminal Minds: Evolution is now streaming on Paramount+. Try 1 month free with promo code EVOLUTION!
Criminal Minds: Evolution airs Thursdays on Paramount+.
Follow us on Twitter and on 
Instagram!
Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!
Breeze Riley
Breeze Riley is a pop culture enthusiast who decided to turn her love of watching too much TV into a hobby writing about it. Although she's a convention-going sci-fi and fantasy nerd, she's just as likely to be watching an off-beat comedy or period drama. She is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic.