Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 2 Episode 8 Review: North Star

Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 2 Episode 8, “North Star,” does an amazing job setting the mood for the episode when Jade’s appearance at the doctor’s house matches the description of the lioness he is watching on TV. It is a ruthless episode in which you do or you die.

From that introductory scene, we also discover Damien is the first subject trained (or used) in Stuart House. This makes his character’s significance even more important.

However, he isn’t the only one who has changed the course of history. Jill Gideon isn’t just here because of who she was married to.

The most significant revelation on this episode is that Jill is the reason North Star exists. Even though Gideon and Rossi believed their white paper needed to die with them, Jill believed differently.

She wanted to use their ideas to help teenagers in need. However, as Damien and Jade prove on every episode, the project backfired and fell into the wrong hands.

It is with Jill’s help that the BAU discovers Damien and Jade have killed most of the people involved. Just like Rossi, we begin to wonder if Jill will be next. After all, it’s because of her that Stuart House existed.

Jill spends most of the episode blaming herself for what happened to the teenagers in the program, but in that guilt (and knowledge), she finds the answer to communicate with Damien.

After profiling Rossi, making him uncomfortable, and pushing him away, Jill is free to be alone with Damien and try to stop him from making another mistake. This perfectly represents the kind of woman who would have married someone like Gideon on the same intellectual level.

Jill talks to Damien the same way she would have done it if she had been in charge of the program. She reasons with him, makes him see how they manipulated him, and gets him to open up.

However, even when Jill feels like she got through to him, as viewers, we know that’s not the case. We know Damien’s loyalty lies with Jade.

Jade makes him promise they won’t be in a cage again. During the scene with Voit’s lawyer, she mentions if she closes her fist, Damien will shoot him dead.

The moment we watch Damien walk out of the cabin, raise his hands, and kneel, we know he’s going to close his fist for Jade to kill him.

Lo and behold, Jade kills him. But Gold Star doesn’t die there. Jade is Gold Star, too.

Jill’s presence in the BAU brings back memories and feelings in Rossi. Two things stand out from his conversation with Prentiss regarding this.

On the one hand, he mentions leaving the BAU to let Gideon and Jill continue together as a family. Rossi doesn’t realize that by doing that, he set a precedent for the BAU.

Even with Gideon gone and the different agents coming and going, the BAU is exactly what he wanted: a family.

On the other hand, he says he never got it right with anyone, and it all started with Jill. But the truth is that Rossi got it right with the BAU.

With the exception of JJ and her marriage, no one in the BAU has a stable relationship. However, they have one another.

When it comes to bonds and having someone with whom to stay until the very end, Rossi did it right because he has them. He has a family.

Even though Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 2 Episode 8, “North Star,” tries to show us Voit is always one step ahead, Rebecca and Tyler manage to regain control in a way he probably doesn’t expect.

Using Tyler’s skills, they discover Voit found his lawyer through his Sicarius network. This is information that could end his deal and sentence him for life.

Hopefully, the team will use this to their advantage and stay ahead of the game for once.

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Criminal Minds: Evolution streams Thursdays on Paramount+.

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