Criminal Minds Boss Erica Messer Explains Why Voit Still Haunts the BAU

For nearly two decades, Criminal Minds has asked viewers to stare directly into humanity’s darkest corners and trust the Behavioral Analysis Unit to pull them back out again.

What began in 2005 as a procedural rooted in FBI profiling eventually evolved into something stranger and more serialized, especially after the franchise’s revival as Criminal Minds: Evolution.

The streaming format allowed the series to linger inside ongoing trauma in ways the original network structure rarely could, trading self-contained unsubs for season-long psychological warfare.

No character embodies that shift more than Elias Voit.

Unlike past killers who burned brightly and disappeared, Voit has remained embedded in the DNA of the series for multiple seasons, forcing the BAU into an increasingly personal and uncomfortable relationship with the very evil they’re trying to stop. It’s a dynamic that has divided viewers.

Some appreciate the deeper psychological exploration, while others miss the cleaner procedural rhythm that defined much of the original show’s run.

Still, Voit’s presence has undeniably changed the way Evolution operates, blurring the line between hunter and subject in ways the franchise hadn’t fully explored before.

Ahead of the new season, showrunner Erica Messer spoke with TV Fanatic about the enduring appeal of Criminal Minds, the psychology-first storytelling that continues to drive the series after 18 seasons, and why the writers remain committed to exploring every possible layer of Voit’s impact on the BAU.

She also discussed how eerily close some of the show’s themes have become to real-world criminal investigations and teased a season where viewers should “expect the unexpected.”  

We’re over 18 seasons in now. Why do you think people are still tuning into these dark stories?

You know, I think it is twofold. I think the promise that we’ve made to our audience is we’re going to take you in the dark, we’re going to scare you, and we’re going to save you, right?

But I think the reason they’ve been watching as long as they have is because of the heroes.

I think it is our good guys fighting the evil. They want to keep watching how those relationships evolve when new people come in. It’s like we are a work family drama, and we happen to fight bad guys every week.

So, I think it’s as important as the fact that scary stories only work because of the good that’s fighting them.

And how do you balance that darkness with the humanity?

I think one of the things we learned early on this show, because I’ve been writing it since 2005, and the why has always been sort of the driving, underlying question for every killer that we do.

But why, but why, but why? And sometimes it’s a challenge to answer that and have it make any sense, or like, why? Who cares why they’re doing it, right?

I have a harder time with that in the real world when I see certain crimes, and I’m like, there’s no “why” for that, that’s terrible. I don’t know. There have been cases lately where I’m just like, there’s nothing that could justify it.

And while I don’t think we’re ever trying to justify an unsub’s behavior, it’s the psychology. It’s getting into their mind, trying to figure out why those victims, why that day, why that way. Like, what is it about them that would make that happen?

And I think because it’s psychology-driven, the stories are endless because everybody’s built differently, and what makes us tick is different. So I think that’s why in a lot of ways the stories could just go on and on.

Voit has become one of the most psychologically persistent unsubs the series has ever explored.

So, what do you feel continuing his story allows criminal minds to do that you haven’t had the opportunity to do before?

Thanks for saying that, because we feel like that was one of the challenges in having the show become a streaming show, while it was a streaming hit, while it was a broadcast show. I want to note that.

But to make it a streaming show, which meant ten episodes, not 22, we were challenged with “what do we want to do that we’ve never been able to do?”

Well, we’ve never really let a killer get away from us for ten episodes. There might be someone introduced in the 22-episode season of the show, and then we find out about them a couple of times, and then we catch them.

But in Evolution, pretty much from jump, there’s a guy out there who’s been killing for years, and we’ve been unaware of him this whole time. So that felt realistic, but also is something we’ve never done.

And then to have that relationship with that prolific killer in a way, we’ve never had a relationship with an unsub more than an episode or, or maybe two, right?

Like the Reaper. I think we kind of had a relationship with that guy, but then he was introduced in Criminal Minds Season 4 and was gone in Season 5.

This is somebody who’s been with us for 40 episodes now. We wanted to sort of explore every version of that we could that would benefit the team. We’re dealing with a guy who’s been getting away with it for years.

We capture him. He then knows something we need help with, which was gold star and seasons, season two slash 17.

And then in the next season, that prison fight caused traumatic brain injury, which resulted in him not remembering that he was this awful guy that we know he is.

And at every turn, we wanted there to be more challenges that the team had never faced before. And then this season, it’s sort of Voit’s worst nightmare. He never wanted anyone to know who he was, and now everyone knows who he is.

So to go from this killer over here, I think, is really just ashamed of what he did, to now the whole world knows his name, is like a fun journey for him. And also, something that the team usually doesn’t have to navigate.

That killer’s out of their life. They’ve arrested him. He’s gone.

People are going to write books about him, but he’s not in our day-to-day life anymore. And now it’s like, “No, all of that is happening, and you need to go talk to him.”

So, it was always to challenge our team, first and foremost, but to do that with the character we’ve now lived with for four seasons.

Real life has the Gilgo Beach killer, who is out there being examined by the FBI in much the same way that Voit is being examined, even if Voit’s personality far outweighs what we’ve seen of Rex Heuerman so far.

Does that surprise you that you’re almost ahead of the curve as far as that goes? I mean, you’ve had 18 years to figure it out. [laughs]

Yeah, I think it’s wild how often our stories align with the real world.

But I think it’s that we’re actually able to explore it because part of the foundation of the BAU itself is what’s happening in the real world.

They are interviewing killers, and they are trying to find out what you did in your crimes and how that will help me find the next guy who’s like you.

It’s always been like information gathering after the fact, but we’ve never been able to really fictionalize it and make it truly a part of the season.

So the fact that that’s happening in conjunction with another big case in the real world is kind of wild.

Can you give me one sentence — because I’m out of time — that people can look forward to in the new season?

Oh my gosh. One sentence. Nobody’s asked me that.

[laughs] That one is such a gimme these days that I’m surprised nobody else has asked.

I know! I mean, just kind of expect the unexpected.

We always do. We always do, Erica.

Yeah, I know. [laughs]

Criminal Minds returns to Paramount+ on Thursday, May 28, with a two-episode premiere, with new episodes dropping weekly thereafter.

We will have reviews of every new episode and lots of commentary along the way, so please bookmark the site so we can talk about it!