On June 6 a new season of Criminal Minds: Evolution will premiere on Paramount+ and with it comes a lot of drama. Last season, a few new characters were brought into the fray, including Tyler Green (Ryan-James Hatanaka). At first Green was an anonymous informant feeding information to the BAU to help locate the infamous Sicarius killer but things quickly turned when he met Penelope Garcia. They began a fling which was frowned upon by just about everyone and at the end of the season Penelope broke things off with him. This season Hatanaka is returning as a series regular and will join forces with the BAU once again to help crack the code on what Gold Star is.
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Comicbook caught up with Kirsten Vangsness ahead of the season premiere to discuss Penelope’s growth over the last 17 season but particularly from season 15 to now. When asked how much of her boundaries will be part of her storyline as they were integral last season, Vangsness expressed “hope” that Penelope’s boundaries will stick.
“I think the boundaries stay, I hope the boundaries stay. I think like everybody, you set out this thing [where] you’re like, ‘I’m a big person.’ We’re on break right now, hopefully we come back soon. I’m hoping we get another season,” Vangsness said. “But you know, I’m one of those people who’s like, ‘it’s summertime! Okay, I’m going to become a whole new person, I’m going to set up practices that so when I come back, I’m better than ever.’ So I think that Garcia has that in common; this thing that we do where you’re like, I’ve made these rules and whatever but I think some of them really have stayed. I think that they’re so in her bones now that if I looked at her, you know, season 4 and now you’d be like, ‘Oh, she would never do that. Like never ever.’ Like there’s certain things like she’s just not walking in hand anybody coffee anymore like she don’t do that. So I think that this year it’s interesting because there’s never been like a true conflict with a love interest. Someone you were actively sleeping with mere weeks ago that’s now suddenly someone’s dumb dumb idea [gestures to Adam Rodriguez]. Sorry, Adam to just bring in — of the people that you can hire! Um, so I think that that’s a really, it’s a fun thing. It’s an awkward thing to play, but it’s a fun thing to play.”
This season will see the BAU trying to get to the bottom of Gold Star once and for all but, per the synopsis, “as the conspiracy unfolds, the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) is met with an unexpected complication when serial killer Elias Voit negotiates a deal that transfers him to federal custody in the BAU’s own backyard. The team faces its biggest threat yet and cannot emerge unscathed from the mind-bending consequences.”
Criminal Minds: Evolutionย season 17 premieres on June 6 onย Paramount+.
