Warning: SPOILERS for Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 3, Episode 4, "I'm Fine. It's Fine. Everything is Fine"

This article mentions attempted suicide and horrific crimes like flaying, illegal organ harvesting, and violent murder.

Criminal Minds: Evolution season 3, episode 4 had a tough task following such an emotional powerhouse, but “I’m Fine. It’s Fine. Everything is Fine” paled in comparison to its predecessor. Matthew Gray Gubler’s return as Spencer Reid in Criminal Minds: Evolution season 3 made waves, but it’s far overshadowed by JJ’s lingering grief. Unfortunately, the nuance that made “Time to say Goodbye” such a wonderful episode has seemingly disappeared, and though A.J. Cook’s Jennifer “JJ” Jareau is still at the forefront, she isn’t anywhere near the most pivotal character in season 3's episode 4.

The rest of the Voit’s cliffhanger ending in Criminal Minds: Evolution season 2, the prolific serial killer started season 3 with a twist: Voit developed amnesia and forgot everything about himself. In a way, Voit and JJ’s stories work in tandem, but the flat, unconvincing delivery is concerning.

JJ Continues Pushing Against Her Grief

Per The Episode Title, She Insists “Everything Is Fine”

While Josh Stewart’s Will LaMontagne was introduced as a pivotal side character early on in Criminal Minds season 2, his role as JJ’s husband was diminished in Evolution. Nonetheless, end of Criminal Minds: Evolution season 3, episode 3.

Will and JJ first met on a case ("Jones") and were together for 18 years ("Time to say Goodbye").

After a two-week time jump, JJ unofficially returns to work in episode 4. With the funeral over, the very people she honed in on caring for have started to heal, leaving her with nothing to do except feel all the emotions she’d been pushing down. Emily and Penelope, JJ’s closest friends, independently sit her down for heart-to-heart conversations, but it’s clear she’s still uncomfortable with her mourning — and it seems as though JJ might turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms to deal with it.

Despite her recurring mantra (“I’m fine. It’s fine. Everything is fine.”), JJ’s emotional fragility seeps through the cracks, giving glimpses into how unstable Criminal Minds’ most dependable character has become in the face of a great personal tragedy. While it’s certainly sad to watch JJ devolve into someone on the very brink of sanity, it’s been a long time coming. From finding out she was the subject of an AI porn site to fearing the Sicarius charges won’t stick to Voit, JJ’s journey in Criminal Minds: Evolution has practically been a deep-dive into injustice.

BAU Gate Takes A Disturbing Turn

The 404 Gateway Becomes Active With A Chilling Video

JJ’s placating mask first cracks early on in the episode, when she suddenly appears to show Emily and Rossi a tape. In the video, a masked man creeps up the stairs at an undisclosed location, watching as what seems to be a little girl crosses the camera’s field of view. The man stalks up to a mirror, carves his styrofoam face into a Japanese Yase-Otoko mask, and abruptly ends the recording. When Emily asks where the widow found the footage, JJ its she’s been obsessively watching the BAU Gate website — the hub Voit created for AI porn using her likeness.

The video was ed after the FBI took pains to shut the site down, implying active viewers and contributors. BAU Gate was revealed in Criminal Minds: Evolution season 2, but it has allegedly existed for much longer. Some of the original BAU were said to have kept it under wraps, keeping it secret from many, including JJ. Finding out years down the line triggered a mental break in JJ, with her becoming paranoid that her children will be exposed to the explicit content and rightfully disgusted knowing that a network of killers had unrestricted access to it.

Bringing BAU Gate back to the center of the plot was deeply necessary, as Voit’s helpless and almost pathetic state garnered far too much sympathy...

While her difficulty processing such horrific news is completely understandable, JJ’s obsession with BAU Gate drives her to make rash decisions in Criminal Minds: Evolution season 3, episode 4. Her disdain for Voit — while justifiable — supersedes her logic and risks Rossi and Tara’s long and arduous journey of memory recovery. That said, bringing BAU Gate back to the center of the plot was deeply necessary, as Voit’s helpless and almost pathetic state garnered far too much sympathy for a man who's committed such twisted crimes.

Two Drastically Different Unsubs Connect For A Common Goal

A Real-Life Crisis Clashes With A Personal Mission

The ghost of Voit’s past crime still haunts the narrative, but Criminal Minds: Evolution season 3, episode 4 returns to its unsub-an-episode formula. The original run of Criminal Minds had disturbing unsubs that were always distinct, but the continuation seems to prioritize its impressive but unnecessary special effects over its new characters. Whereas the most chilling killers in Criminal Minds had complex motivations alongside their terrifyingly unique modus operandi, Criminal Minds: Evolution season 3, episode 4 follows an unsub duo that feels like a rerun.

In a not-at-all-shocking twist, the chief unsub — a doctor named Malcom (Derek Webster) — was driven to abduct unhoused women due to festering guilt. Malcolm’s wife died and his daughter Ariel, a woman with an autoimmune disorder, was severely burned due to a car accident he caused. To save his daughter, Malcom teamed up with an ex-paramedic who worked for black market organ dealers to paralyze women, skin them alive until they died of blood loss, and remove their organs post-mortem. The paramedic got easy money, and Malcom got the chance to try healing his daughter with skin grafts.

The abrupt injection of modern idiosyncrasies takes away from what could have been a timeless episode.

On paper, it may sound compelling, but every beat of the story could be predicted long before it happened. Even the ending, when Ariel kills Malcom and succumbs to her own injuries, feels like the most obvious resolution. Granted, the predictable ending grated me much less than Emily trying to comfort Tyler due to him “taking some Ls” recently. As always, the abrupt injection of modern idiosyncrasies takes away from what could have been a timeless episode. Likewise, Penelope’s life-saving information isn’t just “tea to spill.”

Voit Begins To Who He Is (& More Importantly, What He’s Done)

Despite His Best Attempts, The Serial Killer Isn’t Gone Forever

Everything reaches a fever pitch at the end of the episode when JJ goes to confront Voit about the BAU Gate video. Earlier, Rossi and Tara showed Voit the video, only to find out that Dr. Julia Ochoa (Aimee Garcia) prescribed him a volatile drug that could hurt more than it helps. Tara, understanding Dr. Ochoa’s vow not to let Voit’s identity interfere with his care, is committed to recovering Voit’s memories while navigating medical restrictions. Eventually, she turns to a Rorschach inkblot test in hopes of using free association to bring subconscious memories to the forefront.

Criminal Minds: Evolution is streaming on Paramount+.

The masked man plagues Voit both in and out of the test, causing nightmares of having his head drilled open by the stranger. When Voit undergoes a second Rorschach test, Rossi slips in a picture of the Yase-Otoko mask, prompting Voit to with sickening detail the 2018 murder of Oliver Young. Alongside important context clues like the handcuffs on his hospital bed, the murderous memory inspires an epiphany in Voit, who realizes he’s a serial killer.

After realizing he was a serial killer, Voit attempts to overdose on the medicine prescribed by Dr. Ochoa, but JJ saves his life by detecting his weak pulse early enough to flush his stomach.

Following Criminal Minds: Evolution season 3, episode 1’s twist ending, Voit’s amnesia has been slow to thaw, only letting in fragments of the truth. There’s still no telling how Rossi’s trick will affect Voit in the long run, but his near-death experience at the end of the episode indicates there’s still an internal battle playing out between Voit’s psychopathy and his empathy. With JJ — untethered to all that previously grounded her — dead-set on getting answers whether Voit has them or not, Criminal Minds: Evolution season 3 may still take an interesting turn. Sadly, it only feels further and further away.