This review contains spoilers for season 19 episode 6
We are finally past the halfway point of Criminal Minds: Evolution season 19. The newest release titled “Proxy”, surrounds the BAU’s race to a warehouse to capture The Fan and save Lance Kingston (Heated Rivalry‘s Connor Storrie). Moreover, things at the BAU never stay quiet for long. The weekly case surrounds attacks on adult content creators posed on stream with an expensive signature, courtesy of the unsub. Meanwhile, Prentiss and Rossi (Paget Brewster and Joe Mantegna) look deeper into tracking the taunt branded into Kingston’s skin. Finally, the glue between the cases is Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) losing sleep as her bandwidth is stretched thin.
Table Of Content
[SPOILERS AHEAD] A Betrayal from Inside the BAU
Garcia’s coffee-induced jitters is the running gag of Proxy, a contrast from her tea-fed whimsy. Throughout the runtime, various characters ask her if she’s handling double duty as well as insisted. Eventually it’s uncovered as much more. Penelope’s exhaustion is not intentional work ethic but soul-eating guilt leading to a confession.
In succession of an SD card handoff between Elias Voit (Zach Gilford) and Brian Garrity (Paul F Tompkins), Brian gathers the team. The video, suggesting Voit wants to exercise control over his killer urges, Brian recalls his podcast’s main question. Did Elias’ brain injury allow him to feel empathy? He further questions about the team member who gave closed-door character testimony on Voit’s behalf—how are they affected? Emily, discussing with the team, gives the floor to Rossi to ask who it was. Penelope, racked with guilt, admits her insomnia is in response to withholding her role in Voit’s life over a death sentence.
Is this Something Penelope Would Do?
At the heart of Criminal Minds: Evolution, its fandom consensus is that Penelope Garcia sits on that throne proudly. She is known for her abhorrence of death and pain, as well as hyperempathy for others to the point that it feels contradictory. Season 10 episode 2 of the original series shows the disagreement between Penelope and Derek Morgan (Shemar Moore). Garcia is insistent that she stays the execution of a prisoner. To which Morgan promptly reminds her the man attempted to murder both herself and Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler). However, Garcia argues that the death penalty is not how she saw justice. In an eerily similar fashion, Penelope testifying on Voit’s behalf at sentencing mirrors her negligence of other victims to soothe her own conscience.
Do Penelope’s actions cause harm? Voit being sentenced to life in prison can be considered justice for his victims. However, the emotional turmoil of knowing Garcia witnessed Voit’s crimes firsthand while working with his victims, makes this more complicated. The body count is a staggering 63 victims, not including Elias’ family, Deputy Director Bailey, and his non-lethal crimes, which included members of the BAU. Most notably David Rossi, abducted and buried alive by Voit. In addition to Rossi, we can also consider JJ (AJ Cook), whose image Voit’s followers used for deepfake pornography; Prentiss, tortured by those manipulated by Elias; and of course, Tyler Green, RJ Hatanaka’s character, not only did Sicarius shoot him but also he murdered his sister.
With Voit’s extended victim list in mind, are Penelope’s actions beyond forgiveness? Or can the BAU extend their own empathy to understand her choices?
