![](\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEjSY86yq7L3bkNI0dBQTqjSvH_ZNAMel4QQvJHqwRQ1SLDZeLLINGAXJqJqvGB-UbUhwt292plAtl0KZArsTyxhEBVPB-60PmKTDFvgUQBHcShAN4Uz5CY9IhZMDwpWFrd1sKGN-vvcqQEQdMuWv7jeJ3iN0y_RvdBsMpBWsKdSybiS87R2fB4k7A\/s5132\/CM_1701_MY_0117_00077_RT.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\n\u201cGold Star\u201d – CRIMINAL MINDS: EVOLUTION. PICTURED: Zeke Alton as Don Bertoli and Heart Hayes as Gwen Bertoli Photo Credit: Michael Yarish \/Paramount+ \u00a9 2024. All Rights Reserved. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Now I\u2019m awake and scared, but we continue on. As the men examine the photos of this dead woman (<\/span>with missing eyes – YIKES!<\/span>), they say they\u2019ve never seen anything like this to which a voice responds \u201cI have\u201d and it\u2019s Emily Prentiss. She has the men confirm her suspicions as she goes into detail about the gun\u2019s bullet having a signature five-point star etched on to it. This, we come to find, is the signature of a serial killer, the person actually responsible for killing this woman and not the blood-soiled man, Don Bertoli, who is currently sitting in interrogation. See, I knew that man didn\u2019t do it, but now this new information has me thinking, who is \u201cGold Star\u201d?<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n \u201cGold Star\u201d – CRIMINAL MINDS: EVOLUTION. PICTURED:\u00a0 Kirsten Vangsness as Penelope Garcia, Aisha Tyler as Dr. Tara Lewis, Adam Rodriguez as Luke Alvez, Joe Mantegna as David Rossi and A.J. Cook as Jennifer \u2018JJ\u2019 Jareau Photo Credit: Michael Yarish \/Paramount+ \u00a9 2024. All Rights Reserved. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>We\u2019re back in the interrogation room with Don and he is not speaking. The man is still so shaken up after what happened with his wife and could you blame him? Prentiss needs to keep the team up to date so she meets with Tara Lewis and tells her what she finds out about \u201cGold Star\u201d. Now my mind is thinking, what\u2019s the connection with Bailey? and the pieces of the puzzle start to create the picture: Prentiss tells Lewis about a previous task force she\u2019s worked on similar to the \u201cGold Star\u201d M.O. leading both her and Lewis to believe that he\u2019s not only government trained, but has strayed, is on a personal mission of his own, and his attacks are emotion driven. Have you ever encountered someone on a personal vendetta? Never ends well for those on the receiving end.<\/p>\n \u201cGold Star\u201d – CRIMINAL MINDS: EVOLUTION. PICTURED:\u00a0 Kirsten Vangsness as Penelope Garcia, Ryan-James Hatanaka as Tyler Green, A.J. Cook as Jennifer \u2018JJ\u2019 Jareau, Joe Mantegna as David Rossi and Paget Brewster as Emily Prentiss Photo Credit: Michael Yarish \/Paramount+ \u00a9 2024. All Rights Reserved. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span> The second episode of the night, “Contagion” is where things start to get real for the team. Working with Elias was proving to be difficult. Their hope was to have him get him to talk so that he could implicate himself and Elias isn’t letting up. JJ and Alvez come up with the plan use Elias’ family (and the fact that they want nothing to do with him) as a way to possibly get through to him. I thought this plan was interesting because this man was willing to kill his wife to get away (thank God he was out of bullets). Did they really think this was going to work on a sociopath? <\/p>\n Rossi and Prentiss follow a lead on what could potentially be another “Gold Star” murder. Rossi is still seeing Elias in his subconscious, but here, I wonder what brings it on. Previously I thought this could be Rossi processing the kidnapping, and hell, it still could be, but here Elias is telling him he should trust his gut and that the person they are currently chasing isn’t “Gold Star”. Despite Rossi being the one to see people who aren’t there, Prentiss is the one losing it on this case. I am so glad Rossi called her out on it because, Prentiss, really? Let’s not get messy with this one. <\/p>\n \u201cContagion\u201d – CRIMINAL MINDS: EVOLUTION. PICTURED: Joe Mantegna as David Rossi and Paget Brewster as Emily Prentiss Photo Credit: Michael Yarish \/Paramount+ \u00a9 2024. All Rights Reserved. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Now guys, deep in my heart I knew this wasn’t “Gold Star”. There was no way it could be that easy (right?) but, the way Elias’ words play out with the scene of Rossi, Prentiss, and team following a lead of who they believed to be him, it looked like they might’ve found their man. There’s a standoff until the suspect moves to kill his victim but is killed before he could. I’m certain I stopped breathing for that entire scene because WOW. So, did we really catch “Gold Star”? NOPE! Penelope calls to confirm that there is no way Aiden, the suspect killed, could be him because he was voluntarily committed in a mental institution and only just got out. Wrong serial killer here. <\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
We finally get that scene from last season\u2019s finale and we see who walked in to speak with Elias and why. Director Ray Madison is revealed as the person who met up with Elias and it\u2019s exactly what we thought; he\u2019s there to find out how much Elias knows about the government investigation code named \u201cGold Star\u201d. I don\u2019t know, this serial killer having all this control over the DOJ isn\u2019t sitting too right with me. To make a deal with the devil, or in this case, an extremely sociopathic serial killer, this must go pretty deep within the DOJ. What the heck are they hiding? The team, without the support of the DOJ, starts to profile \u201cGold Star\u201d and the race begins to find his identity before Elias is granted his deal from Director Madison. Well, that’s short lived and by the end of the episode the BAU is forced to work with Elias to find out who “Gold Star” is. What could possibly go wrong?<\/p>\n<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n