The CBS procedural Criminal Minds came to an end after 15 seasons in early 2020, leaving our beloved profilers — Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster), David Rossi (Joe Mantegna), Jennifer Jareau (A.J. Cook), Luke Alvez (Adam Rodriguez), Matt Simmons (Daniel Henney), Tara Lewis (Aisha Tyler), Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness), and Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler) — with one final win as they stopped Everett Lynch a.k.a. The Chameleon (Michael Mosley). As Garcia took her leave from the team but remained a vital part of the Behavior Analysis Unit family, fans also bid farewell to these characters seemingly for the last time. While the finale didn’t exactly wrap up the characters’ stories, it left them in the perfect place for life to happily continue onward in our minds. However, the recent revival on Paramount+, Criminal Minds: Evolution, has returned fans to this world and these characters as they, too, have been shaken by the last few years and the pandemic. The only caveat is two central characters were not returning.

Who Is Missing on ‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’ and Why?

Aisha Tyler, AJ Cook, Joe Mantegna, and Kirsten Vangness in Criminal Minds: Evolution
Image via Paramount+

As Criminal Minds: Evolution began filming, it was announced that Gubler and Henney would not be reprising their respective roles as Reid and Simmons due to other projects. In the premiere episode, Prentiss confronts Deputy Director Doug Bailey (Nicholas D’Agosto), who reveals that Reid and Simmons are away on an assignment (or assignments, it’s unclear) that is so confidential not even their team can know about it. While the loss of Simmons hurts, as he joined the show in the thirteenth season after being on the spin-off Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders for two years, it pales in comparison to losing Spencer Reid. Reid had been the foundation of the show and was the only person to be part of the cast from the pilot episode, giving us the chance to grow to love the BAU and learn the inner workings of catching serial killers alongside him.

What ‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’ Is Missing Without Reid

Reid played by Matthew Gray Gubler in Criminal Minds episode "Amplification"
Image via CBS

Without Reid, the Behavioral Analysis Unit doesn’t feel quite the same, nor does the way the team handles cases. While this is realistic, and it’s good the show isn’t pretending that anyone else could step into Reid’s shoes, it’s rather depressing to actively see what we’re missing without him. Due to his extreme intelligence and eidetic memory, Reid had a special way of looking at the cases at hand and offering unique insight, while the other profilers often look at things the same way with their own, much smaller twists. His extremely logical point of view helped viewers to take the emotion out of the situation and look through his eyes, making the supremely despicable and often disgusting cases the team was working on more palatable.

However, the biggest loss without Reid is the feeling of closeness between the team. It wasn’t always clear in the original, but it is now that Reid’s presence helped the show make the BAU a family. As he was there from the very beginning, he developed close bonds with almost every other member of the team. His relationships with Garcia, Prentiss, and JJ in particular were all beautiful and added so much to the show, truly allowing the team to seem like a family. The advice others, like Rossi, would offer Reid became warm moments in an otherwise cold and dreary show about the evils of humanity. When new people joined, Reid was often the first person they needed to win over (at least with the way the show was written) to feel at home at the BAU. Or, when they decided to leave, as we saw with Alex Blake (Jeanne Tripplehorn) and Derek Morgan (Shemar Moore), Reid played a significant role in their departures. So much of the series depended on Reid, and the revival has thus far failed to patch the holes in the ship with his absence.

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At Least Return for One Episode

Reid played by Matthew Gray Gubler in Criminal Minds Revelations
Image via CBS

With the series finale on CBS, Reid’s story didn’t exactly come to a satisfying end. In the final season, he has started a romantic relationship with Maxine Brenner (Rachael Leigh Cook), and the two continue in their romance after Cat Adams (Aubrey Plaza) attempts to break them up. In the actual finale, Reid is down from an injury and hallucinating people from his past, though he makes a full recovery and continues with life as is. There’s nothing particularly special about it, honestly, which is why Gubler needs to return for at least a send-off arc for Reid on Criminal Minds: Evolution. Aside from Hotchner (Thomas Gibson), who was written out of the show suddenly due to behind-the-scenes issues, every long-running member of the team had a personalized and special ending that honors their journey — even the one-season only characters like Kate (Jennifer Love Hewitt) had something.

Considering Reid has been around the longest, he should have the most special send-off of them all, honestly. The writers leaving Reid’s story open because they’re hoping Gubler will choose to return at some point in the future feels wrong. Like Hotchner, they could have written him out off-screen with the team mentioning something about Reid living his best life with Maxine. Truth be told, that would be preferable to what they’ve done, as this secret assignment business doesn’t really make sense with higher-ups at the FBI attempting to disband the BAU (or, you know, because Simmons has five children at home and wouldn’t leave his family for something like this on a long-term basis).

If Gubler chooses not to return on a full-time basis, that is understandable after devoting so much of his life to the show. However, the writers need to address the void that it leaves and find a way around his absence that brings new life to the series. At the very least, we need some sort of closure on Reid’s story. Leaving it open indefinitely is a slap in the face to the fans that love him, especially as the remaining team hasn’t had any emotional reaction to his prolonged absence. The elephant in the room — Reid — cannot stay unaddressed forever, and is hurting the revival with each passing episode.

Every episode of Criminal Minds: Evolution is now streaming on Paramount+.