Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 2 Episode 9 Recap: Stars & Stripes

Montgomery County, Maryland

Jade is reliving killing Damien. She’s playing metal music because, of course, she is. She’s got a gun on the seat beside her when she’s pulled over by a cop.

When he sees her license and registration, he asks her to get out of her car and cuffs her. Another girl enters the equation and shoots the cop. Jade does her thing with the pencils.

Somehow, Voit’s lawyer is still allowed to see him. They’re not discussing the case at all but how he can help Voit with his Sicarius plans. Voit is going to be moved shortly to serve his seven-year sentence.

Jill was sure her profile would work with Damien and admits she purposefully kissed David so he would know what was up. She didn’t know Damien and Jade had a suicide pact.

David has names for two more Gold Star candidates: Dana H. and Peter B.

Director Madison is honoring Voit’s plea agreement. He’s going to Club Fed. Voit can easily break out of there.

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Penelope has created an algorithm looking for connections. She’s in peak Penelope mode when Luke arrives. Her creation, Penny, has found the connection between a bunch of people to Aida, Ltd. They’re a private security company once hired by the US Government.

Frank Church is a noted name. Aida is a mercenary group.

They get word of the cop killing. He’s alive. Jade has escalated her sadism by leaving him alive. Tara has ideas about her mindset, and Emily thinks she was helped by someone else.

Rockville, Maryland

Jade and her new friend, the aforementioned Dana H., have arrived at the location of another of Voit’s bunkers. Jade is still skeptical of trusting Voit, but she opens the hatch anyway. Inside is a crime board filled with BAU information.

Dana says that she, Jade, Aiden, Peter, and Damien are found family who chose each other. Dana trusts nobody else but Jade, and Jade agrees. Looking at the board, they realize they need help. they need to go home.

David and Tara visit the State Trooper. He is incredibly angry, but he knows Dana has joined Jade. He wishes he were dead, but Rossi stops that line of thinking. He’s got a long road of recovery ahead, but there is always hope.

He wants those girls killed, but Rossi says there is a bigger picture. Jade told the cop that she never meant to hurt anyone. She just wants to go home and find peace. If they follow her, the street will flow with blue blood.

Jill has a very confusing thought about how the Gold Star kids might be reacting. They have been gaslighted into believing that everyone is an enemy except each other, when in reality they don’t know friend from foe.

That suggests that going home isn’t a good idea.

There are plenty of other Stuart House sites to choose from that may fit the bill of “home.”

Alvez and JJ check in with news of another kill kit and tire tracks that indicate Jade and Dana are nearby. Given what happened to Trooper Sands, local law enforcement will be out for blood.

But the locals don’t listen to JJ and Alvez, and now a couple of them are dead.

The BAU sees the kill board. They are now the targets.

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Rossi confronts Voit, who is quite the smartass, which makes me wonder why on earth anyone believes him. It’s nuts.

Rossi tells him GenPop is no place for a serial killer. Fellow inmates build prison cred by killing serial killers like him. Except he’s being prosecuted and sentenced under his birth name, Lee Duval, and nobody knows who that is.

Emily and Tyler get ready to interrogate Frank Church, who is more of a salesman than a soldier of fortune. He’s been pitching specialized mechanics.

Frank, like so many people who get invited into an interrogation room, is an incredible smartass. He brings up Gold Star. He also evokes Brian Garrity as the guy who first introduced him to Gold Star.

Frank is a misogynist, too.

Rebecca steps in with word from Director Madison to shut down the interrogation. Apparently, he’s acting to protect the BAU. Bailey had told Madison about the white paper weeks before Voit mentioned Gold Star.

Whoever ran Gold Star leaked the information as a warning. They wanted to make it look like the BAU leaked it. They’re being tasked with grooming the killer.

They get one swing at Frank Church, and if they miss, they bring the bureau down with them.

The gang discusses Frank later, and Penelope says he has rizz. I respectfully disagree. Jill calls him a malignant narcissist. True that. He’s like a cult leader who could easily be both savior and destroyer of the Gold Star kids.

Driscoll State Forest, Delaware

Jade and Dana arrive at a compound where Frank conducts his business. It’s a Youth Training Center by name.

Frank is shocked that Aiden and Damien are dead. Frank sends Jade to the dorm and speaks alone with Dana. He wants intel. She still has questions, but she won’t get answers. Frank just shot her in the back of the head.

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Jade is confused about the purpose of all of this. The doctors Damien killed, and the cops she killed were personal. This new batch of kids has no knowledge or experience with any of that. Frank placates her by saying what they did struck at the heart of the conspiracy (exact words Jill used earlier).

He says that once Dana brings Peter home, they can move on to the next phase. But since Dana is dead, what does that mean?

The training site is filled with padded cells, bringing back bad memories for Jade. Frank placates her again, claiming he liberated Stuart House.

Penelope has uncovered a 16-year-old named Neela, who is seen on camera with a deputy. She’s at the training center talking with Jade. Jade is a hero in her eyes.

They discuss their nightmares. Neela recalls being trapped with weird goggles over her eyes. She’s restrained, doggy-style. When the goggles slip off just enough to see his face, it’s Frank. He’s sexually abusing kids, and it’s beginning to dawn on Jade that it’s not a dream.

Later that night, she recalls telling Damien about her nightmares. She had it worse than any of them. She has never seen “his” face, she thinks because the face she sees is Mr. Church. Damien wondered if that was exactly who she saw.

Church told them they could make them see things that aren’t true. When Jade tries to wake Neela, she discovers she’s not in her bed. Upon investigation, she finds Neela unconscious and being moved by a wheelchair.

Jade is on the move after being trapped herself. At the same time she’s escaping, the BAU arrives at the gates.

Church couldn’t care less about the warrant. Put Neela back in the ward with Jade. He’s in for a surprise!

Jade is gathering Neela and asking her to get everyone down to the access road on the south end.

She’ll be right behind them.

Emily and Rossi realize that Church would be willing to fire on federal agents. Church just learned the kids are gone.

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When Tara says she sees movement in the back, Prentiss walks forward. Nobody fires. Jade is still inside. She’s setting things up to explode, maybe?

She tells Neela to keep running. She has to save the children. Jade is ready to die for this. She thinks of Damien as she blows the place to hell.