We need to see Jade and Pete return in Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 3

If there’s one thing that Criminal Minds has always done, it’s to give us the insight of the killers. It’s not all black and white with the UnSubs. Criminal Minds: Evolution has taken it a step further, especially with the Gold Star storyline.

As the BAU realized just how manipulated the UnSubs had been as children, they realized that they needed to go about things a little differently. Prentiss pointed out at the end of the second season that Jade and Pete are murdered but they’re also victims.

We need to see more of Jade and Pete in Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 3. There are a few ways to do that.

Jade and Pete thought they were doing the right thing in Criminal Minds: Evolution

For a lot of serial killers, the murders are personal. The UnSubs are people who haven’t received help for mental health problems growing up or have been abused. One trigger leads to them acting out, and they fit clear profiles.

Gold Star was a little different. They came from a program that was supposed to prevent them from becoming killers. In the end, they killed but not for malicious reasons. They weren’t trying to teach people things. Instead, they had been manipulated into thinking that they were doing things to save other people. At the heart of it, Jade, Pete, Damien, and others wanted to “save the children.”

As Jade and Pete realized that they had been manipulated, everything about them changed. They realized that they had caused harm because of other people. What they did wasn’t right, and you could see the clear guilt on their faces as they came to that conclusion.

We need to see what that means for them as they face the consequences of their actions. They didn’t try to fight off jail. Pete especially was willing to turn himself in to face the consequences. All he wanted was to survive. At one point, it looked like Jade would kill herself, but all she wanted was to be listened to. She was done being ignored because people thought she was crazy.

We saw these glimpses of humanity in them, which is something rare in Criminal Minds. The third season could bring them in to testify on other aspects of Gold Star, or Jade could share more about the network that Damien and Voit were involved in to help deal more with putting Voit away. Pete can also help, especially now that he knows Voit killed his brother.

Could Emily Prentiss testify for them in Criminal Minds?

It would be great to see a trial take place this season. What I would love to see is Emily Prentiss step up to testify on their behalf. Not to allow them to get away with what they did, but to make sure they’re placed in the right facility to get help.

They are more than just murderers. She knows that they’re victims. They need help as a victim as well as conditions as murderers. While Voit cooperated for his own personal gain with the likelihood of escaping, Prentiss could encourage Jade and Pete to help for their mental health gain to ensure they are kept in the right facility.

They have a lot of information. It’s time to make use of that, as well as righting the wrongs that were done to them.