Criminal Minds appeared to take a big risk by killing off an important character in a gruesome death scene.
During the Thursday, June 18, episode of the Paramount+ show, Voit’s (Zach Gilford) biggest fan kidnapped Lance (Connor Storrie) and used him to get answers from the BAU. Members of the organization — and Voit — listened as a wrong answer turned into Lance being brutally tortured. The call then went dead, which appeared to hint Lance could be too.
Storrie, 26, joined the show earlier this year after his breakout role on Heated Rivalry.
Based on Rachel Reid‘s Game Changers book series, Heated Rivalry follows two rival professional hockey players, Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Storrie), whose animosity on the ice is just a front for their secret — and very passionate — romance.
The show premiered on Crave in November 2025 before becoming available to an even wider audience through HBO Max earlier this year. It wasn’t long before readers showed their support for the adaptation via social media as Williams and Storrie’s popularity took off.
Storrie, meanwhile, filmed scenes for season 19 of Criminal Minds that eventually became a multi-episode arc. Showrunner Erica Messer recently teased to Us Weekly that Storrie’s character will play an important role when it comes to the villain of this season.
“Connor gets introduced in episode 4,” she confirmed. “His story does have something to do with the big bad of the season, but — without wanting to give much away — that’s all I’ll say.”
While looking ahead at the season, Messer teased the vision for this installment.
“It is this idea of new beginnings. It’s been a year in our story world,” the screenwriter noted. “So there are new challenges that they’re faced with — but there’s also a little bit of hope in that. It has the potential for better things to come.”
Messer also revealed whether Storrie’s costar Williams, 25, would make an appearance next.
“Trust me, we looked [into it],” she told Us. “We were like, ‘Is he available?’”
The idea didn’t work out because Williams is too booked and busy, with Messer adding, “He’s shooting the second season of Heated Rivalry in August and that’s when we would need them. We tried.”
Criminal Minds: Evolution airs Thursdays on Paramount+.
