Criminal Minds star Kirsten Vangsness addressed the “discomfort” some viewers feel while watching season 19 of the show.
During an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, Vangsness, 54, weighed in on the revelation that her character, Garcia, secretly showed support for notorious serial killer Elias Voit (Zach Gilford).
“It’s important for what the show is doing in this season,” she addressed the divided reaction. “To me, what the show is doing in this season in those conversations is that you sit with this discomfort — just like we do in smaller ways when someone has wronged you in life.”
Vangsness wanted it to feel relatable. “To sit with that discomfort of looking at someone — how they are right now — and realizing that everybody was a baby and everybody just wants to take their next breath,” she noted. “And this person who didn’t have access to empathy and compassion … They do now.”
She continued: “So are we just going to keep banging over their head the stuff that happened? He’s in jail. It’s not like he gets to go frolic. It brings up those interesting things and that’s what that friendship is for. I don’t think Garcia on her weekends really wants to go down to the jails and hang — but never say never.”
Vangsness didn’t know that Garcia’s bond with Voit would be closely examined in recent episodes.
“I read it at the table read because that’s how my brain works. But the thing about her trying to prevent someone from getting the death penalty is so on brand,” she noted. “And for me, it would be on brand. I would hope that any human being — as we travel through the world and we drop our own defenses — that we let go of our own shame and we face our own sometimes contracted need to punish another person.”
The actress appreciated the evolution for Garcia, adding, “Garcia is way more advanced of a spiritual being than I am in a lot of ways. But I think that it’s very on brand for her to be very well-schooled in the incarcerative nature of the nation she lives in and she wants to do right and she wants to also not be part of the big problem.”
Looking ahead, Vangsness is excited to see where her story goes from here.
“Can I just say that Garcia’s gotten a lot of play? I am not mad at the play,” she told Us. “I worked a lot in the season and in the final part of this season that you’re about to watch.”
Vangsness also teased her future arc while filming season 20. “There is a subject matter that is affecting everybody all the time right now that they’re broaching in such an interesting way,” she continued. “It’s creating a situation for Garcia that she does not usually get to have — that Kirsten has all the time.”
She added: “This season that you’re watching is so good this season. I also think that I know that the fans really like the different things that are happening every episode and I think they’re going to get more of that, which is good.”
Criminal Minds: Evolution airs Thursdays on Paramount+.
