This story contains spoilers from Criminal Minds: Evolution seasons 1 and 3.
As Criminal Minds: Evolution continues to air new season 3 episodes every Thursday, viewers are invested in SSA J.J. Jareau's emotional storyline. Well, A.J. Cook just spilled some tea about a pivotal scene fans got to see earlier in the season — and what she had to say will definitely come as a surprise.
In the May 15 episode of the Paramount+ reboot, viewers witnessed the death of J.J.'s husband, Will LaMontagne Jr. (Josh Stewart). After he collapsed onto the floor of the couple's kitchen and J.J. revealed he died from a brain aneurysm, eagle-eyed fans might have realized something didn't quite line up about this story arc. Mainly, they wondered why Josh had suddenly returned to the show after announcing his exit from the Criminal Minds universe in January 2024.
As A.J. detailed in a May 26 interview with TV Line, the explanation behind Josh's appearance is actually pretty simple. It turned out the scene of Will's collapse was a deleted moment filmed back in season 1, when the character went through a cancer scare.
"People don’t know this, I guess, but he wasn’t coming back to the show," she told the outlet. "Our writers had to get very creative. Remember the cancer storyline that we wrote in [season 1]? We so badly were like, 'We don’t want [Josh] to think he’s going to die.' We got so freaked out by it that we pulled this scene [of Will collapsing]. That’s how much we did not want Josh to leave us."
Given how Josh did eventually leave Criminal Minds: Evolution, A.J. noted showrunner Erica Messer had an incredible solution for how to weave Will's death into season 3 without needing the actor on set.
"Our brilliant showrunner was like, 'Oh my gosh, we have this scene that we never used,'" she added. "Erica Messer put the pieces of a really complicated puzzle together, and it worked. It’s weird how it happened that way, but that just goes to show how much we just did not want any more pain to come to this family."
As viewers have already witnessed, J.J.'s grief will continue to play a role throughout the rest of Criminal Minds: Evolution season 3. And as for how this will manifest, well ... it looks like we'll have to tune in and see what happens next.
As the entertainment and news associate editor for Good Housekeeping, Adrianna (she/her) writes about everything TV, movies, music and pop culture. She graduated from Yeshiva University with a B.A. in journalism and a minor in business management. She covers shows like The Rookie, 9-1-1 and Grey's Anatomy, though when she’s not watching the latest show on Netflix, she’s taking martial arts or drinking way too much coffee.
