TV Romance
‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’ Reveals Shocking Reason for Prentiss & Mendoza’s Breakup
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 18 Episode 5 “The Brutal Man.”]
We’ll be honest: We never could have predicted the revelation in the latest Criminal Minds: Evolution episode, which began streaming on Paramount+ on Thursday, June 5.
JJ (A.J. Cook) returned to work and insisted she join the BAU in the field on their latest case, hunting down the UnSub known as the Brutal Man, with Prentiss (Paget Brewster), clearly very worried for her friend following the sudden death of her husband, only reluctantly agreeing. “You told me to prioritize myself, and that’s what I’m doing, I am prioritizing myself, and I need to get back to work. I need it,” JJ explained.
While the team gave their profile to the local law enforcement officials, however, JJ had to step aside. When Prentiss found her, JJ agreed she came back too soon. But as Prentiss saw it, there was never going to be a right time. She then asked if she remembered Andrew Mendoza, her old boyfriend, the one she was going to follow to Denver. She’d never told her why they broke up. (They’d been together when the original series ended.)
“He kept pushing for a threesome,” Prentiss revealed. “For real.” And no, he was not secure enough in his sexuality for it to be with another man. So who was the other woman he wanted? “Oh, no, please don’t say me,” JJ said. “We never got that far,” Prentiss told her. “But he kept pushing for it until finally I was like, ‘Andrew, if I wanted to disappoint two people at once, I would go to dinner with my parents.’” It made JJ laugh, which was nice to see, as the show has been doing such a great job of tracking her grief.
JJ did wonder why Prentiss was telling her. “Because when he and I were over, I knew I could come back. I knew this job would make me feel better,” she explained. “Because I didn’t have the real thing. I never have. You did. You had the fairy tale, the perfect husband, and the feelings that you’re feeling right now, Will is the one that would help you through them, but now, no matter how many lives we save, nothing you find in this job is going to make this better, and I am afraid that the grief will overwhelm you.” (That’s very similar to what A.J. Cook told TV Insider about JJ and Will’s relationship after his funeral episode.)
JJ admitted that while Tara (Aisha Tyler) told her it would be like a wave, it wasn’t. “It’s more like an UnSub, you’re not expecting it, comes through the back,” she said, which led to a realization about the case.
What did you think of that reveal? Let us know in the comments section below.
Criminal Minds: Evolution, Thursdays, Paramount+
