‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’s Aisha Tyler on Tara’s Big Romantic Decision: ‘You Have To Love as Hard as You Can’

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 18 Episode 8 “Tara.”]

“It’s always interesting when you get a script that has your character’s name on the front,” Aisha Tyler says with a laugh. “You’re always like, ‘What’s going to happen?!'”

After the previous episode ended with her character, Dr. Tara Lewis, getting shot, the Thursday, June 26, one sees her in surgery, then unconscious in the hospital while, in her mind, she speaks with her mother (LaTanya Richardson Jackson), who died when she was young. Their conversations — “You’re a high-functioning overachiever who became a fixer to avoid grief, but unprocessed heartbreak like yours weighs you down,” her mom warns — lead Tara to, once she’s recovering and out of the hospital, propose to her girlfriend, Rebecca (Nicole Pacent), while at the BAU for a visit.