JuicyTalk
The latest Criminal Minds: Evolution season 3 episode had one especially strange scene that keeps sticking out like a big neon light in my mind, pointing directly to the real identity of The Disciple. In Criminal Minds: Evolution season 3, episode 9, the Sicarius network has started to enact its endgame, a.k.a. Project Checkmate, tying up loose ends and going “scorched earth.”
That scorched earth policy involves every Sicarius network killer and any living victims to be killed, thereby eliminating any lead the BAU could possibly use to take the network down. The Criminal Minds: Evolution character list also grew by one, with the episode introducing a new anonymous unsub in the form of The Engineer, who appears to be heading toward The Disciple in a final showdown.
The Criminal Minds: Evolution season 3, episode 9 ending found Dr. Ochoa and Voit being stalked by someone – most likely The Engineer, as he looks to clean up his final loose end in Voit. Voit appears to take the doctor hostage, but revealed it was a ruse to get her close to put his hand over her mouth, silencing them both. Thanks to that same scene, however, I don’t think Dr. Ochoa is as helpless as she seems: I think she’s The Disciple.
Dr. Ochoa’s Emotional Reaction To Voit “Betraying” Her Was Strange
It Was An Emotional Response, Not A Professional One
The scene that keeps sticking in my mind is when Dr. Ochoa confronted Voit in his hospital room and yelled at him for taking the phone and undermining the BAU. It was so out-of-character, and, what’s more, it was incredibly unprofessional for a gifted neuropsychiatrist who had always been respected among her peers.
At that moment, she wasn’t acting like a clinically detached doctor caring for a patient, but more like a jilted lover – as though he had personally betrayed her. It was especially strange, considering that earlier, Dr. Ochoa didn’t even want to accept a candy bar from Voit as it might have been seen as unprofessional. Her having an emotional meltdown was a complete 180-degree turn that came out of nowhere.
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Compare her furious reaction to that of Rossi; he knew Voit had undermined his team, but he also knew that Voit had done it to save the life of Kyle Mackey’s/The Undertaker’s innocent ex-wife, Lainey, and daughter, Ava. In doing so, Voit earned, if not Rossi’s respect, then at least his understanding that Voit is a truly reformed psychopath in Criminal Mind: Evolution.
One would think that Dr. Ochoa would understand that, not just because she’d been working so closely with Voit, but also because, as an expert in neuroscience and psychology, she should have been able to understand Voit’s thinking. His guilt. She shouldn’t have been surprised by it or betrayed – she’d seen his brain scans for herself and knows that he’s not faking empathy now.
Dr. Ochoa Sending Him Back To Prison Is Unprofessional
Why Would She Immediately Give Up After The First Setback?
It’s not just her strange, overly emotional reaction to Voit alerting Mackey’s family that made me even more suspicious of her than I already was. Dr. Ochoa’s decision to send Voit back to prison was downright unprofessional. As a veteran neuropsychiatrist who has treated challenging patients before, she had to have known that Voit’s progress wouldn’t be linear. It’s not normal or professional to completely give up on a patient at the first setback.
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That’s why I think one of two things happened that would explain the strange response. Either Dr. Ochoa used Voit’s security breach as an excuse to get him back into genpop at the prison, so the other inmates can finish the job and take him out for her, or she truly was incensed that he had betrayed her – just not in the way we think. The first doesn’t make much sense, though, as The Disciple’s goal has always been to trigger the old Voit’s return.
That was why she felt betrayed: not that he went behind her back, but because doing so showed her that the old psychopathic Voit will never return.
At that moment, perhaps she wasn’t speaking as Dr. Ochoa, but as The Disciple. Voit alerting Lainey and Ava to the danger they were in proved to Rossi that he is truly reformed. The problem is, it also proved to Dr. Ochoa – or rather, The Disciple – that the “real” Elias Voit isn’t coming back. That was why she felt betrayed: not that he went behind her back, but because doing so showed her that the old psychopathic Voit will never return.
Dr. Ochoa Is The Only One Who Knows Voit As Intimately As Cyrus
Voit’s Doctor Knows Everything About Him – And The Bau
Other clues point to it really only being Dr. Ochoa who could be The Disciple, unless the Criminal Minds: Evolution season 3 finale throws a curveball and introduces someone completely new, which would not be nearly as dramatic. In Criminal Minds: Evolution season 3, episode 7, when The Disciple deepfaked Cyrus to torment Voit, the entire BAU agreed that only Cyrus knew Voit so intimately.
They’re wrong, though: Dr. Ochoa knows Voit just as well. After all, she’s been his neuropsychiatrist and trusted therapist for months now, and it’s to her that he’s been opening up about his past. Even more than the BAU, she knows what Cyrus did to Voit when he was a child and the abuse he heaped upon his nephew. With her psychiatric background, she also knows exactly what buttons to push.
I suspect that’s also why she urged J.J. to work with Voit; not to help channel J.J.’s grief spiral in Criminal Minds: Evolution season 3 into something productive, but to unlock more of Voit’s memories. Whether it was so that he would inadvertently track down more of the Sicarius network killers, trigger his repressed psychopathy, or both is unclear. But I suspect The Disciple has been hiding behind the Dr. Ochoa mask to use both Voit and the BAU.
Nurse John Spoke To Someone Before Enacting His Plan – Who?
The Phone SIM Card Plotline Was Messy But Revealed Another Odd Moment
The overly-complicated phone-switching plan in the most recent Criminal Minds: Evolution episode also didn’t make much sense. SIM cards were switched around, but then Voit also just happened to find a random phone that was laying in a nurse’s station. That’s too messy, and also too convenient.
Main Cast of Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 3 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Actor | Character | Seasons | Role |
Paget Brewster | Emily Prentiss | 2-18 | BAU Section Chief, formerly Interpol |
Joe Mantegna | David Rossi | 3-18 | Founding Father of the BAU |
A.J. Cook | Jennifer “JJ” Jareau | 1-18 | Formerly BAU Communications Liaison |
Kirsten Vangsness | Penelope Garcia | 1-18 | Technical Analyst |
Aisha Tyler | Dr. Tara Lewis | 11-18 | Forensic Psychologist |
Adam Rodriguez | Luke Alvez | 12-18 | Previously FBI Fugitive Task Force |
Ryan-James Hatanaka | Tyler Green | 16-18 | Former military intelligence officer, sister was an early Sicarius victim |
Zach Gilford | Elias Voit | 16-18 | Sicarius |
Aimee Garcia | Dr. Julia Ochoa | 18 | Neuropsychiatrist & Elias Voit’s doctor |
It’s also not clear how the SIM card got into Nurse Monica’s phone, but we can assume it was John Perry, who had gotten a job working as a nurse for Dr. Ochoa’s unit and is part of the Sicarius network. Before the wheels of his plan are set into motion, John speaks to someone on his contraband phone and tells them that it’s time. Yet the episode never reveals who that person is.
It’s likely that the other person to whom John was speaking was The Engineer, who appears to want The Disciple gone. But it also could have been Dr. Ochoa in disguise. It’s not clear how Voit got the phone, then, whether it was coincidental or Dr. Ochoa planted it to see what he’d do with it. If that’s the case, then it was just a really messy bit of writing that there were two different coincidental plans involving a phone.
It’s not like the savvy and experienced BAU Section Chief to wave off a possible leak.
There was another odd moment with the doctor in the episode before. When it was clear that Dr. Ochoa’s staff had been compromised, Prentiss was uncharacteristically sloppy. “What about me?” the doctor asks when Prentiss tells her her staff needs to be turned over every two weeks. “Your reputation speaks for itself,” Prentiss says dismissively. It’s not like the savvy and experienced BAU Section Chief to wave off a possible leak.
The Disciple Is Likely A Woman Given Her Soft Spot For Kids
Is Dr. Julia Ochoa Really Tessa Lebrun?
We also know now that The Disciple is likely a woman, thanks to her soft spot for kids – at least, that’s the BAU’s working theory. This episode also revealed that Cyrus had had a daughter, Tessa Lebrun, that not even Voit had known about. Thus, he’d have no idea what she looked or sounded like, so she could easily pose as anyone to get close to him.
The last time Tessa had appeared in any sort of record was around 20 years ago, when she gave a statement to police, and she was a twentysomething then. Actress Aimee Garcia may look far younger than her years, but she’s in her mid-40s, meaning her character would be the exact right age.
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I believe Dr. Ochoa will be unmasked as The Disciple and current leader of the Sicarius network, but I’m still not sure why. If she is Cyrus’ daughter, then she obviously inherited her father’s darkness. Perhaps that’s why she grew so obsessed with Elias Voit, wondering about the man her biological father would take under his wing, or perhaps why Cyrus had raised Elias, but not her.
There are simply too many strange contradictions about the good doctor, but the finale will reveal whose side she’s on.
One thing is clear: something isn’t adding up about Dr. Julia Ochoa in Criminal Minds: Evolution season 3. She’s the only character on the show who knows Voit so intimately, but is also kept abreast of every development in the BAU’s case so she can monitor Voit. There are simply too many strange contradictions about the good doctor, but the finale will reveal whose side she’s on.
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Criminal Minds
8/10
- Release Date
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September 22, 2005
- Showrunner
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Erica Messer
- Directors
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Félix Enríquez Alcalá, Rob Bailey, Matthew Gray Gubler, Joe Mantegna, John Gallagher, Douglas Aarniokoski, Guy Norman Bee, Larry Teng, Nelson McCormick, Alec Smight, Charles S. Carroll, Rob Spera, Charles Haid, Diana Valentine, Rob Hardy, Tawnia McKiernan, Bethany Rooney, Karen Gaviola, Sharat Raju, Thomas Gibson, Aisha Tyler, Anna Foerster, Gloria Muzio, John Terlesky
- Writers
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Bruce Zimmerman, Virgil Williams, Edward Allen Bernero, Janine Sherman Barrois, Chris Mundy, Simon Mirren, Debra J. Fisher, Kimberly A. Harrison, Jay Beattie, Dan Dworkin, Karen Maser, Oanh Ly, Stephanie Sengupta, Aaron Zelman, Kirsten Vangsness, Erica Meredith, Andi Bushell, Holly Harold, Alicia Kirk, Jeff Davis, Randy Huggins, Edward Napier, Jayne A. Archer, Chikodili Agwuna
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Kirsten Vangsness
Penelope Garcia
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Matthew Gray Gubler
Dr. Spencer Reid
