Criminal Minds Video: As JJ Seeks Help, Aimee Garcia Previews ‘Intimate’ Scenes With a ‘Magical’ A.J. Cook
Special Agent JJ Jareau really needs help, and Dr. Julia Ochoa may be the one to give it to her.
In this Thursday’s episode of Paramount+s Criminal Minds: Evolution — titled “The Brutal Man” (as in the next UnSub discovered to be under Sicarius’ sway) — JJ (played by A.J. Cook) seeks out an unorthodox sit-down with Dr. Ochoa (recurring player Aimee Garcia), after putting herself in harm’s way while processing the scene of a family’s murder.
And man, JJ has a lot to say.
“I think that sometimes we share more with strangers than with friends and family, and the BAU is JJ’s family,” Garcia observes in the TVLine video below. “JJ is ‘off her turf’ in a very intimate setting, with this doctor that is very well-versed in trauma and pain and mental health, so it was a beautiful opportunity for this beloved character that is JJ to have someone who supports her. Like, ‘Who guards the guards?’ They’re heroes [in the BAU]… but who carries them?”
“One of my favorite lines that [Julia] says is, ‘The BAU is one of the most emotionally constipated groups of people’ she has met, which I think is so funny because they see Hell on earth, they see the darkest sides of people,” Garcia notes. “So I think that Dr. Julia Ochoa was in the right place at the right time,” overseeing Voit’s care as she is.
The episode marks a meaningful pivot for Garcia’s character, who until now has been oh-so-serious –and, frankly, a bit of an obstacle for the BAU.
“She’s a doctor, she has blinders on,” Garcia says of Ochoa’s cool, calm and collected approach to Voit. “She sees Voit as a patient, unlike the BAU who sees him as a monster. So yes, this is one of my favorite episodes because A.J. is amazing and it felt like a play, and Julia gets to actually help a member of the BAU. I feel very lucky that Julia got to help a character who always has it together.
“The hardest part was not crying when A.J. was doing her scenes, because she just rips your heart out,” Garcia adds. “She was so vulnerable and open, it was like tennis. She made it so easy.”
In venturing down this rabbit hole for one of Cook’s meatiest Criminal Minds arcs ever, “I was just there as a support system,” says Garcia. “I said, ‘Look, this is your episode, so let me know how I can be of service. I will follow your lead.’ And it was so lovely. A.J. just soared. I felt like a proud sister, sitting on the other side and getting to see her magic!”
Press play above for much more from Garcia, including why she sought out this atypical-for-her role, the Criminal Minds cast member she had worked with once before, and whether Dr. Ochoa might become the Harley Quinn to Voit’s Joker!
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AJ Cook deserves an Emmy for episodes 1-5 of CM Evolution Season 18. That is all.