[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 18 Episode 5 “The Brutal Man.”‘]

We’ll be honest: We’re still not sure if we trust Dr. Julia Ochoa (Aimee Garcia) on Criminal Minds: Evolution. After all, she’s by Voit’s (Zach Gilford) side, and no matter what the tests tell us, it feels like there’s a twist coming up regarding his amnesia and loss of psychopathy.

But in the latest episode, which began streaming on Thursday, June 5, Voit’s on the fringes, not revealed until close to the end of the episode to be sitting in the room as JJ (A.J. Cook) recounts the story of the Brutal Man, the latest UnSub from his network the BAU hunts down. It’s a revelatory conversation, for both JJ and Julia, with the latter talking about religion, how her father died, and more.

But should we be wondering if that was all true? We asked Aimee Garcia about that and more.

I’ve been wondering if we should trust Julia, if she could be part of Voit’s network working for him, something, there’s the medication she’s prescribing him. There’s all these little bits that could be adding up to something. So what would you say about how much we should trust that she is exactly who she presents herself to be to the BAU?

Aimee Garcia: Excellent question. So as you know, Criminal Minds does a great job of subverting expectations and putting everything upside down. The characters you like, you end up hating, the characters you hate, you ended up loving. So I cannot confirm nor deny anything, but I say trust no one. And in the same way that, is she the good doctor? Does she have an ulterior motive? Does she have a superior interest to Voit besides do no harm and to keep him healthy? I don’t know. But I would say with a show like Criminal Minds, everything is on the table and you’re a very wise woman for asking very wise questions. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

I feel like she’s gone above and beyond for Voit at times, but what does she see when she looks at him? Does she see the serial killer that she keeps being told he was? Does see a patient that she needs to care for? Is there a balance?

I think she has professional blinders on. I think she sees a patient in need. I think she sees a patient that just came out of a coma while the BAU sees a monster, a serial killer, a deviant. She swore an oath to not judge her patient. So if someone who committed a crime comes in with a severed leg or with any sort of mental trauma, her job is not to judge them. She’s not a judge. She’s not a cop. She’s not a lawyer. She doesn’t work for the BAU. So it’s a really fun perspective to have where she doesn’t have the triggering background that all the other members have. They hate him. They want to spit on his face. He’s really so much their Achilles heel. So it’s so fun to have Dr. Julia Ochoa, okay, there’s rumors. She’s heard some things, he’s handcuffed to the hospital bed. But in her mind, he is a miracle. He is someone who survived a brutal attack. He is a patient on a path to healing, and he is a helpless patient who needs guidance, and that’s what she’s going to do because she’s a professional.

What does she see in him at the end of this episode in the interrogation room scene? Because that’s taking her out of her environment and putting her in the BAU’s and seeing him in that world.

Correct. I think that is the first episode and the first time that she sees him as something other than a helpless healing patient. I think that you’re right, taking her out of her hospital comfort and into the BAU, she starts to see the destruction and the wrecking ball that he is. And I think she does start to struggle a little bit, but it’s tough. I think to be a good doctor, you can’t get emotionally attached. If you’re a surgeon, for example, and a kid is a patient, you can’t start crying on the table because the kid lost his leg. You’re not doing a service to that child. You need to reserve your emotions. You need to be professional, and you need to try to [put] that leg back on. And I think in the same way, while empathy is important to be a good doctor, she cannot lose sight of his neurological progress and the fact that they’re awakening a monster, and if they push him too hard, he will go comatose. And then we’re all back to square one. You don’t have the key to your network. My patient has regressed. Nobody wins here. So I think it’s a tightrope that Dr. Julia Ochoa is walking between the human side of her who wants to empathize and probably hug him and the professional side of her who wants to see him fully healed and have his memories not stymie his medical progress.

At times, this episode almost feels like a two-handed between you and A.J. Talk about filming those scenes.

It was so much fun. We just were so in the pocket. It was so honest. It was so vulnerable. A.J. is just so incredible. It felt like a play. I felt like it is such an actor’s dream to get to do these long scenes and to get to play tennis with an amazing — to me acting is like tennis. You cannot do it by yourself. And to have a tennis partner, figuratively speaking like A.J., who has been on the show for 18 years, I mean, she is just so professional and so kind and a director and an actor, and so vulnerable and funny and an incredible sense of humor. And we did have Zach’s face printed up and blown up on a C Stand, like on a lighting stand, and cut out holes in where his eyes would be, and we did have him there the whole time. So that was really fun to just have him be a part of it and added some levity.

But she really is so fun to watch. The hardest part for me was really not crying alongside her because she’s so good and she really rips your heart out and just touches your nerve and you don’t see JJ’s character vulnerable that often. She’s Such a tough nut. And she’s so good with a weapon and she’s so good at being a leader and a mom and a wife and all these things. So it was really nice to get to see another side of this beloved character. And she’s just awesome. We still text. She’s like, “Hey, how you doing? What’s going on?” And she really is the kind of woman that you aspire to be like, but also want to be your friend, which is what I think makes the show so great are the female friendships. You love the friendships between Garcia [Kirsten Vangsness] and JJ and Prentiss [Paget Brewster] and Lewis [Aisha Tyler], and you’re like, “Oh my gosh, I love these women. I want them to come over so we can just sip some wine and have a chat.”

This is the most we learn about Julia all season. She talks about religion, about her father. Can you say if she was being honest about her father and his death and everything, or could she have been kind of maybe trying to manipulate JJ? because JJ just had this sudden loss and she says she lost her father suddenly.

I played it very honestly, because while I do think when you’re trying to be emotionally supportive to someone, you try to find common ground. If someone says, “Oh, I had a bad day at work,” you’re like, “Oh, so did I, you’re not alone.” I think our empathetic nature is to make the person we’re trying to help feel less alone and feel supported. So I do feel like she is a master of the brain. Dr. Julia Ochoa in the same way that someone is a medical doctor, she’s a brain doctor. She knows how to trigger people. She knows how to calm people down. She knows what medicines to give people. So I think there is an aspect of her professionalism coming into play. But I personally, as an actor did play it as if she did lose her dad and she does carry a crucifix. She is a woman of faith. And I think that it was really beautiful seeing these two professional women bond over loss, which is such a universal concept that we all could relate to.

Michael Yarish / Paramount+

And that’s the most open that we’ve seen Julia with anyone at the BAU.

Correct. Yeah, that’s actually a great point. It also speaks to JJ’s ability as a character. You know how they say who guards the guards? I think Dr. Julia Ochoa and JJ are equal in women that have a tough exterior and have to see the ugly side of human nature. Obviously, Dr. Julia not as much as JJ, but that’s a great point. I don’t think that Dr. Julia opens up. She sticks to facts. She’s a scientist. She refers to MRIs. She looks at brain scans. She believes in the science and in the research and in the medicine. So you’re absolutely right. I think that it’s a testament to how good of a profiler JJ is that she’s able to get Dr. Julia Ochoa to open up when Dr. Julia Ochoa is trying to get JJ to open up.

Speaking of believing in the science, is there any part of Julia that doubts what the test is saying in the scans is saying about Voit?

I don’t think so. I think that she is such an encyclopedic mind for science. I think she’s one of the top neuroscientists in the world, and I think she’s into cold hard facts in the same way that Scully was in X-Files. Although everyone has an arc, I think that she is a Scully in that she’s — although she’s spiritual, which is very unique to see a doctor that wear a crucifix. And that’s why I think that her father’s death is genuine. But I think so. I think she’s excited about the science. I think the science proves to her that Voit is a miracle. Voit is the type of patient that other cases are based on. Voit is the type of profile that can lead to other patients healing. Not that she’s a mad scientist, but I think she’s a very accomplished woman who I don’t see her as having a family life. It seems like work first and career is everything to her, and I think her patients are her world. And to have a patient like Voit basically resurrect from the dead and go from serial killer monster to monosyllabic, adorable sleeper in hospital bed, I think that he’s a real one-of-a-kind case, and so he’s intriguing to her. So I think he becomes a really special patient for her.

Her most contentious relationship is obviously with Rossi (Joe Mantegna). After this sit-down we got with Julia and JJ in this episode, I can’t help but wonder what one of those extended sit-downs between Julia and Rossi would look like at this point…

First of all, Joe is a national treasure that must be protected at all costs. I love Joe, and I love — it’s an episode coming up. It’s literally three lines, but it was one of my favorite three lines because she’s giving Joe so much grief. And by the way, obviously, myself included, I’m a fan. We love Rossi. Rossi is not to be touched, not to be messed with, but I love — so we have a saying in Spanish. The word is esquincle, which means a little rascal. And Rossi is a rascal. He doesn’t follow the rules. He pushes the edge. They agree to show certain things to Voit, and then he pulls out his little mask picture. He’s a little rascal. And I love that he looks like the uncle that you love and just want to hug. No, no, no, no, no, my friends, Rossi is a rascal, and I love [those] few lines where Julia’s teasing him and it is just so fun. So I think that Julia would have a really hard time not being charmed by Rossi. I think she would be smiling on the inside, and I think it would be a really fun game of mental chess where obviously they’re both highly intelligent and one sees things as red and one sees things as green. So that would be really fun because he’s just so darn likable that.

What else is coming up for Julia? With whom would you say she has the most significant conversation in an upcoming episode?

I would say Voit. There’s a lot of fun stuff coming up with Voit — if she survives, we don’t know because everyone’s head is on the chopping block on Criminal Minds. So I do flip through the script really quickly to make sure that I’m still there. I’m like, “Ah, okay. I made it another day.” But yeah, I would say Voit.

Anything you can tease about those conversations?

I would say she is taken out of her element. We see another side of her. She literally gets to put her hair down, I will say, and like Criminal Minds does best, there’s a possible unsuspected turn that we see from a character that’s really close to her. And let’s just say it was a lot of fun, and it’s a swinging time.

Criminal Minds: Evolution, Thursdays, Paramount+