“Criminal Minds” season 18 ending explained: Who is the Disciple?
Key Points
Criminal Minds ended its 18th season by revealing the mysterious "Disciple" who's been running Voit's network from the shadows.
The finale teases that Voit's story (and ongoing transformation) isn't over just yet.
"The Disciple" is now streaming on Paramount+.
Warning: This article contains spoilers forCriminal Mindsseason 18, episode 10, "The Disciple."
It's all Elias Voit all the time in the season finale of Criminal Minds season 18.
AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R47e4kr8lb2m7nfddbH1» iframe AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R87e4kr8lb2m7nfddbH1» iframeZach Gilford's Voit, a.k.a. Sicarius, has had quite the journey over the past several seasons, emerging as a vicious murderer, torturer, and overseer of a vast network of serial killers. But the character has shown surprising shades, especially with the reveal that he used to be married with two daughters.
As the showrunners teased when speaking with Entertainment Weekly in April, season 3 has been an especially seismic season for Voit. After a prison fight left his brain scarred, the psychopath woke up with amnesia and what might be a renewed sense of humanity.
“Those who might've been his biggest critics go on a journey this year of understanding and empathy that would not have existed in the season prior,” showrunner and executive producerErica Messertold EW.
The season 18 finale, "The Disciple," puts that understanding and empathy to the test by questioning whether Voit has changed. After all, the penultimate episode ended with his network committing an act of mass murder at Voit's hospital, with the potentially reformed killer disappearing with Dr. Julia Ochoa (Aimee Garcia), his strongest advocate. The network is apparently taking orders from a mysterious figure called the Disciple, and while Voit claims ignorance, he's not one to be trusted.
AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R4ce4kr8lb2m7nfddbH1» iframe AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R8ce4kr8lb2m7nfddbH1» iframeSo, who is the Disciple? And how involved is Voit? Read on for these answers and more in EW's Criminal Minds season 18 ending explainer.
Who is the Disciple?
Paramount+
Jordana Spiro as Tessa on 'Criminal Minds'As teased in the previous episode, the Disciple is a woman named Tessa Lebrun (Jordana Spiro).
The BAU stumbled upon her name when investigating previous murders linked to the network — years prior, she identified herself to police officers as the daughter of Cyrus Lebrun (Silas Weir Mitchell), Voit's cruel and sadistic mentor.
But Voit never knew Cyrus to have a daughter, and he claims not to know her. She knows him, though. Very well.
Who is Tessa Lebrun?
Paramount+
Jordana Spiro as Tessa on 'Criminal Minds'Tessa is Constance Teresa Merrick, a graduate student in North Carolina who went missing in July 2002. She's not Cyrus' daughter by birth. Rather, she was kidnapped and groomed by Cyrus for over 20 years.
AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R4ne4kr8lb2m7nfddbH1» iframe AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R8ne4kr8lb2m7nfddbH1» iframeWe see their initial meeting in a flashback that begins with a young Voit leaving Cyrus and heading out on his own. This upsets Cyrus, who goes to a bar where he meets Tessa. After kidnapping her, he locks her in his basement and tortures her, forcing a trauma bond between them. Eventually, she begins to refer to herself as his daughter.
As Rossi puts it, Cyrus didn't kidnap Tessa to "satisfy his urges," but rather to replace Voit.
Voit wasn't lying — he never knew about Tessa. He did, however, inadvertently free her from his grasp when returning to Cyrus' home in 2022. During that visit, he poisoned Cyrus' IV drip and condemned the dying man for turning him into a killer.
"I could've had a chance," Voit said. "I could've been different."
AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R4se4kr8lb2m7nfddbH1» iframe AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R8se4kr8lb2m7nfddbH1» iframeBefore Cyrus died, he told Voit that "our vice is in our blood."
Tessa heard the whole exchange from her room in the basement. With Cyrus dead, she went out on her own.
How did Tessa take over Voit's network?
Paramount+
Zach Gilford as Voit and Jordana Spiro as Tessa on 'Criminal Minds'As pieced together by the BAU, a free Tessa responded to her decades of imprisonment by seeking vengeance and, in the words of Tara (Aisha Tyler), an assertion of dominance in a world that treated her "cruelly." She became a killer in her own right, targeting elderly men of means.
One of them was a client of the late Vincent Orlov (Brian White), Voit's lawyer. It was through Orlov that Tessa gained a foothold in Voit's network, eventually labeling herself the Disciple. Orlov also pointed her to Voit's location, leading to the hospital massacre and her abduction of Voit and Dr. Ochoa.
AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R53e4kr8lb2m7nfddbH1» iframe AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R93e4kr8lb2m7nfddbH1» iframeLater, Tessa admits to Voit that she was responsible for Orlov's murder. "He thought he could use your network to his advantage," she tells Voit, revealing that she killed him for his "betrayal."
What's Tessa's plan?
Paramount+
Aimee Garcia as Dr. Ochoa and Jordana Spiro as Tessa on 'Criminal Minds'Though they've never met, Tessa considers Voit to be family. She wants to run the network by his side, but she's surprised to find that Voit isn't the cold-blooded killer he used to be. Her plan, then, is to reinvigorate his dormant bloodlust.
"By force-feeding him a steady diet of violence, it might trigger him," explains to the BAU.
Knowing that he's developed a bond with Dr. Ochoa, Tessa stages a scene in which John Perry (Ian McQuown), a member of the network, attempts to kill Dr. Ochoa via one of Voit's favorite methods: a poisonous Sicarius spider dropped into her mouth. As Tessa hoped, Voit attacks Perry and beats him to death. This lights him up, and when Tessa asks how he's feeling, he replies, "Like a f---ing god."
AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R5ae4kr8lb2m7nfddbH1» iframe AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R9ae4kr8lb2m7nfddbH1» iframeWith Voit seemingly on her side, she hopes to lure the BAU to their hideout and set off explosives, killing our heroes and framing Dr. Ochoa as the Disciple.
Does Voit help Tessa?
Paramount+
Zach Gilford as Voit on 'Criminal Minds'While Voit appears keen on running the network with Tessa at first, it turns out to be a ruse. He even pretends to fatally shoot Dr. Ochoa, but we later learn that he missed on purpose and told her to "play dead."
When the BAU storms the hideout, they disarm the explosives and wipe out Tessa's men. Voit, meanwhile, tells Tessa that she made a mistake in trusting him. "This is where you and I end," he says.
Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster) corners Tessa, attempting to calm her by empathizing with how her life (and soul) was robbed from her. But Tessa is unmoved. She's spent enough of her life in a cage and won't go to prison. She tries to shoot Prentiss, but is subdued and arrested.
AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R5he4kr8lb2m7nfddbH1» iframe AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R9he4kr8lb2m7nfddbH1» iframeShe's not the only one pointing guns at the BAU. Despite his change of heart, Voit turns a gun on JJ (A.J. Cook). He doesn't want to shoot her; rather, he wants her to shoot him. But she refuses, taking the gun from him. Much like Dr. Ochoa, he and JJ share a bond that prevents him from killing her.
What's the state of Voit's network?
Unbeknownst to Tessa, Voit leaked the locations of all the remaining members of his network to Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness).
In the episode's final moments, we learn that they've all been arrested.
What happens to Voit?
Michael Yarish/Paramount+
Aimee Garcia as Dr. Ochoa and Zach Gilford as Voit on 'Criminal Minds'After the shootout, Voit is arrested. Dr. Ochoa visits him in an interrogation room and thanks him for saving her life. He says he didn't have a choice, but she asserts that he did. She's been the one insisting throughout the season that he's capable of redemption. He's not so sure, however.
AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R5pe4kr8lb2m7nfddbH1» iframe AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R9pe4kr8lb2m7nfddbH1» iframeThat becomes clear during a visit from Rossi (Joe Mantegna). Voit insists that they should've killed him, to which Rossi says that "what's important now is justice for your victims and for you."
Voit wants to bear the brunt of that justice. He believes a killer still lurks inside him and that he deserves the death penalty. As such, he confesses to all of his crimes.
"I did it, I did all of it," he tells Rossi. "Just no more f---ing deals."
"You really don't trust yourself?" asks Rossi.
"I can't," Voit replies.
How does Criminal Minds season 18 end?
Paramount+
Zach Gilford as Voit in the closing moments of 'Criminal Minds' season 18Criminal Minds season 18 ends with Voit on a prison bus. He's being transferred to a maximum security facility in Virginia, where he'll be held until he's arraigned.
AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R62e4kr8lb2m7nfddbH1» iframe AdvertisementAdvertisement#«Ra2e4kr8lb2m7nfddbH1» iframeThe other prisoners on the bus recognize him. "That's not me," Voit says. They begin hassling him, saying he's not fooling anybody. As they harangue him, he snaps and wraps his cuffs around the neck of a prisoner, choking him as the other prisoners cheer.
But it turns out that was just in Voit's head. As the episode ends, we're left to wonder how much he's changed — and what that means for his character moving forward.
Messer, however, offered a hint in a finale postmortem with EW. “The more we talked, we thought we had one more season to really explore some other stuff with him and the team,” the showrunner shared. “You're going to see him in every episode of season 19. He is a prisoner again, but in a very different way than he was in season 17. He will be a resource for us.”
Where can I watch Criminal Minds: Evolution?
Michael Yarish/Paramount+
A.J. Cook as JJ, Paget Brewster as Emily, and Joe Mantegna as Rossi on 'Criminal Minds'Criminal Minds: Evolution is currently available to stream on Paramount+.
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