Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Criminal Minds Season 18, Episode 3.It has been years since one of the main cast inCriminal Mindsdied, with the most notable being Jason Gideon (Mandy Patinkin) passing away long after he left the BAU, with his death being referenced in name only. Other characters, like Derek Morgan (Shemar Moore) or Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler), simply exited the BAU but are still alive and well, leaving the door ajar for their potential return or cameos, asReid did inCriminal Minds: EvolutionsSeason 3, Episode 3. Being killed off in a show is such a heart-breaking final act, so whenEvolutionspulled the plug on the beloved Detective Will LaMontagne Jr. (Josh Stewart), it was a shock to fans everywhere.
Interestingly,Stewart never actually returned to the set to film his last appearance, and instead a scene that was filmed years ago was used.A.J. Cook(who plays Jenifer “JJ” Jareau) told TV Lineexactly how they managed to execute Will’s death and the saddening reason why they didn’t invite Stewart back, reinforcing how important his character was to the show and cast.
‘Criminal Minds: Evolutions’ Used a Deleted Scene For Will’s Death
In the closing sequences ofEvolutionsSeason 3, Episode 2, we catch a glimpse of Will as an unsuspecting JJ walks into her house, greets him, and watches with horror as he collapses to the ground. It was already a shock to see afterhe was notably missing from Season 2since Stewart announced he was exitingCriminal Minds. While Stewart is technically in the scene,it was actually filmed back in 2022 as part of theEvolutionsSeason 1 cancer storyline, where Will’s health was being threatened before he went into remission. At the time, they didn’t end up using the scene of him collapsing, and thus, they were able to cut it in this season.
In the interview with TV Line, Cook recalls the process ofworking around Stewart’s absence, explaining that the “writers had to get very creative” to make it work. “Remember the cancer storyline that we wrote?” Cook said. “Our brilliant showrunner [Erica Messer] was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we have this scene that we never used’… Erica Messer put the pieces of a really complicated puzzle together, and it worked.” As such,Will’s aneurysm is actually a deleted scene that found second life, in an effort to avoid the potential impoliteness of inviting Stewart back on the set for one measly scene, a death scene no less. But it wasn’t just professional courtesy that was holding the crew back.
Will’s Loss Was Also Felt by the ‘Criminal Minds’ Cast
Despite only infrequently appearing on-screen during hislong run onCriminal Minds,Will was an important part of the cast and his presence was nonetheless felt. As such, not inviting Stewart back is, ironically, a testament to how much weight he carried in the show and for the cast members. Cook further recalled, “We so badly were like, ‘We don’t want [Josh] to think he’s going to die,’ we got so freaked out by it, that wepulledthis scene [of Will collapsing].That’s how much we did not want Josh to leave us.” Seeing him back only to witness his character die would be far too gut-wrenching for the cast, which is whyhis death hit so hard for us. Though, for viewers, knowing it was a deleted scene doesn’t make it any less painful.
Although Will was never part of the core BAU team,his relationship with JJand his occasional contributions to cases were still invaluable. Even just knowing that JJ would be able to go back home to Will and her family after a particularly difficult case was comforting, and in a series dominated by bloody MOs, sexual sadists, and twisted sociopaths, comfort was a precious necessity.His ability to become a mainstay in the series without appearing in every episode, as well as Cook’s description of the team’s “freaked out” reaction to Will’s death, all attest to how much of an impact he made and justifies why they would use a deleted scene rather than watch Will collapse fatally in front of them.
New episodes ofCriminal Minds: Evolutionare available to stream on Paramount+ in the U.S.
Criminal Minds
