A fate worse than death.

That's not what I expected for Moose.

For the first time in my life, I wish an animal had been killed because what he's suffering now is too much to bear.

I don't often suffer nightmares after watching something but put an animal in harm's way, and all bets are off.

Moose haunted my nightmares, and after Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 1 Episode 3, I will be banging my gong for Elias Voit to suffer a terrible, lingering death.

Moose was a teddy bear, but Elias turned him into a man-eating monster using deprivation and indoctrination.

The way Elias took Moose from being so loving to a craven beast likely was meant to show how he has also trained his humans to do his dirty work, but it fell a little flat when it was determined that the kill kits were in place way before any recruitment had taken place.

By visiting the forum where User45125 made connections with his minions, the team discovered he'd had contact with over 17k users.

But when they looked at the discussions, it became clear that Elias chose minions based on whether their particular violence kink matched with one of his pre-prepared kits.

Moose shows what Elias can and will do, but the forum trolling shows how he'll take whoever is available and proceed to jam a round peg into a square hole just to accomplish the job.

His poor vision in that regard is what led him to choose guys like those who have already done themselves in. They were sloppy and shared too much. He might have been spared being on the FBI's radar if he'd chosen more wisely.

I will give kudos to Elias for using deprivation the likes we have never seen before to execute his minions.

The lockdowns were ripe for the taking, and Elias calculated how that could be used to turn a large number of losers into violent killing machines. It wouldn't surprise me one iota to learn that similar real-life examples exist.

What I find fascinating about what we're watching on Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 1 is that Elias still gets a thrill from kills executed by others. His Hal-a-like might have been spared had he been able to watch the fellow in the hat detonate a bomb in a public space.

It's also interesting that Elias is known as a bit of a wimp.

You fuckin' beta cuck. You ain't gonna do shit.

Hal

• Permalink: You fuckin' beta cuck. You ain't gonna do shit.

So, is that a thing that men do? We've encountered the word cuck many times over this season, and we're only on the third episode. Do dudes just toss that around at and about each other? No wonder they're so eager to get violent. They need to prove to themselves they aren't what others say they are.

Elias couldn't even talk his way into keeping his job. He barely gave it the ol' college try before accepting defeat and planning to assuage his pain by inflicting it on others.

All of this should give the BAU experts quite a bit to work with to find Elias. His financial situation is also suspect, and he's using his minions to fund his recruitment efforts and his family life. It shouldn't be too tricky to nail down large financial transactions and cross-reference them with people on the forum.

We've sure seen Garcia work with less. And now they have an ace up their sleeve. The fella in the hat didn't kill himself. Why would he? He'd worked hard to infiltrate the group.

Garcia: OK. He's not a serial killer; he's a vigilante. How did he get closer than we did, though?
JJ: He had help. From us.

• Permalink: He had help. From us.

It's almost a little too fortuitous that the team found Garcia's helper so early in the season, and even more so that his life was spared when earlier, and before the Domestic Terrorism group was on the scene making things worse, they lost another guy they would have liked to have talked with about Elias.

These developments used to happen even quicker with the case-of-the-week format, but it's still a little hard to swallow when the plan comes together so quickly, even in this season-long format.

With his vast military experience and length of time connected to the network, the BAU will likely use him to continue work on their behalf. Hell, maybe he should consider joining the bureau and the BAU in particular.

He'd managed to get farther than they did, which surprised Garcia. Granted, he'd been working the case well before the BAU even knew there was a case to work.

I'm eager to discover what he knows about Elias and how it will help the BAU make inroads to taking down Elias. And yes, he's still just Elias to me. He doesn't deserve a cool nickname, and we at TV Fanatic err on the side Garcia takes when she flounders to match Rossi's language.

What do we have on this fuckhead?

Rossi

• Permalink: What do we have on this fuckhead?

But Rossi is right on the money in his assessment of the murderous husband and father.

The ease with which that phrase slipped from Joe Mantegna's lips made me wonder how often he'd said something similar behind the scenes but was capped by network television to share how he felt.

So, I wonder. Does seeing Elias at home help you to understand him better, or does it make it even more difficult?

I'm torn. He's got a great family who loves him. Clearly, he's a needy f*ckhead with self-confidence issues. No amount of love will ever be enough for him to feel like a man, so he's crafted this dual life, leaning hard into his basest desires.

There's not much about him that inspires a need to know why. Sometimes, a psycho is just a psycho, and no amount of mental interrogation will prove to the contrary.

Seeing what he did with Moose made me so angry that he's a father, and I couldn't help but imagine that just by his actions and eventual capture, he has already created a roadmap that could stop his family's growth in its tracks.

How can a family of a man like that ever reconcile the man they loved with the monster he actually was? It breaks my heart that someone so ugly is allowed to move throughout our world, bringing so much destruction to kind souls who don't deserve it.

His victims -- Moose included -- get no consideration, but if he ever gets to trial, he'll be given plenty. Our justice system is all kinds of screwed up. There's no good answer, but victims' rights and the rights of victims' families would be a good start.

Running behind all of this is that creep Bailey, who still pretends he's speaking with "brass" when he's actually speaking for them.

Did you cheer when Prentiss finally let him have it? I admit it. I cheered out loud. The best thing that could happen to that twerp is if Elias found his way to his house and put the fear of God into him.

As it stands, Bailey is playing with lives. He doesn't deserve the job he's in, and someone needs to drag him out of it.

It was unbelievable that he was happy to allow all of the unsubs to commit suicide just to make his job easier. He didn't for one second consider that if Elias were still out there, more unsubs would be torturing and killing more people.

I'll happily dance on his pink slip when he loses his job. Please, oh please, let it happen.

So what's going on in your mind? Are you as devastated as I am by the cruel fate served upon Moose?

Let me know what you think of this full-season format and digging deeper into the craven minds of criminals who I don't think deserve the reflection.

Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic. She's a member of the Critic's Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, conversing with cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film with anyone who will listen. Follow her on X and email her here at TV Fanatic.