The following contains spoilers from the first episode of season 2 of Criminal Minds: Evolution.
The BAU's David Rossi is literally haunted by Elias Voight after he was imprisoned and nearly killed.
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As revealed in the Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 1 premiere (which began just two weeks after the events of last year's finale), while the flesh-and-blood man Voight (played by Zach Gilford) is chilling in federal custody, Rossi (played by Joe Mantegna) is being “visited” and taunted by the ghost of the serial killer once known as Sicarius.
In “Ghost Voight” scenes (as they were called on set), Gilford's character would “appear” out of nowhere and then eerily “disappear” as the camera hid behind a pillar or other obstacle.
But while it might seem like visual effects or editing tricks are being used to bring Ghost Voight in and out of the screen, Criminal Minds: Evolution is simply bringing Gilford in and out of the frame.
“It was all hands-on,” Criminal Minds showrunner Erica Messer told TVLine. “In the car in the first episode, [Ghost Voit] We were sitting there and Rossi leaned forward and Alves knocked on the window and Zach literally [crouching] under.
“Then Prentiss comes into the office and Zach disappears from view,” Messer adds with a laugh. “As the season goes on, different directors try different things, but we all just tried to stay focused on acting in front of the camera.”
As Gilford himself recalls, “During the round table scene in the first episode, I was literally hiding under the table, crouching down. We all had to do the scene and Kirsten was crouching down on me. [Vangsness]' feet.”
Mantegna praised the low-tech approach, saying “sometimes the old-fashioned is the best,” while Gilford, who directed the eighth episode of this season, suggested that “just a subtle camera movement, suddenly you're there and suddenly you're gone, makes it a lot more interesting visually.”
But when will Ghost Voight really go away, and what will it take for Rossi to shake off this not-so-friendly ghost?
“Well, we'll see,” Mantegna teases. “That's part of the intrigue about where we're going.”
“It's clear that David is upset about having someone with him that he doesn't want,” Mantegna said. “But he's a man of enormous self-esteem and would be the last to ask for help or assistance.”
Explaining Rossi's rather calm attitude (/denial?), Mantegna says, “I once saw a quote at a dry cleaners where I live that basically said, 'If you have to walk through hell, walk through it like you own it,' and I think in this particular situation, that was David Rossi.”
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