TVLine's Performers of the Week: Zach Gilford and Jordana Spiro

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12-07-2025

THE PERFORMERS | Zach Gilford and Jordana Spiro
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THE SHOW | Criminal Minds: Evolution
THE EPISODE | 'The Disciple' (July 10, 2025)
THE PERFORMANCES | It was the Mob Doctor reunion we didn't know we needed.
Criminal Minds: Evolution brought its latest season to a close by putting a face to Sicarius' insanely devoted disciple known as… well, the Disciple. There'd been some build-up for this deviant character, so when Jordana Spiro — whom we first came to know from the bubbly TBS sitcom My Boys! — showed up as the very damaged Tessa Lebrun, it took a moment to adjust expectations and then drink in her wonderfully modulated, delicious performance.
Evolution vet Zach Gilford, meanwhile, did terrific work with a script in which the Man Formerly Known as Sicarius, Elias Voit, found himself in the Disciple's lair, where the goal was to 'trigger' the mild-mannered amnesic into rediscovering the 'God'-like rush of killing someone — as he had to do when a captive Dr. Ochoa's (Aimee Garcia) life was threatened.
As Elias sussed out his situation, Gilford showed us the wheels always turn-turn-turning. Elias sternly schooled Tessa on why her plan to take his 'network' of killers was ill-conceived, and offered a better approach — but did he mean it? 'It doesn't matter what they know, it matters what they can prove,' he told Tessa after suggesting they frame Ochoa as a confederate, and his ice-cold shrewdness brought back the chills we felt when first meeting Sicarius nearly three years ago.
Spiro's material ran the gamut, due to several beefy flashback sequences — from sexually harassed grad student looking to blow off steam, to Uncle Cyrus' fraught captive, to ambitious Disciple. When Voit appeared to gun down Ochoa in cold blood, Spiro made Tessa seem downright intoxicated by the murderous sight. Similarly, when scolded by Voit, it was clear that Tessa felt blessed to glean wisdom from her own 'God.'
Capping the hour, Spiro got to play Tessa as a crestfallen, betrayed believer, while Gilford in the very final tease got us worrying that Voit's killer instinct in fact has been revived. Brrrr!
Scroll down to see who got Honorable Mention shout-outs this week…
She fooled human lie detector Charlie Cale… and she fooled us, too. Patti Harrison was so good at playing Charlie's dopey new pal Alex in Poker Face's Season 2 finale, we didn't even suspect that she was also the cold-blooded assassin known as The Iguana. And yet Harrison made the transformation from goofball to killer completely seamless, taking on a confidently sinister tone as Alex spelled out how she pulled off her high-risk kills and managed to evade Charlie's lie-detecting skills in the process. (Harrison also made us laugh a lot along the way, like when Alex told Charlie that lying to her 'was like great sex. I assume. I don't really do physical pleasure.') Harrison crafted Alex into the ultimate nemesis for Charlie — so much so that we're actually hoping she survived that fiery car crash at the end, so we can see more of her sly tricks in the future. — Dave Nemetz
Immortal self-care, thy name is The Sandman's Destruction. Along those lines: Kudos to Barry Sloane for playing one of the fantasy series' Endless siblings with such refreshing lightness and ease. Episode 6 of the series' final season showcased Sloane's warm, relaxed performance as Dream and Delirium's 'prodigal' brother, a stark contrast to the gloom so prevalent elsewhere in the story. The joy Sloane brought to his scenes — a knowing smile at Dream's seriousness, a fond glance at Delirium —made us fall in love with the elusive Endless brother despite his scant screen time. Even when Destruction realized he'd have to leave the idyllic Greek island where he'd been hiding, Sloane's wry smile conveyed the character's bittersweet resignation: Destruction would continue, somewhere, and there was nothing to be done about it. Beautiful work, all around. — Kimberly Roots
In Friday's Resident Alien, D'arcy Bloom took a long hard look in the mirror and didn't like what she saw. After drunkenly losing thousands of the diner's money, D'arcy lied to her best friend Asta, who believed her without question. As a result, D'arcy began to spiral and Alice Wetterlund's sad, defeated eyes made us feel her character's remorse. She later admitted she was barely hanging on, leading to a full-blown crisis of conscience, one D'arcy knew stemmed from her worsening drinking problem. 'I don't feel good about my life. Why should I keep going?' she asked Harry, gutting us. The actress' body language and tone forced us to feel her pain all the way to the front steps of an AA meeting. Even when Wetterlund isn't slaying us with her impeccable comedic timing, her instincts and heart are always one of the show's brightest beacons of light. — Nick Caruso
Which performance(s) knocked your socks off this week? Tell us in the comments!
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