‘Criminal Minds’ Recap Episode 2 — Tara New Romance With [Spoiler]

The following contains spoilers of a sort from Episode 2 of Criminal Minds: Evolution, now streaming exclusively on Paramount+.

“Is everybody around here getting laid, except me?”

Emily Prentiss had to wonder that aloud in Episode 2 of Paramount+’s Criminal Minds: Evolution, after seeing a glowing JJ report to work after a “date morning” with Will, and having learned earlier in the episode that Tara’s “friend” at the DOJ, Rebecca Wilson (played by Nicole Pacent), is oh so much more than that.

When Prentiss got another earful from Deputy Director Bailey, Tara offered to solicit some inside dish from Rebecca Wilson at the DOJ. And after Rebecca paid the BAU a visit to share how Bailey rose in the FBI’s ranks as an “efficiency expert,” Prentiss in private teased Tara about her clearly having a thing with their new ally!

Tara — who we previously knew to have both an ex-husband and an ex-fiancé — affirmed that she and Rebecca have been dating for “a couple of months.” And that while it’s not her first time dating a woman, it’s the first time she remembers “being this happy,” she beamed.

TVLine asked Criminal Minds vet Aisha Tyler what she thought of this development in Tara’s personal life, and she attested, “I loved it,” noting that “Tara hasn’t had a relationship since she joined the BAU in Season 11.

“I think that she’s really been married to the work and happy about it,” Tyler added, “so I think the relationship has been a really nice surprise.”

But the surprises won’t end with the reveal of the romance itself, apparently.

Rather, Tara’s relationship with Rebecca “is going to affect her life in some very specific and surprising ways as the season continues on,” Tyler previewed. “The fact of the matter is that this is all-consuming work” that Tara does for the FBI, “and in the real world there’s no way it doesn’t creep into the edges of your personal life.

“The devotion to tracking down the worst of the worst criminals amongst us is bound to have a effect on a profiler’s life,” Tyler explained, “and we’re going to see thats seismic conflict come together this season.”

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