Criminal Minds has featured many celebrity guest stars over the years, including Evan Peters, who appeared in an episode in season 5. The show follows FBI agents who work for the Behavior Analysis Unit and have a special talent for figuring out why serial killers and kidnappers act the way that they do. As with many procedural shows, new one-off characters are introduced each week, and many of those roles have been filled by well-known actors or newcomers who later became famous. The popularity of Criminal Minds has resulted in over 16 fast-paced seasons and a recent revival, Criminal Minds: Evolution.
Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, and Detective Colin Zabel in Mare of Easttown, which earned him an Emmy. As for Peters's Criminal Minds role, the character is integral to solving a years-long mystery, and while the show is disturbing, several storylines are wrapped up positively. Peters's episode tells a succinct story and finishes with a hopeful ending.
Evan Peters Played Charlie Hillridge On Criminal Minds
Evan Peters played kidnapped teen Charlie Hillridge in Criminal Minds season 5, episode 16, "Mosley Lane." Charlie's location is discovered when his mother, Sarah Hillridge (Ann Cusack), believes that a recently lost child will lead the FBI to find her own son, who has been gone for several years. In this, yet another disturbing Criminal Minds kidnapping storyline, Anita (Beth Grant) and Roger Roycewood (Bud Cort) took Charlie when he was eight and have been hiding him ever since. The couple pretended that their own child had disappeared and screamed their name, which made Sarah pay attention to them, giving them an opening to steal Charlie.
Charlie is one of the more memorable minor characters in Criminal Minds, as in a shocking turn of events, he became part of Anita and Roger's crimes, photographing the children they kidnap. He helps the FBI find the couple and send several children home, and because he is honest about what has happened, they learn necessary information from him. The trauma of what Charlie experienced is clear on his face, as he is shell-shocked that he can finally see his mother again after eight years. Unlike Evan Peters's American Horror Story characters who are killers, Charlie is a lost and lonely child put in an unimaginable and frightening position.
Charlie's Storyline Has A Bittersweet, Somewhat Happy Ending
Evan Peters's Criminal Minds character has as joyful an ending as is possible on a procedural series about murder and kidnapping, and he explains how he was able to stay in Anita and Roger's house for almost a decade because he kept thinking about his mother. As Charlie tells another parent of a victim, "ing you was the only way we survived." The show examines how kidnappers operate and the harsh but realistic lesson that this couple located a vulnerable child and made him part of their dark plan. The FBI agents learn several key lessons from Charlie that will help them find more criminals in the future.
Through his mother's interactions with FBI Agent Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster), Charlie's presence also gives Emily another dark Criminal Minds storyline that has an emotional core. When Sarah asks, "You are just surrounded by darkness. Why do you do it?" Emily replies, "Because of days like this." While Emily and her team have allowed several parents to see their children again, Charlie is the reason why everyone is together again. Although he will live with the pain of his experiences and will never be able to forget being taken away from his mother, he knows that he has done something important.
