‘Criminal Minds’ star A.J. Cook on Matthew Gray Gubler reunion and Will’s death

It’s hard to say goodbye.

In the newest episode of Criminal Minds: Evolution, a grieving JJ (A.J. Cook) grapples with the funeral of her longtime husband Will (Josh Stewart), a staple since season 2 of the original CBS drama. The detective and father of her two boys (played by Cook’s sons Mekhai and Phoenix) suffered an aneurysm after a thyroid artery rupture following a health scare.

Will’s kitchen collapse, it turns out, was filmed several seasons ago, long before Stewart’s decision to exit the show. “We pulled it because it felt so wrong,” Cook tells Entertainment Weekly of the scene. “We didn’t want to put Will in that position.” But in the wake of Stewart’s surprise departure, showrunner Erica Messer salvaged the scene for Thursday’s emotional sendoff. “We remembered, ‘Oh my gosh, we have this footage that we never used because we did not want to use it.’”

Though Stewart’s exit took the crew by surprise, there’s nothing but love there. “I truly have such admiration and respect for Josh,” Cook says. “We’ve known each other forever. We’ve done movies together. He and my husband are friends. He is so missed. But again, the show has to go on. We just had to do it.”

Also in the episode: Matthew Gray Gubler’s grand — albeit brief — return as Spencer Reid. Cook talks about calling up her old pal to ask him to return, the “fine line” of reuniting JJ and Reid, getting slapped by the late Linda Lavin, and more.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What was your initial reaction when you found out about Will’s fate?

A.J. COOK: It took all of us by surprise when we found out that he wasn’t going to be coming back. It took a while for us to process that and to figure out what was next. I think if we were still on CBS with our original format, we wouldn’t have taken this route because we’ve gone seasons without seeing him. It was more procedural back then. But with this new format, a huge part of the show is the personal lives of these characters that we love so much. After much deliberation, we do what we always do on this show: we write to life. You don’t get to choose when someone dies. Life happens and it blindsides you. And I think that’s why this hurts so badly. We were all so against it, but we didn’t have a say. So how do we move forward without feeling like we are in a prison of how we can write for JJ? We wanted this family safe and protected so badly that when we originally wrote in that cancer storyline, we hated it so much … believe me, if we had Josh coming back, we wouldn’t have shot such a short little thing like that. We would’ve milked it.

Not only does the late and great Linda Lavin appear as Will’s grieving mother, but she slaps you squarely across the face. What was it like sparring with her? And were those slaps real?

What an honor to be slapped by Linda Lavin. I had to swear at that woman, OK? Twice! She is so full of life and giving as an actress. And case in point — one second you’re doing a scene with a person, the next you find out that they’ve passed away. You’d do anything to go back in time to make it not so. But she was such a force. It’s one of the great honors of my life that I got to act with her before she passed. There was such an ease between the two of us. We were on the same wavelength as far as how we approach scenes. She did not slap me. We just made it look real good. 

Matthew Gray Gubler makes his long-awaited return. What was the atmosphere like on set that day?

It felt like a homecoming. It was really wonderful. I was so happy that he came back to do this with us. When we were in the conception of this episode, Erica and I kept going back to the idea of Spence having to be there. It would feel like a huge piece of the puzzle is missing if he couldn’t be there. I called him up and I was like, “Hey, bud, what are you doing? Do you want to come do this?” And being the gracious human that he is, he agreed. When I told him what was happening [with] Will, he was like, “Are you kidding me? I will absolutely be there.” It was a short appearance, but so impactful. It meant the world to me and to our cast and I know it meant a lot to him, too. 

I did want to touch on that. I already know some folks will be unhappy with the minimal screen time between JJ and Reid. What are your thoughts on people still riding that ship so many years later? You’ve spoken about feeling weird about that because they’re besties.

That’s what I was going to say. And having him come back at her husband’s funeral where these characters have said that they love each other? It was a fine line. We did not want to give off that vibe at all. We wanted it to be like, this is your best friend showing up for you in your time of need. So that’s why it was a sensitive thing. It was like, do we hug? Do we not hug? What are the people going to think? It’s so polarized when it comes to [the JJ and Reid shippers].  Everyone is allowed to have a fantasy and think what they want. We were very careful about that. And Erica did let the public know that yes, he’s coming back, but I think her quote was, “He’s a small part in a really big episode,” which is true. But you can’t please everybody. We do our best.

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly’s free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

A lot of folks don’t realize that your sons play your TV sons. This was a very heavy episode. What kind of conversations did you have prior to filming? Was it difficult to shoot?

This was a huge part of the decision making in all of this, too. My boys are highly intelligent, very emotionally stable, well-grounded humans who grew up on this set. They know it’s acting. But I can see how those lines would look blurry to the outsider looking in. What people don’t see is that when they call “cut,” Matthew Gray Gubler is flipping my youngest son around his head. It was so joyful. It was such a juxtaposition. We were all celebrating being together and having fun. Also, as a mother, I’m not opposed to children feeling big emotions. They should. You can’t protect your child from big emotions and the what-ifs of life. I think that’s a disservice to them in a way. My kids, they get it. We had some of the most beautiful memories I’ll have in my lifetime [during] that two week stretch of shooting that episode. There was so much joy involved in making this episode even though it came across as so sad. But they know Josh really well, and my husband is friends with Josh. But yeah, it was absolutely something that I had to think about and talked to the kids about. And they were like, “Mom, are you serious? We’re good.”

What will the rest of JJ’s arc look like this season as she navigates this grief?

It’s going to be messy. Grief is not pretty. There’s so many layers to grief and we’re going to touch on a lot of them. And I will say that she will find healing and comfort in the most unexpected places with the most unexpected people. How’s that for a carrot dangling?

Or a Cheeto dangling.

A Cheeto, yeah. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

New episodes of Criminal Minds: Evolution drop Thursdays on Paramount+.