‘Heated Rivalry’ Star Connor Storrie Gets Put Through the Wringer Again in His Latest ‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’ Return
Few television guest arcs in recent memory have generated the kind of genuine excitement that surrounds Connor Storrie’s presence in ‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’. The actor first made waves as Ilya Rozanov, the brooding Russian hockey star at the center of the Canadian sports romance series ‘Heated Rivalry’, which streams on Crave and airs in the United States on HBO Max. The show follows the complicated and evolving relationship between two professional hockey players, with Storrie’s character going head-to-head with Hudson Williams’ Canadian player Shane Hollander. That breakout role catapulted the 26-year-old into a new tier of recognition almost overnight.
‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’ returned for its nineteenth season exclusively on Paramount+, continuing the franchise’s story of the Behavioral Analysis Unit as they contend with a network of killers and a dangerous new threat tied to the notorious serial killer Elias Voit. The season debuted with a two-episode launch and delivers new installments every Thursday, with the full run spanning ten episodes. It is a rich, serialized canvas, and the creative team clearly knew what they had when Storrie walked into the room.
Storrie is now back in the latest episode of the season as his character Lance Kingston, with The Hollywood Reporter sharing an exclusive new clip ahead of Thursday’s sixth episode. The BAU squad crashes into the unit where Lance had been held, finding him seemingly unconscious and branded, the aftermath of torture shown in the previous episode. His four-episode guest arc began on June 11 and will stretch across two more upcoming installments. The exclusive clip makes it abundantly clear that Lance’s situation has gone from bad to genuinely alarming.
What makes the arc even more compelling is how it came together behind the scenes. Showrunner Erica Messer told TV Insider that Storrie was only ever meant to appear in one episode, but after seeing what he brought to the screen, the team reworked the back half of the season entirely. “We kept escalating it. So, next thing you know, Connor Storrie’s getting drugged and thrown in the back of a trunk and then he’s getting tortured and all kinds of stuff ends up happening to him,” she explained. It is the kind of snowball effect that productions rarely talk about so candidly, and it speaks to just how immediately Storrie registered with the creative team.
Series star Adam Rodriguez, who directed the episode in which Storrie first appeared, also played a pivotal role in getting him cast and told TV Insider it felt surreal to watch his career explode in the time between filming and the season’s premiere. Rodriguez described Storrie as “a very likable guy” who brought great energy to the crew and to every department on set, making the decision to expand his role feel natural rather than forced.
Notably, the role marks Storrie’s first televised appearance since ‘Heated Rivalry’ launched him to broader fame, though his ‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’ episodes were filmed before that series ever premiered. With ‘Heated Rivalry’ already renewed for a second season and slated to shoot this summer with a spring 2027 release targeting the next chapters of Rachel Reid’s Game Changers novels, Storrie’s schedule is only growing more packed. The ‘Criminal Minds’ guest stint now reads like a fascinating footnote, proof that his talent was drawing attention well before the rest of the world caught up.
With Lance Kingston battered, branded, and barely conscious in the latest clip, fans watching on Paramount+ are left wondering just how much more punishment the character can survive before the season reaches its finale. Are you rooting for Lance to make it out of the ‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’ season alive, or do you think his grim trajectory is already pointing somewhere darker?
