Connor Storrie is returning to Criminal Minds: Evolution this week as Lance Kingston. The guest star’s fate looks dubious in an exclusive new clip released Wednesday ahead of Thursday’s sixth episode.

The Criminal Minds squad crashes into the unit that Storrie’s Lance had been in to find him seemingly unconscious and branded, the result of the last episode’s torture of the man who had been held hostage.

Storrie has been guest starring on the show’s 19th season. His four-episode guest arc began on June 11 and will continue over the next two episodes. The role is the 26-year-old’s first televised role since his breakout in the surprise hit television series, Heated Rivalry but was filmed before the series premiered.

Hailing from Canadian streamer Crave and airing on HBO Max in the U.S., Heated Rivalry centers on a fictional hockey universe based on the popular romance books by Reid. The show’s first season is based on the second novel, Heated Rivalry. Tierney created, wrote and directed the series.

The show focuses on two rival professional players — Canada-born Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) of the fictitious Montreal Metros and Russia-born Ilya Rozanov (Storrie) of the fictitious Boston Raiders — as they navigate a near-decade-long situationship-turned-relationship.

The show has made certified stars out of both Storrie and Williams. In the months since the show’s premiere, the pair have presented at the Golden Globes, served as torchbearers in the 2026 Olympic Torch Relay, attended the Met Gala and each booked post-Heated Rivalry roles. 

Crave renewed Heated Rivalry for a second season early into the show’s first season run. HBO Max has confirmed it will continue to air the series. The show is slated to shoot the second season this summer and is aiming for a spring 2027 release. The upcoming season will be based on the next installment of Shane and Ilya’s story in Reid’s novels, The Long Game, along with the fifth book in the series, Role Model.

Reid announced earlier this year that she’ll be publishing her seventh book in the Game Changers series. The book, Unrivaled, will be the next chapter in Shane and Ilya’s story, which is set to be released in June 2027.

Storrie can be seen in tomorrow’s Criminal Minds: Evolution episode and next week’s seventh episode. Watch an exclusive clip from Thursday’s episode below.

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