Ben Savage makes his debut as a young Agent Gideon on this episode of Criminal Minds, which saw the team investigating the older Gideon’s murder.
The team is stunned to learn that Gideon has been shot and killed, and each is feeling the sadness and pain as they stumble through their grieving. Reid is one of whom is hit the hardest, having been left a goodbye letter years earlier by the agent after he left.
The team is taken back in time to 1978 when the BAU had not been created to its largest capacity and Rossi and Gideon worked in the basement. They were led to a case in Roanoke, where three women had been killed and birds had been left in their hands. The case went nowhere due to the little help the two agents had in investigating it and when a women goes missing in the present, the team feels the killer knew Gideon was investigating the case again and had killed him.
This was a heartbreaking and sad episode, and for fans of Gideon who remember him from the earlier seasons, it’s a harsh pill to swallow knowing this is the last we will ever see of him. In an amazing episode that paid tribute to Gideon and also looked back at the beginnings of the BAU, such as learning where the words profiler and signature came from when it came to their cases, we got to remember the past and mourn in the present. Here’s a look at our top ten moments from “Nelson’s Sparrow.”
Image courtesy of INFphoto.com
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10. Finding him
The team arrives to a cabin where the body of their former co-worker Gideon is laying after being shot. They are all understandably shaken and Reid is near tears as he begins to shut down.
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9. New victim
The case the team is on comes after they find evidence that the unsub targeted Gideon for some reason and they look to an old case for information. As this is happening, the unsub targets a new victim in the same area where he got his old victims years earlier when Rossi and Gideon had investigated. The scene below shows Rossi and Morgan figuring out a clue Gideon left for them as the unsub targets his next victim.
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8. Processing the scene
The team processes the scene of the crime and JJ tells Kate about Gideon. Kate remembers signing up for his class, but then he left to investigate a killer. Garcia is having a hard time going through Gideon’s financial records while Reid finds one of Gideon’s journals. The scene below shows Rossi in the present telling them about the case.
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7. Flashback
The first flashback scene shows Rossi and Gideon working in the basement of the BAU when they were known as the Science Unit. Their first case involved three women being killed with the killer leaving birds in their hands. We get a glimpse of Rossi as he thinks of writing a book and Gideon going through his bird watching.
Image via Twitter from Ben Savage
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6. Reid and Rossi
Reid admits he misses Gideon and thought about him all the time even though he hadn’t spoken to him in a long time. Rossi gently tells him in time it won’t hurt so much.
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5. Comfort
While talking to the medical examiner, Reid is quiet as Morgan listens. She tells them Gideon didn’t suffer and died quickly. Morgan talks to Reid gently and tells him that Gideon needs him to be strong and not to go into himself.
Image via Facebook from Criminal Minds
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4. Ice cream
JJ and Garcia find Gideon’s favorite ice cream, mint chocolate chip, and remember how they once did a test to see if Gideon knew which was the best. They decided to enjoy some ice cream, which is interrupted when Garcia finds out a woman has gone missing.
Image via Twitter from AJ Cook
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3. Signature
In another flashback scene, Gideon and Rossi discuss the case at the diner and Gideon tells Rossi about the type of bird that the killer used and why he did, which was because the birds, called Nelson’s Sparrow, were weak and isolated like the victims he chose. Rossi talks about what he keeps doing and he refers to this as a ‘signature.’ Gideon likes this idea and it shows where the term came from.
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2. Rossi and Mallick
After discovering where their unsub was, the team goes to the facility and is able to rescue the kidnapping victim. Rossi comes face to face with Donnie and he says he would be a big deal going to prison for killing another federal agent. He puts his gun down and we don’t see the shot, but it appears that the man raised his gun and Rossi shot in self-defense.
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1. Stories
After the case is over, we see another flashback showing Rossi and Gideon determined to make the BS Unit bigger so they can come back to solve this one case. It is mentioned that David’s middle name is Stephen, meaning Gideon named his son after him. The team prepares to leave as Rossi gives Giden’s son some comforting words about his father wanting to make the world better for him before Dave and Hotch share a talk about a story Gideon had once told about him and Rossi doing a case where there was a dare to go down a hill on a sled. It’s a beautiful, heartbreaking moment as the two remember their old friend.