The Biggest Mistake Gideon Ever Made On Criminal Minds

An initial crowd-puller for CBS drama "Criminal Minds" was veteran actor Mandy Patinkin. With a storied musical theater career and movies like "The Princess Bride," Patinkin was the most famous of all the actors from the first season of the show in 2005. In a similar manner, Patinkin's Jason Gideon had already made a name for himself when the audience met him in the "Criminal Minds" pilot. Different from the younger team members of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, Patinkin's Gideon was one of the BAU's founders and a legendary profiler. As a senior member of the team, Gideon was wise but unanimated, he was concerned but never panicked. Through the first three seasons, until Patinkin's sudden exit from the show, Gideon remained an integral part of the BAU, both as a profiler and a mentor.

But even as perfect as Gideon's character was, he did have some shortcomings that sometimes frustrated his teammates and the fans alike. From his infamous arrogance and loner image to outright bluntness with other profilers, Gideon could easily get on the fans' nerves. But there was one big mistake, that put into question many of his aforementioned smaller flaws when it impacted a case they were working on.

In the Season 1 finale, the BAU was up against the Fisher King, who led them on a wild chase complete with coded notes and bloody messages on the wall. One rule he asked them to follow was to keep the investigation within the BAU. On Gideon's insistence, however, the team conducted a press conference. The episode ended with the Fisher King shooting Elle Greenaway (Lola Glaudini) as a result.

On a Reddit thread, Redditors expressed their disapproval of Gideon's actions. U/lexifaye114 said, "It's just really annoying to me that Gideon would even call that press conference, but then when Elle nearly died because of it, he showed like no sympathy and did not seem to care at all?"

From the beginning of the episode, Gideon was on the edge since the unsub knew the location of his hidden cabin. He lashed out on Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) the team's tech analyst because the unsub hacked the FBI database through her laptop. For some who were already not fans of Gideon, the episode seemed to be the last nail.

U/madeanaccountbcimmad said, "I was on the fence about Gideon but in Fisher King when he yells at her asking how stupid she can be I lost any hope for him."

In the end, Gideon showed remorse waiting for Elle during her surgery in the hospital. Add to that numerous cases that he cracked, he still continued to be a respected agent within the BAU.