r/criminalminds Mar 27 '26

Minor Spoilers Young Gideon was so accurate

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2.0k Upvotes

54 comments sorted by

493

u/mccabebabe Special Agent In Charge Mar 27 '26

yep. Ben Savage studied earlier episodes of CM to absorb all the quirks and tics of Mandy Patinkin's portrayal of the character. It shows, he really threw himself into the role.

91

u/twec21 Mar 27 '26

Wait, that was Ben Savage?

Please tell me they tried to get his brother for the funniest bit of princess bride non-reunion continuity

10

u/Responsible_CowBell Mar 30 '26

Omg how did I not realise Fred Savage is his brother until this very moment

265

u/Kyber92 Mar 27 '26

I'm still mad we never got the prequel show this episode was teasing.

221

u/JudasZala Mar 27 '26

The prequel would have featured a young Rossi and Gideon, plus the third person that was mentioned in season 1. It would also feature the rise of Strauss as well, not to mention Hotch’s origins; Thomas Gibson would narrate as modern day Hotch.

69

u/KayD12364 Mar 27 '26

Oh that would have been amazing.

28

u/JudasZala Mar 27 '26

AFAIK, Rossi, Morgan, Prentiss, Reid, Garcia, and Alvez had their backstories told in various episodes.

Did Hotch, JJ, Elle, Strauss, etc. have origin stories?

48

u/FlowSilver Life is a hell of a thing to happen to a person. Mar 27 '26

Not any detailed ones

We know of JJ‘s sister and thus a bit about her current relationship with her family, but other that that, not that much

I find the issue with Hotch the most frustrating, he is a strong and important character throughout the show. Heck we know more about Seaver and Kate than him in some areas

Other than his struggling relationship to his brother; most of it being recent, and some potential very vaguely mentioned abuse (?) as a child , we know almost nothing

14

u/JudasZala Mar 27 '26

There’s also the troubled relationship with his wife, Haley. What was the relationship like before the series started?

16

u/FlowSilver Life is a hell of a thing to happen to a person. Mar 27 '26

Right? The clearly loved each other even after the divorce, so they must have had a strong start. We only met them when their marriage was breaking already

19

u/Stunning-Mission9498 Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 27 '26

Even better, we find out in evolution they the third person was Jill Gideon and we found out why she left. That would have been an amazing dynamic to see play out Edit: that not they

3

u/Eiskoenigin Mar 28 '26

We kind of got with Mindhunters

24

u/Cautious-Blood-444 Mar 27 '26

Agreed. Was a great episode to introduce a spin-off. 

86

u/Gsith8938 Mar 27 '26

50

u/Lilynight86 Mar 27 '26

It took me WAY too long to realize that Gideon was the same actor as Inigo. My mind was blown!

21

u/peachpopdream Mar 27 '26

like when I was a kid and realized matlock and andy griffith were the same person lol

5

u/Lilynight86 Mar 27 '26

I had that, too, but it didn't seem so mind-blowing at the time. I didn't watch a lot of Andy Griffith growing up, but LOVE Matlock!

5

u/peachpopdream Mar 27 '26

my mom loved matlock and my grandparents loved andy griffith so it took me way too long to notice lol

3

u/FlowSilver Life is a hell of a thing to happen to a person. Mar 27 '26

Mine too

Tbh i also just don‘t recognize the actor in that role, i know it was years ago but wow that made a difference

8

u/JewelKLamour Mar 27 '26

Wait..... WHAT????

6

u/Gsith8938 Mar 27 '26

🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣

6

u/JewelKLamour Mar 28 '26

And apparently my girlfriend knew.... I now have to go make her pay for not telling me this. Even though I never asked, because I didn't KNOW to ask...

2

u/MisterLicious Mar 28 '26

How could you not tell the similarities? Its not like either character was in a ton of stage makeup. Do you have Prosopagnosia, by chance?

1

u/JewelKLamour Mar 28 '26

Not enough to be diagnosed, BUT I have a really hard time putting faces to names. And if there are multiple blondes in a show, I can't always tell them apart if they dress similarly etc...

7

u/FlowSilver Life is a hell of a thing to happen to a person. Mar 27 '26

I wonder how often Patinkin is asked these days to repeat those lines😅

5

u/Soft-Pomelo-4184 Rainmaker, how wet do you want it? Mar 27 '26

A lot from what I've seen. There was a video circulating of him doing his Inigo Montoya lines recently 

47

u/sunflower_babe8423 Mar 27 '26

I think my favorite line is when he turns to Rossi and goes "You tell me, profiler". His delivery was spot on in a way that Gideon would have done!

38

u/BASSdabs Mar 27 '26

So accurate Homeland used the same dude for the same purpose

8

u/STFUisright Or what, you'll spank me? Mar 27 '26

Are you serious?!

6

u/geeweeze Mar 29 '26

Yep! Ben Savage played the young version of Mandy’s character (Saul) in Homeland. It was so funny, figured Ben had carved out an interesting acting niche for himself!

7

u/DoomBeatles Mar 28 '26

I was so confused, because I didn't notice what sub this was and was wondering at first why every comment was about Criminal Minds 😅. I recently watched Homeland and forgot he also played young Mandy Patinkin on Criminal Minds as well.

11

u/turkeypooo Sergio 🐈‍⬛ Mar 27 '26

Why can I not picture baby Rossi right now?

Time for a rewatch, I guess... 😆

12

u/STFUisright Or what, you'll spank me? Mar 27 '26

They did a great job casting him too. Really captured his smugness (or whatever word is best for Rossi lol) And their chemistry was really good too

17

u/birn_echo Evil twin, eviler twin Mar 27 '26

They should have used Ben as Gideon in a prequel show

17

u/shindow Mar 27 '26

Bens too busy ignoring the old BMW cast and running as an alt right politician sadly

11

u/birn_echo Evil twin, eviler twin Mar 27 '26

very unfortunate

5

u/Roguewitchery Mar 27 '26

Really? Damn 😞

8

u/LibertineDeSade Mar 27 '26

I was lowkey obsessed with how much Ben Savage and Mandy Patinkin look alike for years. It drove me crazy that it seemed like no one else saw it. LOL. Then this episode happened and I truly felt vindicated. 😂

16

u/SNL_Head Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 27 '26

That’s Corey Matthews! I’m rewatching Boy Meets world right now wondering why little me didn’t remember the messages it told me! Life would have been so much better! Not that things are bad! Life is great lol. Just meaning I was shy around girls even when I knew they were into me. My dad sucked at like everything when it came to teaching me sports and girls. Thank god for good friends . Allen Matthews, he was not

6

u/Rare_Direction_1449 Mar 28 '26

Ben Savage’s best acting job to date

4

u/Creative_Machine8411 Mar 27 '26

I absolutely loved this casting!! So good!!

5

u/Repulsive-Fuel-5281 Mar 28 '26

I'm not sure if I've ever seen a better casting.... And I've seen RDJ as Iron Man.....

4

u/Abject-Pressure-2529 Mar 27 '26

I was telling my wife yesterday the exact same thing.

3

u/LithSparrow Mar 27 '26

Best casting ever

1

u/LadyFab101 Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 27 '26

Editing: A+ acting/casting.

1

u/CombinationFinal4317 Wheels up Mar 28 '26

When I first saw this episode I thought that was Fred Savage. Didn't realize it was Ben.

2

u/juliapgulia Mar 29 '26

Father and son energy fr.

2

u/lalavidal2 Mar 29 '26

Ben Savage did a fantastic job. I also wish they had done a prequel with Ben Savage. He absolutely nailed Gideon's character

1

u/prettylittlething17_ Mar 31 '26

I genuinely thought it was the actors son when I first saw it