Won't Get Fooled Again
Directed by Kevin Bray
Written by Aaron Zelman & Andrew Wilder
Written by Aaron Zelman & Andrew Wilder
Gideon: Samuel Johnson wrote, "Almost all absurdities of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble."
An UnSub sends people bomb packages. The profile is atypical of a bomber profile, and Gideon decides to consult another serial bomber whom he put in jail.
This episode provides examples of:
- Action Bomb: When cornered, David Walker gives up his gun and soon detonates a bomb he had in his bag in an attempt to take out the officers who were there to arrest him, but they fortunately figure out his plan in time.
- An Arm and a Leg: The victim in the intro gets his leg blown off. Had he not have been stopped from entering his car, he would've died.
- Awful Wedded Life: Mrs. Walker warns Elle not to marry the first man who proposes to her, with it being the only characterization she has before she's hit by her husband escaping in a car with no hesitation, making it clear that it's mutual.
- Blunt "No":Hotch: Yes, I was a little bit of a nerd [in my childhood]. Is that so surprising?
[Elle and JJ look at each other]
Elle: Not to me. - Call-Back: Bale was the bomber in the case referenced in episode one, where Gideon made the wrong call and six Agents lost their lives.
- Car Fu: During Walker's attempt to escape from the FBI, he attempts to run over Elle and succeeds in running down his wife.
- Consulting a Convicted Killer: Similarities in bombs lead the team into talking to Adrian Bale. After trying to use this to get better conditions, he winds up back in prison and now branded as a snitch.
- Dramatic Drop: Emily mentions a package to her mother, and when she describes it, her mother immediately drops an egg and runs towards her as she realizes it's a bomb.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Garcia says she didn't get into medical school and that her father wasn't surprised by this. This contradicts her backstory established in later seasons.
- Genre Savvy: Gideon being this almost gets part of his team killed. He's so used to only being called in for people with mental problems and compulsions that he temporarily forgets that the current perpetrator is more of a standard criminal merely aping the methods of one of said psychotics to cover up his more mundanely motivated crimes.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Adrian specifically taunts Gideon over failing to realize that he could never deny himself seeing a bomb go off. In the climax, with terms of the deal being if Adrian tells the truth he'll get a transfer and if he lies the deal is void, he once again lies and tries to get Gideon to set the bomb off and get people killed. This time Gideon is expecting it, probably in part due to those early taunts.
- Jack the Ripoff: The bomber terrorizing Palm Beach turns out to be a copycat of the imprisoned Boston Bomber, the man who singlehandedly killed Agent Gideon's original team.
- Meaningful Name: Adrian Bale loves to create large balls of fire with his bombs. His name refers to both the word "bale" and the word "balefire".
- My Greatest Second Chance: Gideon manages to come to terms with his greatest failure when his new team is put at risk of dying in an explosion like his older one, but he reads the situation correctly this time and can prevent it... both times.
- Ripped from the Headlines: The bomber's M.O. is based on Mark Hoffmann's, and the neck bomb is taken from the death of Brian Douglas Wells.
- Shout-Out: The title quotes the theme song of CSI: Miami.
- Smug Snake: Adrian regarding his kills to the FBI agents and hostage several years ago. He enjoys gloating over Gideon, which makes it all the more satisfying when the latter pulls one over him by using his own gloating against him.
- Strapped to a Bomb: A hostage comes into the office in this manner and it has to be defused.
