In the Heat of the Night Essay For my essay I have chosen to write about the topic about Tibbs and Gillespie understanding and respecting each other. In the beginning of this story Gillespie thought of Virgil as he would of thought of any other Negro, but soon he found out he was wrong, Virgil was a very gifted detective with lots of skills. When Tibbs was first taken in to see Gillespie, Gillespie was yelling and screaming at Tibbs for no reason but Virgil did not break down to the harassment and proved Gillespie wrong by showing him his ID card that proved he was a cop. I think that Virgil earned a little respect from Gillespie their by show