RoundTable Mondays: Aaron Hotchner

[ficdirectory.livejournal.com]

Aaron Hotchner grew up suffering physical abuse at the hands of his workaholic, lawyer father. (Season 1). It's strongly implied that his mother did little to stop the abuse. Hotch has a younger brother named Sean, who is a chef in NYC. Their father survived cancer, but later died of a heart-attack at 47, while Sean was still a child.


Hotch married his high school sweetheart, Haley Brooks, soon after high school, and he worked as a prosecutor for the District Attorney's office. The first case Hotch ever worked with the FBI involved the Boston Reaper, in 1998.

Hotch's son, Jack, was born in 2005. Haley begins to resent all the time Hotch spends at work as early as Season 1. Haley filed for divorce in Season 3. In early Season 4 Hotch suffered acute acoustic trauma and a shrapnel wound to his leg after being too near an explosion. At the end of Season 4, George Foyet (The Reaper) breaks into Hotch's apartment and stabs him 9 times before delivering him to a local hospital, and stealing Haley and Jack's address. Hotch's family is then put into protective custody.

However, in Season 5, The Reaper got to the US Marshall assigned to Hotch's family and tortured him, trying to get him to tell where Haley and Jack were located. He withstood everything that Foyet had, according to fellow agent, Spencer Reid, but The Reaper used the Marshall's cell phone to contact Haley. He posed as someone with Witness Protection and told her that Hotch had been killed and her location had been compromised. Unaware that Hotch was alive, and she was speaking with a killer, Haley lets Foyet in. She gets in contact with Hotch and they have a final conversation. Hotch is able to issue a code to Jack telling him to "work the case", and Jack was able to hide in the house. Haley was (possibly) shot and also stabbed.

Hotch arrived to find her body and fought Foyet to keep him from locating Jack. Hotch ends up beating Foyet to death to keep this from occurring. He takes custody of Jack, and Haley's sister, Jessica, takes care of Jack when Hotch is away on a case.

In Season 6, he is reluctant to allow Erin Strauss to promote fellow FBI teammate Jennifer Jareau, against JJ's will. Hotch promises he will work on getting her back. In her absence, Hotch takes over part of her job as media liaison, despite his busy schedule. When co-worker, Emily Prentiss is threatened by an international criminal, Hotch makes the decision to bring JJ in to help find Emily. When it's clear that she will not be safe, Hotch and JJ fake Emily's death and get her out of the country through covert exfiltration. Though he is quite serious, Hotch takes moments to talk to his team and make sure they are coping with the demands of the job, or to discuss a potentially dangerous moment on the field. He and Derek Morgan often discuss the importance of trust between the team, and encourages Morgan to trust the others on the team. He tells Penelope Garcia that he knows when she has to step out of her comfort zone, it's very difficult for her, but that he would not want her to change herself for the job. He makes sure Reid gets respect despite his young age, and reassures him that he does not have to give answers others want to hear, while he is grieving Emily's loss. He also helps Rossi cope with the loss of his first wife in Season 7.

Prior to Season 7, Hotch was working in Pakistan, but came back in time to reaveal to the team that Emily Prentiss is alive. He tells the team it was his decision and any "issues" should be directed at him, and not fellow conspiritor, JJ. Hotch has also been promoted to Section Chief, because the former (Erin Strauss) was dealing with alcoholism and needed to go into treatment after drinking on the job. In what little free time Hotch has, he goes to Jack's school conferences, tries to help him through issues of potential bullying. We learned recently that Hotch is also an athlete and has been training for a triathlon, during which he meets a woman named Beth. Hotch is concerned initially because he only lost Haley two years ago, and it may be too fast. But the episode ends with Hotch smiling.


What is your favorite Aaron Hotchner episode?

Is there a part of Aaron's life that you wish got more focus?

What is Hotch's most striking character trait?

What is your favorite Hotch scene?

What do you think makes Hotch an integral part of the BAU?

For writers, how do you portray Hotch? Are there aspects of his life that are not on the show that you incorporate into your fiction? Do you stick pretty close to what the show portrays with regard to his character?

For readers, how do you like your Hotch portrayed? Stoic and serious? A family man? Do you prefer him in danger or saving the day?

What do you think makes Hotch tick?

Feel free to add any other thoughts about Hotch's character in this post, but keep it respectful, please. Disagreement is part of life, but don't put another person down to make your point.

Comments

[nannerz2cool.livejournal.com]

What is your favorite Aaron Hotchner episode?
Definitely 100, but Ashes & Dust and The Tribe are also right up there for me.

Is there a part of Aaron's life that you wish got more focus?
I adore Hotch's relationship with his son, and I would love to see more of that.

What is Hotch's most striking character trait?
That calm stoicism!

What is your favorite Hotch scene?
The phone call in 100. Him sitting with the dying woman in Ashes & Dust and having Gideon and Morgan have to hold him back at the end of the episode. Him using his baton to take down suspects in The Tribe.

For readers, how do you like your Hotch portrayed? Stoic and serious? A family man? Do you prefer him in danger or saving the day?
He needs to be stoic when I read him. I also love reading his trials as a single father. I much prefer him being in danger than saving the day.

[ficdirectory.livejournal.com]

I agree! I really like 100 and Ashes and Dust really brings out another side of Hotch's character. I love his relationship with Jack. The calm stoicism is the cornerstone of Hotch, for sure. Nothing rattles him, does it? I love all those scenes, and I also like him being stoic when I read him and as a father, too. <3

[citjara.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'd say he's often more shaken then he lets on. Sometimes, he slips. And sometimes, he crumbles.

[bluerosefairy.livejournal.com]

What is your favorite Aaron Hotchner episode?
- I love him in scenes from most episodes, but for sheer range, you can't go wrong with "Omnivore", "Nameless, Faceless", and "100".

Is there a part of Aaron's life that you wish got more focus?
- Hey, remember when Hotch had a brother who was a chef in New York? And a mom who was born in the South? And a sister-in-law who was supposed to be helping him take care of his son? Yeah, I don't know where they went, either.

What is Hotch's most striking character trait?
- The times when that stoic demeanor cracks, and you get a glimpse of his inner anger. I'm also a big fan of his sneaky sense of humor.

What is your favorite Hotch scene?
- The Hotchalanche from "Tabula Rasa". The total BAMF moment in "Damaged" when he calls Chester Hardwicke a coward. Any of his scenes with Foyet.

What do you think makes Hotch an integral part of the BAU?
- No one could run that team like Hotch. You need both a strong leader and a soft personal touch, and a personality that doesn't overwhelm the rest of your team. You need a leader who trusts his people beyond question, but you also need a leader who is willing to be the disciplinarian. Gideon by himself is too focused on cases. Rossi by himself is too abrasive. Strauss wouldn't engender personal loyalty. Morgan doesn't have the self-sacrifice (yet). Hotch is all those things, plus a pretty freaking awesome Team Mom.

For writers, how do you portray Hotch? Are there aspects of his life that are not on the show that you incorporate into your fiction? Do you stick pretty close to what the show portrays with regard to his character?
- I do have a bit of headcanon that will probably never be addressed or validated that mainly focuses on his past. I believe his mother was a well-known, well-off WASP (possibly a DAR type) who selectively ignored his father's abuse. I believe that abuse was probably based less on alcohol and more on a suspicion that one or more of his children weren't his children. That environment fueled his devotion to duty and appearances, and probably influenced his marriage a good deal.

For readers, how do you like your Hotch portrayed? Stoic and serious? A family man? Do you prefer him in danger or saving the day?
- As long as he's in-character, I'm flexible. I can read him as a lot of things, though I'm not a huge fan of Hotch!whump. Poor guy gets tortured enough on the show.

What do you think makes Hotch tick?
- Duty. There is a reason he identified so much with that Gilbert and Sullivan quote. Also, nothing is more important than his son and nothing terrifies him more than failing Jack.

[ficdirectory.livejournal.com]

I love the comparison you drew about why Hotch is the strongest option for team leader, though I'll admit that I have never seen him as the team mom. Very insightful to read how you portray him in fic.

[nwjarvis.livejournal.com]

Aaron Hotchner grew up suffering physical abuse at the hands of his workaholic, lawyer father. (Season 1). It's strongly implied that his mother did little to stop the abuse.

Really? It's never stated that his father was the abuser. With his father at work so much it could easily have been his mother. Or step-father, depending on how old Aaron was when his father died and whether his mother remarried.

Hotch has a younger brother named Sean, who is a chef in NYC. Their father survived cancer, but later died of a heart-attack at 47, while Sean was still a child.

I always thought it was the other way around - a heart attack is more survivable than lung cancer, especially since Hotch talks about his father visiting banks and lawyers, "getting his affairs in order".

Anyway. Enough nit-pickery.

I think the character trait that strikes me most is one that is not immediately obvious. Hotch presents the image of a classic, buttoned down "FBI Guy". Mr. Rules. And he certainly is one to enforce the rules.

But when the chips are down and the sewage is in the ventilation system, Ethics trump Rules.

Morgan: Is that wise?
Hotch: No, but it is in order.

Pretty much all his actions in "No Way Out II". Also visible in "Profiler, Profiled" if you subscribe to the theory - as I do - that Hotch let Morgan escape.

[pwalkeri.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure it is actually stated that his father was abusive while he's interviewing the sociopath who also has an abusive father and neglectful mother. I can totally picture the scene in my head, but I have no idea what episode it's from D: But Hotch totally threw the UNSUB off his game by telling him they had similar childhoods, except Hotch turned out to be a good guy.

[nwjarvis.livejournal.com]

Well, it's never been actually stated anywhere. But it sure as hell was suggested.

The episode is from Season 1, "Natural Born Killer".

Hotch has the sociopath Vince Perotta in the interview room. The team has figured out, based on his behavior, that he and his mother were abused by his father.

Hotch describes his (Perotta's)childhood to him in detail. How his father beat him - and his mother - every day, how Perotta learned to take the beatings but in the back of his mind thought "One day. One day when I'm big enough".

During the conversation, Perotta lets slip a bit of information that lets the troops find the FBI Agent he was holding hostage, still alive.

Now we come to the key part of the conversation:

Hotch says, "You were just responding to what you learned, Vincent. When you grow up in an environment like that, an extremely abusive, violent household... it's not surprising that some people grow up to become killers."

(Other agents come in and begin to unchain Vincent to take him to lockup)

Vincent says, "Some people?"

Hotch says, "What's that?"

Vincent says, "You said some people grow up to become killers.

Hotch just stares at him for a moment, then gives a little nod and says, "Some people grow up to catch them."

So, definitely suggested.

And while I'm at it, I want to say that that interview is one of the most powerful scenes ever filmed for CM. Scripted by Erica Messer and Debra Fisher, directed by Peter Ellis, the lighting sets the perfect background for Thomas Gibson and Patrick Kilpatrick working at the top of their form.

Jeeze, that sounds like a gushy review, doesn't it? Still, watch that scene again and see if you still wonder what's missing from the recent crop of episodes.

[freakingdork.livejournal.com]

I agree. It's only been (very strongly) hinted that Hotch was abused and never specified which parent. But I believe it hinted more towards his father than his mother.

Also, there's been some continuity errors in Hotch's backstory (some have joked that he'd need a Tardis to have accomplished everything the writers say he has, for example) and one of those errors is how his father died. Some fans have said that he was lying to the missing child's father as an "opening," but I've believed it to be an error, given his reaction to Jordan lying to a victim's family.

[nwjarvis.livejournal.com]

About the victim's father: I don't think he was lying, either; his reaction when he realized what was going on was too real for it not to be a little personal.

Also, I think in "The Tribe" he just said (to Sean) that their father "worked himself into a heart attack" at age 47... I don't have the exact figures at hand, but I think AHA says that around 10-20% of first heart attacks are fatal, depending on a lot of factors.

So odds are that the elder Hotchner survived the attack. It doesn't take much fanwank to assume he survived it only to die later of lung cancer.

But Tardis, definitely. Hotch evidently gave Reid a run for his money getting through college and law school in time to do all the stuff on his resume.

[ficdirectory.livejournal.com]

Just pointing out that I got all my information from my own recollection as well as Wikipedia. And while I know Wikipedia isn't reliable I'd rather state one option or the other instead of having everything being ambiguous, but everyone's totally welcome to their own interpretations.

[nwjarvis.livejournal.com]

Don't like ambiguous? Boy are YOU in the wrong fandom. *g*

Was Hotch abused?

Is Prentiss bisexual?

Did Hotch shoot the unsub in "A Real Rain" because of his memory of the Iowa incident or because he really thought Gideon was in danger?

Did Reid continue using dilaudid for a time after Tobias? Or was he on legitimate pain scripts? Maybe helped along with gin? Did he kick it right in front of everybody?

Et cetera and so forth.

Let me just say here that this is all said with a big grin. I have nothing but affection for any member of our fandom - I also have an odd sense of humor (see icon). So I'm just "joshin'" a little... no offense intended.

[citjara.livejournal.com]

> What is your favorite Aaron Hotchner episode?

I haven't seen them all, but I really liked "In Name and Blood". I was so sorry for him, he was torn between Haley and the team. If Morgan hadn't begged and Gideon hadn't run away, he would probably be working 9-to-5 white collar crimes today. I also really liked him in "Seven Seconds". Suffering Hotch at the end said so much about his emtional state then.

I like him whenever he gets really intense!

> Is there a part of Aaron's life that you wish got more focus?

The father side. Let's hear about Jack once in a while. And no abduction or creeps for Jack. Thank You.

> What is Hotch's most striking character trait?

He's a true gentleman. Someone above commented that he came from a well off, traditional family and I'm tempted to agree. I'd say he was raised to have good manners, be gentle and kind to others. Values mean a lot to him, he has a strong sense for right and wrong. Loyalty is important for him. He's also pretty straight-laced & by-the-book (the traditional cop on the show, if you will) and these two areas sometimes collide. He doesn't usually let on what he thinks or feels, he's very internal that way, but these things do touch him.

> What is your favorite Hotch scene?

I really liked, and, was surprised by the Reid-Hug in "Revelations". I also really like the "Everbody tell me my fault"-scene from the same epi. His thanks at the end of "Fisher King"... I'm sure there's more to come... he can be so INTENSE!

> What do you think makes Hotch an integral part of the BAU?

He is stable and very attuned to his team members. He watches out for them and makes sure they all are okay. For example, Reid. He often will notice that Reid has something to say and will ask Reid if it's clear he's struggling with formulating that right. He'll also keep Reid in order if he (Reid) gets carried away. In "Birthright", he noticed how JJ wasn't handling the case well and offered help. She didn't have to beg for it. He is the Team Mom or Team Dad. The one everybody feels they can trust and talk to and who will help them.

> For writers, how do you portray Hotch? Are there aspects of his life that are not on the show that you incorporate into your fiction? Do you stick pretty close to what the show portrays with regard to his character?

I think he's so hard to write. Writing itself is often pretty internal (you're inside a character), but Hotch is played in a way that we're only privy to very few of his thoughts and feelings and this makes writing him so hard. I try to stick with canon Hotch and not make him too emotional on the outside. I haven't written much of him (or CM in general), but I aim for this "still waters run deep".

> For readers, how do you like your Hotch portrayed? Stoic and serious? A family man? Do you prefer him in danger or saving the day?

In canon. Not too emotional. Not whiney. Not sharing all he thinks for feels.

> What do you think makes Hotch tick?

Good question. I think he's a very decent guy who wants to make the world a better place. This probably ain't a conscious decision, but just his way of life.

[ficdirectory.livejournal.com]

I agree with what you said about Hotch being very hard to write! He is for me, too. Someone who I really have to focus in order to write.

[tearbos.livejournal.com]

What is your favorite Aaron Hotchner episode? "The Tribe" for the 'Captain America' reference mainly. '100' for everything Hotch in it.

Is there a part of Aaron's life that you wish got more focus? I'd love for his background to be filled out/clarified a little more.

What is Hotch's most striking character trait? His consistency. With a few major exceptions, he typically sticks to his usual actions. You know almost exactly what to expect from him.

What is your favorite Hotch scene? I love almost any scene with good Rossi/Hotch interaction. I love how Rossi brings out sides of him that we otherwise haven't seen- the close friend, the junior agent, etc.

What do you think makes Hotch an integral part of the BAU? No one does it like him. That simple!

For writers, how do you portray Hotch? Are there aspects of his life that are not on the show that you incorporate into your fiction? Do you stick pretty close to what the show portrays with regard to his character? For me (and while this applies to all the characters, it is especially true of Hotch) I have to write him in a way that I could see play out onscreen. Even if the topic isn't one that would be addressed exactly on the show, his words and actions have to FEEL like they could be canon.

For readers, how do you like your Hotch portrayed? Stoic and serious? A family man? Do you prefer him in danger or saving the day? I'm only slightly more lenient in my reading. I'll allow for a tiny bit of creative license, but if it doesn't read like the Hotch I know, I'm done reading.

What do you think makes Hotch tick? I think he just wants to do the right thing- no matter what that is- in any given situation.

[ficdirectory.livejournal.com]

I really like what you said about Hotch's best character trait being consistency and how Rossi brings out a side of Hotch we wouldn't usually see. I find myself agreeing too, with your POV on reading and writing Hotch.

[citjara.livejournal.com]

>For me (and while this applies to all the characters, it is especially true of Hotch) I have to write him in a way that I could see play out onscreen. Even if the topic isn't one that would be addressed exactly on the show, his words and actions have to FEEL like they could be canon.

This! My Thoughts exactly.

[chreesko.livejournal.com]

What is your favorite Aaron Hotchner episode?
I don't know if it's my favorite, but the one I rewatch most often is Omnivore. I love 100 and Slave of Duty, but those are too unpleasant to see again and again. Omnivore has the Hotch moments I want without the unrelenting pain and unhappy endings. There's still hope, at that point, that it won't all go to hell in a handbasket. Plus, his interactions with Foyet are brilliant, and you can see why and how Foyet developed his Hotch-fixation.

Is there a part of Aaron's life that you wish got more focus?
Not really. I'm pretty happy with how his character has developed over the years, and I think spelling out parts of his backstory in more detail or giving it too much focus would actually ruin it. I guess, if I absolutely had to choose something, I would like to see more Hotch-in-biking shorts scenes. For the story, you understand.

What is your favorite Hotch scene?
My favorite Hotch moment is in Minimal Loss, where he's the only one to keep his headphones on as Cyrus beats Prentiss. Aside from demonstrating his position as team “Mom”, as someone mentioned above (Moms are usually the ones who do take care of the unpleasantness and day-to-day nastiness that children encounter), Hotch said in Revelations that he never puts himself above the team, and you can see that here. As leader, he can't give himself even the small comfort of not listening, because as leader, it's his job to take on that burden. And the one thing Hotch would never do is shirk his duty to the team.

For readers, how do you like your Hotch portrayed? Stoic and serious? A family man? Do you prefer him in danger or saving the day?
In danger, I guess? Except I think that's a lot harder to write well, since it requires getting inside his head and accurately gauging his reactions beyond what we've seen onscreen. As someone who doesn't write very much, it seems like there's a huge wealth of experience and onscreen reactions to draw from when writing Hotch rushing in to save the day, but only a few instances of in-danger!Hotch (and even those have been somewhat cursory). Still waters run deep, but it can be hard to accurately portray that depth when what we see 95% of the time is the calm surface.

As far as calm and serious vs. family man, again, I think family man is one of those things that's hard to do well because it requires going outside of the parameters we see 95% of the time. There are a lot of authors out there who do do it well, but that's more a testament to their talent than anything else. Generally, I'd much rather read a casefile than a fic that could be portraying some generic sitcom family.

(I don't know if I'd call Hotch stoic, though. He's cried onscreen more times than anyone else on the team.)

What do you think makes Hotch tick?
A desire to stop bad guys. And, in cases where bad people have already done bad things, to mete out justice. What the team does is very, very unpleasant, and I think he knows how rare it is to have an ability to take on the badness and absorb it in a way that doesn't destroy you. Hotch deals with the badness so that other people don't have to (we kind of saw it in that scene with Prentiss' beating, too). There have been hints that he had a very nasty childhood. I guess utilizing the tools his upbringing gave him to make the world safer for others by catching serial killers is his way of turning lemons into lemonade.

[ficdirectory.livejournal.com]

We'll have to agree to disagree on Team Mom. I just don't see it. :) And I have to disagree again about Hotch crying more than anyone else on screen. I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) that Garcia has cried more than anyone else...

[nwjarvis.livejournal.com]

OK, well, let's try this approach...

In general, how would you define a Team Mom? And who, if anyone, in the CM team fits the description?

[chreesko.livejournal.com]

Is that because you don't see the team members as each filling a “family” role? I go back and forth on whether I do, too, so I get that viewpoint. But for some reason Hotch's role within the team just reminds me of that refrigerator commercial with the kids and dad yelling “Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Honey!” because they can't find anything without her. I don't know.

I wasn't counting Garcia (or rather, to be perfectly honest, I forgot about her). ;) So I guess I'll amend it to say that other than Garcia, then, i.e., among the active field agents, Hotch has cried or almost-cried the most: Omnivore, Nameless, Faceless, 100, Slave of Duty, and The Bittersweet Science. That's a lot of cries.

[nannerz2cool.livejournal.com]

Just chiming in on the "Mom" debate...

My hang-up on calling Hotch the "Mom" of the team stems from Season 1, where Hotch & Gideon were often referred to as "Mom & Dad." Yes, Elle calls Gideon "Dad" on at least one occasion, but in my opinion he is much more maternal than Hotch. (And therefore, just because Rossi's there now and more harsh or whatever than Hotch, it doesn't follow that Hotch should be so ambiguous a character that he would be able to switch from "Dad" to "Mom," just due to the fact that his co-worker changed.)

Also, I agree with a comment below saying that JJ seems the team "mom." To me, the "parents" of the team are Hotch and JJ.

[citjara.livejournal.com]

> I would like to see more Hotch-in-biking shorts scenes. For the story, you understand.

Oh, I understand ;-)

PS: Thanks for a "Good Morning Giggle"!

[dhae_knight_1]

Very late to the party because I come to you courtesy of the Dreamwidth feed. But... this was Hotch! :-)

What is your favorite Aaron Hotchner episode? 100 is the easy answer, isn't it? Because Gibson hits that one straight out of the park with an absolutely amazing range of emotions. I really like the ep. with the daughter/prostitute, too, just because he's hanging right on the edge and not seeing the unsub right in front of him comes so close to pushing him off.

Is there a part of Aaron's life that you wish got more focus? Rewatching season 1 at the moment, I wish someone would shake Hotch out of his post-Haley funk at the office, so he'd have some fun again. I loved his so-close-but-not-really flirting with Garcia, and the way he'd sometimes laugh with his team. I miss that.

What is Hotch's most striking character trait? Control. At all times. You really get the feeling that he's afraid to slip up, even a little. And now that he has, with Foyet... well. We all saw what happened.

What is your favorite Hotch scene? The Hotchalanche in Tabula Rasa. And getting Reid's message (and the aftermath: "What's my worst quality?") in Revelations. Oh, and washing the blood of Elle's wall. That one just... summed up Hotch in a single frame. I could keep going, since Hotch is my favorite character, but... you get the picture, yes?

What do you think makes Hotch an integral part of the BAU? His solidity. Even when he's falling apart personally, he's the bedrock of the team. I was happy to see Rossi join, because he added some much needed support (not least because he's sneaky about it!), but Hotch is always there, to pick up the team when they need it. And when he falters (Foyet's attack, applying for a transfer, even surrendering team lead to Morgan) the team just doesn't function at full capacity.

For writers, how do you portray Hotch? Are there aspects of his life that are not on the show that you incorporate into your fiction? Do you stick pretty close to what the show portrays with regard to his character? I stick very close to the show in terms of characterization. Or, at least, I try. By the nature of things, I do try to show a lot more of his home-life than the show does, and I like Sean, so... they go in there. Also, my personal fanon is that Hotch and Sean's biological dad beat wee!Hotch. Then Sean was born (there is quite an age-gap between them), and their mom took the boys and walked away. Then she married the lawyer Sean refers to as dad; the one who died of a heart-attack at 47. Hotch is the character I identify with on the show, so writing him is easy. Writing the rest of them? That takes some doing... :-)

For readers, how do you like your Hotch portrayed? Stoic and serious? A family man? Do you prefer him in danger or saving the day? I like my Hotch to ring true. I don't like him being abusive to others. I don't like him to be too sappy and call anyone 'baby' or anything. I don't like him too... I'd say emotional, but that's not quite right. Emotionally demonstrative, I think is a better term.

What do you think makes Hotch tick? A drive, instilled in childhood, to never lose control. And the need to make the world a safer place for the innocents, one crime at a time. I think that was what bugged me most about the argument with Haley, that she clearly didn't understand that he was telling the truth when he said: "This is who I am." That discrepancy in their perception was really what made me okay with her walking out, because if she didn't get that, then there really was no hope.

[chreesko.livejournal.com]

getting Reid's message (and the aftermath: "What's my worst quality?")

I love that moment so much. Because Hotch looks like he'd be a stick-in-the-mud type of guy who can't admit to weakness, and to be hurt by what happened would be a perfectly human reaction (which is why everyone's brain goes there first, and they all try to comfort him). But he's actually not thinking about himself at all, he's trying to figure out the message Reid sent him. The fact that he's flawed and that others can see he's flawed doesn't bother him. That's the one thing he has in spades that the others either lack or need to work on, that ability to recognize his own flaws and be okay with them. It's what allows him to put criticism of them aside and focus on the team and the case. <3