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criminalxminds2012-01-09 12:37 pm
ficdirectory.livejournal.com) wrote in criminalxminds2012-01-09 12:37 pm
RoundTable Mondays: Aaron Hotchner
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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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I completely agree that it's one of the most powerful CM scenes. It is one of those scenes that really stood out for me, and one of the first that comes to mind when I think of Hotch.
I really want to see more emotionally charged scenes like that; I think that's why I LOVED the episode where Haley dies (even though I hated that she died). Although, maybe I just like to see Hotch in a challenging, character-defining/exposing situation xD
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Yes.
It was an early consideration...but never outrightly addressed...
Was it Hotch that shot the unsub? I totally thought one of the snipers outside did it! If it was him, I would go with the option that he really thought Gideon was in danger.
Yes. Not on prescriptions.
(Just stating my own opinions with a smile!) I enjoyed these questions!
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I thought so too until someone pointed it out and I went back and watched the episode again. In true CM fashion, it takes shape a bit at a time.
Early on, Hotch asks Gideon if he's ever considered taking "justice" into his own hands. Gideon says, "You thinking about those boys in Iowa?"
About halfway through, Gideon tells Reid about the case - two boys had been killed. Hotch and Gideon found the killer; they had their guns drawn; he pointed a shotgun at Hotch. Instead of firing, Hotch talks him into surrendering. The guy got off at trial because his wife lied and gave him an alibi; he was finally caught when he killed another boy.
The whole episode, it seems, they've been talking about how public opinion seems to be on the side of the vigilante, the implication being that even if he's caught and tried, he won't be convicted.
Now. That final scene. Hotch and Gideon are talking to the unsub. Hotch mentions a case in Iowa where a man got off for killing two boys and went on to kill a third. Gideon says something. Back to Hotch and he's still talking about the boys in Iowa. Gideon says something else. Back to Hotch and he's still talking about the Iowa case. All this time Hotch's finger is properly registered, on the trigger guard.
Finally, the unsub lets the hostage fall to the side and begins to reach his gun toward Gideon. We hear the shot, and cut to Hotch - his finger is now on the trigger and there's a brief curl of smoke.
Another intense scene, once you put it all together. Damn, I miss those. I still enjoy CM, but it's just not quite the same, ya know?
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And just for an added squick, consider that it didn't have to be anal rape; Foyet had a knife and was already making holes in Hotch's abdomen......