Roundtable Mondays: The One Where Aaron Hotchner is Mean to Criminals

[chreesko.livejournal.com]

Hotch is my favorite, so it's entirely possible that this entire post is the result of too much time spent staring at Hotch while the other characters in the foreground do case-related things, but why let that stop me, right? So! One of the things I love about Hotch is that he can be really mean sometimes.

We've seen Hotch display a thread of ruthlessness, especially early on in the series. Riding the Lightning, for example, contains a lot of wonderful moments, but what I really love about this episode is the scene where he looks Jacob in the face and says, “You lose.” It's one of the first times we see Hotch's cutthroat side come out in quite that way. And again, in Psychodrama, when he loads the unsub into the ambulance and tells the EMT not to give him any drugs. There are multiple ways to interpret what he said, but there's a punishing undercurrent to his tone there. I'm sure there are other instances as well, but I can't get to my DVDs right now, so maybe y'all could chime in with other examples?

He's pulled out that attitude in the line of work, sure, either to protect the team or get information or see justice served -- I'll never believe, for example, that he's sorry for lying to the team or withholding information when he thought he had to -- but there are a few times we see him do it when it's designed solely to hurt. There's absolutely nothing to be gained by letting Jacob know his son is alive beyond taking away his sense of victory right before he is executed. Maybe that's its own reward, but it's interesting that Gideon's focus (right or wrong) is on Sarah, and Hotch's is on Jacob. (For those that see the team as a family, specifically the Hotch-as-dad and Gideon-as-mom version, maybe a subtle nod to the mom-dad dynamics? Dad deals with the dad and Mom deals with the mom? Or for the reverse, Mom deals with dad and Dad deals with mom?)

What do you think, cxm? Is Hotch the most ruthless person on the team? One of the most ruthless? I think the obvious answer to that is “yes” but I've seen a lot of other characterizations over the years, and I'm curious as to what might have informed different interpretations of the character. If someone out-ruthlesses him, who?

If you agree that he does have that mean streak (for lack of a better term; it's not like I'm sitting around feeling sorry for the psychopaths or anything) what exactly pushes his buttons? Is it kids? Families?

Finally, I mention “early episodes” a lot, because while I still see a hardness to Hotch, the pettiness (not exactly the right word, but eh) is gone. Or at least we haven't seen it for a long time. He doesn't let the criminals get to him anymore, at least not in the same way. So is this tendency something he worked through when he was dealing with everything post-Foyet? Maybe, having killed a serial killer with his bare hands, letting one get to him on a deeper level doesn't seem worth his time anymore. Maybe life is bigger than that. He does seem a little (okay, a lot) more removed from the cases this season and last, not as involved with getting inside the head of the killers.

And then there's the fact that Hotch has been really big on shooting people lately, and he's almost always got a cold look on his face while doing it. Not that he's ever looked warm and fuzzy while firing a gun, but he's been particularly business-like about it in recent episodes. That's probably it's own discussion, but maybe not.

Comments

[philstar22.livejournal.com]

I don't think Hotch has a "cold" look so much as either or both not feeling as much as other people and being really good at hiding feelings. It looks like a flat look more than anything else. Which is why I've always loved his character because it is a trait that I really relate to.

[chreesko.livejournal.com]

You know what? I agree about his look being more flat than anything else. I guess "cold" wasn't the right word to use there, since it implies unfeelingness, and I don't think that's ever been his problem.

Though I have an easier time seeing the flat affect in earlier episodes, like when he shot the unsub in... ack, can't remember the name, but it was the one where he and Gideon talk about the case in Iowa and Gideon is trying to talk the unsub down when Hotch shoots? These days there's a part of him that seems really "checked out" to me. I don't know if he ever lost sleep over shooting an unsub, but that blase sense of it just being part of his job is amplified these days.

[philstar22.livejournal.com]

I think that it makes sense, though. His natural instinct is to burry feelings. And with what he went through with Haley, those instincts would come into play. So yes, he's more flat now, but he has good reason to be. I honestly don't think he has dealt with everything. He has had to be strong for his son. So I think there is a lot of emotion under there that he just hasn't had the chance to deal with.

[a_blackpanther]

Well, I think that maybe, since Gideon's left he basically took over is role in the team as well. There's Rossi there now, but he doesn't quite have the same role Gideon did.


Actually the whole team seems a lot less willing to shoot at unsubs than in previous seasons, and a lot more willing to do a "hold my gun and watch this" before going in for a negotiation.

[citjara.livejournal.com]

I also think Rossi had a softening influence on Hotch. Gideon was so gentle, Hotch had to be the "driving force" more often. Now, with Rossi, who's nowhere as soft as Gideon was, Hotch has to keep the team "in check" differently.

[gsyh.livejournal.com]

The way I read the Gideon-Hotch-Rossi dynamic is this:

At the beginning of the series: Gideon was the broken one, that's the conclusion of "Extreme Aggressor", and Hotch was the functional one with the family, and in the beginning, he managed to care for BOTH his families, Haley and Jack as well as the BAU, I argue that later on, he did neglect his flesh family, like when it was MORGAN who had to remind Hotch to make the call during "Lessons Learned".

Gideon was a mess and Hotch was both the ones who drove the agenda and patched things up around him.

After Gideon left, Haley left Hotch too, and then Hotch was the one who was a mess, with Rossi stepping in his former footsteps as the sane one. In terms of story role, Hotch inherited Gideon's, Rossi inherited Hotch's.

[citjara.livejournal.com]

I'd agree on the general idea only that I don't see Hotch ever being quite as "frail" as Gideon was and Rossi never quite as straight laced as Hotch.

[citjara.livejournal.com]

The ep is "A real Rain".

While I wouldn't call the team trigger happy, I do think there's a tendency to show them with their guns drawn A LOT or in "stalemate" situations with their guns drawn. Recent development? No. I haven't seen enough of S5&S6 and none of S7, but I totallly get this impression from the other seasons. Do they seem to deal with it lightly? Yes, sometimes, they do. I once want to see one of them be really shook up by a situation like that - it rarely happens (and it certainly won't happen to Hotch, master of resolve!). I also think that this is the way police procedurals often work, the end always has to have this bit of climax...

I prefer them talk an unsub down over shooting him/her, as usually it gives us a wonderful chance for character and story development. Guns drawn or not. In that regard, Hotch has done his share, even though we've also seen him shoot quite a few. I think my preference for taking the unsun alive goes back to my Roundtable and to the recent roundtable on vigilante justice: We expect LEOs to be better, to not give into their feelings, not to shoot, but to resovle the situation. This is what makes Hotch interesting, because the thing is not that he shows his *mean streak* but - how can he overcome it? When can he allow himself to give in? In that regard, "Riding the Lightning" I can understand, Psychodrama I find more debatable. While not giving pain meds to a drug addict goes without question, the way he says it IS revenge and I think that's dangerous.

I do think that Foyet has changed him. He keeps the unsubs away a bit more, he knows how dangerous it is when they get to you. It's interesting that the one time we really, really saw him crumble was with Foyet, and not when Hotch killed him, but when Foyet killed the people on the bus and Hotch was virtually on the verge of tears (which was not in the script but TG's superb acting at that moment). This really highlights how much Foyet has gone under his skin and I think it explains why he probably keeps himself in check more after the experience and especially after killing Foyet. He knows how dangerous he can turn.

[nwjarvis.livejournal.com]

Interesting topic. I'll have to think about this one a little bit, but I definitely agree that Hotch has always had a bit of a "mean streak" lurking beneath the surface. All our BAU Heroes are damaged in some way, and I think that's the visible result of his damage. My first thought is that it's mostly triggered by kids being involved, but.... let me get back to you - I need to review a bit.

I do think there has been more shooting this season, but I don't think that is a result of a change in the characters; the writers have been putting them in situations where it was required. Personally, I still have concerns about the new crop of writers' grasp of the show - they seem to lean much more toward Yet Another Procedural for my taste. But that's a discussion for another day.

[amarx17.livejournal.com]

I agree a lot with this comment. Hotch has always had a bit of a "mean streak" in addition to being a bit closed off and indifferent to how people would usually address such situations. He has been a bit more gung-ho in regards to children being involved, because that's just how fathers are. Trust me, I am one.

Also, your comment is pure win. <3

[ficdirectory.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I have never thought of Hotch as ruthless. The examples you cited of Hotch at the end of Riding the Lightning and Psychodrama didnt seem particularly ruthless to me, especially considering he was dealing with people who had killed other people. Telling Jacob Dawes that he lost was, I feel, first, Hotch saying what a lot of viewers wished we could in that moment. I know I wanted Jacob to know he didn't succeed in his plans. And in Psychodrama, the guy was high and shot a child. It made perfect sense that Hotch would advise against pain medicine (first and foremost because the unsub was using drugs.) I think being a father (Jack's father) has definitely impacted him and made Hotch more determined to do his job. Even killing Foyet was done to protect Jack, first and foremost. He was angry, yes. But protecting his son was the primary motivation, at least IMO.

[nwjarvis.livejournal.com]

Hotch does get into "Rulez? We don't need no rulez! We haz ETHICS!!" mode occasionally...

If he - as I am inclined to believe - deliberately let Morgan slip out in "Profiler, Profiled"

In "Penelope", he leaves them with "Garcia should not have access" and heads back to the BAU with Rossi and JJ (this scene, BTW, helped cement for me the idea that JJ is Hotch's 'right hand' - he's taking the "parent" level agents away, leaving the "kids" to do the prohibited stuff).

And in "No Way Out 2", subverting every jurisdictional rule in the book to catch Frank before Gideon was blamed for killing Sara. "Is that proper?" "No, but it is in order."

And that's another example of one of the lovely things about this show - Hotch comes to be SUCH a neat deconstruction of the "Straight Arrow Fed" he is the image of ("You... look like FBI).

[citjara.livejournal.com]

Great comment!! So agree with this.

[ansera.livejournal.com]

1. I love your icon.
2. IAWTC. He's more founded on his ethics as a person, at the end of the day. But, everyone in the BAU has this harsh streak in them; I think it's because of circumstances and how they were raised really. And, the closer they are to a case, the stronger it seems (the angry way Emily spoke in latin to the priest in Demonology comes to mind, and the guy killed a kid and Hotch was personally affected in that ep) so yeah.

But as to who's the most ruthless/harsh/word-I-can't-think-of-right-now? I think, lately, Morgan's characterization has been pretty mean (just the last few seasons, I blame this on the writers). But the women can get it too, all of them (even Garcia).

[gsyh.livejournal.com]

I think of JJ as Hotch's work-wife, which explains the awkward look she exchanged with Haley later on in the series. I don't think JJ and Hotch ever ever cheated, but well, emotionally...

[dejla.livejournal.com]

I remembered it as Gideon who rushed into the viewing room and slapped the column up against the glass as he said "You lose."

Gideon, as I remember him, is almost always emotionally involved in the cases--his empathy is so intense that in the end, it destroys him. He has to keep a notebook with the names of the people he's saved to keep him balanced.

Hotch is capable of divorcing himself from the situation. In the Reid-is-kidnapped-by-the-UnSub episode (I have a hard time with titles, sorry) when Reid gives them clues for finding him--the Bible verse and called Hotch a classic narcissist--everyone is focused on Hotch having left the room, imagining that he's hurt by Reid choosing him to die. Hotch isn't hurt. Hotch remembers immediately that he and Reid had argued over the definition, and suspects there's a clue in the Bible verse.

Hotch is probably the most ruthless of the team, however--he's always willing to go the extra mile or try one last possibility. I'd guess he believes more in justice than in the law--or that he sees the problems with laws all too clearly. That comes across in 100. But before that (I think), in Tabula Rasa, we see him showing real compassion towards the perpetrator because the perpetrator has actually changed and is a different man.

[ficdirectory.livejournal.com]

Gideon was busy trying to convince Sarah Jean to let him prove Riley was alive. It was definitely Hotch in this instance. :)

[dhae_knight_1]

I agree that Hotch has always had this thing that I classify as a whole lot of bottled-up rage, tightly controlled lest it hurt anyone. It is let out in meassured quantities against unsubs (and *only* against unsubs and people who get in his way - yes, I'm still incredibly partial to the Hotchalanche in the ep with the religious compound), but it is always quickly leashed again. Incidentally, it's also the only reason I can make sense of Blackwolf insisting on him using his baton in the Tribe. A physical altercation that, it seems, allows him to get rid of some of his frustations and review Sean's decision with a clearer head.

And, yes, post-100, Hotch seems harder, more ruthless, more unemotional than ever. My own personal theory is that by beating Foyet to death in 100, Hotch came face-to-face with what the darkness inside him was truly capable of, and he's spent every waking moment since keeping it locked down so tightly it sometimes seems like it's only going to take a single wrong blow to shatter him.

But I wouldn't call Hotch mean. Most of the rest of the team when they shut down Reid, yes. But Hotch does that very rarely, never meanly, and only for a good cause. One of the (many, many) reasons I love Hotch so much; he's never a bully. :-)

[citjara.livejournal.com]

He's really taken over Gideon's spot in regards to Reid. He'll often be the one who notices the wheels turning in Reid's head and who'll be the one telling him to just "spit it out". Much like a dad, he has the patience to listen until the child has assembled his thoughts. Since Reid has matured, this has vanished a bit, but it still occasionally pops up (e.g. Sense Memory).

I also think it's a mistake to think that Hotch is very distanced because he doesn't express his emotions a lot. I sometimes think he's like a pot - cooking all the time with the top fastened on. But don't dare to overheat - he'll boil over within a second!

[dhae_knight_1]

I think he's been more of a mentor to Reid than Gideon since... well, probably since Boston, when Gideon got his PTSD. What's more; I think he's been a *better* mentor than Gideon was capable of being. Yes, I'm still pissed about Gideon handing Reid his own solution to his nightmares. How, exactly, is the picture of a girl Gideon saved, which Reid doesn't know from Eve, going to help?

Hotch reminds me very much of Spock. Cool, calm and collected on the surface, but a boiling cauldron of emotions just under the lid. And TG, just like Leonard Nimoy, can do this while being so subtle all most people see is the stone-face. Just because you don't show it, doesn't mean you don't feel it. :-)

[citjara.livejournal.com]

Spot on on the Spock comparison!!

I thought it was amazing how everyone blinded out Reid's addiction. I loved the end of "Elephant's Memory" when Hotch told him to "catch the rest of that movie".

[gsyh.livejournal.com]

I often think of Hotch as the repenting bully - I totally think he did bully people and he remembers it and regrets it - maybe he stopped early, but I think he did do it.

...and in some other universe, he's an unsub, but here, Hotch is defined by his control of his aggression, that's why he's better, that's why he KNOWS he's better, this is what he hangs onto.