Aaron Hotchner quotes from Criminal Minds

Greenaway

I really wanted to be a part of the team.

Hotchner

You were.

Greenaway

But when I needed the team, I was all alone. I was alone in the one place that I have the right to feel safe, and that's my home. Just like those women in Ohio who were attacked had a right to feel safe in their homes.

Hotchner

Ma'am, we've just been assigned your daughter's case. We're in the process of gathering information, but so far no witnesses have come forward.

Well around here guns go off like those damn car alarms, every 15 minutes. Nobody's stupid enough to talk, nobody cares.

Reid

We do.

You wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for them [gestures towards the children in the other room. [picks up newspaper and reads from it] "Heinous crimes against upstanding members of the community." Nobody writes about prostitutes being shot, because they won't admit they think they're cleaning up the place.

Hotchner

You're right. Cases like your daughter's usually go unsolved, the problem is people aren't looking for them, because they don't know that they're missing. Part of her job was to stay below the radar. Doesn't mean she was any less important.

Hotchner

We can't have people on this team who have secrets.

Gideon

Come on, Hotch. We all have secrets. Would you want us profiling you?

Hotchner

[desperately] We're not getting any closer.

Gideon

Reid's brilliant. He'll figure out how to survive.

Hotchner

You know I always take advantage of Reid for his brain, but I never actually teach him how to deal with things emotionally.

Gideon

You lead by example.

Hotchner

What kind of example is that?

Gideon

[solemnly] He'll make it.

Hotchner

All right, everybody, right now, what's my worst quality? [silence from team] Okay, I'll start. I have no sense of humor...

JJ

You're a bully.

Hotchner

I'm a bully.

Morgan

You can be a drill sergeant sometimes.

Prentiss

You don't trust women as much as men.

Hotchner

Okay, good. I'm all these things, but none of you said that I ever put myself above the team because I don't. Ever.

Hotchner

What the hell happened?

I didn't know he was a cop. I saw this black car parked in front of our house and this black guy with a gun sneaking around the yard.

Hotchner

So you shot him?

I was scared. I've got a family.

So did Detective Ware.

Gideon

The first recorded war was 2700 BC. Probably earlier wars, but writing hadn't been invented yet.

Hotchner

Almost five thousand years of killing each other.

Gideon

One thing human beings have been consistently good at.

Hotchner

I catch killers, I save lives, I'm a hero until my key hits my front door and then I'm just the father and the husband who's never there.

Gideon

Yeah, I got that one.

Hotchner

Here's the thing. When I'm home, I'm in this silent panic. Because I know that I have to be as good as I can as fast as I can. Because any minute, the phone is going to ring and my time is up. And that panic is exactly what I saw in Abby.

Hotchner

Broken nose, and bark's embedded in his face; looks like he ran into a tree.

Morgan

Now how do you miss a huge tree?

Hotchner

Too busy looking behind you.

Hotchner

What's this?

Gideon

It's genius

Hotchner

You have Chaplin on film?

Gideon

My great-granddad was an accountant at one of the first movie studios

Hotchner

He lived in California?

Gideon

No, no, no, Chicago. Essanay Studios, closed 1920. Back then, 4 out of 5 movies made in US were made in Chicago. They closed down, they let my grandfather take a... , eh, a couple of extra prints home

Hotchner

They "let" him?

Gideon

Well, that's a family story, we're sticking to it

Capt. Wright

I can't believe he did this.

Hotchner

Well Detective Mcgee is pretty sure that these people are missing, sir.

Capt. Wright

[Scoffs] No Detective McGee is...

Hotchner

A little obsessive-compulsive?

Capt. Wright

Oh, you noticed that, huh?

Hotchner

Doesn't mean he can't be a good cop.

Capt. Wright

I thought assigning him to keep an eye on Skid Row would be harmless. Well, most of those people only cause trouble for each other.

Capt. Wright

Look, I'm sorry he got you to travel all the way here.

Hotchner

Sir, we're happy to help with the problem.

Capt. Wright

What problem?

Hotchner

Sir, 63 people missing from a localized area is unusual.

Capt. Wright

Are you kiddin' me? Bums, whores, junkies. Can these people even be missing?

Hotchner

You seem hostile to the idea that these people could be in trouble.

Capt. Wright

No, what I'm hostile to is a member my command recruiting the FBI to handle a case that I don't even believe is happening.

Hotchner

You know, the note her received could be an Unsub reaching out. It's not uncommon.

Capt. Wright

Or it could be another cop who's pissed off that McGee got an award.

Hotchner

Sir, this type of Unsub is relatively easy to catch. Nobody else has to get hurt.

Capt. Wright

As far as I know no one has been hurt.

Hotchner

Sir, I have some experience in this field, and I believe that your problem's only going to get worse.

Capt. Wright

Oh, well, thank you. we'll keep an eye on that. You have a safe trip home.

Hotchner

What if they were cheerleaders?

Capt. Wright

Excuse me?

Hotchner

Or teachers, or mothers? How did you put it, "Can bums even be missing?" Well, sir, they can. They can be hurt, they can be scared, and they can be killed.

J.J

Hotch, it's federal.

Hotchner

What?

J.J

If we want this case, it's ours. It's federal. This letter came from across the river, from Kansas City, Missouri.

Hotchner

Interstate communication.

J.J

Puts it in federal jurisdiction.

Hotchner

[to Captain Wright] Sir, this is now a federal case. I would like to retain Detective McGee as a consultant.

Capt. Wright

Whoa, whoa. You're not opening any investigations in my jurisdiction.

Hotchner

I don't wanna fight with you, even though this is a federal case. If we develop any information, I will come to you and your men will make the arrest.

Capt. Wright

And why would you do that?

Hotchner

Because that's how we operate.

Hotchner

We're going to provide a psychological profile of the man we're looking for. It contains some unusual, specific personality traits that someone out there is bound to recognize.

Gideon

Which will make him relatively easy to locate. Long-lasting, negative impression he leaves on anyone he might meet.

Morgan

We have a term for the killing behavior this unsub displays: cleaning house. Fixing what's wrong with the world.

Reid

He's deeply rationalized this behavior, and while he certainly knows the killing is wrong, he truly believes that he's doing the world a great service.

Morgan

Ultimately, this type of unsub becomes a loner. There won't be too many people that can still tolerate him. Now, if he does have a relationship at all, the person will not be his equal. It'll be someone subservient to him.

Reid

He'll be... fastidious, tending toward obsessive-compulsive disorder, and he'll have an overwhelming sense of indignation towards the things that he's judged to be wrong. He wouldn't even consider the reasons why someone might disagree with him.

He sounds like a real jagoff.

Morgan

Exactly. Class "A" scumbag.

Prentiss

Detective McGee started noticing the disappearances a year ago. The Unsub probably had a stressor at this time. The death of a family member, or someone who had some semblance of control over him. Right now, no one has control over him.

Reid

It's probable that he isn't currently working after this many victims and the devolution that it brings, a job just wouldn't leave him time to practice his true calling.

Capt. Wright

Which is...?

Hotchner

A predator. A killing machine. By now, it's become all he thinks about.

Morgan

[to Mona, a homeless woman] Be careful, you hear me? This world needs all of its beautiful ladies, and that means you, too, Mona.

Prentiss

You're a good guy.

Morgan

Ya think?

Prentiss

Yeah, you make the people around you feel good.

Hotchner

Well, he's no Charlie Chaplin.

Morgan

Oh, again with the Chaplin.

Prentiss

How'd you guys do?

Hotchner

Well, Reid got propositioned by every prostitute we talked to, but we didn't find anybody who thinks they'd seen the unsub.