Aaron Hotchner

Aaron Hotchner is a fictional character from the CBS crime drama Criminal Minds, portrayed by Thomas Gibson. He is a Supervisory Special Agent and the unit chief of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, and has appeared from the series' pilot episode "Extreme Aggressor", which was originally broadcast on September 22, 2005. Hotch begins the series married to his high school sweetheart Haley (Meredith Monroe). They have a son named Jack (Cade Owens), though they later separated over Hotch's dedication to his job. Meredith Monroe's character Haley was later killed in season five by serial killer George Foyet. On August 12, 2016, CBS producers announced that Gibson had been dismissed from Criminal Minds following a physical altercation with one of the show's writers and that "creative details" regarding the character's departure would be announced at a later date. After appearing in the first two episodes of the 2016-2017 season, the Hotchner character was removed from the opening credits of subsequent episodes. At the start of the third episode, one character explained Hotch's absence by remarking that he was on TDY. In episode 12.6 titled "Elliott's Pond" it was revealed that Gibson's character, Aaron Hotchner, was leaving his post as longtime head of the Behavioral Analysis Unit after Peter Lewis (aka Mr. Scratch) began stalking Hotch's son, Jack. The two decided to enter the Witness Protection Progra