When your main cast are all cops, no matter of what description, you have a problem you need to solve. Law Enforcement attracts natural leaders, and if you are a woman or other type of minority you have to be a dominant personality to make it. Most cops are natural leaders, independent people who don't like those that interfere with them but try to interfere with others. Often they have deep-seated issues with authority. How do you keep a cast full of these people together? how do they cooperate effectively if none of them want to follow each others' instructions? how can they work together if they are constantly meddling in each others' affairs? There are a few ways of course. One is to have them all be recognized experts in a skill, and establish those boundaries firmly early on. This can set the story up for a devastating twist if one of the team members is lost. But, there's another route to take as well: one that allows the team to survive even if it's composition changes. A super-leader. A character who is inspirational enough that otherwise aggressively dominant people look to them for guidance and discipline.
Like Supervisory Special Agent Aaron Hotchner, from Criminal Minds. yeah yeah, that show again. I binge just like the rest of you ok. Hotchner, or "Hotch" as he is known is not the type of character you expect on this type of show. In fact, he's more like the typical hero of a Noir film or a Western: a man with a dark past seeking personal redemption. Hotch used to be a Federal Prosecutor, with the unsettling stare to prove it. It's never quite said: but it's clear what happened. Hotch hated putting people to death whom he believed had a chance to change. As an FBI agent he has both the ability to stop people from getting so far that they have to be killed, and the ability to offer plea deals so that they won't face that possibility. But there is one important respect in which Hotch is not like a typical Noir or Western film hero: he's not a loner. In fact, he was the one who assembled the BAU team: before him, BAU detectives worked alone as simple consultants for local police. What's particularly intriguing about him as a character, is that despite his position of authority he is not an aggressive man. Rather, he is a natural defender. He never threatens someone unless it's to protect someone else, nor does he ever shoot except to defend someone else. In the whole series, Hotch never attacks with a gun or even shoots to defend his own person: it is always to defend either a victim, a team member, or some other ally. Pretty surprising when you consider that just about every episode has a gunshot in it somewhere. Nor is Hotch ever aggressive towards his colleagues, even when he's angry. If he does get snappy, it's because pressure is being placed on him from outside. He is however, stubborn. Challenging him head on is an exercise in futility, he just digs his heels in deeper and deeper. He simply does not give up. This is a flaw, and sometimes it certainly drives the other characters nuts or even leads the team into danger. But it's also why he can do his job. Hotch can go toe to toe with the worst scum of humanity and not become like them himself because he is stubbornly committed to goodness.
That is not to say however that he cannot empathize with the killers. In fact, he does. Hotch's best quality is that he is unwilling to look away from them, no matter how horrific their actions. Hotch refuses to shy away from walking the tightrope between empathizing with the very real pain that many of these people feel, and condoning their actions. In fact, he is often the first person to confront them with the question of why they believe that their actions logically follow from their emotional experiences. Many are genuinely surprised to learn that others feel the same emotions they do, but don't feel the need to kill or hurt others because of it. That is, when the villain of the week isn't a good old fashioned psychopath. There are plenty of those on Criminal Minds too: for the non-dramatic filler episodes that they don't expect the audience to remember. Or for the multi-episode arcs where the killer attacks one of the team members personally. These, Hotch doesn't bother trying to empathize with because he knows it won't do any good. The only thing to do with them is to put them in the slammer. But, a killer need not be a psychopath: and indeed the most common type of villain presented on the show is not. The most common type is the sexual sadist. Hotch is the perfect foil to this type of killer: because he represents everything they think they are (if they are also narcissists), or wish they could be. They fantasize about being dominant, and perceive themselves as underappreciated: but Hotch actually is dominant. He is in fact given genuine and undisguised fealty by other dominant personalities. Yet he has gained that place by doing exactly the opposite of what the killers think that dominant people do. These killers fail to elude him, no matter how smart they are, because they've been misled. It's a deconstruction of toxic masculinity, which is not what we expect from a cop show.
Yes, I did just say "fealty". It's a word that Americans don't like and for good reason. But, it's warranted here. Several times, the tech analyst Garcia outright calls Hotch "my liege". Although she has a flair for the dramatic, it is very clear in this context that she isn't really joking. When Agent Jareau gets what is obviously a better job, Hotch actually has to twist her arm to get her to take it: and she comes back after only a few episodes. Now, Agent Jareau is one of these dominant personalities that Hotch nevertheless is able to command. Like I said before, in order to make it as a woman in law enforcement you have to be a dominant personality. In fact the show goes out of it's way to highlight how much of a dominant she is in the episode "Jones". In this episode the local NOPD detective, William LaMontagne Jr. a clearly submissive man trying and failing to fill his father's big shoes, falls for her while the team is working on a case there. In the next season he reappears at Agent Gideon's resignation party where he and Jareau have a heartfelt conversation. This conversation ends with an astonishing twist: he commits to giving up his career as a cop in order to move halfway across the country, marry her and be a stay-at-home dad. She didn't ask him to do this, and it isn't presented as a sacrifice. It's clear that he actually wanted to get out of that job, and away from the gender expectations of the Cajun culture he was raised in. French-influenced Cajun culture does tend to place a lot of pressure on men to take leadership positions, as well as to be domineering in their personal interactions. When confronted with a naturally dominant woman he instantly throws all of that to the wind: showing maturity and unusual self-acceptance. Rather than seeing himself as cowardly or weak, he revels in playing a supportive role alongside an aggressive and tough leader.
Agent Jareau's aggression is emotional rather than physical, because she is female and fighting with larger stronger opponents wouldn't be very smart. But she is unafraid to attack a killers' delusions head on or hit them where it hurts in order to flush them out, even if it paints a target on her head. However, as a member of the BAU, she never actually has to make herself a target. Hotch always has her engineer the statements made to the press so that he will be the target of the killer's rage. And this is the primary reason why Agent Jareau feels the way she does towards Hotch. She knows he sacrifices his own safety to protect her on a regular basis.
Secondarily, despite being in a position of official authority, Hotch has no trouble letting Jareau be something of the team mom. She has the authority to decide which cases the team works on, and he allows her quite a bit of freedom in doing her job. He does not feel threatened even when she needs to be handed more authority. Once he even outright asks her to take on more authority for a case where her particular talent for communications is critical to getting a favorable outcome. He lets her handle meddling reporters, and his orders to her are deliberately vague. In other words, he does not question her loyalty to the team.
This is one of his most interesting traits. Although he is in a position of official authority, Agent Hotchner has never demanded personal loyalty from any of the team. This is precisely why he can do what he does: he demands loyalty to the team, but has no concern for whether people are loyal to him. This is of course because he isn't in this position for the purpose of having power: he's here on a personal mission. People are loyal to Hotch precisely because he doesn't demand it. In particular, Agent Morgan is fanatically loyal to Hotch, but he would never choose to follow a man who demanded loyalty. At one point, Hotch needs to give up his leadership position for the benefit of the team. Morgan is the one who takes over. But when Agent Rossi voices concern that Morgan might not be willing to give up his position, not only is Hotch unfazed he's actually dismissive. He is completely correct to be: Morgan hands over power without any question or trouble, as soon as Hotch is allowed to be back in charge. Now, Morgan is another natural leader: and also falls into the category of "could only have made it by being aggressively dominant" because Morgan is black. He's been willing to grab power for his own advancement before. But he is genuinely troubled when Hotch asks him to take over power, not because he believes that he's incapable of doing the job, but because it goes against what he views as the natural order of the world. This is why I used the word "fealty". Morgan isn't simply loyal to Hotch, he isn't simply willing to put his life on the line for Hotch. He believes that it's a violation of the world's natural order if Hotch isn't in charge of the team.
Now, not everyone on the team believes in the idea of a natural world order: Morgan is somewhat unusual in that regard. But there's nothing unusual about his feelings towards Hotch: when Agent Strauss (who is Hotch's boss) is attempting to remove him from power, the team members all speak up for him vociferously. They all not only believe he should be on the team, but that he should be it's leader: again, despite most of them being naturally dominant personalities. These are not people who usually feel like they need a leader, they're more likely to resent authority figures than to feel like they need one. They can operate independently, and they are unafraid to question anyone claiming authority including Hotch. But, they become almost desperately afraid at the idea that Hotch could be taken away from them. Those team members who aren't naturally dominant, express their fealty in a more overt way. Garcia outright calls Hotch "my liege" more than once, and Dr. Reid shows him filial piety. Reid has issues trusting people, though with good reason: his mother is schizophrenic. But he trusts Hotch beyond what would be normal for a friend or battle comrade: not just with his life and his darkest secrets. No, Reid is willing to let Hotch hurt him for the greater good. He once comes up with a plan to outwit a killer that involves Hotch kicking him (so that he can steal Hotch's second gun and use it to incapacitate the heavily armed criminal). He is later genuinely surprised that Hotch was gentle with him.
Now, yes, Reid is in need of a father figure. But why does he show this level of devotion to Hotch and not to Agent Gideon or Agent Rossi? Because Hotch with worthy. Because Hotch reacts to this love appropriately, by mirroring it back. When Reid is in trouble, Hotch goes on the warpath. The thing is, Hotch finds Reid annoying. They don't like each other, if they didn't work together they would probably never be friends. But because Reid expects Hotch to look out for his welfare, Hotch does an impeccable job of doing just that: without any expectation of reward. In fact, he faces punishment for doing that and doesn't care. And it is this which finally explains why he has the position that he has, why he deserves to be the leader of this team. Why, if there is such a thing as a natural order for the world, then part of that is Hotch being in charge. He goes all out for people he doesn't even like, even when facing punishment from superiors, without any expectation of reward. He can lead people who are natural leaders because he is selfless. When he decides what to do, the question he asks himself is "what does this person need?" not "what do I feel like doing?"
This is even true when he's dealing with the killers. He's not thinking about what they want, after all he knows what they want. He's thinking about what they need in order to grow as people, and be productive members of society. Many of them have compulsions or addictions, either to the killing itself or to torture. Jail and therapy could very well lead to them actually kicking their habit. An addiction to hurting people is not fundamentally different from an addiction to alcohol or drugs, in terms of brain chemistry. Others, especially the younger ones, could simply outgrow their problems in jail. Many young terrorists do grow up to regret their actions, their youthful disaffection wearing off as they fully mature and their life situation changes.
