| “ | If you want to feel close to God, sometimes you gotta make the journey. | ” |
— Charles via flashback in "Revelations"
| ||
Charles Hankel was the domineering and abusive father of future serial killer Tobias Hankel. After his death, he would appear in flashbacks and as a Dissociative Identity Disorder alter of his son in Season Two of Criminal Minds.
Background[]
Nothing is known about Charles' background other than he was born sometime around 1955 and married a woman, with whom they had a son named Tobias. He is also implied to have had some form of mental instability. When his wife left him for another man, Charles' already unstable condition presumably worsened, and he soon descended into a religious fanaticism. Charles would severely physically abuse his son, Tobias, constantly spouting scripture and taught him that evil must always be punished. Whenever he abused Tobias, he used the Bible as a punishment guide. Charles once burned a cross into Tobias' forehead with a red hot poker for not following "the path of the Lord", and even once almost drowned him during a "baptism" in the bathtub. When he became painfully ill, he ordered a reluctant Tobias to kill him. In August 2006, Tobias finally succumbed to Charles' orders, killed him as an act of mercy, and placed his body in a walk-in freezer under the family house.
Season Two[]
The Big Game (Part 1)[]
After Charles' death, Tobias developed Dissociative Identity Disorder and formed an alter based on him, as well as a third alter named Raphael. Raphael, who formed based on an avenging angel with no human emotions, (presumably because in the Bible, Tobias was visited by the angel Raphael) would front and kill anyone who dared to commit a sin, and Tobias was powerless to stop him from doing this. The Charles alter, clearly just as disturbed as the original Charles Hankel, apparently agreed with what the Raphael alter was doing and occasionally beat Tobias up (physically beating himself up, though Tobias was seemingly the only one who felt it) whenever he dared to argue with what Raphael had done. After Reid and JJ arrive at the Hankel house, Tobias flees, and Charles, angry at him for not standing and fighting, begins to beat him up, (again, physically beating himself up) while Reid listens from a distance. When Reid is distracted by the sound of JJ shooting Tobias' dogs dead, Charles punches him and takes his gun, and orders Tobias to shoot him. Tobias refuses, and Raphael takes over and apparently decides to keep Reid alive so that he can force him to choose his next victims.
Revelations (Part 2)[]
The alter Charles holds Reid at gunpoint.
Later, Reid meets Charles, who takes offense to being stared at. He then gets angry when Reid tries to manipulate him and even more angry when Reid lies to him and denies it, as lying is a sin. Charles then tortures Reid just as the original Charles Hankel had once tortured and traumatized Tobias in retribution. Later, Raphael gets frustrated at Reid which causes Charles to take over again. Charles angrily beats Reid and shoves him to the floor, accidentally rendering him unconscious. After Tobias revived Reid via CPR and drugged him to ease the pain Charles had caused him, Charles hears Reid mumbling in his sleep while dreaming about his mother, who Reid had condemned to a mental institution due to her schizophrenia. Since this was a sin, Raphael sentences him to death, drags him outside and forces him to dig his own grave.
However, the BAU arrives and when Reid realizes they are there, he pretends to be too weak to keep digging, angering Raphael and causing Charles to FRONT again. Charles grabs the shovel, dropping his gun, and starts digging Reid's grave for him. When the BAU arrives, Charles is distracted and Reid seizes the opportunity to grab his gun. Charles, again, apparently not aware that he and Raphael are in the same body, tells Reid that there is one bullet in the gun, but all three are "shot" anyway. Charles and Raphael are not seen dying; Tobias just has time to thank Reid for killing them before he dies.
Known Victims[]
- Tobias Hankel (his son; severely abused)
Appearances[]
- Season Two
- "The Big Game" (via flashbacks)
- "Revelations" (via flashbacks; corpse shown)