Jack Hotchner

"Mommy hug me too tight!"

RECURRING CHARACTER
Name	Jack Hotchner
Gender	Male
Birth Date	2005
Family	Aaron Hotchner (father) Haley Brooks (mother, deceased) Jessica Brooks (maternal aunt) Sean Hotchner (paternal uncle)
Status	Alive
Portrayed By	Cade Owens
Appeared In	"The Fox"

Jack Hotchner is the son of Haley and Hotch. After the death of his mother, he is being cared for by his father with his maternal aunt, Jessica, acting as babysitter when Hotch is unavailable.

On the Show

His first appearance was in The Fox, when his parents introduced him to the team as a newborn. After a handful of further appearances, he moves out of his childhood home in In Name and Blood, Haley's relationship with Hotch having become severely strained over the last few months.

From then on, we see little glimpses of him when his father visits him (Seven Seconds) or when Hotchner gets to watch some homemade videos he keeps with him, like in Pleasure is my Business, until Nameless, Faceless, when Hotch must say goodbye to him because his mother and him are being placed under witness protection, George Foyet having made it clear he intends to go after them to make Hotch suffer.

His next appearance is again in video format, this time shown to Hotch by Sam Kessmeyer in the episode Reckoner, and we learn his birthday is that day or a previous one.

In 100, he's seen with his mother in an unknown location when she gets tricked by Foyet (under the guise of a U.S. Marshal) into going back to their old home, where he's waiting for them. In his eagerness to make Hotch suffer, Foyet allows a lenghty phone call between Haley, Hotch, and Jack, and his father gets to tell him to "work the case", a code phrase for him to hide in a bin and wait for his dad to get him, which will be a fundamental factor to save his life.

We see him again in The Slave of Duty, first at his mother's funeral and wake and later with his father at the condo where they are going to live together; in a couple of sequences it's revealed how much he misses Haley, and that he thinks his father is like Captain America, his favorite hero.

In 25 to Life, Hotch calls Rossi to tell him that he won't be coming to work. Rossi later tells Strauss that it sounded like Hotch hadn't slept and that Jack had had a bad night. Strauss says that it had been a year since Haley had been killed and that she was glad that Hotch spends time away from work to be with his son.

Notes

• In the first episode Extreme Aggressor, Haley is pregnant with Jack. At the beginning of the episode, Hotch and Haley are shown looking though a baby book looking at possible names for their child. At the end of the episode, Hotch is telling Gideon how hard it was trying to find a name as names like Charles, Henry, and Jeffrey reminded him of famous killers Charles Manson, Henry Lee Lucas, and Jeffrey Dahmer. At one point Haley even considered Gideon. They eventually settle upon the name Jack (ironically) some point after the first episode but before the episode The Fox.
• In "Devil's Night", Jack wanted to dress as a superhero for Halloween. Assuming he would dress as someone like Spider-Man, Hotch was surprised when Jack revealed his costume to be a suit and tie. When asked who he was supposed to be, Jack replied, "I'm you, daddy."
• Cade Owens, who currently portrays Jack, took the role in the Season Three episode In Name and Blood. Before this, an uncredited child played the part.