| “ | I make a mistake, change of clothes fixes that. You make a mistake...I lose my daughter! | ” |
— Roy
| ||
Roy Brooks is the father of Haley and Jessica Brooks, and the former father-in-law of SSA Aaron Hotchner. He appears in the Criminal Minds Season Ten episode, "A Place at the Table".
Background[]
Roy once owned a store that was well-known in the community, but it was eventually shut down after time. No other details are revealed about his personal life prior to the death of one of his daughters, Haley, at the hands of a serial killer known as the Reaper. As a result of the tragic event, he blamed Hotch, who was investigating the Reaper's case, for not handling the situation efficiently enough. He apparently never knew of the true connection between Hotch and the Reaper, which involved Hotch shooting the Reaper down when he tried to make a deal with him to stop killing. Roy and Hotch's relationship was presumably bitter ever since. A week prior to the episode, Roy was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. It was first found out when he wandered to his old store and tried to break in, believing that he was opening it up for the day. He was briefly arrested for the act, but later released and sent to the hospital, which gave the diagnosis.
A Place at the Table[]
After being informed by Jessica about the diagnosis and the store incident, Hotch goes to the hospital where Roy is being kept to discharge him. When the two meet up with each other, Roy immediately greets him with hostility. He is then taken into Hotch's apartment, where Hotch continues his work on a case he and the rest of the BAU are investigating. While he does so, Roy confronts Hotch and mocks him before telling him he still blames him for Haley's murder, much to Hotch's distress. Later on, he goes through Hotch's desk and finds a brochure for an assisted living facility. Realizing Hotch and Jessica are planning on sending him there, Roy is outraged and confronts Hotch about it, proclaiming that it is a place where people go to die. He then leaves, insisting that he was merely "mixed up" during the store incident.
When Jessica and Jack return to the apartment, Roy greets his grandson and plays a racing game with him, but he has difficulty knowing how to simply play the game. Later on, after Hotch tries convincing Roy about the advantages of the nursing facility, Jessica reveals that she received a job promotion and that she intends to use her new salary to purchase a new two-room apartment for herself and Roy. When she leaves, Roy tells Hotch that he knows he is simply giving her the extra money she needs and that her promotion is just "a title". Then, as they watch Jack set up another game, Roy reveals that he sees Haley in him. He and Hotch then argue about what Haley would think about their current relationship. When Hotch tells Roy that Haley wouldn't want him to keep holding on to his hatred of him, Roy responds that he will still keep blaming him. He then goes on to say that he will see Haley as nothing more than a stranger one day and that his anger will be gone when that day comes. He then says that his condition is a blessing in disguise before leaving with Jessica.