‘Criminal Minds’ season 10, episode 20 review: Hotch faces a difficult decision about Roy

Last week on “Criminal Minds” we were introduced to some new characters: Jack, Lilly and Monty – the new crew that will be headlining a “Criminal Minds” spin off that will focus on international crimes.  As much fun as it was to meet the new group, we are excited to get back to our main crew to see what’s going on in their lives and it looks like we are going to be seeing a lot about Hotch’s life tonight.

Hotch’s son Jack is going on a day trip and he’s unable to go with them, so Jess is going instead – she seems upset, but we don’t really know why. Later Hotch gets a call from Jess’ while on the field trip with Jack, but the call isn’t about Jack… it’s about his ex-father in law Roy.

Roy’s been arrested for breaking into his old store, but he’s free to go with Hotch… with their history though, Roy isn’t interested in going anywhere with him. He learns from Jess that Roy has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, one of the most difficult and heartbreaking diseases out there.

Roy is still angry about the past and blames Hotch for his daughter Haley’s death, and with his Alzheimer’s and learning that Jess is planning on putting Roy in a nursing home, his rage is out of control. When Jess gets back, they talk about options for Roy and Jess is feeling horrible guilt over sending him to a nursing home. Hotch offers to have Roy stay with him, but they both know that Roy would never agree to it. Hotch gives Jess some extra money so that Roy will stay out of a nursing home: It will allow Jess to move into a two bedroom and have him move in with her and after some discussion, Roy agrees.

It’s been such a long time since we’ve had a Hotch episode and this was a really great one. Very powerful, heartbreaking and definitely hits home for us as we have a family member that we love madly who is going through Alzheimer’s. It’s a difficult disease and we certain felt for Hotch, Jess and Roy. Episode grade: A-

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