‘Criminal Minds’ season 10 spoilers: Show boss on Ed Asner appearance

In some ways, it really does feel like Ed Asner is guest-starring everywhere these days. He’s done “Hawaii Five-0,” “The Good Wife,” and he’s set now to appear on “Criminal Minds” in a role that really forces the Hotch story front and center. We often do not see the show discuss Haley’s death anymore, but this particular story forces Thomas Gibson’s character to confront it.

We feel like we could try to describe more of this character of Asner’s here, but why not let the showrunner Erica Messer do it instead? She’s the one who has seen the episode film! Speaking on this subject to TVLine, she passed along the following message:

“He plays Hotch’s father-in-law, Roy, who’s been diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s, and he doesn’t like Hotch at all. In fact, I think he’s the only person in the history of Criminal Minds who’s told Hotch to shut up … Bruce Zimmerman wrote it and Laura Belsey directed, and it’s so real in that way of ‘family drama to turned up to 11,’ because Roy blames Hotch for Haley being dead – ‘I trusted you to keep her safe and she died under your care.’ It’s just… holy cow. But then on top of that there’s this emotional vulnerability of a strong man who’s going to have to depend on others to survive, and the last thing he wants to do is ask Hotch for any help.”

Can fences be mended here? It will be interesting to see if they can, but above all else, we are interested in seeing an episode that relies more on deep, personal pain and drama to tell a story more so than what the show typically goes for, which is the shock of a terrible killer and the high stakes that coming along with stopping him or her. Those are the episodes that we tend to forget about over time.

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