| “ | Being sorry is a far worse punishment than being dead. Everybody dies. Very few people ever feel truly sorry for the bad things they've done. | „ |
~ Patrick Jane
Patrick Jane is the protagonist of the TV show The Mentalist. He is a consultant of the California Bureau of Investigation (CBI). He specializes in realizing if someone is telling the truth or lying and really is smart on how to get people to act or talk. They have dealt with many killers and criminals in general. Patrick Jane and Teresa Lisbon who have been partners for the longest time have captured many criminals including the notorious Red John. Patrick and Teresa were moved to the FBI in Texas after Red John's death and the CBI being compromised after. When the CBI officially shut down, Patrick was given an offer to join the FBI from a head man named Dennis Abbott. After a long amount of thinking and realizing he still wants to work with Teresa, he chose to work with the FBI in Texas. He has been working with the FBI in Texas capturing criminal after criminal since then. He's played by Simon Baker.
His Good Ranking[]
What makes him admirable?[]
- He always attempts to save the lives of those who are valuable to him. For example:
- When Red John threatens him and demands Teresa Lisbon's head, he attempts to cheat him and brings him a melon instead, knowing full well what Red John is capable on and is even ready to be tortured.
- When he and later Teresa Lisbon are abducted, he pretends that he killed Teresa to try to defeat the abductor.
- He helps Rigsby in difficult situations twice – when his father is killed by a criminal and Rigsby wants to avenge his death, and when Grace is abducted by criminals and Rigsby wants to find her.
- When Teresa goes to arrest a dangerous criminal, he leads her in a wrong way to prevent this criminal from killing her.
- He feels sorry when Michelle Vega is killed and helps to avenge his death. The lives of two people, who were held hostage by Michelle Vega's murderers, are saved in the process. Also, he willingly enters into the building where the said criminals hold their captives, knowing full well they're capable on, thus somehow sacrificing himself.
- He also cares about his friends-colleagues. For example:
- He proposes Grace Van Pelt to give Rigsby a chance to become his girfriend. This leads Van Pelt and Rigsby to become a romantic couple and later marry each other.
- When he wins a large sum of money in gambling, he makes expencive gifts to his colleagues.
- When Lisbon is framed and is accused in a murder she didn't commit, he helps to prove her innocence.
- He helps Cho to investigate his old friend's death.
- He helps J.J. LaRoshe to investigate his container's theft and to find a mole in CBI, despite Patrick and LaRoshe aren't really friendly to each other. Speaking about the container, he never tries to know what's inside it and forbids his colleagues to open the container. He also understands LaRoshe, since LaRoshe lost his mother and Patrick himself lost his wife and daughter.
- He comforts Grace after she kills Craig and feels remorse for it.
- He helps to solve multiple crimes and to save multiple innocent lives.
- When he wins a large sum of money, he gives it to a woman, who needs this money for her mother's treatment.
- He defeats Red John.
- When, after the murder of Red John, he lived in a coastal city that was terrorized by a drug dealer, leaving this city to work for the FBI, he did not abandon the residents of this city in a difficult situation but arranged for the arrest of this drug dealer.
What makes him inconsistent?[]
- He’s an extreme jerk. Red John highlights that he killed Patrick's family and was ahead of him every time precisely because of Patrick's arrogance, who cannot accept the fact that someone can be smarter than Patrick himself. He also never subverts it.
- He also is extremely lethal. While he killed Dumar Tanner to save Lisbon and Oscar Cordero to save himself, he kills Red John twice, or rather, on one occasion it was a man posing as Red John. Although Red John and Timothy Carter, who impersonated Red John, were disgusting people, not to mention the fact that Red John killed Patrick's wife and daughter, it is still difficult to justify, especially since he killed Red John when he was defenseless. Patrick can also often be seen arranging the murders of other people, and although they were all criminals who abhorred the murder of innocent people (including Michelle Vega), this is still too serious for a Near Pure Good hero.
- He is also very mischievous, as he does not always take things seriously.
- He is also manipulative, given that he often forces people to do things he wants. Although this is justified in most cases, given that it is what helps him and his friends find criminals, the result cannot always be called entirely good, especially since, as mentioned above, he sets up the murders of people.
- In his youth he had criminal tendencies. Although this is justified by the fact that his father was a con man who forced Patrick himself to cheat, it is clear that Patrick never completely freed himself from these tendencies as an adult. For example, in one episode he is seen blackmailing a criminal into giving him some of the stolen money, and although Patrick lost his memory after drowning, he is not shown to return the money after the case is closed. Also, in one episode, he broke into the house of a hitman to look for evidence against him, which is not legal. Also in one episode, he threatened to set fire to a building to force the criminal to confess to his crime, and although Patrick did not intend to do this, this act is too serious to somehow justify it. Not to mention the fact that before working in law enforcement, he posed as a psychic and stopped doing this only after the death of his wife and daughter.
- He can be reckless sometimes. For example, in one episode, he started a fire to add spices to food that was supposedly poisoned, and although the spices were not actually poisoned and Patrick knew about it, those who were going to eat this food later did not know. Also, in one episode, he offered the criminal to drink tea, which supposedly contained belladonna, with which this criminal poisoned her neighbor to death, and although the tea that Patrick offered the criminal did not actually contain belladonna, the criminal herself did not know this and was so scared that ran out onto the road, and if it weren’t for Cho, anything could have happened to her. Yes, Patrick had foreseen this, otherwise Cho wouldn't have been there, but it still wasn't too careful to act like that. Also in one episode, he exposed a baseball player for killing his girlfriend and asked to see his firearm, after which he switched the bullets in the baseball player's gun with peanuts, after which he provoked him into attacking, which caused the baseball player to capture Patrick was taken hostage and threatened to kill him in front of dozens of police officers. And although Patrick knew that the baseball player would not kill him because his gun contained not bullets, but peanuts that he himself had put there, the baseball player had a second gun, which he quietly put in his pocket and wounded the policeman with it. And although Patrick did not notice this, it was at least strange for him not to assume such a scenario. Not to mention the fact that if he hadn't said something nasty about Red John, his wife and daughter would have still been alive.
External links[]
- Patrick Jane on the Heroes Wiki
- Patrick Jane on the Guile Heroes Wiki
- Patrick Jane on the Shonen Heroes Wiki