The Mentalist/Tear Jerker

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Tear Jerkers in The Mentalist include:

• At the end of episode 15, "Scarlett Fever" (itself a bit of a tear-jerker), Lisbon observes that Jane "doesn't like to be thanked" for his work in solving cases and speculates it has something to do with remaining aloof or mysterious: "Who was that masked man, anyway?" But at the end of "Blood Brothers", when Jane sees the victim's family approaching, seems about to retreat, then is spotted by Van Pelt and goes down resignedly and manages to say a few kind words to the family. As she said to her sister: Maybe seeing victim's families reminds him of his own wife and child, who were murdered by Red John. And maybe he hates being thanked because he has to see these people get closure, while the Red John case has never been solved. Cue salty waterfalls.
• At the end of "Seeing Red", Jane gets a visit from Kristina Frye, a "clairvoyant" who Jane has consistantly said he doesn't believe in. She walks up to him as she's leaving the CBI and tells him his daughter was asleep when she died, and she didn't feel a thing. This was one of the things he'd always wondered about, and he breaks down crying in the interrogation room. That in itself is a Tearjerker, but it gets better when Van Pelt, who'd argued with him over the existence of an afterlife, closes the door to give him privacy.
• In "Red John's Friends, Bosco's death. He finally admits that he loves Lisbon, which manages to be heartbreaking even though he's married, and then she tells him that she loves him too while trying not to cry, and failing, despite being the strongest person on television, and then he dies and she's so heartbroken, and I'm crying now, six months later. Never cried at TV before this scene.
• "Don't you know there are people who care about you, people who need you? You're being selfish and childish and I want you to stop it."
  • Which is so brilliant because Robin Tunney's acting is perfect and Lisbon sounds on the brink of tears.
• "Oh, Lisbon, don't cry." Lisbon - Lisbon, the strongest woman on television - is crying because she thinks she's spinning into madness, and Jane can't do anything to help her. And then he fixes it, because he loves her.
• Grace Van Pelt talking a suspect out of suicide, and talking about how her sister killed herself, and how helpless she felt afterwards. Van Pelt isn't usually a big character, just quietly competent and the focus of Rigsby's utter adoration, but here she was so raw. You're reminded just how good all of the leads on this show are.
• Jane at his wife and daughter's graves.
• The ending of The Red Mile. As the coroner slowly passes away from suicide (he was terminally ill), Jane distracts him with a coin disappearance magic trick to keep his mind off of it. It's pretty heartbreaking.
• Jane in Redline, talking to a victim's boyfriend about the death of his girlfriend. The way Lisbon doesn't even stop him... Well, it just shows how subtle this show can be.

"Oh stop. Self-pity'll kill you. Take it from someone who knows."

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