The Mentalist: Difference between revisions

{{tropelist}}

* [[Abusive Parent]]: Lisbon's father. Jane's probably qualifies too, at least for emotional abuse.

* [[The Chessmaster]]: Jane frequently gets murderers to incriminate themselves this way. Sometimes he even lets his coworkers in on the plan.

** Red John too, who "has no allies, only pawns". At least two serial killers have a connection to him, and he had a mole in the CBI. He also spies on them via their own security cameras. He also has some kind of connection with the cult Visualize, which directed CBI to one of his abducted victims.

* [[Chekhov's Boomerang]]: The corrupt doctor in "Pilot" {{spoiler|gives vital information for the CBI to rescue Jane in season three's Ball of Fire}}.

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: An actual gun is used as one in 'Red Brick and Ivy'.

** Cho in "Blood In, Blood Out": "Mr. Reed, I apologize for accusing you of several crimes which I knew you had not committed. And for assaulting you. Repeatedly."

* [[Crazy Prepared]]: In one episode, it is revealed that Jane routinely checks the shoe bottoms of people in wheelchairs for the off chance that they are faking it. He says that the events of the episode was the first time it payed off.

* [[Cryptic Background Reference]]: There was one in "Code Red" regarding Lisbon and Jane's relationship before the series started, that Lisbon knew Jane would never swear on his child's grave, "not for anything." And "Every Rose has its Thorn" had Jane comment that he and Lisbon have known each other for seven years (although not that they have been working together that long).

* [[Dark and Troubled Past]]: The only ones that don't have this haven't had much of their past revealed.

* [[Hero Insurance]]: When the new chief rolls in, Jane gets explicit [[Hero Insurance]]. "You're golden for anything less than murder." Lisbon, however, does ''not'' get the same protection, and Jane is told very specifically that if he breaks the law, she's taking the fall for it.

* [[Hero with an F In Good]]: Aside from performing good deeds, Jane fails to follow most of the typical practices of 'good' people.

* [[Holding the Floor]]: If it wasn't for this trope, Jane would be deader than dead.

* [[Hollywood Atheist]]: Averted by Patrick. Whenever he has discussed religion, the afterlife, or whatever - mainly with Van Pelt - it appears that he thinks that atheism is a more reasonable position, rather than being angry at God for letting his family die or anything like that.

** Averted increasingly often as the team gets closer. Of course, Van Pelt was called 'Grace' from the start and Bosco and Lisbon were already familiar. It's just bizarre that Jane refuses to call Minelli anything but 'Virgil', though.

** Lisbon even used this to try to trick a killer once when he was alone with him. Talking on the phone, she asked Jane to tell Rigsby that 'Teresa needs his help.' She added, 'Oh, me?' to further drive the point. It didn't work.

* [[Leitmotif]]: You can tell when Rigsby and Van Pelt are going to have a romantic and/or sexually tense scene, because they have a special theme that always plays. To a lesser degree, there's a small variety of playful music accompanying Jane's mind screwing.

* [[Let's You and Him Fight]]: Unable to prove the identity of a serial killer and knowing more will die if he fails to act, Jane goes on a talk show with the killer and goads him into mocking {{spoiler|the "deceased" Red John}}. The episode ended with the serial killer dead at the hands of the mocked.

* [[Refuge in Audacity]]: Pretty much Jane's MO. He does things the cops couldn't possibly get away with, and he avoids punishment (other than the tongue-lashings) simply by being too unpredictable to catch ahead of time.

** On occasion, he does face minor consequences, like getting punched. Most of the time though, when he does something wrong, Lisbon takes the heat; it's been acknowledged that Lisbon will lose her job, not Jane.

* [[Repeat What You Just Said]]

* [[Stylistic Suck]]: In "Red Sky in the Morning", Patrick points out that {{spoiler|apart from the real-life murders, the killers' film was just a corny slasher. Red John shared the same opinion.}}

* [[Swiper No Swiping]]: One of Patrick Jane's stock-in-trade tools. It doesn't really work on its own, but is useful when applied properly in combination with some of his other tactics.

* [[Temporary Blindness]]: Jane in ''Bloodshot''

* [[That One Case]]: Red John again.

[[Category:The Mentalist]]

[[Category:TV Series]]