The Mentalist: Difference between revisions

== Put character tropes in [[The Mentalist (TV)/Characters|here]], ''please''. ==

 

 

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* [[Calling Card]]: "Red John" leaves a smiley face painted in blood at every murder. In the first episode, the location where one was painted ''disproved'' that "Red John" was the murderer. Led to some slight [[Memetic Mutation]] online, ''particularly'' on [[Face Book]].

* [[Celibate Hero]]: Jane has been disinterested in relationships ever since the death of his wife. He is, however, a terrible flirt.

* [[Charity Ball]]: There's one to raise funds for the CBI.

* [[The Charmer]]: Jane. Jesus God. He is the absolute epitome of this trope. Also: '''Jane'''.

* [[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 Skill]]: Rigsby background as an arson investigator is first mentioned in "Flame Red." It comes in handy investigating a firefighter's murder in "Red Fugue."

* [[Church of Happyology]]: Visualize. Led [[Star Trek|by]] [[A Clockwork Orange (Film)|Malcom]] [[Caligula|McDowell]]. It uses straight-up violence in addition to legal harassment. They also have some kind of link with Red John.

** [[Running Gag|Yes, but this was a cathartic brawl.]] Souls were healed...

* [[Collapsed Mid Speech]]: A chef does this.

* [[Filler]]: Anything that's not related to Red John [[Myth Arc]] or Rigsby-Van Pelt relationship, it is.

* [[Financial Abuse]]: Jane's father, Alex. While traveling the carnival circuit, dear ol' dad took all of a $10,000 payday (that Patrick brought in by selling a con) and gave Patrick a mere pittance while he gambled the rest away with poker buddies.

* [[Fixing the Game]]: Jane starts out cheating using his psychic powers, later he just plain cheats.

* [[A Fool for A Client]]: Jane represents himself in the trial mentioned below.

* [[Good Cop Bad Cop]]: In "Red Gold," Jane tells Hightower, who is out in the field instead of Lisbon, that she can be "Bad Cop."

* [[Guile Hero]]: Our friend [[The Trickster|Patrick Jane]] pretty much embodies this.

* [[She Cleans Up Nicely|He Cleans Up Nicely]] Kimball Cho! [[Incredibly Lame Pun|No business like Cho business!]]

* [[Heroic Sociopath]]: The New boss in "Ring Around the Rosie" (who has a degree in criminal psychology) diagnosed Jane as a Clinical Psychopath using an antisocial personality detector test

* [[Interdisciplinary Sleuth]]: Jane.

* [[Internal Affairs]]: Season 3 has as a recurring character Agent JJ LaRoche of the Professional Standards Unit, the agent assigned to investigate the murder of a prisoner in CBI custody.

** Also-also, do not {{spoiler|try to frame Lisbon for murder.}} That'll get your ass thrown into jail, and Patrick Jane will snark at you.

* [[It Has Been an Honor]]: Lisbon says this to Cho and Rigsby, when she {{spoiler|thinks she}} is exposed to deadly virus strain in "Code Red". {{spoiler|Jane fools the entire facility and has alerted Cho and Rigsby to catch the bad guy beforehand.}}

* [[Karma Houdini]]: The dating service woman head (who's also played by [[V|Anna]]) hints at the possibility of the Jury letting her off scot-free in regards to her husband's murder because her accomplace that was going to testify against her was unstable. [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]] in a later episode when we discover that they didn't and she's in jail, {{spoiler|then [[Double Subverted]] when she escapes and flees to a tropical paradise.}}

* [[Kick the Dog]]: Jane, we know you don't get along with Bosco, but unplugging his morphine so he'll wake up and talk? Geez Louise.

*** [[Running Gag|But remember, the fake outbreak was cathartic.]] ''Life-affirming''.

** 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.

* [[Myopic Architecture]]: In one episode the [[Victim of the Week]] was killed via exposure to a deadly virus kept in a high security vault accessed by retina scan - which didn't work right and would let in anybody who presented their eye for scanning.

* [[Myth Arc]]: Jane's manhunt toward Red John. The titles of all episodes always include the word of "red", red objects, red shades, or anything anyhow related to "red" to represent the fact that Red John is still the main villain of the series.

*** YMMV about that last one ; they already have, after all, and broke up, but there's still tension.

* [[Never Trust a Trailer]]: The promos for the season 2 finale said we would finally meet Red John. We... saw his shoes.

'''Lisbon:''' You're stealing now?<br />

'''Jane:''' Well, let's just call it purloining. }}

** This is certainly not the first time it's been hinted that Jane has some serious riches. In an episode in the first season, he won $250,000 at blackjack by memorizing cards and blew a large amount (if not all) of it on expensive gifts for the team. Later, he won $300,000 in poker and {{spoiler|donated that to pay for the operation of the mother of one people who had been investigated in the case.}}

*** Not to mention that when the team rejected his expensive gifts of jewellery, instead of taking them back and getting a refund or selling them on, he put them into a donations bin for a charity store.

* [[Not So Different]]: Jane and Red John, according to one of Red John's flunkies.

{{quote| '''{{spoiler|Rebecca:}}''' You're very much like him, you know, the way you look at people and see right through them. That is just spooky.}}

* [[Obfuscating Disability]]: {{spoiler|Stuart Hanson, the wheelchair-bound man}} in "Miss Red."

** Also {{spoiler|Tommy Olds, the retarded handyman}} in "Flame Red".

* [[Put On a Bus]]: Whatever happened to Kristina Frye?

* [[Real Life Relative]]: Simon Baker's, Tim Kang's and Owain Yeoman's wives have appeared on the show.

{{quote| '''Minelli:''' You know, for ''8 years'', I've put up with the idiotic questions of the media, and I've never said squat. But today, I must tell you Meredith, you've really set a new standard in ''horse's-assery''. You people have no...''concept''...of what we do. We go into dark, horrible places, alone and afraid. And we do it with no money, broken down vehicles, with computers that have more viruses than a $10 whore. How? Good people. And I lost 3 good people today, and a fourth is in critical condition. And you ask me how I'm ''feeling''? I'm feeling ''sad'', you ''moron''. Any other questions? (''silence'') Okay then, good day to you. Lisbon, carry on.}}

* [[Red Herring]]: In the episode "Bleeding Heart," Lisbon told her team to look into someone, but Jane said not to bother because it was a red herring. Van Pelt asked what this meant, to which Lisbon responded "A red herring is what you look into regardless of what Jane tells you." There was also a second season episode titled "Red Herring."

* [[Room Full of Crazy]]: {{spoiler|The Red John copycat killer}} in the second season finale.

* [[Running Gag]]: Jane ''loves'' to point out that he's not actually a cop, just a consultant.

** One particularly notable example was "Red John's Friends." Jane is told that he's not allowed to pursue a particular lead regarding Red John because it would piss off some important people, so he chooses to quit. Lisbon and her team are advised it's hands-off, but decide to help him anyway. Minelli threatens to suspend them all, but then decides to look the other way by saying that he's leaving on a personal matter and that they'd better have things wrapped up before he gets back.

** It's also deconstructed when a competent defense attorney uses Jane's usual behavior to get an ironclad case against a serial killer thrown out in court since due process had been violated.

** Some fans have drawn a connection between this and his [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]] stunt of the week -- an unexpected [[Undercover As Lovers]], which leaves poor Lisbon torn between stunned and furious. [[Action Girl|She goes with furious]].

* [[Shipper On Deck]]: Cho developed a tendency to bug and encourage Rigsby about Van Pelt whenever the two were alone. Jane has also had a couple of shipper moments.

** Then there's "The Crimson Hat", which just plain ''oozes'' Jisbon shipage. In addition to the little scene at the church where Lisbon [[Slap Slap Kiss|pointedly exclaims how much she hates Jane]] (with her usual amount of "[[Can't Live With Them Can't Live Without Them]]" affection), there's Jane's "Good luck, Teresa. I love you" right before {{spoiler|he fakes shooting her multiple times}}. Of course, when Lisbon asks him what he meant by that, Patrick [[Status Quo Is God|feigns forgetfulness and asks what he said]], because he was a little hyped up at the time and can't remember. Then after she saves him {{spoiler|from Red John's girl and goon}}, they're holding hands. Really, writers? ''Really?'' You just love to yank the shippers' chains, don't you?

* [[Shout Out]]: Rigsby snatches a girl's microphone out of her hand and takes over, at one point stating 'I'mma let you finish'. Now, where have we seen ''that'' before?

** Jane sings the sea shanty from ''Jaws'' at the start of "Ladies in Red."

** Jane saying "You should have seen me ten years ago" might be a [[Shout Out]] to Simon Baker's 2001 CBS drama series, [[The Guardian]].

{{quote| '''Dr. Daniel:''' You're ambitious, more than you let anyone see. A girl from nowheresville, desperate to make it big, but you're worried that you'll always be smalltown, smalltime, you haven't got what it takes, and that's why you're so shut down to everything but this job.<br />

'''Van Pelt:''' Dr. Daniel, no offense, but I've been working with Patrick Jane for nine months now. You wanna get under my skin, you're gonna have to up your game. }}

** That said, only about 3 of the 7 or 20-odd points (depending on which checklist they used) of the criteria are mentioned, and he is incorrectly scored on the "Glibness / Superficial Charm" bit- he ''might'' fit that, but its the "superficial" part thats important, not the "charm" part, and the fact that Jane is willing to use his charm to manipulate others is mitigated by the fact that he is also simply charming by nature.

* [[The Sponsor]]: In the episode "Jolly Red Elf", the bizarre death of a Santa-suit clad alcoholic lead Jane to seek out his AA sponsor, who was later revealed to have been in love with the victim.

* [[Stock Phrase]]: Two in one line by Jane. "'Stop the presses!' [[I Always Wanted to Say That]]."

* [[The Stoic]]: Cho. We're not sure if he's actually capable of facial expressions.

* [[Undercover As Lovers]]: Jane and both the women on the team. In season one, it was Van Pelt (he was the professor who seduced her and made her his fiancee), and in season two, it was Lisbon (which had the Jisbon shippers practically exploding when he said "I love you"). This ''is'' Patrick Jane, however - a certain baseline of dickery needs to be respected. Also in season two, Jane coaxes Lisbon into posing as his lover so they can get a hooker to ''join them upstairs'', all as part of a plan to question the pimp, of course.

* [[Unreliable Voiceover]]: Used to chilling effect in "Red Alert". The murderer confesses, but says that the victim drove him to it: she led him on, lured him to her house, rejected him, and then threatened to expose him. The flashback we see while he's talking, however, tells a [[Attempted Rape|different story]]. Lisbon is [[Genre Savvy|not fooled]].

** {{spoiler|They do eventually get together, but thanks to the work restrictions break up again.}}

** It's present between Jane and Lisbon too, albeit subtle and overshadowed by the whole Rigsby/Van Pelt thing. He's not above teasing her about it. And although the actors have both said it won't happen, we still get scenes like the one in "Rose-Coloured Glasses", where they ''slow-dance''. Sheesh.

* [[Villainous Rescue]]: {{spoiler|Red John saves Jane from his copycat killer in the second season finale}}.

* [[Wham Episode]]:

** Season 3's "Strawberries and Cream". {{spoiler|Jane meets and kills Red John. Season Four reveals it was only an accomplice, though.}}

** Season 4's "Blinking Red Light". {{spoiler|Red John's BACK!}}

** {{spoiler|The team just explain the trail of thought that led Jane to believe they were looking for a Red John accomplice; combined with the fact that he was La Roche's short list of suspects, that they can link the assassin at the hotel to the info they gave him (with video evidence), and the fact that he ''killed two cops'', makes the case pretty tight. They don't even have to prove he was an ally of Red John, really; the fact that he was a ruthless murderer and was a viable suspect should be enough, especially since fleeing from justice was just faked by Jane.}}

** At the end of "Red Rover, Red Rover", CBI Director Wainright suspends Jane for psychologically torturing a confession out of the Killer of the Week. When Jane mouths off, Wainright fires him.

*** {{spoiler|Which naturally turns out to be the setup for another [[Batman Gambit]] to catch Red John. And RJ sees it coming.}}

* [[Wicked Cultured]]: Red John listens to Bach and quotes William Blake's poetry.

* [[Widower Hero]]: Patrick Jane, straight up.

* [[Witness Protection]]: The victim in "Red Sauce" was in a witness protection scheme.

* [[Worthy Opponent]]: Red John considers Jane to be one.

[[Category:American Series]]

[[Category:The Mentalist]]