I don’t watch this show, but my mom likes it and I have ended up seeing episodes, or at least parts of episodes, while at her house. I think mostly the earlier seasons.
Could someone please tell me if the show ever explains what Patrick Jane’s wife thought of his career as a psychic? Did she believe he was a psychic? Did she know he was a fake psychic and okay with that? Did they raise the daughter to believe that dad was a medium, or that he was a con artist?
I asked my mom, and she doesn’t really get my question – she seems to think I’m implying that she deserved to get killed by a sociopath if she knew her husband was faking it. NO, MOM! I don’t think anyone deserves to be killed by a serial killer, cripes.
You know, I’ve watched every episode of the show and I’m not sure it was addressed. I think they implied at some point that his wife came from the same background as he did - carnies and circus-folk - in which case yeah, she probably knew he was a con man.
Huh, interesting it doesn’t come up. To me, it’s the most intriguing aspect of the character. He feels guilty, but it seems like the aspects of the guilt would be different in each scenario.
As long as we’re on the subject…what is supposed to be Red John’s motive for killing Patrick’s family?
This is one of those shows, like Bones, that I watch even though many things about it annoy the hell out of me. Like Patrick’s incessant teadrinking. And Lisbon asking, “Where’s Jane?” about every five minutes.
Hasn’t anyone noticed that Jane frequently insists he is not a psychic and derides those who claim to be? He has played a psychic to fool crooks. Has explained how he figures things out by reason.
Yeah, but that’s not what the OP was asking. He wants to know if Jane’s wife and child knew and accepted that at one time (before they died and the show began) their husband/father was a con artist.
In one episode we meet Jane’s Brother in law -in that episode we learn that Jane and his wife (heh) were both carny folk that broke away - so there is no doubt that the wife knew the entire bit. (I am pretty sure this episode predates the flashback episode where we see Jane being trained and pushed into conning folks by his Dad - also a carny).
What his daughter knew or thought has, to my knowledge, never been directly addressed - I would guess at home they called it “entertainment”.
Red John killed Janes Wife and daughter because Jane called him out on national TV - I think basically calling Red John a coward or something (don’t recall the specifics).
Yes - this is a recurring theme of the show - there is atleast one episode where he has to face one of his former marks and help save her child - and save her from her new ‘psychic’ helper - it was quite the episode.
Thanks guys! It sounds like the wife was content with living high on the hog on the success of Jane’s fake psychic act. This also makes sense because Jane doesn’t seem like the kind of person who would have much respect for someone gullible enough to fall for his act.
Which although not cool, still doesn’t justify being murdered by a crazy serial killer. One wonders if, in her final moments, she also felt guilty that their lifestyle led to the murder of their daughter.
I don’t think it was specifically his lifestyle that caused the murders, it was his big mouth. He could have been on TV talking about Red John because he was a psychologist, a cop a priest or just about any kind of random media personality. The important thing is that he did call Red John out and Red John responded. if she was thinking about who to blame at all I would have thought she’d have been thinking “Patrick, you idiot, Patrick, you big head, Patrick why couldn’t you just have kept your mouth shut for once…”
I think the show centers more around Jane being a know-it-all-smarty-pants and how this character flaw killed everyone he loved. You’d think he’d get over being a friggin’ prick to us lower mortals but no. Not even getting his family killed put a damper on his assholishness.
At least that’s what I take away from this TV show. And I watch it much more than I should.
I’m not sure which episode, maybe the same one, I think it was said that the wife was trying to get him to quit and go into a legitimate profession. But he loved the money, power, and attention – was brought up to love those things – and didn’t want to quit. His hubris got his family killed, thus his guilt. The show is about his redemption as much as it is about his quest for revenge.
It was fun, in the early seasons, when they showed the mechanics of how he did a lot of tricks. By now, the show runners are assuming that the audience knows the tricks, and they don’t need to explain them anymore. I would like it if they continued to show what was behind the curtain…like the episode when he helped a magician friend pull a robbery.
No, it would really be too much. I shouldn’t have framed my comment that way because it looks like an attention-grabbing stunt. Suffice to say that you’ve seen Red John on more than one occasion.
Well, we were absolutely introduced to him at the beginning of this season, and we’ve seen him once since (that I currently recall) - to my wife’s and I knowledge, we had not seen that specific actor/charactor prior to those two moments.
Anything else is pure speculation - if you are referring to what I think you are.