The Mentalist: The Case for "Jisbon"

White Orchids s07e13

The Mentalist has concluded it seven season stint with the wedding of Patrick Jane and Teresa Lisbon and even though I am wallowing in the depths of despair, not really, (really,) I am so thrilled that the show ended the way it did. I enjoyed watching all the full circles the show made and was pleased that though Simon Baker had said he wanted a more tragic ending that it was his idea to end the show with the knowledge of Lisbon being pregnant with Jane’s baby. (Maybe he’s a romantic after all? Or thinks having a baby is tragic…)

The wedding has, of course, spurned some rather heated arguments over whether or not Jisbon should have ever happened in the first place. One remark that I have heard repeatedly, since I joined the twitter/Mentalist community in 2012, is that Jisbon is contrived and that there are people who legitimately swear that they never saw it coming.

           

I can readily admit that Bruno Heller, the show creator, and the writers have been extremely subtle in their portrayal of a growing romantic attachment between Patrick Jane and Teresa Lisbon. That said…you really didn’t see it coming? Really? I'm not trying to be sarcastic, hard to believe I know, but it really and truly astounds me. It seemed so obvious. (FYI, my intention here is not to offend anyone, but merely to delve into one facet of a show that I loved.)

A Dozen Red Roses s01e19

Because I want to secure my argument that this wasn’t completely contrived and that there was ample evidence to suggest that Jisbon could happen, I am only going to use evidence from season one. Before I start I must let you know that I am not making money off my blog, and I do not own any of the pictures, gifs or videos of The Mentalist on this post or for that matter The Mentalist. (I'd be happy to take any rights though...)

To begin there are a few things about me that you should know.

First: I am not a romantic. Whatsoever. I asked my mom the other day if she thought I was, just to see her reaction. She laughed. (I thought that was a little uncalled for.) Second: I am not a shipper. I have never once cared whether characters end up together or not and I’m an avid show watcher. Third: I am incredibly wary about widowers remarrying. It’s a silly and selfish prejudice that I think comes from my unwillingness to share my future husband, in the afterlife, with another woman and the fear that I would always be compared to the deceased spouse in life. (I don’t think remarried widowers are bad people, just so we’re clear, or subscribe to any nonsense about it being a form of cheating.)

Also, the show does not begin and end, in my opinion, with the romantic relationship between Jane and Lisbon. It is simply one aspect of the show I loved. 

I’m telling you these things because I hope it will help you see that I am not just desperately trying to make an argument where one doesn’t exist. If anything Jane and Lisbon had odds stacked against them in favor of me wanting them together. 

That said I still "ship" Jisbon. How did this happen? I have no idea. I didn’t even know that the word “shipper” meant a person who wants a romantic entanglement between two characters in their favorite show until a couple years ago. And remember the looks on Simon Baker, Robin Tunney, and Bruno Heller’s faces when they were first introduced to Jane and Lisbon’s couple pairing name “Jisbon”? 

Simon Baker and Robin Tunney. From a first season interview when asked about "Jisbon."

That was my face when I first heard it three years ago. (And I still hate the word “Jisbon.” Seriously, it sounds like a stripper name.)

I suspect that the more I came to know Patrick Jane and his tragic story the more I wanted him to get revenge in every way possible. Red John wanted to steal his life and he did—for a time. I needed to see Jane not only kill Red John, but also shove it in his face one more time by making a new life for himself and being really and truly happy despite (and in my case in spite of) Red John. The only way I could see this happening for him, credibly, was if he ended up with Teresa Lisbon. 

And, yes, as I mentioned above, they have been incredibly subtle in their hinting of a Jane and Lisbon romance, but not so subtle that I don't think I can't make a fairly decent argument for Jisbon.

            

The Pilot

At the end of the Pilot episode Jane gives Lisbon an origami frog in apology for bad behavior. He walks off, the frog jumps, Lisbon startles, Jane stops and smiles back at her, then becomes sullen and leaves. The scene that immediately proceeds is Jane lying down on a mattress in his house under the smiley face that Red John left in the blood of Jane’s wife and daughter.

These two moments are arguably some of the most symbolic of the series. We go from the most innocent, sweet, and lighthearted scene of the episode to the darkest and most upsetting one. From Teresa Lisbon to Red John.

In a TVLine Interview with series creator Bruno Heller and show star Robin Tunney, Heller supported my theory by saying:

Lisbon is the kind of “light” in the show, and Jane was kind of consumed in darkness — and suddenly here is a ray of light, a ray of hope that maybe he can do something with his life, that this someone can help him seek out what he wanted. (http://tvline.com/2015/02/17/the-mentalist-series-finale-preview-jane-lisbon-wedding/)

My reaction first time I saw it as a normal viewer not looking for a deeper meaning: 

 

Pilot s01e01

“Aw, he likes her."

Pilot s01e01

"Yeesh, that’s creepy.” 

My reaction as a writer: 

They’re setting up a major dilemma for the Jane character in dealing with feelings he’s not ready for. He likes the Lisbon character, and likes to make her happy as is evidenced by his smile at her reaction to the frog jumping, but feels guilty for it, which we know because he becomes glum after smiling at her reaction and because he immediately takes a six hour drive from Sacramento down to his Malibu house where his family was murdered. For what purpose? To sleep under the blood of his family. Clearly to punish himself and to remind himself that his first priority needs to be catching Red John.

The writers want us to know that there is a priority triangle between Lisbon, Jane, and Red John. They want to create a conflict of emotions for Jane. And in doing this they're telling the audience that the Lisbon character is as important to him as the Red John character, the light in the darkness (if you will), and that if Jane were ever to have a romantic attachment in the show it’s probably going to be with Lisbon.(My writer's brain is deeply chatty. Sorry...)

"Wheels within wheels." Yep, that about sums it up.

Flame Red

Initially I wasn’t going to include this one, but then I remembered that this was the first episode in which "Jisbon’s" theme music was first introduced. It plays at the end of the episode while Jane and Lisbon are standing in the rain. This same music is used many times throughout the series during important relationship building moments for our feisty duo. It’s not clear season one proof that they’d end up together, especially since it was used a couple times in non-Jisbon moments, but it was clearly a decision made to give them a theme. One that, I feel compelled to mention, was used during their first kiss.

Bloodshot

I know this is probably an argument that gets used a lot, and because of that I almost skipped it, but let’s face it, (haha!), it’s a good one. Of course I’m thinking of the part where Jane touches Lisbon’s face and tells her he wants to know what her face feels like when she’s smiling. 

Bloodshot s01e16

  

Now I don’t know about all of you, but the only men who have ever touched my face were ones I was dating. Out of curiosity, I asked a few men if they would ever touch the face of a female coworker or girl who was a friend. They all said no, with the exception of one who said that he would if he were into her.

I also think that it’s worth mentioning that Lisbon was the first thing Jane saw when he got his vision back. From a writer’s standpoint, that’s very telling. If I’d written that it’d be because I wanted people to know that there was potentially something brewing between the two.

Carnelian Inc.

The conversation right before the trust fall, while vague in its “ship” building, is in fact doing just that. With all its talk of “boundaries of their professional relationship” and the actual trust fall itself all I can really say is that this is a moment of friendship building, even though I believe that it was necessary in their “ship” building to have a strong friendship first. 

Jane is hurt that Lisbon doesn’t trust him and tells her that he needs her to know that "no matter what happens" he’ll be there for her. He's quite insistent. But really, Jane? No matter what? But what if you have to choose between Lisbon and Red John? Isn't that in conflict with your number one priority which is, in fact, catching Red John? Yes, yes it is. Which brings us back to the priority triangle that was introduced in the Pilot. (My oh my. I wonder what will happen next?)

And, by the way, guess what music is playing during the trust fall? That's right, the "Jisbon" theme. (Which I'm sure has a proper name... Sorry Blake Neely; you're music deserves more credit than that!)

Red Sauce

Red Sauce s01e20

This episode probably has the most blatantly obvious sign of a growing romantic relationship between Jane and Lisbon of the entire season. Again, I am sure that the pony scene is used in arguments for their “ship” all the time, but not argued in the way it should be.

Now for all of you who think that him buying her a pony was merely a cute thing that Jane did for a good friend or a sibling like gesture, I would like for you to go and ask a man, any man who will be honest with you, if he would ever go to the trouble of looking for, purchasing, and having a pony delivered to the office of a woman who was just a friend. And I’m sure it wasn’t cheap either.

There is no man in his right mind who would do that for a woman he wasn’t interested in. I don’t even have to ask any men I know, because I know what their response would be. It would never happen.

And as far as the sibling theory goes, I have three brothers and have not once received a birthday gift from any of them, let alone a pony. And they are good brothers.

Also, I suppose, that I must begrudgingly admit, even though I don't believe that Lisbon had strong feelings for Jane until season four, that Lisbon was indeed acting "grumpy" that Jane "forgot" to give her a gift. That’s a pretty high expectation for a woman to have of a member of her staff, male nonetheless. Unless, of course, she has stronger feelings for him than she would for someone who was just an employee or friend.

Red John’s Footsteps

Red John's Footsteps s01e23

 

This episode brings me back to the Lisbon/Jane/Red John priority triangle that I mentioned in the Pilot and Carnelian Inc. So far it has been established that Jane cares for Lisbon almost as much if not as much as he does about catching Red John, and that it is very important for him that Lisbon trust him.

In this episode Jane gets mad at Lisbon for saving him and allowing Red John to get away, and then immediately after kills his first and only lead to Red John in order to save her life. 

It's a triple whammy. Jane discovers that his first priority is Lisbon’s life (and not Red John's), he establishes that she can in fact trust him, and kills someone to prove it. It answers the questions asked in the Pilot and Carnelian Inc, (Who's Jane's first priority? Can Lisbon trust him?) and backs up both questions with concrete proof.

Now I won’t say that I think Jane wouldn’t have killed for the other team members, because I think it very possible that he would have, but I find it significant that they chose Lisbon for this moment. It had to be her to come full circle from the Pilot. And when I say “they” I actually mean Bruno Heller as he was the one who wrote all three of those episodes. 

And further, the idea of them creating a love interest between Jane and anyone else after the priority triangle would have been ridiculous. We already know that Lisbon is more important to him than Red John and I don't believe that they could have credibly brought in someone else after Jane killed for Lisbon.

Most shows have some kind of romance going on. Why? Romance sells. So while Bruno and the writers very creatively pushed the bulk of the shows romance onto Rigsby and Van Pelt, I can’t believe that Patrick Jane and Teresa Lisbon as a couple had never crossed their minds. 

Nonsense. 

If that were the case they could have made Lisbon a man or a happily married woman instead of an incredibly fantastic, single woman who was completely un-intimidated, smart, feisty and more than worthy to end up with the marvelous Patrick Jane. 

Bruno Heller agreed with my sentiment, in the same TVLine Interview as above, when asked if he had known that Jane and Lisbon would end up married from the beginning, by saying: 

Oh, I wouldn’t have even opened a book on it. I mean, it crossed my mind, but no, it was never a thought. It immediately became a thought as soon as you see these people doing their stuff. (http://tvline.com/2015/02/17/the-mentalist-series-finale-preview-jane-lisbon-wedding/)

And there it is from the top dog himself. "Jisbon" may be a lot of things to different people, but contrived it is not.

Men of The Mentalist 

My last pieces of evidence come from men of the Mentalist who have helped make the show what it is. I have chosen only evidence for this section that came during season one, as my prior evidence was from season seven, and as such could be used as an argument against my points.

1.)  It was Bruno Heller who mentioned the three facets of the Jane/Lisbon relationship in the first season box set, one of which was “flirting.”

2.) In an interview with Chris Long (at the time, co-executive producer and director), he said this:

3.) Blake Neeley wrote a Jisbon a theme. (See above.)

4.) Simon Baker, in the same interview as the one where he was introuduced to the coupling name "Jisbon," stated that they couldn't get the characters together until the end, otherwise you'd have a Moonlighting effect. (Moonlighting was a popular show in the 80's that was cancelled at the end of its second season, I believe, after the two main characters slept together.) That doesn't sound like a statement from someone who was oblivious to the possibility.

So, frankly, the idea that Jisbon never even crossed their minds, or that there is no evidence to support where the show went with their relationship is clearly unsubstantiated.  

If you have any other season one scenes that you think were important in Jane and Lisbon's "ship" building please comment and let me know. (My favorites are the ones that can be proven and not just opinionated on, but don't let that stop you from sharing.) Thanks for reading!