Cindy Cosey

9 min read

·

Dec 4, 2024

Let’s start with personality quirks. They’re not all quirks, I guess. He is ‘just a guy’ so some of this stuff is pretty ho-hum but I include it here mostly because I just like writing something about this character.

Patrick can be pretty sarcastic at times. When he first meets Bret Partridge (who he intensely dislikes) he tells him that Partridge probably gets off while watching “Fangoria.” His sarcasm is usually directed at people he doesn’t like. He often makes a fool of people he dislikes — for example, the time he fed the false story of the diamond in the victim’s pocket to Bertram. He knew Bertram would end up making a fool of himself with that story and that was Patrick’s goal. Bertram just ‘set him off’ for some reason and he disliked him almost as soon as he met him. In fact, at his initial meeting of Bertram he refused to work the case Bertram was talking to the media about. Patrick clearly didn’t want anything to do with the guy.

Patrick has a very fun sense of humor and he jokes with his fellow CBI members often. He also has a self-deprecating sense of humor. One example of his humor — when he makes Teresa think he might be able to read her mind she asks him what she is thinking right now and Patrick replies that she’s thinking ‘I hope Jane can’t really read my mind, because . . .’ and she actually blushes.

He’s a liar. He lies about pretty much everything and anything and does it so innocently that sometimes I just want to hug him. While lying is not a positive thing, he’s so darned good at it and it benefits him and others time after time. One lie that sticks in my head is with Bosco’s doctor when she asked if he had touched the morphine administration machine, Patrick simply replied, “No.” His attitude was, like, ‘I’m offended you would even ask me that.’ Hand-in-hand with the lying goes the withholding of information, which he does ALL the time. I often think he wants the other team members to THINK and try to figure out things on their own rather than rely on him to figure things out for them.

He loves children. Any time Patrick encounters a child he just lights up and he interacts so well with kids of all ages — play sword fighting, enjoying tea parties, holding babies and more. He has a soft spot for teenage girls which remind him of his own daughter. And he is able to establish a rapport with pretty much any child he encounters.

He likes and relates well to animals. Holding a cat or a rabbit — the animals seem comfortable with him. Talking to horses? Well, maybe he can; a horse whisperer?

He takes a lot of joy in simple things. A quick chase of birds on the beach. Sitting on a farm tractor or a motorcycle. Building a sandcastle. Interacting with children blowing bubbles. Simply reading something new and interesting. And (and I think this is precious) just interacting and forming friendships with his CBI cohorts. I think making and having friends is something many people take for granted. Patrick clearly treasures these people. I guess it’s not really a simple thing for him.

He’s brutally honest. How can this be when he’s such a liar? He definitely says what he thinks, especially if he’s trying to get information or he doesn’t like you. Even if he loves you he can be irritatingly honest. Time and again he puts Wayne out there by telling Grace what Wayne would like to say but is too chicken to. Patrick’s trying to open the door of communication between the two, but his honesty can be embarrassing. Wayne gets pretty upset with Patrick about this at times but refrains from that punch he’d like to give him. His honest evaluation of others (suspects, police, etc.) usually gets him in trouble but I think, many times, it is intentional, meant to get a rise out of the recipient of the honesty; and more often than not, it works.

He’s loyal. I don’t think all the CBI team realizes what they have in Patrick. Oh yeah, they think he’s good at closing cases, but do they understand how much he cares about them? I think Kimball may be the only one who truly understands this. Patrick is loyal to each of them. He also shows family loyalty when he comes to Danny’s rescue, in spite of their differences, and of course, his single minded determination to avenge the deaths of his wife and daughter. He is also very loyal to his old carny family.

He’s caring. Enough said.

Patrick’s very manipulative. He turns people’s words around to get them to say what he wants them to, uses actions — like a stare down- to intimidate and many many times just uses his voice and his art of persuasion to get people to do what he wants.

He’s playful. He likes interacting with young children and is not embarrassed whatsoever to be caught goofing around with them in child’s play. He builds sand castles, sings to himself no matter his audience, tries out cars and motorcycles and other things whether they belong to him or not. He loves to try out new things.

He’s a risk taker. He’ll walk in to danger to try to protect others or get new information. He takes risky confrontations all the time and gets chased or punched for it pretty often. I’m sure he knows the possible end result of the risks he takes but he plows ahead anyway. I, however, don’t recall his ever taking a risk that he thinks would endanger people he cares about. Going along with this personality trait is his protectiveness of others, his friends, co-workers and innocents he encounters through his work.

He easily connects with others from all walks of life if he wants to. The guy who gave him a ride to the cemetery evidenced by the friendly “handshake” when he gets out of the car. Boo, his very large murderer cellmate. Hightower, an authority figure, to be sure, who mistrusts Patrick from the start.

He has a prodigious memory. He never forgets anything he chooses to remember. Heck, he remembered over 2000 people he shook hands with throughout his lifetime. He seems to know something about pretty much everything. I’m sure this is mostly from his avid reading and from meeting people and from life experiences. This probably is a great way for him to connect with people. He remembers important things about them and can feed those things back to them. That’s something that makes people feel imortant and like Patrick is truly paying attention to them. Maybe that doesn’t seem so impressive, but it really is when you consider the number of people he knows things about.

He’s a smiler. He smiles at almost everyone he meets. Sometimes it’s not meant to be friendly but he uses that smile to gain trust. Often the smile is genuine — he loves his friends and the simple joys he finds in life. Other times he just uses it to make himself seem more accessible.

He’s a trickster. He writes fake diaries, lies about people to get what he wants, does many sleight of hand tricks and more.

He has moral ambiguity. Some of his motives are good, some not so good. He does not seem to have a strict moral code other than that good people should be treated well and bad people should get what’s coming to them (in his eyes). He’ll do pretty much anything if it benefits himself, the team or the ongoing investigation. He also likes some people who do bad things. I think he truly liked Erica Flynn to a point. And I’m sure he cared somewhat about Lorilei but, maybe not. She was a means to an end and he did say, when she was killed, “she had it coming.” I wonder though, if that feeling came from the fact that she refused to help him find Red John in spite of his efforts to help her with finding out truths. Most of the time Patrick treated her very well and seemed pretty loving at times. I know he was using her but I think he did really care about her.

He’s a teacher. He imparts his prodigious knowledge often. Sometimes people listen, sometimes not.

I find it amusing sometimes that he CAN be easily insulted. Like the time Teresa got disgusted with him during an investigation and he is heard saying to himself about how ‘he guesses she doesn’t want to hear his plan. “Sheep dip your plan.” he’s insulted that she is dismissing him. Also, when he first meets Teresa and after she tells him to clean up, the next day he appears at the CBI offices somewhat cleaned up (he’s far from his neat-as-a-pin appearance that shows up later but better than when he first came to the CBI office) he says, “I cleaned up like you told me to,” to which Teresa replies, “it’s a process.” The expression on his face and tilt of his head clearly shows that he’s insulted. He was thinking he did pretty well with the clean-up but Teresa thinks otherwise. We also see he feels insulted when the team doesn’t take his plans or theories seriously sometimes and, I think he’s right to feel that way since he’s usually right. Here again I see Kimball’s friendship showing itself. Kimball has figured out that Patrick, is indeed, almost always right and he respects that in spite of getting a bit tired of Patrick’s antics at times.

He drives too fast and maybe, recklessly. He has to “play games” to get the right to drive? Teresa tells him straight out that he drives too fast. His exhilaration at driving Walter Mashburn around while blindfolded is amusing.

So what talents do we see in our beloved Patrick?

He makes great eggs. He even teaches experienced cooks how to improve.

He makes great casts using an open reel. He’s a fisherman.

He’s an excellent poker player. Always wins.

He’s a card counter, making him successful at pretty much any card game.

He plays chess exceptionally well. And backgammon.

He figures out puzzles and codes with apparent ease.

He’s knowledgeable about wine and cuisine.

He’s a tea connoisseur. He knows about many types of tea and makes recommendations to others as well as having a favorite — Oolong- and he knows exactly how he likes his own tea prepared.

He’s an avid reader and remembers what he reads. He will often read new things that are case related. He learns more about sharks after a victim gets chomped by a shark. He reads a cycling magazine and learns things about motorcycle culture when the case focuses on a local motorcycle club. He also reads a lot of novels and non-fiction for pleasure. Patrick often has a book in hand and has his own small library wherever he is.

He’s a forger. He forged a diary and made changes to notebooks and he forged a man’s signature to write a fake suicide confession. There may be more examples of this skill but I don’t remember.

He has impeccable taste in clothing even though this may not always show. He knows how to properly wear a suit = no belt when wearing a vest, although he rarely, if ever, wears a tie. He also appreciates good taste in clothing that others wear.

He does sudoku puzzles all the time. This tells me he solves them because people rarely continue with a pastime if they’re not fairly good at it.

He dislikes guns but knows how to handle them and is a good shot. He’s even very good with a pistol, something that usually takes a bit if practice, and, at least twice in the series we see him handle a shotgun with ease and finesse.

His sleight of hand skills are phenominal. This is seen over and over again from coin and card tricks to pick pocketing.

He can pick almost any lock with the simplest of tools. And quickly, too.

He does origami, plays the drums and bass viol.

He’s a hypnotist. Enough said.

He’s very agile — ducks flying tea saucers, leaps crime scene tape in a single bound.

My one question. What’s up with the nearly constant finger twiddling? Is it a nervous habit? A sign of anxiety? Or just another Jane quirk?