The Brave season 1: Why deputy director Patricia Campbell is a true hero

Throughout television there are many characters worthy of the title “hero”. We watch many different characters week after week perform dangerous tasks in order to save others, solve crimes to fight for justice, and make decisions that could affect their lives for their patients. So when we take a minute and think about who is a true hero many different characters come to mind. However, we want to take a minute and discuss why we believe The Brave‘s Deputy Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Patricia Campbell (Anne Heche) is a hero that truly stands out.

Patricia’s job as Deputy Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency is to mainly oversee the missions of an elite covert operations team of the Defense Intelligence Agency, similar to that of the CIA’s Special Operations Group. They travel around the world carrying out dangerous missions that “don’t exist”. She has to make calls that many of us would never even think about and ones that could threaten her career. However, she never thinks twice and always thinks about what ‘s right.

Now this article isn’t saying that her elite military team, lead by Captain Adam Dalton, aren’t heroes as well. What we are saying is that Dalton follows Patricia’s orders, meaning that she has the final say and that’s not easy. Dalton and his team are put out on the front lines day in and day out, but if anything were to happen, Patricia takes the blame. To do this, you have to be strong and resilient, you have to have a heart of steel, some tough skin, and of course, you have to be brave.

Patricia has braved the front lines and has handled it expertly. In episode 4 “Break Out”, the team (along with Patricia) enter an Afghani military prison to interrogate an American who joined the Taliban and has intimate knowledge of an imminent attack. During the interrogation, other prisoners stage a prison break leaving the team to figure out how to escape. Throughout the whole ordeal, Patricia lead her team and never once showed she was afraid. One great characteristic about her is that despite the fact that she is in charge she often gives Dalton the power. This shows she is confident enough in herself and her position that she can give Dalton command. That distribution of power is rare in hero. Often times we see a hero become mad with power to the point where we forget why we admired them at all. This isn’t the case with Patricia and it’s refreshing to see a hero confident, strong and not mad with power.

Deputy Director Patricia Campbell is a breathe of fresh air and a true hero and leader that we love to watch week after week. She demonstrates all the qualities we want and look for in a hero and we pray that NBC grants this series a second season because we want to continue to watch Patricia on her journey

This story was written by Samantha D’Amico.