Prison Break (TV Series)

Kaniel Outis (2017)

Mark Feuerstein: Jacob Anton Ness

Quotes 

• Jacob Anton Ness : See, in game theory, it serves you to be two-faced. Be everyone's friend 'till the moment you're not. You make them love you so much that when they're up against it, their loyalty will make them act against their own best interests. That's game theory. A cold, rational, focus on winning. Even if it's at everyone else's expense.

  Dr. Sara Tancredi : What I'm tryingt to understand is what he stands to gain. Leaving his family, and... and the new identity.

  Jacob Anton Ness : According to the little you've told me, he was different. Always an agenda, right?

  Dr. Sara Tancredi : Yeah.

  Jacob Anton Ness : I mean, he apparently loved you. Of course he loved you. How could he not? But he also wanted you to open that door in the prison for him. I mean, true game theory, everything, everyone is... a contingency. You meet people, you bring them into your life and you keep them percolating until the moment you need to manipulate the relationship to your advantage.

  [seeing the worry in her face] 

  Jacob Anton Ness : I'm not, judging, you know? That's not my thing.

  Dr. Sara Tancredi : I know.

  Jacob Anton Ness : You know me. But... schema as deep and as calculating as that can, in the end, spin a man off into madness. He might initially think smaller evils are okay in the service of a greater good.

  Dr. Sara Tancredi : Like breaking Lincoln out of prison.

  Jacob Anton Ness : But the dance of good and evil could become jumbled, and the manipulation itself becomes the most important thing. Becomes about winning rather than whether the game should be won at all.

• Jacob Anton Ness : You know I'm a noted economist? I mean, that's what it says in the paper. "Noted economist attacked in home." I didn't even know economists made the news.

  Dr. Sara Tancredi : That's the first and last time, hopefully.

  Jacob Anton Ness : I've been trying to piece this thing together. You remember those government guys, those think tank guys, trying to pick my brain about game theory, how they could use it for foreign policy?

  Dr. Sara Tancredi : Yeah, you bored the hell out of 'em, right?

  Jacob Anton Ness : Yeah, okay, but I mean, did I hear something I shouldn't have?

  Dr. Sara Tancredi : I don't know. Did you? Like who shot JFK?

  Jacob Anton Ness : [amused laugh]  I am trying to be serious here.

  Dr. Sara Tancredi : No, you're doped up on painkillers and you're thinking too much. I promise this has nothing to do with you.

• Jacob Anton Ness : [Sara visits him in the hospital]  Are you all right?

  Dr. Sara Tancredi : You all right?

  Jacob Anton Ness : Oh, this old thing? Yeah, I'm doing fine. What's going on?

  Dr. Sara Tancredi : I need your advice. It's probably something you're not gonna want to talk about. I could really use your clarity right now. It's about Michael.