Character Analysis
You Mess With The Bull, You Get The Horns
As the captain of Direction Centrale Police Judiciaire (basically the French FBI), Bezu Fache has a reputation for being stubborn, aggressive, and a tad hot-headed.
So much so, in fact, that he's known as Le Taureau, or The Bull (for those of you who aren't lucky enough to speak the language of love).
Dan Brown writes:
Captain Bezu Fache carried himself like an angry ox, with his wide shoulders thrown back and his chin tucked hard into his chest. His dark hair was slicked back with oil, accentuating an arrow-like widow's peak that divided his jutting brow and preceded him like the prow of a battleship. As he advanced, his dark eyes seemed to scorch the earth before him, radiating a fiery clarity that forecast his reputation for unblinking severity in all matters. (4.1)
As it turns out, though, even though these qualities are typically admirable in someone in Fache's position, his determination to do things his own way has sunk him into a bit of political trouble.
As Collet ponders why Fache seems so emotionally invested in Langdon's arrest, he reveals that:
Fache needs this arrest desperately. Recently the Board of Ministers and the media had become more openly critical of Fache's aggressive tactics, his clashes with powerful foreign embassies, and his gross overbudgeting on new technologies. Tonight, a high-tech, high-profile arrest of an American would go a long way to silence Fache's critics, helping him secure the job a few more years until he could retire with the lucrative pension. God knows he needs the pension, Collet thought. Fache's zeal for technology had hurt him both professionally and personally. Fache was rumored to have invested his entire savings in the technology craze a few years back and lost his shirt. And Fache is a man who wears only the finest shirts. (14.9-10)
But this bullish bro turns out to be more of a sweet little calf by the end of the book.
Do The Right Thing
Knowing that Fache has a bunch of good reasons to nail Langdon for Sauniére's murder (and fast) makes it all the more impressive that he's willing to retract his original assumptions in order to save the day in the end.
When Sophie calls to try and report Teabing's "kidnapping" to the police, Fache tries to get her to come in by admitting he was wrong:
"Listen," Fache said, speaking to her in terse French. "I made a terrible mistake tonight. Robert Langdon is innocent. All charges against him have been dropped. Even so, both of you are in danger. You need to come in." […] Fache's voice was firm now. "You and I need to cooperate, Agent Neveu. We both have a lot to lose here. This is damage control. I made errors in judgment last night, and if those errors result in the deaths of an American professor and a DCPJ cryptologist, my career will be over. I've been trying to pull you back into safety for the last several hours."
(88.25-29)
That couldn't have been easy on his colossal ego. Although Fache redeems himself by doing the right thing, when he's talking to Bishop Aringarosa he admits that he may be retiring earlier than planned.
We hope Aringarosa is right when he says, "A little faith can do wonders, Captain. A little faith." (103.36)