The Mentalist
Episode 22: Red John's
Rules
The Season Finale
By: Carlos Uribe
The
Mentalist is a show about Patrick Jane, a consultant for the cops who
solves crimes while seeking revenge for his family.
Spoilers
Ahoy!
The
fifth season ends with a lot of promise as it gives some much-needed
direction to the Red John investigation while at the same time
presenting a somewhat self-contained weekly case involving the serial
killer. The case involves the death of a young mother staying at a
motel. She was hoping to get away from her abusive boyfriend but she
met her untimely end. The aspect that draws the CBI into the case is
because Red John's smiley face is present at the crime scene. There
is some question at the beginning whether this was actually the
serial killer or not but Patrick Jane basically claims it is. He
doesn't rule out the possibility that an accomplice helped him
because the mom's baby is missing. There are two suspects who could
have taken the baby. The first is the abusive father who is doing
everything he can to reunite his family. He's a violent man as he's
first introduced as punching law enforcement to rush into his dead
wife's motel room. The second is the uncle that had raised her. He
had disowned her when she had married her husband because their
families were rivals. The two are the most obvious people who could
have done it so of course it can't be them. There is a trick at the
end where Jane reveals that it's actually the social worker handling
the case. The worker had wanted a child of her own so she helped Red
John kill the woman so she could be a mother. It's basically nothing
out of the ordinary from what is a typical Red John investigation at
first glance. There are two reasons that separate it. The first is
the personal connection the case ends up having with Patrick Jane and
the second is because there's always the promise that we're going to
get the names of the people he suspects.
The
personal connection is actually pretty surprising. It starts out
simple enough as the community he had grown up with is where the
husband lives. He has to interview some of his old neighbors to try
and crack the case. The child service place that the social worker
runs is one he had spent time at as some kid. It's a nice way to have
Red John use Jane's “hometown” of sorts to begin to unnerve him.
It comes as a big surprise to Jane when he finds out that he actually
knew the victim. It had been thirty years since he had seen her and
his only memory of her was when she was a little kid. It's a happy
memory that gets triggered by a specific song. The most important
part is that he's never told anyone of this memory until after her
murder. Red John basically killed this girl and in doing so he took
away this memory. It went from being happy to tragic. Jane is already
a character who is in a dark place as there's little grounding him to
any sense of joy. Removing this memory is only get to send Jane
deeper into his obsession towards getting revenge. Red John has
managed to find a way to make Jane darker. What's worse is the
implication that Red John can actually read Jane's memory. He had
targeted the girl specifically because she was a happy memory. Jane
had never told anyone so it really does seem like John might have
looked into his mind.
A
recurring theme on this show has been the conflict between who Jane
used to be and the man he is now. He used to be a psychic with his
own show that would swindle people for their money. He would pretend
to talk to the dead and then charge money. He was a fake. He doesn't
believe in psychics. He's now a lawman. There is a moment where
another psychic, the uncle of the victim, when he wonders why Jane is
currently helping the cops. He assumes it's for atonement when in
reality it's for revenge. Red John took his family away from him and
Jane lost his old self. He stopped pretending to be a psychic. He's
gotten to the point where he will expose other physics or play games
with them. His insistence that there are no psychics is one of the
strongest ones in the show. It's a firm conviction he holds. The
uncle notes how Jane is doomed because he has no faith. Jane might
dismiss that but it makes for a lot of sense for Red John to at least
try to show himself as someone who has the gift to read minds. Jane's
disdain for his old craft creates a great contrast with Red John's
claim to having powers. I'm hoping that this theme of whether or not
psychic powers are real is one the show is now going to explore in
the realm of the Red John case in a way it really hasn't before.
Sure, Red John might have killed Jane's family in partial because
Jane pretended to be fake. To suggest that Red John is a real one?
The plot becomes instantly adds on a layer.
The
end of the episode is also a great one. Jane has narrowed down his
list to seven names. He gives away one to Lisbon earlier in the
episode but they're not revealed until the end in a very creative
manner. Red John had predicted that Jane would figure out who his
accomplice was in this week's case. He had prepared a DVD with
Lorelai reading a message. The message is that Red John knows that
Jane has come up with a list of suspects. He actually has Lorelai
read them out loud. He gets every name right. He also basically
admits to having read Jane's mind before threatening to start killing
people until he's either caught or he catches Jane. A very threat
that really helps to increase the narrative momentum as he'll start
to be an active antagonist. Overall, it's a pretty great cliff-hanger
to end the season on as we finally start to narrow down who Red John
can be. I don't completely trust the series, despite Bruno Heller's
promise that he's not planning a twist and that the names are the
real suspects, but if this ends up being true then we'll certainly
have a more focused plot that can actually start moving at a decent
pace. Overall, I've got to say that this is something that should
have happened at the end of the first season-the case has been too
abstract without any human suspects to the point where the
investigation always stalled.
The
fifth season of the Mentalist has been solid. There's been some dull
weekly cases and a couple of duds as episodes but it's largely
remained a high-quality procedural. Patrick Jane remains a fun
character to solve cases even as his obsession towards catching Red
John grows. The progress this season towards catching Red John has
been slow as Lorelai Martins only clue to Jane was that he shook Red
John's hand when they first met. Jane has slowly gone through every
single male character since the show has first started and we finally
have some suspects that will allow the investigation to start moving.
If anything, I believe this will inject the show with the fresh life
it needs as it's started to become a bit lifeless at points. Overall,
I'm not sure if we'll get Red John at the end of the season (we've
been duped too many times) but if the promise is kept then the sixth
season should give us the answer and the pace of the narrative should
pick up. The Mentalist remains a solid show and I can't wait to see
if that list actually pans out or not.
Red
John's Rules was a pretty great season finale. The weekly
investigation was interesting on it's own and the self-contained
quest for the accomplice led to a pretty imaginative cliff-hanger.
Having Red John read the list of suspects was pretty clever by the
writers and his promise to start killing again promising. Red John
might have always been a presence on this show but it's nice to see
him take more of an active than a reactionary attitude. The Mentalist
promises to change the game and if it can fulfill this promise then
I'm expecting the best season from this show yet. I also hope the
show keeps up the argument on whether or not it's possible to be a
psychic in relation to Red John's so-called powers. That's certainly
a great theme for the show to continue exploring. Red John's Rules
did what it needed to do: set up the promise of a sixth season and
make it exciting.
Other Notes:
A
reference-the list of names and who they are:
Bret
Stiles: The cult leader of Visualize
who has hinted at having insider knowledge on the serial killer. He
granted one favor to Patrick Jane: helping him free Lorelai from
prison.
Gale
Betram: The current director of CBI who once quoted a poem by William
Blake, Red John's poet of choice.
Ray
Haffner: A former director of CBI, currently a private detective and
Visualize member. The only suspect we know that could have been at
the barn where Red John's smiley face first appeared.
Reede
Smith: An FBI agent who briefly took over the Red John investigation
at the beginning of the fifth season. His first name can be derived
from “Reed” which means “Red”.
Bob
Kirkland: The mysterious Homeland Security Agent that has shown a
keen interest in Red John. He killed Jason Lennon.
Tom
McCallister: A sheriff who only appeared in the second episode of the
series. He's played by Xander Berkeley, who would be a great Red
John.
Brett
Patridge: The only recurring character introduced in the pilot, he's
a Forensics analyst that is always wrong on whether Red John
committed the crime or not. Jane doesn't like him and considers him a
“ghoul”.
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