The Mentalist: Red Listed (6x04)

I'm going to be really brief, which is ultimately a shame, since this episode was really plot heavy and deserves a lot of attention.

Okay. So, Jane planted a decoy list of fake Red John suspects in case anyone tried to steal the list from him. One of these fake suspects ends up dead, and suddenly a hunt begins. Lisbon and Jane suppose that the reason Benjamin Marx is dead is because someone else is trying to eliminate Red John, and Lisbon knows she needs to offer protection to the other fake suspects. One problem: they're all pretty much terrible people, and a lot of them don't want to offer help. One of them, Richard Haibach, is captured before the team can attempt to help him.

FBI Agent Reede Smith and Bob Kirkland are both in this episode, meaning we had to contend with two different Red John suspects at once, which was interesting. In a conversation between the two of them, Kirkland reveals that they've learned about a secret government organization working around Red John. He tries to ascertain if Smith knows anything by using the group's password, "Tiger, Tiger," but Smith seems totally ignorant. Things are getting interesting!

Turns out, Kirkland was the one who kidnapped Richard Hailbach, and he manages to get Jane in his grasp as well. We here learn pretty definitively that Kirkland isn't Red John. He's another desperate person looking for revenge, since apparently Red John recruited his brother back in the day, and probably killed him.

Luckily for Jane, however, he met with Madeline Hightower first. Hightower had faked her death, but Jane drew her out of hiding to get her help. When Jane goes after Kirkland, Hightower gets the feeling something might be wrong, and she goes to tell Lisbon. The two women get to Jane before Kirkland can hurt him.

In the end, as Kirkland is being taken to jail, Agent Smith shows up and kills him, revealing that he is part of Red John's secret organization after all.

So... we're down another suspect! And it doesn't seem as if Smith is actually Red John either, although he's certainly in league with the guy. Things are really heating up.

There was a subplot barely worth mentioning... Rigsby and Van Pelt haven't had sex since their wedding, and Rigsby worries that maybe she's already lost interest. In the end, she shows up in a sexy getup and the two rush off to have sex. This plot took up virtually no time, which I guess is good, but it was ultimately very out of place in an otherwise intense episode.

Basically, this one was very plot-y. It accomplished a lot. I really do feel like we're closer to figuring out who Red John is, and that's exciting. The news of this conspiracy is something that a lot of people have suspected in the fandom for quite some time now, but it's exciting to know we were right... Red John may be just one person, but he's got quite the network in place inside the government.

I know that was brief, and probably not very coherent, but I'm tired and I'm trying to get these things out as quick as I can, so it'll have to do!

8/10