The Mentalist: Red John (6x08)

This is the Red John episode we've been building up to for over five seasons. There's a part of me that wants to bitch and moan about how anticlimactic the whole thing was, but at the same time, I think it was sort of fitting for the show. Don't get me wrong, I'm still sort of annoyed, but I'm also satisfied. I have a feeling of completion and I feel like Jane has that too, and ultimately that was always the most important part of catching Red John. Let's talk about the plot before I get into some more analysis of the conclusion to such an important story arc.

The FBI is hunting for Bertram, whom everyone believes to be Red John. They are also keeping a close eye on Lisbon, Van Pelt, Rigsby, and Cho. Everyone says they don't know where Jane is, although it turns out Lisbon is lying. Bertram calls Jane from a payphone in a gas station, and when he is recognized, he and a bodyguard kill people in the gas station. Bertram calls Jane back later and after Jane finds a new phone to use, they make a plan to meet at the cemetery where Jane's wife and child are buried. Jane tries to get to the meeting spot, but the FBI catch up with him. Lisbon and the rest of the team show up and force the FBI to stand down by threatening them with a shootout. Jane manages to escape in Lisbon's car, which he later ditches, and then he hitchhikes to the meeting with Bertram. Meanwhile, the team is arrested and kept in a Fed car while the FBI tries to figure out how to track down Jane.

Jane meets with Bertram, who tells him he is not Red John. The bodyguard raises his gun, and Patrick thinks he's about to be killed. However, the bodyguard then turns and shoots Bertram instead. Out of the shadows walks... McAllister! Apparently, he's not so dead after all. And, he's Red John. The two of them have a tense talk, and then Jane drops bread crumbs into McAllister's hand. A bird attacks him, and Jane manages to shoot him. He doesn't die right away, however; instead he manages to run off. Jane chases him until he finally corners him at the edge of a lake. He leans over him and puts his hands around his neck. He asks him to blink twice for yes and once for no. Is he sorry that he killed Jane's wife and child? Yes. Is he afraid to die? Yes. Jane responds to both of these answers with a simple - "good." Jane chokes McAllister to death. He then calls Lisbon, who cannot answer because she and the others are all still under arrest. He leaves her a message to tell her that it's done, that he's okay, and that he'll miss her.

Alright so that's the plot! And some things worked very well. Others did not. Let's make some lists.

The bad stuff:

McAllister? Really? I get that it would have been almost impossible not to be disappointed with the Red John reveal, but I gotta say that Gale Bertram would have been a better pick. Or freakin' Bret Stiles, for that matter. That would have been something else. But McAllister just wasn't set up very well at all. I think the main problem is that they had already given us Red John: it was Bertram! It was over, we were satisfied. Throwing in the McAllister thing felt like just an excuse to try one more twist. It wasn't needed, in my opinion.

Lack of explanations! Is this all we get? There are a lot of questions unanswered. We're never going to know about Red John's psychic powers? How did he get the list of suspects? Are we really just never going to get these answers? Some mysteries are okay, but they really built up the whole psychic thing, and I'd really like to know the truth. Or at least get a better explanation as to why we can't have the answers.

The last moments between Lisbon and Jane. Gosh, maybe it's just the fan girl in me, but I would have loved a bit more. As appropriate as it is to have Jane and Red John be alone at the last moment, I still think Lisbon should have been a bigger part of these last few scenes. All I can say is that I hope they handle her character well in the aftermath.

The good stuff:

Cho, Rigsby, and Van Pelt. I cannot tell you how amazing it was to see these three characters come to Jane's defense the way they did. They kicked some major ass. It was actually most touching coming from Cho, because his loyalty to Jane has never been totally obvious, but it's there all the same.

The actor who played Bertram did a really good job of toeing the line between being a proper threat and a total idiot. For the first part of the episode, you think he's Red John, and he does a good job. And then in the church, just before his death, he played it so you could sort of tell that something wasn't quite right, like he didn't have all of the answers.

The entire chase scene and Red John's death. Holy hell this was intense. While this episode had some rather serious flaws, the demise of Red John was so epic that I'm almost willing to forgive them all. The chase kept building and building in intensity. When McAllister jumped through that glass door, I actually jumped a little bit. Then, the final confrontation was so brilliantly handled. We don't see Red John as he dies. The camera stays focused firmly on Jane's face as he squeezes the life out of this hated man. God, I'm getting chills just thinking about it.

The episode's ending was also very strong. That message to Lisbon was so fitting, and it feels tragically perfect that she didn't get to talk to him one last time. We see Jane running, and although it looks like he's running away from what he's done, and the consequences, it also seems like he's running away from that entire part of his life. It seems like he really did the closure he needed by killing Red John.

Ultimately, Red John himself ended up being quite the disappointment. But this episode understood that the story wasn't about Red John in the end. It was about Jane, and about his wife and child. For all its faults, this episode did its job in competently handling Jane's emotional journey. With characters as strong as Jane, Lisbon, and the rest, I am very excited to see where this show will be going now that we are out from under the cloud of Red John.

7.5/10