The Mentalist - 'The Red Carpet Treatment' (Season 3, Episode 4): Reconciliation and revenge

“Was it worth it? The man that killed your wife no longer exists. The time you took pursuing him, the pain the sacrifice, was it worth it?” - Jane

“Yes it was” - Max

Despite this episode being a little like someone has suddenly hit the brakes on this season's run of excellent main story arc-relevant episodes so far, it still has it's qualities and also minor links to Jane's past and his plight against Red John.

We have Jane's return to being on a talk show for the first time since the appearance that got his family killed - proving that, when he needs to in order to catch a killer, Jane can put others' needs before his own fears/compulsions.

Crucially, we also have the question in the above quote dealt with and explored; will revenge satiate Jane when he gets it? And is it worth it? Perhaps surprisingly, since so often many forms of fiction tell us the exact opposite, the answer given to that question here is 'yes'. Despite this show's showy comic facade, it has an underlying bleakness to it that I love. When it comes down to dark themes, it deals with them in a suitably dark manner. The character Max here shooting his wife's murderer many times in the head after he was dead just to get some form of revenge is another example of this.

Still a good episode, in a great run.

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The Mentalist - 'The Blood on His Hands' (Season 3, Episode 3): A fractured mind

“Sounds like he’s jealous Patrick. Sounds like he wants to take away everything and everyone that you care about. It’s a form of love you know... It seems that your friend John is planning a surprise party for you” - Bret Stiles

So arrived our first Red John focused episode of the season, and although it wasn’t up to the usual standard of a typical Red John episode, this was still a decent effort.

Affairs for the first three quarters of the episode are pretty mundane, back to basics stuff, with the CBI team investigating the murder of a girl who belonged to an organisation that we have come across before, Visualise, led by Bret Stiles (Malcolm McDowell) – who himself, it is revealed here, possesses information on Red John; and it is implied more than enough for Red John to be caught, but he withholds all but an address, at which Kristina is found, in a poor mental state.

The humour here was sparser than the last two weeks, but still great; highlights being Jane getting the Visualise staff member in the blue shirt to lead him to Stiles’ location and the fear of culpability causing that staff member to run away afterwards, and also Jane’s very clever use of a paper bag to disrupt a Visualise seminar and at the same time uncover who the FBI’s mole is inside the cult.

It was nice to see James Morrison, of 24 fame, here (Bill Buchanan was always great).

The slightly mundane murder investigation aside, the key focus here was simply getting Kristina back. And boy is she screwed up mentally (or playing a clever game; for those who believe she either is Red John or is an accomplice of his) – her believing that she dead and is currently residing in the afterlife; Patrick only being able to talk to her by ‘summoning her spirit’ in the manner that she used to for her work.



I was more impressed with the first two episodes of this season, but we’re still hitting highs continually so far, and The Mentalist is still currently showing the most potential for a great season out of all the shows I am currently watching.

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The Mentalist - 'Cackle-Bladder Blood' (Season 3, Episode 2): Carnies and con men

“My sister was the only good, clean and honest thing I had in my life, and you ran off with her... You got her killed. You just had to be a big shot, had to get on the TV and run your mouth. It’s your fault she’s dead” – Danny Ruskin (Jane’s brother-in-law)

“Yes, it is. I know that – it is my fault. And I just hope that one day you’ll forgive me, and maybe one day I’ll forgive myself... I’m sorry” - Jane

I am positively thrilled at how this season is unfolding so far. After a sharply witty opening that dealt with Jane’s attempts to distance himself from those he loves for their own safety, I thought we might be lumbered with a redundant, run of the mill, episodes that avoided the main story arc. What we were dealt instead was a non-Red John episode that was still crucial to the forward momentum of the show.

We are given a glimpse into Jane’s marriage – something relatively untouched until now – through meeting Jane’s con man brother-in-law, Danny Ruskin, who blames Jane for the murder of his sister, yet is still capable of maintaining a good relationship with Jane, which is used to brilliant effect here with their con men-duo act, to resolve the case at hand. The loss they have shared together affords us a closer look at Jane’s self-blame over the murder of his family, and also gives us Jane’s first visit to their graves – him claiming he has never returned there since the funeral “because they are not here” (meaning it is just their bodies that lie there, not his family themselves). And we are also given a sturdier insight into Jane’s past as a 'carnie' and the strong ties that he still holds with those people.

Whilst tackling all of this sombre content, the excellent level of humour from last week is still maintained; the highlight here being a scene where Jane pretends to die after being ‘shot’ by his brother-in-law, which is played intentionally very chessily by Jane (so much so that it’s hard to see how the killer falls for it), which makes it all the more hilarious; as he gets up, Jane states: “Connie, Connie, Connie, you fell for the oldest gag in the book, and one of the cheapest – $3.55 at a novelty store near you. Beats the hell out of the cackle bladder.”




Another funny moment is Jane’s old woman con-woman friend Nicki, after trying to con Van Pelt, stating: “This sweet piece of fruit is a cop?” and Jane’s subsequent threat that if she doesn’t provide them with the information that they are seeking, that “this nice piece of fruit will take you downtown and treat you to a cavity search.” And also Jane’s repeating of ”thank you Lisbon,” louder and slower than before, when she says “I didn’t hear that” to imply that she would look the other way on a matter.

It was wonderful to see M. C. Gainey, of Lost fame, here playing an old ‘carnie’ friend of Jane’s excellently.

This episode is brimming with taught emotion, brilliant humour and relevance to this show’s main story arc; all exactly what we need this season.

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The Mentalist - 'Red Sky at Night' (Season 3, Episode 1): Lies and distancing

"Anybody who gets close to me - bad things happen to them" - Jane

If there's one character I missed in the summer hiatus for any of these seasons it has to be the sharp wit and mental acrobatics of Patrick Jane. And we return with the humour on top form; from a running gag about the power of suggestion concerning a dead mouse, to Jane's simple utterance of "professional-schmessional" as he vaults over a wall away from the team, headlong into breaking the rules, we are reminded from season 3's off that what makes this show so great is its humour, illusionist/mentalist content and the wonderful charm of Jane.

Season 2 ended with a close encounter with Red John, leaving us wondering just how Kristina fits into John's plans (whether she is an accomplice or a victim). The effect of Jane's mistake last season is carried over here in an effective manner; he, more than ever before, is concerned about the fact that those who get close to him end up having bad things happen to them. This motivation leads him to refuse to take part in the team's latest case, which in turn causes Lisbon to take the drastic measure of lying and conning Jane unashamedly into a situation where he can no longer refuse to take part.

We have, in the form of Gale Bertram, a brand new authoritative figure who Jane can take an immediate disliking to and is thus at odds with constantly; one highlight here being Jane tricking Bertram into spouting utter garbage live on television (even though it was a necessary play of Jane's in order to solve the case, as usual).

There is also a brief, awkward, spark-infused moment between Van Pelt and Rigsby, showing that the writers won't be letting that troubled relationship lie. I just hope we don't end up going full circle with it, with regards to it endangering their careers, like last season.

As for the case at hand, the affair is a simple one; highly placed figure goes missing, we find out he's not the saint everyone seems to believe him to be, the case turns into a murder investigation and a minor side character ends up being the culprit, all solved neatly, of course, by Jane.

What marks this as a great start to the season for me is the quality of the humour. Here's hoping this season treats us to many more Red John episodes than last time around (although the stand alone episodes are good, it's far too late in the game now for the writers to keep feeding them to us in such quantity), and the ball actually starts rolling towards a decent endgame.

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