"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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