The MentalistRed John's Friends
Original Air Date: 6 Jan 2009
Liz - TwoCents Reviewer
liz@thetwocentscorp.com
If that return from our winter break did not catch your attention, have your attention span checked. Mind games, cyberhacking, tomfoolery, fab five team unity, and Red John in two different countries. Plus, you have to love an episode that begins with a murder. Not that that's unusual for this show.
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[photo: CBS.com]
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If that return from our winter break did not catch your attention, have your attention span checked. Mind games, cyberhacking, tomfoolery, fab five team unity, and Red John in two different countries. Plus, you have to love an episode that begins with a murder. Not that that's unusual for this show.
ReplyDeleteIt's always a good episode where Jane is being played like a fiddle, firstly because he doesn't like to be played, and secondly, because you have to admire a villain that can out-clever Jane. Today's clever boy of choice goes by the name of Jared Renfew. He has lured Jane to meeting him with the promise that he has information about Red John. Jane is somewhat unconvinced but his uncanny power of intuition tells him that Jared is telling the truth. But given that the case is closed with no reason to reopen it (Jared was found in the room with the body, door locked from the inside), Jane politely declines. Until he gives him the grotesque detail that Red John painted his wife's toenails in her own blood. Then he has Jane's undivided attention.
Predictably, back at CBI, Minelli the Boss Man says no. In a way that raises red flags for anyone who's paid any attention whatsoever, Jane shrugs it off and says something along the lines that his drive for revenge does not outweigh the law. Raise your hand if you believe that.
Yeah, I didn't either.
He goes to see the family, although he's supposed to call Lisbon first and not use his CBI card. I had my doubts about the first one, although he gets in without using the CBI identification. First he speaks to Gardener Renfew and the wife, who are, certain that Jared killed the girl -- Undine, their housekeeper's daughter. He's reluctant to let Jane speak to his mother and threatens to call the police, to which Jane replies, "Be sure to tell them I'm unarmed!" God, I love Jane. Immediately, there's a weird vibe off the mother. Jared had a history of violence and trouble, but she describes it as amusing, and immoderate. One would think that the sort of violence he displayed would be a huge no, period from a parent, but she is all "Everything in moderation." She takes Jane to the room where the murder took place, and the wheels are already turning in his head.
Of course, there is trouble to follow, when the Boss Man finds out what Jane has been up to. To save him the trouble, Jane turns in his ID and leaves to conduct his own investigation. Lisbon is resigned to it, but what follows is, as Minelli derisively puts it, "heartwarming." Grace found a lead that a former cell mate of Jared's claimed to be an accomplice of Red John, and thus begins an investigation that gets them suspended because they are sticking with Jane. Jane needs them, they say, and if you consider it, to a certain degree it's the truth. If Jane is out there, flouting the law and bending the rules all by himself, you have to wonder how long it would be before he's knee deep in legal trouble himself. He needs the balance, and the perspective, and someone to occasionally tell him no.
Shortly thereafter, the Fab Five have reconvened at a table to go around the table. They discover that the mother of the girl, the family's housekeeper, has changed her name and bought a condo under somewhat suspicious circumstances. And just when we thought things were going smoothly, there is -- wait for it -- an IM from Red John from within the secure intranet. Some secure system.
Red John is clearly running the game at this point, although Patrick is still playing to win. They visit the housekeeper, Mariska, and under pressure she confesses to taking money from a P.I. to say that her daughter and Jared were not lovers. They return to the Renfew house and show how the killer got into the room and got out again -- using fishing line to put the key back in the lock from inside the room. The mother then confesses to Patrick Jane that she masterminded the girl's death, because -- again, wait for it -- the girl was Jared's half sister, since his father had been doing the housekeeper. Turns out, incest is not best. And she kept a vial of her blood so that she could later confess to the crime once she thought her son learned his lesson. Insanity runs in the family, clearly.
Jared is cleared of his crime, but if you are like me, you were waiting the entire time for the other shoe to drop. When it finally does, he pours coffee on Cho and escapes through the crowded street and gets them away. At CBI, Patrick gets a phone call from Jared all the way from Tiajuana, Mexico. To gloat, no less. They're concerned that Red John is going to be after Jared, but they seem to be the only ones. Grace uses her mojo to triangulate the location of the call, and off they go.
Unfortunately, they are too late. In a stunning piece of camera work, our CBI agents break into the hotel room where Jared and his hooker are now dead in the bathtub. We see that iconic face painted in blood on the wall, reflected in the mirror. Also painted on the tile of the wall is the half-written message, "He is mar." (Or perhaps "mor," I wasn't sure.) The hooker's phone rings on the table and when Patrick answers, all we are left with is the haunting chuckle that presumably belongs to Red John, who has won this round.
Intense? Hell yes. To say that I can't wait for more is an understatement. Any ideas on what was trying to be written on the wall? I've seen the theory that it was another anagram (Dr Joe NH = Red John), but as it is now no anagrams that my trusty sidekick and I can come up with really make any more sense than if it were the full message.