The Mentalist – Recap & Review – Red John’s Footsteps

photo: cbs

The Mentalist
Red John’s Footsteps

Original Air Date: May 19, 2009.

Liz – Associate Staff Writer
liz@thetwocentscorp.com

Red John is at it again, ladies and gentlemen. He is back screwing with Jane’s head and it is awesome in a really horrible, awful, and wonderful way. This time, he uses poor Emma Plaskett as a victim. When CBI arrives at the scene, they see Emma’s toenails painted red with her own blood, just like Red John had done to Jane’s wife. Just when they are trying to convince Jane otherwise, a plane flies overhead and skywrites Red John’s signature smiley face. Even though Jane has every right to say “I told you so,” he doesn’t.

They visit the Plaskett home while the police department carries on looking for Emma’s twin sister, Maya, who went missing at the same time. There is a weird vibe in the entire house, and Jane of course completely calls them on it — alcoholic mother, control freak father, and the mother reveals that all is not as perfect as it seems: the girls had become mixed up with drugs and a rough crowd, with a guy named Guthrie. Oh snap. After using his own dog to track him down, they drag him in to answer some questions. Guthrie was warned to stay away from the girls by a man over the phone whose vocal description matches Red John’s. He ignores it until he wakes up with a pig’s head in his bed.

They go back to the Plaskett house, where Jane takes another look at the girls’ room. Using his mojo, he finds a camera and microphone hidden on top of the window, with a cord running all the way to the door. Creepy? Yes, very much so. In the P.O. box of the address used to pay for the skywriting, a letter to Roy Tagliafero from Rosalind is found. Jane is sure that this Roy character must be Red John, but at this point, he is clearly not playing with a full deck of cards.

At first Rosalind (who, we are shown, is blind, so no visual on Red John) refuses to talk to the CBI, but after Jane more or less chases her into her own house and gives her his story, she agrees to speak with them. She say Roy Tagliafero was her lover for going on half a year, and tells an interesting story about Roy bringing his friend DuMar for Thanksgiving. DuMar, she recalls, smoked a lot and went out to buy more cigarettes, but also returned with a stuffed elephant as a gift for her. Cho and Rigsby return to the store where it was purchased, where they view security tape from the night in question. Turns out, DuMar is not who it seems he is — he is none other than Sherriff Hardy.

After nothing comes up with Grace’s computer mojo searching for Roy Tagliafero, Minelli suggests searching “cut iron,” since that is the Italian translation. His suspicions not only turn out results, but by doing so, make me think Minelli knows more than he is letting on. Grace’s search turns out a result for Cut Iron Properties, which has recently bought some land in the area, using the same information as RJ Solutions. Lisbon goes to obtain a warrant for the property, but Jane, blind with his revenge fantasy, insists on taking Hardy to the property to check things out.

In a ramshackle building on the property, under a hatch in the floorboard, they find Maya Plaskett, scarred and probably in need of more therapy than anyone could ever hope to give her, but alive. When Jane makes a move to get her out of there, Hardy turns the gun on him and here’s the BIG REVEAL™. Hardy reveals himself to be the son of Tanner, who was Red John’s very first accomplice, caught and imprisoned for his part in the crime. Thus is his grudge against law enforcement. In exchange for Maya (since he was crazy in love with her, or possibly just plain crazy), he agreed to help Red John create a trap to tantalize and lure Jane.

Fortunately, as she does, Lisbon arrives in the nick of time to save Jane from the crazy gunman, and gets him on his back. They get Maya out and are preparing to send Hardy off to the hospital, handcuffed to the gurney. When nobody is looking, however, he uses his own key to free himself and takes a gun off one of the officers and points it at Lisbon. Before he can pull his trigger though, someone else takes a shot. Jane shoots him, with his own shotgun. Hardy dies a few minutes later, Jane’s last lead to Red John gone… for now.

This finale was intense. Despite Jane’s yen for vengeance on Red John, we see that once it comes down to it, his own violent streak scares him. I truly think that if he ever came face to face he wouldn’t be able to, no matter how he threatens, but on the other hand, he did not hesitate to pull that trigger when he pointed the gun at Lisbon. We know that Red John is going to be a series arc, and I think in retrospect, this season will be obvious set up.

As I’m sure you’ve all heard as well, next season The Mentalist will move to Thursday nights. Presumably, it now has the ratings to compete with powerhouses like Grey’s Anatomy, Supernatural, and The Office/30 Rock hour. Even though this will make my Thursday nights busy, I think we’ll all survive. This is why the good lord invented Hulu. I will keep you updated with any Mentalist news I find, and I’ll see you for season two!