Mentalist Finale Brown Shag Carpet-White Orchids Review

‘Brown Shag Carpet’

Synopsis

Following the events of ‘Byzantium’, the team is chasing a serial killer who’s obsessed with the after-life. That leads Jane (Baker) to pull his psychic act as a bait to lure their prey in. Meanwhile, this step in the limelight leads Jane to come to terms with life-changing decisions regarding his relation with his girlfriend Lisbon (Tunney).

Concise Verdict

This ending for Season 7 comes as a two-parter, like it was for S3 (‘Strawberry and Cream’) and S4 (with the diptych ‘Red Rover, Red Rover’/‘The Crimson Hat’). It doubles as the series finale and rivals ‘Blue Bird’, the other potential ending intended for the story, for the closure and the fulfilling emotional commitment both provide. A new door opens for Jane and he accepts at long last to grab a new chance at happiness. The storyline concludes on a cheerful and moving goodbye to faithful viewers from the home-coming wayward consultant and his extended family.

Detailed AKA Humungous Review (Spoilers Galore)

Right from the start, the episode is one for tests. After finding Gabriel’s body, when Lisbon asks Jane why the killer would care if he was a real psychic, Jane answers that “he wants one for some reason and Gabriel didn’t pass the test”. It echoes Jane’s own wanderings in the emotional turmoil represented by the wilderness, since it was a nod to Jesus being tested and tempted by the devil. This double episode is the final test for Jane: after crossing path with death in a way reminding of his previous failings, fate will determine the new path he’ll take from now on.

VIS#1: Jane shows his love nest cabin to Lisbon

The storyline opens with a random couple half-arguing about the possibility that the rumored serial killer –whose killings have been made public- may be sitting outside their house. They state that “serial killers don’t sit in cars, they lurk in the shadows”…. which is ironical, since the actual killer strikes when the husband goes out to check on the suspicious yet innocent bystander. The husband has put himself in danger by getting out, but it is his wife who is taken from inside the house. It draws a troubling parallel with Jane’s family, targeted in the security of their home… and the man finds the front door alarmingly open, just like Jane met his fate under the guise of a closed door. How not to be reminded that Jane fears for a repeat by having Lisbon taken from him too?

This frightening opening is in dire contrast with the cheerful serenity surrounding the isolated cabin that Jane bought and that he is eager to show to Lisbon… In response to the way he’d been drifting apart after the shock of Vega’s death, he tells his beloved: “it’s a little shack that I’m gonna renovate. Make some additions… We both knew things had to change: I couldn’t make you quit and I need something to do”. Lisbon is surprised and a little bit skeptical (“so you’re gonna build us a house…”), but the sudden decision has been building up for some time. Their increased intimacy is expressed by the endearing way he closes her eyes to surprise her and her playful question “did you buy me another horse?”, which is of course a cute reminder of the pony he gave her for her birthday when she was still his boss. Plus the fresh air he wants her to “breath in” to try and make her impressions as good as possible is a nod to his familiar love for nature (and her wariness in front of it): having a house in the middle of this kind of environment is implicitly his way to meet her in the middle, instead of making her leave in a long boat trip like he alluded to in the beginning of the season…

Yet, Lisbon’s lack of enthusiasm propels him to explain: “when I’m done, if nothing else, we have a place to live. It’s a start”. Indeed, it’s a start in more ways than one: it’s the first hint he’s given her that he’s ready to stay in a long-term commitment after freaking out, but it’s also a new start for him, given that it would be the first real home he’ll be allowing himself after the debacle at the Malibu house… He’s willing to prove himself to her again, not by talking about what’s in his head, but by showing her that he’s trying to progress and make amends… The fastest way to hint at his will to share her life and start anew is to build a house: like the teacup, the “shack” will be renovated as the visible sign of his mended self. And again, this action echoes the progress of their relationship as they’ve been playing with the idea of moving in together for a few episodes, like when they visited the killer’s house as potential buyers in ‘The Silver Briefcase’ or as hinted by Jane’s fascination with her childhood ‘Little Yellow House’…

An interesting point is that, if Jane’s ready to prove his commitment to Lisbon, it doesn’t involve staying where she wants him to be, though. When she asks him if he wants to quit the FBI, he answers “maybe, I don’t know. I haven’t decided yet”. In a way, it shows that he’s having a more adult reaction than the flying reflex that leaded him to take a break when he was emotionally distraught: he doesn’t have to have all the answers yet. He’s just showing that he’s willing to make the effort and to start thinking about what he wants from life instead of just conning his way out of difficulties or hiding behind his fears. And given the trouble he always had to let her know of his thinking process when it got too touchy, the fact that he’s understood how important it is to share this with the woman he chose as his companion is an indication that he’s grown as a person.

Lisbon is able to sense the progress, yet she’s also afraid that he might take off again without as much as a warning. She tells him that she’s “glad”, albeit understandably shocked by his new acquisition, but that she needs to make sure that he’s “committed to this, to us”, probably because she’s dealt with enough of his lies to know that his word may not be enough. In that line of logic, she dares to broach a subject she never mentioned before: “are you gonna take off your wedding ring? It just, it seems like you don’t want to let go of it…” When she sees his stress over the question, she backpedals “I understand why it’s difficult for you”, leading Jane to answer rather lamely “it’s just that I’m used to it”.

It’s interesting that Lisbon basically asked for that as a sign of commitment for him, whereas she never seemed to mind much the offending object binding him to another woman and another life. She’s been extremely understanding on this point, certainly due to her own history with this dark part of Jane’s life: as the leading officer on the investigation on his family’s murder for more than a decade, she’s also part of this past, even more so considering her nurturing nature and the concern that she felt towards the revengeful widower that she took under her wing. But it looks like having Jane give her the cold shoulder made her greedier, as it happened when Pike entered her life and Jane started hiding his jealousy. As soon as she could, she turned tables on him: before Michelle’s death, it’s been Jane pressuring her to change her life in order to protect her, while now she’s the one pressuring him into giving her more than he thinks he’s ready for… Like it was after his escapade in Vegas and the surge of feelings his two-year long hiatus provided, this last break was probably an eye opener for her. She wants something more instead of risking him not answering her calls again and she no longer feels afraid to demand it. In a way, it shows how much more secure she feels about herself and her relationship with her stubborn lover: after the debacle with Lorelei, she couldn’t bring herself to be straightforward with her feelings for him, just like she blew cold (the plane argument) and hot (the socks) on him when he got back from Venezuela, which lead to a misunderstanding on what she really wanted and Jane clinging to status quo. Now, after having admitted out loud that she loved him (‘Little Yellow House’) and what they had was good (‘Copper Bullet’), she has no claims in asking him to give her more too, in making their relationship progress. By asking him a token of his faith in them, she’s thus willing to back give her trust.

VIS#2: the plan to catch the serial killer

But Lisbon is not the only one getting bolder: the villain is too. Things get ugly when they’re called at a new crime scene: the serial killer they are after since the previous episode has made another victim, whose body he didn’t bother hiding this time. His “playful” display for the FBI to find is briefly enhanced by how the scene is shot from the dark tunnel towards the light; even though it gives the impression that the killer is creepily watching them, it also hints at Jane’s willingness to step out of the darkness and into the light. Plus, the association with the well known “light at the end of the tunnel” that some people have seen after near-death experiences brings forward the notion of death and resurrection, an important theme in the series (cf. the questions of psychics and the afterlife and the reference to Jesus Christ in ‘Byzantium’ for instance). In that same perspective, the difference in the killer’s ways gives them another clue. His pattern is roughly the same, yet since the body is not decayed, they can spot a puncture wound along with the usual missing fingernail: he’s been taking “a cup of blood” from his victim… This choice of words immediately links the murderer to a vampire. Wylie later presents the vampire theory as the most popular online, leading them to investigate a potential link with the occult; this connection is based on the murderer’s interest in Gabriel as a psychic and the fact that “he is stealing blood from a corpse; he’s got to be doing something weird with it”. Interestingly, the “vampire” aspect might also be a nod to Bret Stiles’ golden chalice filled with blood during the Visualize ceremony in ‘Fire and Brimstone’. Indeed, both the cult leader and the vampire use blood as a mean to gain immortality and/or resurrection: Bret promised “I will return” to his followers, while the vampire is an undead/immortal creature. Therefore, they hint at Jane’s fear of Lisbon dying and the Christian references involved with Jane’s wanderings in the wilderness, as well as the psychic angle used in the previous episode.

Back in the bullpen, they get another surprise in the person of Rick Tork, from the Santa Fe office. He’s going to help them on the case because they’re short-handed. Said Tork worked briefly with Jane and Cho in the SCU under the supervision of Ray Haffner in ‘Little Red Notebook’, when Lisbon was almost fired by Bertram. Tork’s memories from that time are far from good. Jane’s used his complex over his short stature to get him into a fight with a coworker in order to undermine Haffner’s new team: “he’ll never tell you what he’s up to; whatever he does, you’ll look like an idiot. And always keep your hand on your wallet”… It’s noteworthy that Tork is one of the rare secondary characters from the CBI era that doesn’t get killed off after crossing paths with the new team –unlike Ardiles, LaRoche and creepy Haibach. As such, he shows indirectly how Jane’s gotten more at peace with his past, because when he first met Tork he was trying to make up with Lisbon for the consequences of his restless actions, like he’s doing here… Both Tork and Jane get therefore an occasion to evaluate how much the consultant has changed, which is bound to give them closure. Before that, though, Jane gets his comeuppance when Tork suggests that they need to set a decoy psychic to lure their killer out. And that Jane should be the bait, of course. Jane is miffed by the idea and leaves the room (“Uh, not a psychic, dude”) and his team members get very protective of him because “the last time Jane tried something like that, it didn’t go well”. Tork only then remembers about “the wife and kid”.

Meanwhile, Lisbon follows Jane to offer some comfort. She doesn’t pry, because she knows it’s still a very sensitive topic, which hints that their couple is not yet over that part of Jane’s history. So, she only informs him that they got Gabriel’s autopsy report back: he had tiny tumors in the brain that caused seizures and delusions, which explains why he was so convinced that his gift was real. By satisfying Jane’s curiosity over the kid’s unexplainable sincerity when he tried to cold read him, Lisbon tries to reassure him by showing him that he was right again: “there’s no such thing as psychics”… It was his mantra to justify his conman ways that got his family killed, so it’s no wonder Lisbon chose this angle to offer support. When she broaches the hurtful topic again, she doesn’t mention Tork’s suggestion or which memories it brought to mind. Instead, she sidesteps by apologizing for having brought the ring up earlier at the cabin: she feels bad for pressuring him into moving on and Tork’s lack of sensibility has awakened this feeling of guilt. Jane simply tells her that he’s okay. Obviously, talking about his way of (not) dealing with the loss of family is not something Lisbon has dared to do sooner in their relationship; this makes one wonder about the status each of them gives to their love story, compared with his idealized married life with Angela.

On the other hand, this disagreement with Tork is also subtly oriented towards Jane’s future: the mention of how he provoked the demise of his loved ones echoes his fears of getting Lisbon killed on the job. Plus, when Tork was told about the investigation, a detail suggests something for Jane’s relationship with her: the buried first victims were killed “between two and nine months ago”. Nine months is the standard duration for a pregnancy. Again, life/birth and death are linked as it has been with the underlying concept of resurrection.

VIS#3: Jane’s psychic act

In spite of his reluctance, when a man is mistakenly killed by a frightened citizen, Jane is convinced that he should follow Tork’s plan to avoid more collateral victims of the panic over the serial killer. While Lisbon argues over his dangerous decision to risk the same fate as Gabriel in the hands of the murderer, Jane tells her: “I appreciate your spirited defense, but it’s not necessary”. The tables have turned, since he was before the one trying to stop his brave Teresa from playing the target… Plus the word “spirited” alludes indirectly to the psychic world Jane’s once again about to enter, another nod to the death/life theme coursing through the episode.

This aspect is discreetly hinted at when Jane is preparing to take part in a TV show. One of the news announced is that “according to state forestry officials, once the bear was tranquillized, he was relocated to a wilderness area”… The wildlife might be a nod to the RJ-related tiger, but it’s interesting that the anecdotic fate of that bear matches Jane’s: he too is more tranquil after coming to terms with his fears and he’s “relocated” himself to a “wilderness area” by buying his large cabin.

The TV show itself –with its dark red setting- is reminiscent of the act Jane pulled in the flashback from the pilot and which got his family killed. The anchorman alludes to it by mentioning Jane’s experience with shows (“oh, you’ve done this before? –Yep”) as well as the long-standing game metaphor, which was used to symbolize RJ’s interactions with the consultant: “all right, I’m gonna throw you a couple easy questions, we’ll have some fun, just keep the ball in the air”… The progression of the scene is in direct opposition with the pilot: back then, Jane showed his skills, then answered to the interview about his work with the police on RJ. Here, he’s first introduced as “a psychic who works with the FBI” –enhancing that he’s no longer a conman seeking glory and money, but part of law enforcement- then he’s asked to explain how he works: “what is a psychic? What is it you do?”

For a fleeting moment, Jane is throw back in the decisive moment of his past, looking straight at the camera with an anguished music playing. This moment reminds of his tormented performances in Karen Cross’ shows, both in ‘Red Carpet Treatment’ (another “carpet” episode where his forced to live again that fateful first interview about RJ) and ‘Blinking Red Light’ (where his drastic choice concerning Panzer lead him to his first serious occasion to approach the man… and where his staring at the camera was equally, if more sinisterly, significant). Then he comes back to the far brighter-present and starts cold-reading the host, telling Dan “your wife… just had a baby… a girl, I believe”. The choice of this particular point regarding Dan is interesting: of course, a personal and emotionally charged detail has more impact on the mark and the audience, but this description of Dan’s family situation, being the happy father of a daughter, matches the one Jane lost when he did the same interview years before. Moreover, it also hints for the second time at the presence of a baby… Jane adds about the baby girl “her name begins with a vowel, “a”…, “Alexan” “A… Alexa” right?” It echoes the encounter he had before entering the wilderness: when he was away from Lisbon in the previous episode, he guessed that the kind bartender’s name started with an “a” too. His first guess was “Angela”, his late wife’s first name, while, now, he’s got enough distance to choose another one. The fact that he accepted to start facing his fears and his grief at long last shows that he’s really moving on instead on hiding emotionally like he’s been doing for years. It’s the last step of letting go: he’s finally able to give his “congratulations” to a happy father instead of chasing guilty parents as he’s been doing since the very first case in the pilot with the abusive father.

Jane’s credibility as a psychic is further set up with another interview, in the afternoon this time. He’s facing two women who are hanging on his lips. He tells to one of them “your aunt passed away about a year ago”. It echoes his performance with a member of the audience with a deceased loved one in the interview from the flashback. Yet, back then, he told the woman that her father asked her “to forgive him”, that he was “deeply sorry”, whereas now this soul he’s supposed to be talking to doesn’t seek redemption: “she used to help people” and “she really wants you to be happy because she loves you very much”. Basically, he’s telling her what he feels like his own family would be hoping for him: that’s what his hallucinated ghost Charlotte meant to tell him and what his carnie friends/family insisted on in ‘Copper Bullet’. That also represents that he’s made peace and finally mourned them in the process of moving on.

Those TV appearances therefore contrast with the badmouthing he did against RJ in the past. Now, he’s not seen “slaughtering” another killer “in the media”, but he’s showing his skills peacefully, he’s accepted this part of him and the past it entails. Before, it just caused death –his family’s, Panzer’s, even Kristina Fry ended up in a half-death after following the same path-, yet now he does it in order to save lives. He’s putting himself at risk to protect others instead of acting in the name of greed or of a vengeful and somewhat selfish hidden agenda. That’s why the interviews follow the course of a day: he starts with Dan in ‘Austin Today’, probably in the morning; he’s in the afternoon edition later and finishes in a “Night Talk” on the radio: these interviews follow the steps of his career at the CBI. ‘Austin Today’ reminds of the pilot and a little bit of his performance to catch a shady anchorman in ‘If It Bleeds, It Leads’ in the Volker arc. The two female journalists remind of Karen Cross and the radio show is a nod to ‘Red Velvet Cupcakes’. All in all, in the course of a day, he’s experiencing again the same situations, but with a new goal and a new peace of mind which symbolizes again that he’s finished his grieving process.

The radio interview is undoubtedly the most telling. First, Jane states his position as part of a team: like he’s been doing for years, he explains that he’s not a cop. Still, unlike his previous insistence about not being “above or below” of Lisbon or the other agents, but “on the side”, now he just tells much more humbly “I’m not a detective, I don’t do police work. I’m just trying to help my colleagues understand this man”. The contrast is great with his attention-seeking behavior in the TV show from the pilot… The difference is made even more blatant when Jane describes “cautiously” the serial killer –instead of pretending to force himself to look into the “terrible cold, dark flame” of “true demonic evil” like he did back then when he used to lay it on thick with the mystical aspect of his persona… He says “I would say that he’s obviously angry, probably in a lot of pain, but I think he’s trying to get in touch with someone from the other side”, because “who isn’t?” He doesn’t insult his prey this time, there’s no “ugly, tormented little man”. He only describes the emotional state of the man, who’s “angry”, “in pain” and seeking comfort from a dead loved one: it’s a far more understanding point of view than the “lonely soul, sad, very sad” that he used for RJ. Of course, it’s intended as a bait to lure the psychic seeking murderer to him, so it makes sense Jane is subtler and kinder in his reading, even more so when his past arrogance cost him so much. Yet at the same time, it shows that Jane himself has become less angry and thus less confronting: he’s more mature than he used to be.

When Jane begins taking calls, the first woman to talk to him is an “Anna Marie” whose names come from the Bible: Mary/Marie is Jesus’ mother while Ann is her own mother, which entwines the baby/family aspect with the story of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, Anna in the Old Testament is also the name of a prophetess who spoke as the redemption brought by the child to come. But of course, the caller who’s most interesting and loaded with Biblical meaning is Lazarus who “rose from the dead” as one of Jesus’ performed miracles: his name can be linked to the notion of avoiding death, just like the vampire, which already hints at the secret motives behind the killings… The mysterious man dives straight into questioning Jane’s knowledge about “the man the FBI is hunting”, in complete contrast with the previous callers’ more personal worries. When Jane starts asking questions himself about what the man might know, the other simply remarks “you’re the one who knows everything”, because “you claim to be in contact with his spirit”… Underneath the slightly ironic phrasing –given that Jane has already guessed that he’s talking with the killer-, the man can’t mask his very real interest in Jane’s supposed gift. That is meaningful, because it reminds of how Jane’s comments on RJ lead the late serial killer to make contact too, in a most gruesome way. Plus RJ’s first direct contact with vengeful Jane was also by phone: he called after killing off Renfrew/Jane’s first real lead to taunt him with his laugh in ‘Red John’s Friends’.

Jane further tests the waters by making Lazarus admit that he spoke to another psychic before: “he was a complete fake. You could practically see it written on him”. This comment is obviously dark humor: it’s a way to hint that he was the one who killed Gabriel and who “wrote” the word “fake” on his corpse… In a way, Gabriel thus reaped the same consequences than Jane did when he provoked RJ: he was labeled as fake (echoing the sarcastic letter RJ left pinned on the bedroom door) and his career ended in bloodshed… which in turn means that Jane might avoid following the same path since Lazarus wants to believe in his abilities. Unlike RJ who wanted to set himself as god or at least who presented himself as sent by him, playing on Blake references, Lazarus believes “in spirits very much, just not everybody who claims to be in touch with them”. Jane’s therefore been given a chance to put things to right. He’s rewriting his past with RJ, this time avoiding making the same mistakes, in order to gain a different ending. He’s literally facing the past that been plaguing him for years and he’s finally fully ready to deal with it, hence his statement that nobody haunts him when Lazarus asks him: even though the man remarks “there must be spirits in your life”, Jane answers “fortunately, they leave me alone”. He’s spelling out that he’s finished mourning, in case the many hints were not clear enough.

However, Jane’s strength of mind is tested when the new woman in his life is in danger, just like Angela was: Lisbon is coming back at his place and asks over the phone “did you leave the door of the Airstream open this morning?” This moment ends the long string of phone calls between them when he was afraid to have her get killed ever since S1 ‘Redwood’ (‘Strawberry and Cream’, ‘Red All Over’, ‘The Desert Rose’ for instance). It also happens to be the first phone conversation they have since he stopped ignoring her calls: he had felt the need to get away from the FBI for fear of what danger might befall her, while now he’s presented with the very same possibility that he did try to run away from. Unlike with Angela, here he can stand by Lisbon instead of letting her face danger alone; when she opens the door in the same way that he was about to open that fateful bedroom door years ago, he tells her “okay, stop, don’t go anywhere near it, don’t do anything until someone gets there”. He insists “you’re not hanging up”. Yet, like it was with the couple in the opening of the episode, it’s the apparently safest one who’s actually in danger: the killer has set his eyes on Jane. Lazarus crashes his car against the one the consultant is in. It’s what Michelle did with their suspect in ‘Copper Bullet’: the scent of death is looming closer over him. Jane’s kidnapped like he was during his ordeal with Kirkland (‘Red Listed’) and the scene has also shades of his risky encounter with Lorelei in the limo in ‘The Crimson Hat’.

Later, the team makes plans to get him back and orders are given. Interestingly, one of the agents who’s given a specific task is called Elias. This is another version of prophet Elijah’s name, whom John the Baptist –who used to preach in that wilderness that brought peace to Jane- was compared to when he announced the Day of Judgment and that the Messiah was coming… It also symbolizes how Jane is getting over his fears about death by getting committed to a new life. Nonetheless, Elias has a different attitude towards sin than Jesus: while the latter forgives the sinner, Elias is more willing to call the fire of a vengeful justice on the Samaritan who doesn’t respect him enough to be a good host (Luke, 9, 51-56). It foreshadows Jane’s own behavior towards the bad “host” that made him captive and threatens to kill him… Last amusing point: Elias is also known for having resurrected people as a miracle (King 4, 35; 17, 17-24), which again hints at the thing Lazarus is after…

The second agent mentioned by name is trickier: Merrick might or might not allude to Joseph Merrick, better known as the ‘Elephant Man’, a man whose physical deformities lead him to be exhibited in 19th century fairs. If this name is more than a simple coincidence, it might allude both to Jane’s past carny life and to his efforts to become human again –an important theme of the 1980 movie based on Merrick and directed by David Lynch: indeed, in ‘Blue Bird’, he admitted to a scornful Lisbon that he’d “forgotten how to act like a normal human being”. Now, he’s trying to go further into this form of redemption by accepting both his past and future. By forgiving himself, he’s willing to commit himself to her fully.

VIS#4: Jane and Lazarus

While Abbott is telling Lisbon how sorry he is not to have listened to her misgivings concerning this dangerous plan, Jane is held captive in Lazarus’ den. His position, tied up on a chair, reminds of all the other occurrences when he’s been kidnapped and at the mercy of a dangerous criminal (with Kirkland; when he was saved by RJ in S2 ‘Red Sky in the Morning’; in S2 ‘Bleeding Heart’). He’s forced to buy some time, study his abductor and use his wits to get out of the situation, in the vein of S3 ‘Ball of Fire’. Thus, he’s observing intensely his surroundings. He remarks “interesting place. Could do with a little update”: the decoration of the room, including the brown shag carpet, is indeed pretty old fashioned. It’s like it’s been frozen in time, without Lazarus making any change, like an echo of Jane’s empty house in Malibu used to be, with the bedroom containing only a mattress and the dreadful smiley face: Lazarus too is too caught up in his history to move on. The situation enlightens his character and way of life, because it reminds of RJ’s career in crime – a parallel enhanced by him asking Jane if he’s a liar like Gabriel was, then telling him to prove that he isn’t. It also makes him a bit similar to Jane who used to reach for darkness out of distress. Plus, the consultant stays intriguingly true to his word with the man during their talk; he said “I’m not lying” and he keeps indeed telling the truth, explaining that he doesn’t know that Lazarus has kept the room unchanged since his father’s days because of a spirit but because of the outdated furniture…

The similarities are developed when Jane cold reads Lazarus. His mother died when he was very young and he was raised by his father. As far as viewers know, that probably matches Jane’s own carny childhood even as he adds that Lazarus’ father was “strict”, mirroring how Jane’s abusive father tried to make him a conman… This detail is even more interesting since it also corresponds with what Jane deduced from Vega’s father: fatherhood has been particularly stressed on recently and those three examples give a different perspective on what those dads taught to their children. Vega’s father used to be loyal and tried to raise Vega in the respect of rules; as an adult, she had to learn how to bend them in order to become her own woman… On the other hand, Jane’s dad had taught his son how to live in the margin of society, but the consequences that befell him lead Jane to change and become less selfish and more moral, even if he doesn’t always follow the letter of the law. On the contrary, Lazarus has apparently not reached the point where he chose to make his own choices: he’s still completely under the influence of what he’s been raised to be, which proves to be very dark in his case… As such, Lazarus is the inverted reflection of what Jane could have become had he not decided to use his free will for the better. Indeed, Jane insists that Lazarus now feels that he “deserved it”: “he was right to punish you”. Again, Jane’s telling the truth: he doesn’t play the psychic yet, he just says “It’s what I’m getting from you”. This odd honesty hints that Jane’s no longer a conman: he’s seeking justice instead.

But the consultant keeps talking and progressively puts up his best performance in getting in someone’s head: “you didn’t have any friends when you were a kid. You usually ate alone, not because people wouldn’t sit with you, but because you were disgusted by the sounds they made when they ate. Sometimes, other people don’t feel real to you: they’re like robots wearing human skin.” He adds “you’re an exterminator. Yet, again, it doesn’t feel real. It’s like a movie being projected on a screen”. This “impressive” and eerily intimate description of Lazarus’ misophonia and more especially his generally distanced state of mind might be based on something that Jane could spot in the room. Even though the titles on the shelves are too small to read, one can wonder if there could be some classic science fictions novels featuring human-looking robots like ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’ by Philipp K. Dick, some of Isaac Asimov’s works or even an old copy of the 1984 movie ‘The Terminator’ (the man’s work as an “ex-terminator” might be a nod). It would fit since this movie’s storyline involves an (still unborn) character who’s destined to be the savior of humanity; two possible futures await this futuristic Messiah: either his mother is killed by an human-skinned android before he’s born, or he’s saved by his father, two options that respectively hint at Lazarus’ disgust with humans and his motivations. Anyway, Jane is perceptive enough to understand the man’s detachment and loneliness; in a way, it matches Jane’s own isolation in middle of the mind games he used to play on others, before he decided to open up and let Lisbon in. Then he too probably used to see other people as somewhat different from him, given that he was the smartest in the room and others were just marks… The way he also used someone else’s story- instead of a science-fiction based metaphor- to avoid telling the truth to Dr Wagner in the pilot might have hinted at the same avoidance of reality he was tempted to hide behind.

In spite of being already half-convinced that Jane has a gift, Lazarus isn’t much into introspection and he doesn’t lose sight of his real goal for targeting him: “I don’t need to know about me: I want contact with another”. He insists to a skeptic Jane that “the spirit is here, if you don’t know that, then you’re a fraud”, “just like the other one”, “a liar and a cheat”. His obsessive eagerness is of course Jane’s clue fort snooping some more: the resourceful consultant understands that the answer to his plight is “here”, inside the place instead of inside the man’s head… Therefore, when Lazarus goes out, Jane accepts the water bottle that he was offered earlier. In addition of earning a tiny little bit of the man’s trust by asking for a small favor, like he advised Lisbon to do in ‘The Greybar Hotel’, the bottle cap can be used as a tool to pull a nail off the table. This clever way to get his freedom of movement ties back to two aspects previously hinted at in the earlier seasons. First, there’s the idea that he’s been locked down in his self-imposed obsession for years, just like he’s about to discover that Lazarus is too. Then the hammer concept was linked to his relationship with Lisbon. Back in the previous season, that tool suggested that his tendency to take her for granted by simply keeping her occupied with “nailing” bad guys, for instance in ‘The Golden Hammer’, was about to smash his chance at happiness to bits; now, the fact that he can take the nail off without an actual tool might symbolize that he has managed to get over this propensity, by listening to her wishes and trying to play more by her rules. Again, it may be an indirect sign that he’s made progress in many (if not every) aspects of his personality.

It enlightens even more clearly how Lazarus mirrors Jane’s past attitude, like RJ tended to do, only this time the emphasis is on the differences rather than the similarities. Lazarus has obviously lost someone dear and is at a different point in his mourning process (in addition to living in isolation, he shows signs of anger, denial and a willingness to bargain to bring the spirit back), whereas Jane has reached acceptance and he’s thus freed from the nastier and more destructive parts of his grieving. This is why the book he looks at in the shelf is accurately titled “Full Circle”: seeing the state Lazarus has put himself in by refusing to accept death, Jane can fully distance himself from his part of his life. By facing a situation rather comparable to the one he lived through, involving the danger of becoming a monster himself that was always lingering at the corner of his long-standing fight against RJ, he can let go of the last shreds of this phase: he’s able to gain more objectivity and detachment towards himself by studying Lazarus. Especially when he sees the length of Lazarus’ insanity: the man is keeping the two years old desiccated body of his father in a little storage area on the side of the room Jane is locked in, just like the serial killer in Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’. That was what the man hinted at when he said that “the spirit is here”. It’s also the hidden reason for the choice of “Lazarus” as his own nickname since he wants to bring the dead man back to life and he identifies with him, albeit in a smaller scale than ‘Psycho’ character Norman Bates. This is further hinted by the name “Joe” that he shares with his father “big Joe”, not to mention that it starts with the same letter as (Red) John…
When the younger Joe comes back, Jane ups his psychic act, prompted by the various bits of new knowledge he collected. He tells him that his father “says thank you for keeping him, for taking care of him. The passing over was hard, but now he’s good. His back doesn’t hurt anymore, he feels better now than he ever did when Dr Hannigan was feeding him his meds”. The words echo what Gabriel told Wylie about Vega’s spirit which wanted him to stop feeling sad over her death. Also, interestingly, big Joe’s doctor shares his name with the rough agent who first told Jane to move on by starting a new family when he met Lisbon in ‘Red Dawn’: past and future are again connected. The time she took him in is thus linked to the new start he’s willing to take now. To put Lazarus’s alleged “doubts” to rest, Jane also tells him about “a lake” called “Pickasee” and that “he didn’t catch a fish that day”, but “you caught a fish, a small one”. This reminds of course of the recurring fishing theme representing the struggle with RJ.
Lazarus then explains why he’s keeping the mummified corpse: “there’s something in me… A voice… And when it starts, I can’t ignore it… I can’t think about anything else until I go out, find someone… And then it goes away again. For a while. Is that your voice, Daddy? Is that you in me? Are you sending me out? Am I doing this for you?” Like Bates in ‘Psycho’, Joe is convinced that the serial killer part of himself is actually his dad, like he lacks so much substance himself that he’s only a receptacle to the older man’s will, because as Jane put it earlier he thinks that he deserves it. He’s again distancing himself from the world around him: himself, the “robots” that he kills and those disturbing and obsessive impulses that plague his mind. He still lives in a nightmarish dream world focused on his father.

Plus, that idea that he’s sent out to kill for his father reminds of how Jane’s been implicitly compared to Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Joe’s killing rampage is brought by a “voice” that he believes to be his dad, just like the prince of Denmark was convinced to set up a murderous revenge plan by his father’s ghost, a notion used for Jane’s quest in ‘Something Rotten in Redmund’. Again, it’s a situation that Jane has gotten over with and that he managed to turn into a happy ending instead of the tragedy Joe is heading to. Lazarus then appears as a counter-model: by looking into the abyss, or rather here by listening to its darkest advices, he has been tainted. His nickname instead of being linked to the biblical idea of light and resurrection as it should, only indicates that he’s already dead inside, because evil has made him a monster too by staring for too long into the Death’s eyes. Hence the concept of haunting spirits, of undead vampires-like creatures attached to his acts. It makes him in complete opposition with Jane, whose introspective wanderings have been conductive to embrace his own mortality in order to start living again. Ironically, Jane’s taken the better part of his close encounter with death and murder: instead of following RJ’s steps through hell, he’s chosen to listen to Carter’s sarcastic and hurtful words of letting go of his pain and start anew, at the very end of ‘Strawberry and Cream’.

This contrast is also intriguing in the way both grieving men managed to handle their fate. Joe doesn’t really have answers to explain his killings, he’s full of questions, which reminds of Jane’s refusal to ask anything of RJ. Yet Jane asks him his reasons and even though he only gets an enigmatic answer from Joe and even if he doesn’t press any further (it doesn’t really matter if he’s suffering from a really bad case of undiagnosed schizophrenia or some other mental disorder), the fact remains that this time Patrick’s mind is clear and devoid of passion enough to act as an investigator instead of out of revenge like he did before. This could explain why Jane chose not to lie to him outright, but to just give an artfully presented version of the truth.

That doesn’t stop him though for trying to put an abrupt stop to Lazarus’ career by setting a mortal trap of gum on the unscrewed light bulb once he’s left alone for an hour. Jane still believes that he’s got the right to play vigilante and the fact that the guy took him as a prisoner doesn’t make him question his desire to bring justice onto his head. When his kidnapper comes back, Jane tells him “if you want answers, they’re in that room. You can go in or not. It’s up to you” This time, it’s Joe’s turn to be standing in front of a door with a dead body behind: the step he’ll choose to take will decide on his fate. And, again, true to his word, Jane is not really lying per se: ironically, by getting himself killed, Jane would have Joe reunited with his father… It is probably noteworthy too that Jane is not the one in front of the crucial door this time –given that he was not aware that it was meaningful when he opened it while snooping for information. His own significant door was opened in ‘Blue Bird’ when he decided to step in the plane to grab at his chance to happiness. Now, it’s up to Lisbon to be left to decide to open the potentially threatening door of the Airstream, or to Lazarus who’s reenacting Jane’s past actions. Jane is past that point in his life: he’s come to forgive himself. In the same manner, he’s no longer the one who’s plagued with guilt in this episode; instead, it’s Tork who’s been feeling a sense of responsibility for having hatched the plan and having failed to protect their consultant, which leads Abbott to tell him to go home and that it wasn’t his fault.

The storage room explodes just as Lisbon comes running into the scene after having tracked the address down through Joseph Keller Sr.’s file. Lazarus’ father had been indeed suspected of being a serial killer too before suddenly falling “off the map”. The last name “Keller” might be playing with that notion in association with the “J” reminding of RJ: both father and son bear their wrong-doings in their real name, whereas it was Red John’s nickname that was meaningful… The scene obviously reminds of her desperate attempt to rescue him in ‘Fire and Brimstone’ –before the explosion, which wasn’t orchestrated by Jane back then. Things come full circle here too as Lisbon concludes their adventure with the words “don’t ever do that to me again, ever”.

This ‘Brown Shag Carpet’ also brings to a close the list of episodes involving floor covering. The previous instances were ‘Red Carpet Treatment’ (in which Jane was offered a gun to achieve revenge), ‘Pink Chanel Suit’ (Jane carrying a rolled carpet in lieu of a corpse out of the judge’s house and generally messing the investigation up) and ‘Redacted’ (in which Jane asserted that the hidden treasure was actually a precious rug, but only after hiring a burglar to break into LaRoche’s home…). All of those occurrences have taken place in Season 3 and showed how far Jane’s obsessive streak had leaden him. As such, the carpets might represent Jane’s immobility, his inability to move on. Yet, here, it’s the killer who’s trapped in a fanatical quest: his father’s brown shag carpet in the room where he keeps Jane, near the mummy, symbolizes this binding and debilitating past, while the ‘White Orchids’ coming up afterwards bring a reminder of Jane’s past, but also the long-standing barely acknowledged hope for something more. Jane leaving the mortiferous carpet behind along with his despair ends the shows on a happier note than he may have had hoped for.

At the same time that Jane’s been playing mind games and getting closure, his coworkers were busy looking for him while displaying how much they’ve learnt from him. Cho and Wylie teamed up to investigate the lead involving local black magic and occult. Both were the most emotionally involved in Vega’s death, it thus stands to reason they were very eager to try something, even as weird as that something might look. And here too, the nods to the past are visible: Cho explained to his young agent what a “Grimoire” is, which both reminds viewers of his uncomfortable encounter with a witch in S1 ‘Red Rum’ as well as it is a discreet allusion to Jane’s various books and notebooks through the series. Like the letter pinned by RJ on the bedroom door in the pilot, this last “magical textbook” opens new (and happier) possibilities…

Later, Wylie showed how much their charismatic consultant has influenced him: he was able to get the reluctant shopkeeper to trust him by bargaining his protection. She accepted to give them precious information on who would look for human blood and why. Even though he had seemed so uncertain on the field in the previous episode, Wylie was able to become a better, more confident member of law enforcement due to Jane’s teaching.

But the most startling example is provided by Lisbon. Earlier episodes showed how well groomed she’s been in the art of using manipulation in order to close a case (‘The Greybar Hotel’, ‘Black Market’, ‘The Silver Briefcase’). Here, after Wylie and Cho had found a man involved in the black magic aspect of buying human blood, she dismissed Abbott’s claims that the man already requested an attorney: she insisted ruthlessly “I don’t care”, “we don’t have time for this”, “let me talk to him”. Then, she cold read him: “you’re hiding something”, “I never would have noticed something like this before, but I’ve been working for a very long time with somebody who’s good at seeing into people what they’re thinking, feeling”. She was able to guess what he was hiding, “something violent or sexual, maybe both. But judging by how freaked out you are, I’d say it’s something really bad”. She was not above threatening the man, like Jane did so many times, to her chagrin: “I don’t think you understand how important this is to me. You give me a name, you can walk out of that door right now; you don’t and I will dig up every dirty secret you have”, “I will tell everybody you know: your coworkers, your friends, your family”, “you’re not gonna be able to hide”. She even added to show her cold determination “it’s not a threat, it’s a promise” and “my boss is right back there. Tell him, get me fired, ruin my career, I don’t care. I want those names”. Her worry-induced restless lack of regard for rule contrasts with her way of handling Jane’s disappearances in their CBI days. For instance in ‘Ball of Fire’, she was careful to hide her very real worry under professionalism, whereas here, she didn’t care about façades and even used her fear and anger to frighten her prey. She’s become much more open with her emotions.

Plus, by chasing after her lover’s trail, Lisbon was already proving that she doesn’t need him anymore in her professional life: what Jane has been trying to teach her for years (more notably since ‘Blinking Red Light’) has come to fruition and, surprisingly, this implicitly gives Jane space to invest more deeply the personal side of their relation. Indeed, for years, the main thing that bounded them together was their job, to the point that Lorelei commented that he was reduced to working cases with the CBI because he was “a little bit in love” with Teresa… Now that this need for his enlightening knowledge of the human mind is no longer as needed as it used to, they are to develop a union centered on their affection alone, instead of hiding behind the long-standing half-lie of getting along because “he closes cases”. In a way, Lisbon is therefore also tacitly committing herself more completely to him as a man she loves, instead of as a coworker she happens to date…

Once again, this ties back to their shared past of darkness, since he only started grooming her in order to manipulate her more easily to his views and to prepare her for his leaving the team at the end of his quest. The expression used earlier in the investigation to describe one way of getting blood is telling: “cutting yourself open” reminds of what Jane told Lisbon that he planned to do to RJ in ‘Red Flame’ (“when I catch Red John, I’m going to cut him open and then watch him die slowly, like he did with my wife and child”). It might also be a nod to Jane’s suicidal tendencies that have been more or less hinted at in the series (‘Red John’). Yet, as it systematically happens in this finale, this painful reminder is turned into a more positive one: this time, Lisbon’s grooming no longer implies sinister purposes, but it means getting Jane back for getting their happily ever after. Plus a detail is amusing: Lisbon managed to get “eight names” out of their unwilling witness. Given how often the “seven” number was used to refer to the last season (or to the seven suspects on Jane’s list of RJ candidates), the number eight here implies that they keep going with their happier life even after the closing episode.

‘White Orchids’

The conclusion to the fright caused by the kidnapping and the detonation is shown 24 hours later, when Jane is signing the lease for the house, the very first real home he’s acquired since his Malibu residence, after the shabby string of motel rooms/attic/Airstream. It’s a house that needs repair, just like the Lisbon old family home that he had been looking at in ‘Yellow Little House’.
It’s a sign of freedom and it’s stressed out by the real estate agent joking “now usually this is where I hand over the keys, but there aren’t any”. It obviously refers to the bad state the cabin is in, but it may also be a nod to the many keys that appeared through the series to show how Jane had been locked up by his obsession with revenge: there is no need for that kind of “keys” for him now that he has learnt to get free from his pain…

VIS#5: Jane’s proposal

Once he’s secured this haven in dire need of remodeling, Jane takes another big step into moving forward. Lisbon has been dropping not so subtle hints that she wants him to prove his commitment so he kills two birds with one stone by talking her about his wedding ring, the taboo topic that Lisbon is feeling sorry for bring up.

When they’re admiring the antic house and bantering about how the slanting to the left might be due to an optical illusion, Teresa notices suddenly that he’s not wearing his ring. Jane answers in a deceptively easy fashion: “I’m not married”, then keeps talking about the slanting of the house (“the ground is slanty, so it makes the structure look like it’s leaning, but it is, in fact, not”). When he gathers his wits, he broaches the real matter at hand: “this ring has been with me for a very long time and it has obvious significance with my past”. The ring has been indeed a token of his lost family and a symbol of his quest for revenge: Jane’s been using it for years to fence off women willing to distract him for his self-imposed reclusion and it was precisely the object that Lisbon mentioned to try and awaken memories of his past during his fugue state. Staying symbolically “married” instead of accepting that he was a widower was Jane’s way to avoid getting emotionally involved in normal human interactions during his CBI years. He explained to Kim in ‘My Blue Heaven’ that he was still wearing it because he didn’t know how to talk about his grief and the things he did after losing his wife. Jane being a creature of habit, it stands to reason that he would be reluctant to step forward without this comforting, familiar security blanket… Like the broken teacup, that has been lovingly mended, those items no longer show the narrowed life he had in the CBI, but the stability he longs for and finally achieves by incorporating to a new life those past emotions he used to avoid.

Yet Jane takes the plunge by adding swiftly “it also represents meeting you: if I didn’t have this ring, I would never have met you. So in a sense, it has the potential to represent my future as well”. Like he did with the vest in his three-piece suit, which used to be an emotional armor, a part of the façade he put between him and the world to keep his distance, Jane has managed to turn this emblem of his inability to reach for others into something much more emotionally charged. Indeed, he got his vests back after Lisbon told him she liked them (‘The Greybar Hotel’), so they’ve become a mean to please his lover. In the same manner the ring serves now to build something that would bind them closely together: “I’m not expecting you would ever wear it, but I want to share it with you and I want it to represent our future together. I want you to be my wife. Will you marry me?” the meaning of this powerful moment can be summed up by the title: ‘White Orchids’ are flowers used for marriage decoration but in the course of the series they’ve echoed Jane’s hope for a new beginning, most particularly since the Lorelei arc (see among others the post about ‘TM Major Themes, Symbols and Arcs: Part 2 –Seasons 3, 4 and 5’ for further reference as well as the reviews for the corresponding episodes).

Interestingly, the ring, along with the vest and the teacup, are quite similar to the magic items given to the characters of some fairy tales. In the perspective of initiation, these objects become filled with the meaningful wisdom that the protagonists acquired on their way. Jane has learnt to live again and the talisman guiding him in his destructive mission has turned into a symbol of the love he’s earned during his progression. Just like Dorothy and her ‘Ruby Slipper’ in ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’, he happened to have carried all along with him the means to going back home: his golden ring represents the capacity of loving again he’s been denying himself for too long… But here, Jane’s progress on a path of hardship is therefore no longer represented by his worn-out brown shoes, as it had been until ‘Blue Bird’; he’s no longer walking away from his deepest wishes, but instead he’s risen above his doubts by a more introspective reflection. He’s gained the power to use gold instead of shoes. Like Frost’s poem told viewers, ‘Nothing Gold Can’t Stay’ and his new-found happiness is bound to disappear at some point, but for Jane embracing its fragility also means understanding how valuable it still is to get it back.

Lisbon’s reaction is very different to her hesitation after Pike asked her the same question. She’s moved and agrees at once with enthusiasm. When Jane admits that he’s “glad” because he was “a little nervous”, she’s surprised: “oh, come on, you knew I was gonna say yes”. Jane’s next words are a confession that she’s probably been waiting for years to hear: “no, even after all these years, you’re still a mystery to me”. That closes the chapter of Jane’s attempts at “reading her like a book” as he once said he could: ever since ‘Red Flame’ in Season 1, he’s been trying to prove to her (and to himself) that he could handle her as a predictable creature, causing her alternatively to be on her guard or angered by it (she enjoyed the shock on his face when she showed him the hammer in her desk drawer in S5 ‘Panama Red’)… His truthful admission that she’s indeed the most mysterious character of them both should have felt gratifying had she not been already overwhelmed with joy, laugher and kisses.

The wedding planning: light and darkness mingled

As a consequence, whereas Joe Keller was heading towards a tragedy à la ‘Hamlet’, the end of Jane’s journey looks more like a Shakespearian comedy that parallels the romantic comedy vibe of ‘Blue Bird’. Indeed, in addition of the typical underlying threat of death intricately woven in a plot that takes place in a scenery featuring nature (the cabin), there’s a mixing of different atmospheres characteristic of the Bard’s plays. This latter point reminds of the series’ usual tone of a dark storyline interlaced with humor, while insisting for once on the more positive aspect. While Jane and Lisbon are inundated with the cheerful and funny aspect of their romance, they’re under the illusion that their latest enemy is dead. On the other hand, evil Lazarus is following their love story step by step with the prospect of ruining it: if we were for instance to compare the episode with one of the most famous of Shakespeare’s comedies, ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, Lazarus would be the ill-intentioned Don Pedro planning to crash their wedding and crush their happy ending… Meanwhile, here too the main couple is be too occupied by their friends’ more benevolent yet slightly annoying projects for them to notice that something is amiss.

From there, the plot follows then two directions, one laced with deadly plans, the other merrier.

1) Lazarus

The killer is lurking, quite like RJ had been for years. Like McAllister in ‘Red John’, he’s survived the explosion and he’s chasing after Jane, not stopping at killing collateral victims ruthlessly in his obsessive hunting. It might be worth remarking that, like RJ pretended to have given “purpose and meaning” to Jane’s life by killing his family (inferred by Rebecca’s words in ‘His Red Right Hand’), Jane has given its real meaning to the name “Lazarus”: what was only an impossible project involving his father has become reality for the serial killer, who’s really come back from the dead, at least from the agents’ point of view… Joe represents more clearly than ever the past that Jane has put behind. He’s linked to fire (cf. ‘Tyger, tyger burning bright”) and wears the mark of the beast under the form of fresh burnt marks instead of the three-dots Blake tattoo. As he says himself, his careful surveillance of what Jane’s up to is a “bad omen” since he threatens to force Jane back on the same tragic path he used to tread through. By playing with fire and taunting a serial killer for the second time, Jane is in danger of having again his new family ripped off from him.

2) Lisbon and Jane

The happy couple follows hastily and in quite a messy way the main points of a traditional wedding checklist. Those follow a bit more closely the bride’s steps (whereas the focus has been more on Jane so far) are presented with a humorous twist due to Lisbon’s wariness of how grand the event is getting.

The first official step is informing the team of their engagement. It also means announcing formally that they’ve been a couple for months… That doesn’t come as a great surprise for Abbott, matchmaker extraordinaire between two jobs, or for Cho who’s been more aware of his coworkers’ feelings this time (“I told you” he says, even though Abbott corrects “no you didn’t”). That leaves the role of the clueless colleague to Wylie, who later confesses to Cho that he didn’t see it coming. The couple hurries to insist that they don’t want “any wedding fuss”: “we’re just gonna slip away quietly in the next couple of days”.

The happy mood is dampened in the next scene when a determined and badly burnt Keller shows up in a shop. A song can be heard faintly as he limps his way around the store: it’s Tom Jone’s ‘It’s Not Unusual’, a 1965 hit that matches the old-fashioned setting of his dad’s house. The upbeat lyrics hint at the danger of heartbreak that might befall the lovebirds (“It’s not unusual to be loved by anyone/ It’s not unusual to have fun with anyone/ But when I see you hanging around with anyone/ It’s not unusual to see me cry, I want to die”).

Yet, oblivious to the threat, Lisbon keeps announcing the great news, this time to a more personal audience. As she contacts her brothers, they’re enthusiastic. Their first question is about their long-time estranged brother Tommy; Lisbon tells them that she left him a message but “he’s chasing a bail jumper in Alaska”. They comment simply “well, you snooze, you lose. We’re gonna miss him at the bachelor party, though”. As heartwarming as this effort to act like a family again may be, it leads to the prickly announcement: “there is no bachelor party”, “we’re getting married the day after tomorrow, just me and Jane and the Justice of the Peace: no big wedding, no guests”, “we want to get married quietly”… Stan and Jimmy are bewildered: “we’ll be quiet, but we’re gonna be there, T.” When they understand that they can’t argue with their stubborn big sister, family man Stan (sporting a cross matching Lisbon’s necklace) decides to make her feel guilty as she’s probably still feeling bad for avoiding family events for years: “if we’re not there, Mom’s gonna spin in her grave like a freaking crankshaft”, “she’ll be crying for shame”… Jimmy tries to reason him, but it only results in making Lisbon feel worse: “why would you want to be there if she doesn’t want us there?” The two overgrown kids start mock fighting: “you’re a sad, bitter man, Jimmy Lisbon”. This might or not be a moving echo to Jane’s reading of RJ as an “ugly, tormented little man, a lonely soul, sad, very sad”. Jimmy keeps fighting his bro and laughing “I smile through it”, “I smile through the sadness” (which is maybe a distant nod to the blood smiley that plagued Jane’s memories).

Jane spots immediately that Lisbon is worried because she ended up inviting them to the wedding. He just agrees that they’re family and eases the mood up by teasing her about asking how he did know what she had on her mind (“when we’re married, do you think you might stop asking that question?”). Lisbon nevertheless comments that, since her brothers are coming, “it feels funny not to invite just a couple of members from the team”. She’s torn between what feels right and their wish to “keep it small”… Jane tells her kindly “invite away, we’re gonna need a few more guests just to dilute the alcohol content”. They decide to settle on “just three or four” more guests, that promptly escalade to “just 8 or 9 close friends at the courthouse”. It is the official start of Teresa Lisbon’s ‘Doomsday of the Uncontrollable Guest List’… In spite of Jane’s misgivings, they are not fully aware that they’re tempting fate (“it’s not like we’re hiring a caterer, we don’t have a gift registry of anything…”) and they decide to head “to O’Malley’s bar afterwards. Or we could go to a restaurant”. O’Malley was the bar the team gathered at in ‘Strawberry and Cream’ to discuss their secret plan. Since this particular bar was located in Sacramento, it might be a pet peeve or a discreet allusion to their CBI days.

Then Jane takes upon himself to get her a ring. He explains that the old wedding band that served for his unusual proposal is “for us: you need one for you”. He wants to choose it alone as to not “waste time bickering” since he has “better taste”, but takes into consideration Lisbon’s plea for it not to be “too gauche”. Of course, Jane’s resourceful conman ways are a great help when he spots at the store the jeweler trying to trick the young couple before him by giving them a cheap replica instead of the genuine diamond they came with. The family theme is again explored by the lovebirds’ claim that the diamond they want to put in a necklace is a family heirloom (from a grandmother) and the maternity idea is subtly played with the second occurrence of the name “Anne”, which belongs to the Virgin’s mother in the New Testament. Jane steps in jovially, saves the day by uncovering the sleight-of-hand move called “French drop” that he witnessed and blackmails the dishonest jeweler into showing him his “very best selection, please” adding as an afterthought “nothing too gauche”.

His secrecy only heightens Lisbon’s curiosity over the ring. So, when they are busy with tedious bureaucracy at the County Clerk Office, he jokes “I could just give you the ring and we could elope” while making a show of touching the hidden box through his pocket. She playfully asks “you got a ring?”, then proceeds to poke his pocket while insisting “you gonna show it to me?” (Warning to Jane: physical teasing and poking tendencies appear to run deep in the Lisbon family. Judging by her brothers it can only get worse the more familiar she grows after marriage… Please refrain from starting any tickle fight and watch your ribs!)

Of course, Teresa can’t get over her shock when seeing his gift and readily believes that it’s too big to be real. Then when he assures her that it is real, she freaks out “oh my, are you out of your mind?”, “well, it’s gorgeous, but it’s too much, I can’t accept it”. Even though she managed before to give back the pricey emeralds that he offered her in ‘Red Handed’, this time he insists “you can accept it and you will. It’s yours, I want you to have it.” Those heartfelt words contrast with the clerk’s matter of fact statement that “we’ll need confirmation that the ceremony’s been performed within 72 hours or you will need to refile” and Jane delights sarcastically “who said romance is dead?”… The moment is laced with another allusion to their shared past: Jane’s wish for a romantic elopement followed by an honeymoon in Fiji is a nod to his island days and to his plans for running away on a boat to a no less exotic beach in Polynesia in ‘The Silver Briefcase’, only this time it’s not the temptation to escape the risks of reality that motivate him, but the eagerness to spend quality time with his beloved bride.

The rest of the planning takes place from Lisbon’s point of view and it displays how deep her relations with the people in her life have become. It’s thus easy to notice how much character development she underwent, from the workaholic loner from the pilot to the “popular” girl whose wedding everyone comments and wants to attend. The amusing part is of course her aggravated look at the orgy of wedding vocabulary and the way things are going out of hand.

1- With Abbott

Her former boss is happy to offer his house to stage the ceremony, which contrasts greatly with how harsh he’s been with Lisbon on their very first encounter in the CBI. Back then, he mistrusted Lisbon because of her supposed relation with Jane. It’s this very same involvement with a man whom he’s come to respect that he’s giving his blessing to now, putting emphasis on how a new leaf in their life has been turned. Both have earned his consideration; even though his suspicions about their mutual feelings at the CBI were well-founded, his own indulgence in Jane’s schemes has implicitly shown that he understands now how love was probably not the only reason why Lisbon followed her consultant’s lead.

Dennis has since then become protective of them. He’s pushed Jane into following his heart in the end of Season 6; he’s now offering to host the “casual wedding” and later he’s “covering the rental [of the tables] and the bartender and the caterer” as a wedding gift. All in all, Abbott is the closest they have to a nurturing parental figure who’s welcoming them into their new condition. Even if his rather fatherly role is not to guide the bride to Jane directly, his hand in sponsoring the event’s preparations financially goes far enough to both show his thankfulness for their help in ‘Copper Bullet’ and to place him as the godfather of their union.

2- With Cho

If Dennis plays the doting father, Cho acts as the friend/family member/bridesmaid/fashion consultant helping her choose her wedding dress, for Lisbon doesn’t have any real female friends in the FBI after Kim left. After all, Cho was already her fake-fiancé when they went undercover as a couple in a jewel store in ‘Black Market’. It foreboded Jane choosing the actual ring in an earlier scene. Cho is her oldest friend in the FBI team and the only available member of the SCU at hand at such short notice, but it’s nonetheless very telling that she felt comfortable enough to ask for his help in such a personal matter even more since he’s now technically her supervising agent. Her relaxed clothing when she asked him, only clad in her dark green form-fitting top with no jacket, speaks enough of how natural the question feels. In ‘Bloodstream’, when he was placed in a position of authority above her for the first time, he told her that, unlike her, he didn’t want walls between his team and him; isn’t that heartwarmingly ironic that now the only thing standing between her and this close stoic friend at a decisive moment in her womanly life is the door of a dressing room?

Of course, the fact that loafer-lover Lisbon has upgraded her wardrobe in the recent months to more feminine or even sexier outfits than her old reliable pantsuits doesn’t mean that she has any idea of what kind of gown she wants. Cho’s opinions on the different styles she tries on are as laconic as funny: “makes you look short”, “snow cone”, “slutty elf” sum up how difficult it is for petite Teresa to find her dream dress. At the end, the man decides to save time and he chooses for her, probably thinking that he has better taste just like did Jane about the ring: “you want a simple piece with clean lines, maybe something vintage and off-white”. Lisbon is relieved and simply agrees to ask the attendant for “what he said”.

Very pleased with her former second-in-command-turned-boss’s sage advice, Lisbon thanks him and tells him “I asked you along because I thought you’d be honest. I had no idea you were such a fashion expert”. This may be a nod to his seductive countenance when he rocked stylish clothes in ‘Crimson Casanova’. Kimball explains: “not me. My mom could run up a designer shop before breakfast, she cut her cloth by eye.” Emboldened and touched by this rare confidence, Lisbon discloses some personal information on her own: “my mom had a sewing machine, but it was always in hock…” Cho tells her then something very sweet: “she’d be proud of you”, even dressed in a far too revealing wedding gown. This allusion to her family ties back to her yielding to her brothers’ pressure for fear of what her mom would have wanted: like Jane, Lisbon has overcome the bad memories of her own tragedy and she’s now able to think about it with more serenity than she had showed in the pilot.

3- With Wylie

Wylie too achieved some peace of mind with his own tragedy. There’s some progress concerning how difficult he finds to accept Vega’s death. When he announced to Cho his decision to request a transfer in the Salt Lake City office, Cho familiarly smacked him over his head and told him to stop feeling sorry for himself and that making some mistakes is normal. As for his sadness about Michelle, he insists “you miss Vega. Now remember who she was: she’d never run away from a challenge like this and neither should you.” He concludes “I have to rebuild the team and I want to start with people that I know and trust, so stick around”, before adding almost fatherly “I’m asking you to stay, Wylie”. Cho already proves that he will be a stern but protective leader, just like he did with Michelle. Abbott who’s just “spinning” his “wheels here”, waiting for his new job to begin, can rest assured that the future of team looks encouraging, with or without Jane and even with the new dynamic brought by Lisbon putting more energy in her home.

Now that Wylie feels better about himself and his place in the team, his liveliness can be directed to more pressing matters… which is to say stressing Lisbon out by becoming her unofficial wedding planner. When she demands that he must keep the news to himself as to not hurt anyone’s feelings, for they want to keep is small, he starts his eager yet demoralizing mission by asking her if there is a “gift registry” or a “trousseau” (which leaves her puzzled). Later, at Abbott’s place, he’s already making arrangements: “you’d probably prefer to hold the ceremony outside and there isn’t really a room inside big enough”. Indeed, “a lot of people are talking about it” and the list has grown exponentially: from the “15 people” that Lisbon remembers inviting, they’ve reached the nerve-racking number of “mhm, more like 25, or…” He’s quick to try to reassure her: “I don’t think people are waiting for, like, a printed invitation seeing as there isn’t one. But, hey! On the plus side, you’re popular, girl!” There also a “menu” and the corresponding caterer that she didn’t ask for, of course…

4- With the most prominent members of the ever growing list of guests AKA her family

Lisbon’s wariness at being unable to stop more and more people from attending her wedding reaches a depressing peak when her brothers arrive with their whole family. Lisbon expresses her lack of gusto by those heartfelt words: “wow! You all came! So many people…” Jimmy even found himself a very giddy and annoying fiancée, who immediately launches on a distressed Lisbon exclaiming “I am so freaked out to meet you at last! We’re gonna be sisters! Yay! Yay!” Lisbon explains to her energetic relatives: “sorry, I’m freaking out right now”. Yet, despite her misgiving about what is now shaping to be a bigger wedding than she wished for, their enthusiasm at being with her shows that they’ve come a long way to become a close-knit family again.

The second family eager to share the happy event is her old team. When she announced them the good news to Grace and Wayne, they comment that “the news is spreading fast through the CBI grapevine” so they “had to call and say congratulations”. Wayne, who’s been teasing Jane about how they had always thought he and the fair agent Lisbon would end up together in ‘White as the Driven Snow’, says “so you and Jane, huh? We always knew”. Grace corrects “We always knew? I always knew!” Obviously, romantic Grace is the reason why oblivious Rigsby could have guessed a potential love story that had escaped Cho’s notice at the time…They accept gleefully the invitation (“we wouldn’t miss it for anything”) and think about how they’ll manage to get rid of their kids with “a little child-care juggling”. Rigsby even jokes “you know, worst comes to worst, we’ll just bring the little monkeys with us and keep them locked in the rental car”. It shows both how happy they are with their new life and how attached they still feel to Teresa, who remained a close friend through the years (cf. ‘My Blue Heaven’).

Their interaction implies that Lisbon is now at peace with that part of her past too. Even thought she lost her job at the CBI and had to face discredit to the point of being relegated in a small town Sheriff office, she’s gotten closure over her broken career. The professional image she worked so hard to project is somewhat restored as the “CBI grapevine” readily shares the news: people find the information interesting, which hints that she’s “popular” there too. Moreover, the fact that she’s the one who reaches for others might hint that people could be more taken in by her, because she was genuinely liked. After all, she always had good relations with others agents onscreen, even ones who had taken over her team like late Haffner (before he started getting creepy) and now Tork. In a way, one can wonder if in hindsight her care for duty and her genuine kindness may not be more fondly remembered by people who enjoyed celebrating her ten-year anniversary with the CBI (‘The Red Barn’) than her unruly and whimsical consultant who had a hand in the loss of their jobs… Anyway, the leaf is turned for the better since Teresa has been achieved her happy ending, like Grace and Wayne before her. More than the Lisbon brothers, these two represent what she wants from married life: to be able to get along merrily with her loved one and their family. This comforting domestic sight matches what she used not to want to acknowledge that she wished for in her younger years, from the horrendous pink bridesmaid dress Jane forced on her, because he guessed it was a secret desire of hers, to her discreet envy when Rigsby started being a doting dad.

Family has been a main theme of the last season. Family may often be a bad influence that holds you back (the Bittakers in ‘The White of His Eyes’; Lazarus); it may keep you stuck in neutral, overwhelmed by doubts about doing what they would approve of (Jane; Vega wondering about her actions under Jane’s guidance, until she took a decision, unlike Lazarus). But it can also be the very people who will support you (Lisbon and the team) and for whom you want to be a better person (the Stopparts in ‘The White of His Eyes’; Jane becoming again a normal human being for Lisbon). All in all, family is a way to build future with one’s past, like the young couple in the jeweler store who wants to make a necklace from a grandmother’s ring: it’s exactly what Lisbon and Jane are trying to do.

Finally the two plots of the episodes, featuring respectively evil Lazarus and the happy couple, meet when Lazarus tries to pinpoint where Jane is. As he calls Tork, pretending to be the TV show host that he just murdered, he’s been told that Jane “is pretty unfindable these days, he’s getting married in a few days”. This line contrasts with Jane’s words to Lisbon that he tries “to be more findable these days” at the end of ‘Byzantium’ after his Airstream escapade. Indeed, there’s a role reversal, for Jane is no longer the one chasing restlessly after his nemesis: this time, Lazarus is the one searching for him.

The role reversal continues when the team is alerted that Lazarus is alive and kicking his way onto warpath: in pure Jane’s fashion, they decide to keep the lovebirds in the dark because they can handle it without worrying them. They agree to lure the killer in by using their friends’ wedding as bait, just like Jane would do:”postpone the wedding? We’re the FBI!” In a way, that’s payback for all the times Jane (and Lisbon) didn’t let the team in their discoveries, especially about RJ being alive too, for example after the debacle with Carter or after Jane realized that Bertram was just a decoy for McAllister in ‘Red John’. Their main reason is not as selfish as Jane’s used to be though: they know that he and Teresa are “in a good space right now. If Lisbon found out that this case isn’t closed, it’s likely that she’ll cancel the wedding and join the hunt”. They decide therefore that “there’s plenty of time to tell them after”… which means that Abbott will probably add the names of more agents to the guest list in order be inconspicuous: “four, but now I think we should probably have more… at least ten” armed agents watching “the front and backyards and the surrounding neighborhoods”. Amusingly, Dennis’ listing for the party keeps growing, in parallel with the real guest list…

Of course, Jane is quickly able to spot that he’s been lying to when Abbott tells him that he was talking with Cho and Tork about “nothing special”. The perceptive consultant only says “I won’t pursue the point because you would tell me if it was something important”. He then lets Abbott wheedle him on a safer topic: “you know, I’ve been getting some calls about you and my bosses want to know if you’re sticking around”. There’s “no pressure” from his part (a dig at Pike’s favorite expression for planning his future…), yet he explains “if you’re going, there is some legal stuff that we need to handle to expunge that deal that we made.” Jane understands the need for talking about the deal written on “the napkin” when he left his island, but he reflects “I’m getting married tomorrow. Then I’m building a house and, beyond that, I genuinely have no idea. And I can’t do this job forever, but it’s gonna be tough to give up.” Abbott comments that “it’s hard giving up making a difference, huh?”, though Jane amends “no, everyone makes a difference. Hard to give up the chase.” Jane’s aware that the team doesn’t really need him: he’s past the need to prove that he’s the smartest in the room. Instead, he’s aware that what drives him is his tendency to focus on the man hunt provided by cornering bad guys as well as the intellectual stimulation offered by investigating a case. Lisbon remarked this very accurately when he first mentioned quitting ‘The Silver Briefcase’: “it’s not gonna be as easy to walk away as you think”, because “you enjoy the mental simulation far more than you let on”. It’s probably the secret reason why he was capable to devote himself so completely and for so many years to the pursuit of his goal in the RJ era: concentrating his clever mind on chasing down a shadow was a way to distract himself for the pain. On this point too it’s then a new beginning for him, for he should try to find some interests in life other than playing mind games on marks, may they be criminals or credulous people.

Yet, Jane is not quite over that peculiarity of him because he has no qualms in manipulating his friend into telling him what he’s trying to hide. He agrees with Dennis that “it has been very good working” with him. It’s in way as to make the other man feel guilty. He insists “I really appreciate your honesty. I love you for that” until Dennis relents and acquiesces “okay you got me: I was lying, there is something I need to talk to you about”.

Once he knows that he’s about to be targeted at the wedding, he goes to try and convince Lisbon to really avoid the risky situation by eloping. With her too, his old treacherous habits insensibly lead him to hide the ugly truth at first in order not to frighten her. He finds his grumpy dulcinea in Abbott’s garden moping in the middle of several elaborated bouquets of white roses and orchids mingled with pastel colored flowers. Jane tries to gauge the situation and tries to distract his tear-stricken fiancée by commenting cautiously: “nice flowers”. Lisbon recites “they’re centerpieces. It’s a Sylvan theme”. Seeing that she’s even more distraught by this statement, he senses that the problem is that the wedding preparations have gotten out of hand: “how many people are actually coming to this thing? –Nobody knows exactly”. Lisbon exclaims “how did this happen? This is not what I wanted. Well, I like the Sylvan theme… We should have eloped like you said”. All the while, he’s stroking her arm in a soothing motion. After she affirms that her family wouldn’t care (“I just talked to them at the hotel. They found a minibar, they’re like cavemen arguing over a dead antelope”), Jane seizes this golden opportunity to make her get her out of the killer’s way without alarming her: “let’s run, huh? We’ll tell nobody, just the judge. I’ll have her meet us at our little cabin tomorrow morning”, already planning to “get someone, a park ranger” as a witness. Lisbon is overjoyed by the perspective of giving the slip to their not-so-wanted guests, which fits the old habit for secrecy and plotting that has cemented their couple over the years: “you know what? Let’s do it!”, “it’s our life, damnit!”, “I’m gonna go get my dress and I’m gonna go to the Airstream, I’ll meet you here”. She even tells him that she loves him and kisses him by way of thanks, convinced that she is that her comforting and seemingly perfect fiancé is only trying to make her happy.

Lisbon’s candidness leads him then to spill the beans. The hastiness of his explanation makes the scene even funnier “well, there’s another very good reason why she should elope, all right? Keller is apparently still alive and he’s mad at me for some reason…” Lisbon is floored, so he keeps taking “yeah, so Cho and his people are gonna stake out of this house. When Keller shows up, they’ll nab him”. Even though Lisbon is at once assured that married life with Jane will never get dull, one may understand that this revelation fails to make her very satisfied with her groom. Yet the amusing part is that she’s not as much scared for their life as annoyed by his almost-lie: “you were gonna withhold this information from me?” She even lets slip that her main fear is still about attending to the too many guests by saying “you were gonna deprive me of a guilt-free elopement?” Jane protests “I just told you!” but that doesn’t cut it: “you almost didn’t! From now on, we need to be 100% honest with each other”, mirroring an old worry that has plagued her since the very start of the show. This claim might echoes her statement that she didn’t trust him 100% in ‘Scarlet Ribbons’ when he started being more open to her about his plans after killing Carter. Nonetheless, here he only agrees and seals this promise with a series of heartfelt sweet kisses. They decide to hurry away (“I’m gonna go get my dress, fire up the Airstream”).

This cute and comical discussion enlightens that the focus has shifted. Keller’s predatory and murderous intends are emphasized by the stone eagle at the gate when he slips into the judge’s trunk to get to the place where’s the marriage will be held, nevertheless, they’re less worried about the danger than they’re eager to enjoy their important day peacefully. They’re trying to get the wedding they want and to start their married life on the best, most thoughtful way possible; they’re already past the excitement of the chase. In that perspective, Keller is already bound to fail, all the more since the burnt mark he’s wearing makes him easy to spot. It gives the team time to prepare for his arrival.

VIS#6: the big day/ the ending

The tension is increasing as Jane is deep breathing in front of the pound in his new property. He’s contemplative, clad in his usual suit, with a satiny tie. A delicately veiled Lisbon gets out of the Airstream with her dress on, looking wonderful if slightly out of place. They promise each other “no matter what happens, from this point on”, “we will always look on the bright side”. It’s Jane’s commitment not to fall into despair again. Interestingly, the bouquet Lisbon is sporting is an arrangement of wild-looking flowers with white anemones. Anemones are traditionally associated with fading hope. This pretty dark meaning derivates from Greek mythology, because these usually dark red flowers were supposed to have sprung from the blood of Adonis, whose death had left Aphrodite inconsolable, just like Jane had once been. Yet, following Jane’s example, the flower can turn to a brighter meaning of anticipation and good luck for the couple’s plans.

They walk together through the shrubbery to the fateful door of the shack. This time, it’s not death by a serial killer that awaits them inside: when Lazarus sneaks behind them, he’s surprised (along with viewers) to see a trap set for him. The team and reinforcement are ready to arrest him. Unlike in ‘Strawberry and Cream’ with O’Laughlin’s shocking attack, they didn’t get caught unaware by the killer in the cabin… Some things will never change: Teresa looks badass as an armed bride who mutters “and see how much better things turn out when you’re honest with me?”, while Jane is hiding behind her. They’re comfortable enough in their unconventional respective roles for Jane to swiftly replace her gun by her bouquet in order to get on with the main event… There’s no place for bitterness in Jane’s heart: he tells “no hard feelings” to a shocked Keller and ushers Lisbon hastily towards the exit; even though did play vigilante by trying to kill him, he didn’t do it out of revenge or anguish, like he did with Carter, McAllister or even Panzer. The marriage takes place without a hitch, the guests gathered in front of the cabin. Grace holds the bouquet as the bridesmaid, like she once asked Lisbon to be hers. The couple kisses, they cheer and there’s much hugging.

By nightfall, the guests all dance cheerfully on a makeshift platform in the middle of the woods. The touching party shows the characters of the old team, the FBI coworkers and Lisbon’s family enjoying themselves together, which draws a tinge of nostalgia given that it’s also goodbye to viewers. Grace and Wayne are wildly dancing as the very much in love couple they are, then they take a selfie with Cho to commemorate the event. Abbott and Wylie are happily dancing alone, the latter probably trying to forget that he was reluctant to show his skills on the dance floor to Michelle not so long ago. The Lisbon brothers entertain their respective ladies.

All the while the upbeat song ‘September’ by Earth, Wind and Fire plays, its lyrics giving a glimpse of the happily ever after Patrick and Teresa are about to experience: “do you remember the 21st night of September?/ Love was changing the minds of pretenders/While chasing the clouds away”… For them too, viewers hope there won’t ever be “a cloudy day” anymore and that their future will make come true the lines “my thoughts are with you/ Holding hands with your heart to see you/ Only blue talk and love/ Remember how we knew love was here to stay?/Now December found the love that we shared in September”.

A bright and long-lasting future is indeed on its way, given that Lisbon takes the opportunity of being cuddled alone near the pond, more or less where he proposed to her, to give him her own share of good news. She places her now ring-laden hand on her belly, telling him without words that she’s pregnant. After a moment of surprise, he beams and kisses her. It’s his answers to Pike’s question about what future he could give to Teresa in the season premiere and it comes full circle with the pilot full of broken families –the victims’ ones and Jane’s- and empty houses. The soon-to-be-remodeled cabin and the baby to come are both a promise for hope, in complete opposition with the broken homes in the very first scene of the show with the deserted kitchen where Jane was wandering alone and in the end of the episode with the Malibu residence. The very last shot of the series shows their long, tight hug and his smiling face: the lengthy path leading back to home ends on this hopeful note.

Conclusion: Biblical references

Three implicit allusions to Jesus Christ can be associated with Jane and the rebirth of his happiness and hope.

1) Jane performs miracles: achieving redemption

Like Jesus revealed himself as the Messiah to the world through seven miracles, Jane proves that he’s earned his forgiveness for his past sins by achieving as many meaningful actions:

1-Jesus changed water into wine (John 2, 1-11); Jane used a water bottle to free himself when he was prisoner.

2- Jesus healed a royal official’s sick son (John, 4, 46-53); Jane started his psychic act by talking about family members on TV, healing part of the host’s grief over the loss of a loved one.

3- While Jesus healed a paralytic at Bethesda on the Sabbath (John 5, 1-29), it’s through Jane’s teachings that his team has been able to “stand” on their own two legs when he’s missing, even when they are blocked by a lack of plausible leads (Wylie insisting to follow a weird flimsy black magic connection, Lisbon threatening their only witness to get names). They’ve learnt to “walk” unorthodox paths to get results.

4- Jesus fed the multitude (John 6, 1-14), Jane manages to assuage Lisbon’s worries about the extended guest lists and finally holds a marriage with their close friends.

5- Jane was not able to walk on water like Jesus (John 6, 16-24), yet he convinces Lisbon that the house doesn’t slant when they look at it from the other side of the pond: it’s just an optical illusion that gives him the opportunity to display his ring-less finger and helps him not to fret about his proposal.

6- Jesus healed the blind (John 9, 1-17); Jane’s observation skills were a great help for the young couple who didn’t see the sleigh-of-hand of the unscrupulous jeweler.

7- Last, not least: Jesus resurrects Lazarus (John, 11, 1-45). This is part of Jane’s healing process: facing Lazarus and making him enter what he hoped will be his tomb makes Jane move forward. Plus, by surviving the explosion, Lazarus has symbolically raised from the dead, making Jane’s last miracle complete in calmly causing the man’s downfall without anymore disturbance on his own private life.

2) Back in the Garden of Eden: his past sins as a conman are forgiven and he can start anew

As Lisbon has remarked, this wedding has been graced with a Sylvan theme, may it be at Abbott’s place or as where has actually taken place at the cabin. Indeed, instead of the white centerpieces, they’re surrounded by woods and nature. In the same manner, the white roses representing purity and spirituality, the white orchids symbolizing a new beginning and the gentle colored roses, which convey an impression of joy and loveliness, are replaced with more brightly colored flowers giving a wilder aura and equally evocative anemones: they’ve manage to make their own “Sylvan theme” by including the meaning of their history to the moment.
It’s no surprise then to find some deep symbolism behind the wild setting. In ‘Byzantium’, Jane fist saw it as the Christian wilderness that tested him and helped him into starting to find answers to the doubts he was plagued with. Now, it’s the place where he’s willing to reach for happiness again, his own locus amoenus, a place where he can get joy, peace and love in the middle of nature. The trees are traditionally associated with personal growth (letting go of his pain in his case) and roots (getting married again and having a family): they bind the past and the future together.

Interestingly, Jane’s original sin was to taunt RJ and, in a deleted scene from the pilot, he added the detail to his description of the serial killer that he had a lemon tree growing near his house. This was alluded to by the many lemons associated with Jane’s quest in the first seasons: that fruit tree was the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis, 2-3) and it caused Jane to be banished from his family life, his own Garden of Eden and to suffer: “the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (all translations are from the New International Version). In the show, RJ plays God by manipulating Jane like a puppet in a game of death, then after Jane has proven to be a valuable adversary, RJ assumed the role of the serpent who was trying to tempt Jane into joining him by listening to his conception of the world, devoid of good and evil (‘The Crimson Hat’).

Now, Eden has been restored and the promise for redemption has been fulfilled. Jane follows the steps of what has been announced by an angel in the Book of Revelation (22): “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. […]. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever ». The river finds an echo in the pond: it’s really associated to life since Jane chose its bank to propose and he received the news of his paternity here too.

As such, Jane has earned the right to get back into his Garden of Eden, in his case a family life. Even though no tree is singled out during the episode, Jane’s symbolically gained access to the other tree in the garden, the Tree of Life guarded by angels (Genesis 3, 24: “After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life”). It concludes Jane’s wandering through biblical trees, from the oaks and cedars from the Lorelei arc to the now reclaimed wilderness: like the orchids, they started as a sign of his struggle between hope and obsession, until they fully became an emblem of his newfound happiness. In that perspective, they are following faithfully the general shift of meaning of the reminders of his past during this episode. Jane may not have gained faith in God and the afterlife, but he’s found hope in the future by getting into his forest of life. He’s gotten back his innocence and those plants now carry and support his world, like many primordial trees do in different mythologies.

For him, those wild woods have been a place for choosing the path he wants to follow and get to grow as a person: all in all, it’s once again very close to the symbolism of fairy tales. In a way, that kiss Jane and Lisbon exchanged as a promise of happiness definitely frees Jane from his demons: he has been like a Sleeping Beauty waiting in wilderness (as he actually did sleep there in ‘Byzantium’) for someone who will love him enough to reach for him and awaken him. And, last, not least, tree is also associated with genealogy and hints at Jane being a father again.

3) The child to be born: hope for a better future

The baby that Lisbon carries also fits the intricate net of references to the Bible, because it reminds of the birth of Jesus. Like the holy child, the baby’s presence may have been announced by Gabriel. In Luke, 1, 19-26, the archangel first visits Zechariah to let him know that God had sent a son who would be John the Baptist to his wife Elizabeth -who shares her name with a reporter in ‘Nothing Gold Can Stay’. Then, he foretells the same event to Mary (whose name is mentioned twice in this episode and who’s a character in ‘The Greybar Hotel’), wife of Joseph whom the Kellers, father and son are named after.

In the show, the same happens in hindsight: self-proclaimed psychic Gabriel told Jane “your cure will come with the number three”. Three is the number of the members of his new family after Lisbon told him: it’s the hope for this new life they’ve created that certainly definitely dissipates the remaining shadows. Plus, the idea of fatherhood has been played with for some time now. For instance, Jane wondered on which model parents should be in ‘The White of His Eyes’, whereas watching her boyfriend play with a kid triggered Lisbon’s first “I love you”.

A last parallel can thus be found in what the holy child represents, for it matches the meaning baby Jane holds for its parents. In Matthew, 1, 18, Jesus is to be called “Immanuel, which means ‘God with us’”, whereas in John, 3, 16, the child is a promise of redemption and salvation:”for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”.

With so great expectations and so high a mission, we can only hope that the Jane heir/heiress won’t be as prone to get into mischief as Daddy… 😉

Here endth the final review for TM. There will be soon a last post about the themes of the 7th season, which shall serve as conclusion for the series. 🙂 Thank you for reading and for supporting the blog!

Mentalist Pretty Red Balloon Review

Synopsis

Consultant Patrick Jane (Simon Baker), Senior Agent Teresa Lisbon (Robin Tunney) and her team take the case of a missing boy, Conner, on the request of his mother Elizabeth Flynn (Kelli Williams). Beth is an old client from Jane’s psychic days and wants him to use his “powers” to help find her boy. Lisbon asks Jane to step back from the case as the psychic angle is complicating matters. Jane agrees but changes his mind when Beth’s current spiritual adviser Nate
Glass shows up. Jane is then caught between convincing Beth that he was never a psychic, discrediting her current psychic, while trying to find the missing boy before he is killed.

Concise Verdict:

Written by fan-favorite Ashley Gable, Pretty Red Balloon depicts the wondrous marriage of angst, humor, mystery, suspense, and, wait for it…morality, that made me fall in
love with this show. It also comes with the bonus of excellent guest stars, slyly superb direction, and so many references to previous episodes that my continuity radar blew up. Oh, yeah, and the whole cast was awesome especially (surprise surprise) Simon Baker. Do I really need to say it? 10/10.

Detailed AKA Humongous Analysis (spoilers galore)

It’s no secret that (one of the reasons) I love this show is how much it makes me think. But I confess after an entire season of suspense and intrigue I’m really starting to appreciate the more straightforward episodes  That is not to say they are less exciting or compelling. In fact, being kept in the loop of Jane’s schemes has it’s own rush as exemplified by the analysis below.

Very Important Scene (VIS) #1: Episode Opener- Jane/Lisbon/Van Pelt in the Bullpen

Jane tells Lisbon he’s not going to the CBI’s mandatory seminar, setting her on edge since she’d just gotten her job
back. It would have been a perfect opportunity for the more unforgiving fans to go on a “Jane is such a bastard, etc.” rant. But after Lisbon leaves, Grace Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti) and Jane’s exchange of “It’s good to have her back” lets the audience in on the fact that Jane is only teasing Lisbon out of relief at having his beloved boss back at work; his own way of welcoming her back, affirming her presence to himself and viewers.

Clarity is such a beautiful thing. Thanks to this scene I
didn’t have to spend the rest of the episode wanting to strangle the guy.

As to whether Jane will actually go the seminar:

VIS#2: Jane tries to Come Clean to Beth (again)

When Beth tells Jane she wants him and Nate to work together to save her son, Lisbon asks that Nate leave. When the trio
are alone, Jane once again tries to try and convince Beth that he was never a psychic, and that Nate isn’t either.

Jane: “I’m not a psychic, I never was. I was a con artist. I took your money, and I told you lies.”

-Baker’s delivery here was so emphatic, so purely un-apologetically honest. Jane in no way sugar coats what he did. This is very mature of him. Jane’s accepting the consequences of his actions might be one of this
season’s running themes (‘Scarlett Ribbons‘).

But to no avail. Ironically, Jane was so good at lying, now that he’s telling the truth Beth refuses to believe him. She asks if he’s really not a psychic then why he’s working with the police. Lisbon explains: “Mr. Jane is working with us because he is an excellent investigator. He is going to be very helpful in this I promise.”

-I think this is the first time Lisbon ever gave Jane such a complete compliment. She’s acknowledged his talent before but usually in more reserved, at times even derisive tones: “He’s a pain in the ass but he’s usually right” or simply “He gets results” and “He closes cases”. Can this glowing
praise be that Lisbon is starting to respect Jane more? Or was she being nicer because she felt sorry for his undoubtedly painful predicament at coming clean to a former client? Hmm.

Beth states that she understands. At first Jane and viewers think that’s she’s finally gets it. But then she continues saying that Janes gift is such a burden that of course he has to deny it.

-When I heard this, I thought: it is a burden all right, but not it the way she thinks. I’ve said this before about Jane: genius is such a lonely place. Viewers may recall Jane’s brother in law, Danny from last season (Cackle Bladder Blood) whose unapologetic demeanor at scamming people out of their money was almost like he thought they deserved it. With such power as Jane’s, it’s easy to fall into using it for evil, into gathering money and adoration, rather than for good. Red John being the extreme example.

The scene gets even better. Beth goes on to say: “Even Saint Peter denied who he was three times”

-I went crazy with glee at this line. I can’t help but wonder if Religion skeptic Jane realizes the irony of his being compared to a Saint. Does he find it insulting or hurtful?. He’s obviously disturbed (maybe annoyed? ashamed?) by it as he quickly interrupts Beth, his tone hard as steel, stating that “There are no such things as psychics”.

But to no avail. Beth pleads with him to not deny his gift, no matter how hard it must be. She begs him, reaches out her hands to him, crying out his christian name and all Jane can do is stand there and take this undoubtedly punishing spectacle silently as Lisbon tries to calm down the frantic crying mother.

-Phenomenal acting all around.  Viewers can just see Jane’s agony in Baker’s eyes as the rest of him is very, very still. Meanwhile, Tunney makes Lisbon’s concern and attempts at calming Beth down seem like she’s trying to protect Jane from the pain she knows the woman is unwittingly inflicting on him. Finally, Williams is picture perfect as the desperate mother grasping at straws to save her son.

VIS #3: Grace and Rigsby at CBI

Before questioning witnesses/possible suspects, Van Pelts states sarcastically that they might be better off using Beth’s psychic, Nate Glass. Rigsby, surprised, asks: “I thought you liked that spiritual stuff, what about your cousin Yolanda?” Grace then points out “Yolanda is real, that guys’ a fake.”

-CONTINUITY, PEOPLE!

Ahem. I love this exchange, obviously, for the continuity it provides as well as what it tells us about Van Pelt. Grace has always been a woman of strong convictions. Her psychic cousin was first mentioned in the ‘Pilot’ when she got into a somewhat heated and powerful discussion with Jane over whether real psychics exist or not. It is nice to see that despite everything that happened to her Grace still maintains her beliefs. While some may see her as being gullible, I actually think this shows strength of character. I have always loved Grace’s ability to stand for her beliefs and I’m so glad she didn’t lose that. This scene is also quite clever in that it allows the show to remain objective and respectful to members of its audience who do believe in psychics.

Finally (and I’m not sure if this was intentional or not) but reminding the audience of the pilot sets the stage for another issue discussed there and is readdressed later in this episode (more on that later). Talk about multitasking.

VIS #4:  Jane Confronts Nate Glass; Lisbon and Jane

After Glass pretends that he’s contacted Beth’s son, Jane approaches him, remarking that Glass is “not great, but pretty good”. Glass responds it’s a gift. Jane points out that as he was once a fake psychic himself, he wouldn’t ask Glass to back off, except that a child’s life hangs in the balance. Glass won’t take the hint and says that’s why he’s here to help to which Jane responds: “You don’t want to push me. Back off this woman. Get out of here right now or you’re going to regret it.”

-Yikes! It’s always exciting to see hardball Jane come out to play. It usually happens in matters related to Red John (with Bosco when the Red John case was taken away, and Stiles when the visualize leader brought up Red John to rattle Jane). Another instances was during Jane’s run in with another psychic Ellis Mars (Red Moon). Mars had the misfortune of getting on Jane’s bad side when he tried to cold read him.

While in the above examples Jane’s anger seemed to stem from being affronted personally (he especially enjoyed vindictively putting Ellis Mars in his place) the purpose behind his threats here seems altruistic. Jane cares about Beth and her son. The only possible ulterior motive Jane may have here is his desire to right previous wrongs. He can hardly be blamed for that.

Nate refuses to back down. He tells Jane: “I can understand your frustration. You had the vision and you lost it and I can’t think of anything more horrible.”Jane tells him that he’s got a lot of nerve; and that maybe, more than just a fraud, he’s the kidnapper too. Lisbon joins them to state that she’s already checked out his alibi during the previous abductions.

-Love the easy transition here and how Lisbon took the initiative to have Glass checked out. It’s nice that after working so long together her and Jane’s thought processes are so close they are almost identical at times. Another possible running theme this season; how in sync these two are.

Lisbon, noticing Jane and Glass’s obvious contempt for each other tells Jane that they don’t have time for a feud. She adds “It’s like you’re conscience is battling your old self there’s no upside.” Jane replies “you think that’s why I’m here? That’s intriguing.”

-Yes it is. So is Jane’s reply. Either Lisbon’s comment hit the spot and he’s surprised she read him so well, or Jane himself didn’t realize that’s what he was doing until she pointed it out to him. Or perhaps Jane is intrigued by the fact that Lisbon thinks he has a conscience. Again, It’s a far cry from her usual derisive statements regarding his character. I’ve pointed out in other reviews that despite his seemingly huge ego and strong exterior, Jane has an insecure streak and actually does care what Lisbon thinks of him. CJDavey shared a similar opinion in the “Little Red Book” comments when he stated that Lisbon’s “What does that make you” statement (about how as an honest person she’s a terrible liar) seemed to bother Jane. Perhaps this is why Jane is intrigued. That despite Lisbon’s usual disapproving stance regarding his character, she actually sees the moral dilemma he’s facing now as expressed by him wanting to oust Glass as the fraud he is.

Thoughts?

VIS #5: End Scene : progress in the Jane/Lisbon’s friendship

Last season I stated that of the two characters, Jane was the more emotionally invested in their friendship and made more overtures at connecting emotionally (‘Bloodstream‘, ‘Every Rose has its Thorn‘, and ‘Jane/Lisbon moments‘). I’ve also wished that Lisbon would let go of some of her strict professionalism and open up more both to her colleagues and to Jane. I’d gotten my wish somewhat in the Season three finale as well as in this season premiere when Lisbon started addressing her colleagues by their first names and reaching out to them as friends. This scene shows that she’s starting to become more friendly with Jane as well.

It starts when Jane explains to Beth how he was able to trick her stepson Jonathan into thinking Jane knew where he was keeping Conner.  But before Jane starts the explanation he looks briefly at Lisbon (almost as if for guidance) and she gives him an encouraging nod.

I loved Lisbon’s support here. It’s continuity to the idea expressed by Jane’s video interview (in Every Rose) that he needs someone strong, someone better than him. At the time I wished Lisbon would realized what he needed was someone to guide him. It seems this theme will be explored further this season. First, Jane told Bertram explicitly that Lisbon was a good influence on him, and in this episode, they share a nonverbal exchange where Jane takes a cue from Lisbon.

Just as wonderful is how, as Jane gets into his explanation to Beth, Lisbon continues to gaze upon him with something very close to affection and possibly even pride.  Usually it’s Lisbon who’s on the receiving end of such looks from Jane so it’s nice to see the opposite.

Lisbon looks especially pleased by Beth’s contention that although Jane lied to her all those years ago, she is happy because he’d given her hope.

And if looks are not enough to show Lisbon’s growing regard, then her pep talk to Jane is.

When Jane and Lisbon leave the house she tells him: “Cheer up.”

-Lisbon’s direct approach here is a far cry from her awkwardly offering to let Jane drive the car in ‘Red Brick and Ivy’.  In that episode, Jane asks Lisbon if he really looks so sad; unintentionally embarrassing her when he calls her out on her awkward yet sweet attempt to cheer him up (she never lets him drive).

Here, Jane first tries to cover his melancholy, saying he is cheered. Lisbon, unconvinced goes on: “You heard her, you gave her hope.”  Jane’s reply is a (gasp!!!) self-deprecating (GASP!!) admission that he didn’t give Beth hope, he sold her hope; hence acknowledging that he does in fact feel bad. Lisbon tells Jane that she thinks hope is worth it at any price.

-I don’t know what surprises me more. The fact that Lisbon is unabashedly going out of her way to try to make Jane feel better or his admitting being down (as opposed to his telling Lisbon all last season that he’s fine).

I think this is the easiest personal discussion these two have ever had. Even Jane’s subsequent teasing Lisbon, asking her if she’s running for office now, is like his way of establishing equilibrium. It’s almost like he’s saying “thanks for the concern but I honestly feel okay now.” Lisbon takes the hint and easily falls back into their normal banter, telling him “Okay, you know what, you’re a wicked charlatan and  you’re going to hell then.”

Jane’s reply? “That’s more like it I’ll save you a seat by the fire.”

-Remember how I said in VIS #3 that Van Pelt’s reference to her cousin could be an indirect way of reminding viewers of the pilot? This scene here is why I thought that. Because in the pilot Jane said “There is no afterlife.” But he doesn’t say that here. In fact, when Lisbon tells him she’s not going to hell, he jokes that she’s made other arrangements and asks her where she’s going. Lisbon then challenges “Do you really want to have this conversation? Ready for some little theological talk here?” Jane then admits that he doesn’t and Lisbon continues teasing him “I thought you wanted to feel better, not worse”.

Now I’ve previously raised the issue that Jane may no longer be as agnostic as he once seemed. In the Strawberries and Cream finale review, I stated (in relation to the scene where a bomb-strapped Lisbon prays):

The fact that guarded Lisbon is praying in front of skeptic Jane really underlines the gravity of the situation. As does the fact that Jane doesn’t mock her for doing so. He even goes as far as saying he’d do the same if he could. This statement simply blew me away; as I’m sure it did Lisbon if the shock on her face is any indication.  It is not clear at this point whether Jane is starting to believe in a higher power or whether Lisbon’s been rubbing off on him. But that is not the point. What does matter is that he’s gotten close enough to Lisbon to respect her beliefs in spite of his own apparent lack of faith. For a control freak like Jane, this is huge. Unless the reason for his tolerance is that he himself is starting to want to believe. And then we have another chicken-egg scenario. Don’t you love when writers give us those?

I even set up a poll regarding the matter where readers voted:

What’s interesting here is that while Jane told Gupta in Strawberries and Cream that he likes a good theological debate” here he’s shying away from having one with Lisbon.  Perhaps killing a man in cold blood has served to somehow make him reconsider his stance on religion.

Personally, I always thought the Jane’s refusal to believe in the afterlife is due to a masochistic desire to deny himself any ease which may come from thinking that his wife and daughter have “gone on to a better place”. I also think he fears, on some level, that his family was taken away from him as divine retribution for all the people he conned. But that’s just a pet theory and I readily admit it has no basis whatsoever other than Jane’s ego and my feeling that he doth protest too much.

So what do you guys think now?

Best Scenes:

This whole episode was a best scene. It’s ridiculous to ask me to choose one. But this is me trying:

Best Scene: Jane comes clean to Beth

See VIS#1 for details.

1^st Runner Up: Jane’s psychic read

Before Beth leaves the CBI Jane goes to bid her farewell. He grabs her hand to shake it, and then proceeds  to fake one of the best psychic reads of all time, all in the presence of Beth’s current psychic Nate.

-There are no words for how awesome this scene was. Jane’s performance, Lisbon artfully joining him in the act; his holding her hands, saying in a shaky voice “Lisbon, I don’t like this, I don’t like this”; I was smiling the whole time especially when he falls on the ground (a cue to Lisbon no doubt) which she follows, giving him a slap to come to his sense. Jane does and afterwards begs Beth to not touch him again; feigning fear that she’ll trigger another episode.  Lisbon then does her part of ordering everyone to search the area Jane’s vision described. When everyone leaves, Jane stands up and tells Nate with a poop-eating grin “That’s how you do I psychic read”.

I just burst out laughing.

Jane then walks into Lisbon’s office (leaving Nate silently seething behind) and shuts the double office doors behind him. Fantastic. The master, the magician, Patrick Jane has left the building 😀

So good!!

And this is why Simon Baker deserves an award. Not because he can do drama (though he’s fabulous at that too, see 1^st best scene); many actors do drama. But how many can do all that other stuff in between. You know, acting like a fake psychic, who doesn’t believe in psychics then puts on such a fabulous show isn’t “just another workday” for actors. I’m just saying.

2^nd Runner Up: Jane Lisbon End Scene

See VIS #6 for details.

Icings on the Cake:

Master Cho: Once the team starts suspecting a serial kidnapper, Agent Kimball Cho (Tim Kang) gives Grace and Rigsby the low down on how the case is going to be worked now. Love the assertion that this man has seniority over the rest of the team. Also really like how Rigsby and Van Pelt just followed his orders without question. This team is a well oiled machine and I’m so glad they’re back. Chemistry between Kang, Yeoman and Righetti is really fun.

Cop Lingo:

The point 1, 2, and 3, 4 corners or whatever jargon Lisbon used when giving the team their locations was such a sweet touch of realism.

Wayne and Grace

Love how Grace and Wayne are interacting so naturally together. He asks her if she’s okay after shooting a suspect and she jokes that she’s starting to enjoy killing people. I wonder if Wayne is waiting for cues that Grace is over her fiancee to make a move. Or if he’s finally moved on to the point where he can be her friend despite his saying last season (‘Like a Red-Headed Stepchild’) that he can’t.

Honorable Mentions:

The casting of the Mentalist is usually superb and quite a few big guns were brought in this episode. Todd Grinnell as the unlikely perp was quite effective and even manages to be somewhat sympathetic. The first suspect Gary (David Bowe) was also very good; relatively benign at first then freakily violent later ( is it just me or did he remind anyone else of Steve Buscemi?)  and Brain McNamara was excellent as Beth’s protective and unyielding older brother. As to Kelli Williams; to this day the memory of Lindsay’s (William’s) impassioned defense of the nun-killer in The Practice, and her subsequent agony and tears when she won the case; setting the killer free gives me goosebumps. She can now add Beth’s desperate pleas for her son’s life in this episode to her list of moving roles.

Simon Baker: Really? You need to ask? Read the previous 7 pages worth. Better yet, watch the episode. But amongst the things I didn’t mention was the scene where Nate Glass talks about how Beth’s son made contact with him. Baker was fabulous showing Jane’s barely restrained annoyance. Honestly he was so angry I half expected that for the first time we might see Jane actually get violent.

Robin Tunney: Tunney really broke my heart in the opening scene where Lisbon first orders Jane, then pleads with him to go to the  seminar. Her glare is always a joy too. But she really shone in this episode while questioning Beth. Ms. Tunney is the only one actress I’ve ever seen who can make accusing a mother of killing her son to inherit his money seem not cruel and insulting. Then there’s her comforting Jane and all the concerned looks she throws him that show that maybe Lisbon is becoming as attached to Jane as he is to her.

Best Lines

“Amen.”- Jane reply to Glass’s fake “Halleluiah”

“You should have gone to jail you miserable sleazebag.” Deke (victim’s uncle) to Jane. Love the reference to Jane’s killing Timothy Carter and his trial. Lovely, realistic continuity.

“Well, nice to meet you too. Not sure I’m a sleazebag, miserable–” Jane, in response to above. Jane is usually happy enough to concede to insults he thinks he deserves. Interesting he chose not to comment on the “should have gone to jail” (ambivalence? Guilt?) and chose instead to comment on the “sleazebag” accusation (really doesn’t fit him, does it?) before starting to comment (and possibly agree) to the “miserable”.

“Oh you should have seen me ten years ago.”-Jane to victim’s uncle when he asks him what’s wrong with him that he treats people so horribly. This reinforces the idea that Jane has changed (as he’d stated in Cackle Bladder Blood) and also shows that Jane sees his brutal honesty as being nicer than fake kindness.

“There’s no need to be cranky”-Jane to Lisbon. Whenever Jane calls Lisbon grumpy, or cranky I get all warm inside.

“I was thinking love is strange. And I was thinking about a sandwich.

“Mr. Glass. Nice to finally meet you. And you got no action, you’re a disgrace to the profession. That contact you made with Connor? Weak, weak.” –I love when Jane turns his taunting onto someone who actually deserves it  🙂

If you liked this review, please rate it, and leave a comment to share your own thoughts .

And here’s next episodes promos:

CBS

CTV

*All material posted in this blog is the intellectual property of reviewbrain (unless otherwise stated). Readers are free to make use of the information provided they cite the source (this blog) either by name (reviewbrain’s blog) or by linking to it. Please extend the same courtesy to the authors of the comments as well (by mentioning their names) to ensure that credit is given where credit is due.

Mentalist Scarlet Ribbons Review

Synopsis

Following the events of the season three finale, CBI consultant Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) is arrested for shooting a Timothy Carter (Bradley Whitford) dead in a mall in front of 500 witnesses. Jane defends his actions saying that the man is his family’s murderer serial killer Red John. He adds that Red John’s gun and the call his cell phone received from Craig O’Laughlin (proven murderer and assumed RJ accomplice) will prove it. But Jane is shocked when he learns that no call was made to Carter’s cell from Craig’s telephone and that there was no gun at the scene.  Things look very bad especially as Senior Agent Lisbon and her team are suspended due to the fiasco.  The rest of the episode is then spent trying to prove that Carter is in fact Red John, with the hope that it will help Jane in his trial and get the team back in the good graces of CBI director Gale Bertram (Michael Gaston)

Concise Verdict

Season three of any television show can be highly pivotal. Depending on how it is handled, it can either make or break the show.  Mentalist’s season three was quite powerful and ended in one of the best finales of all time.  Some say that once a show reaches such high standards, it can only go downhill from there. I’m glad to report that Mentalist doesn’t seem to be facing that problem any time soon. the season premiere conveys many good things to come and has me very excited for the new season:  8.5/10.

Detailed AKA Humongous Review (Spoilers Galore)

Very Important Scene (VIS) #1: Ardiles and Bertram pre-Jane’s bail hearing.

I was so happy to see Assistant District Attorney Osvaldo Ardiles (David Norona) back. Despite his position as a minor antagonist on the show, I really like the character for all the nuances and subtle decency the writing and actor Norona give him. For example, in this scene, Osvaldo rightfully assumes Bertram approached him to ask that he go easy on Jane. When Bertram corrects this assumption, saying that he wants Ardiles to make sure Jane stays locked up for as long as possible, Ardiles replies: “Okay, he’s your man.” At his tone and wording Bertram defends himself quickly with a “Don’t get me wrong.” He states that while he feels bad a “productive employee” like Jane is going down in flames, he’s more concerned about containing the “media crapstorm” Jane’s actions have caused.

This scene reminds viewers of Ardiles’s promise to Cho (Season Two’s Rhapsody in Red) that the DA’s office won’t be doing them more favors. It also recalls Bertram’s umbrage with Jane in the finale when he threatened that there will be consequences to Jane’s actions. But more importantly the scene sets the stage for the two’s next scene at the end of the episode by reminding viewers that Bertram’s main concern is and always will be how things look, not how things really are.

VIS #2: Bertram visits Lisbon at the Hospital

Bertram extends his and the bureau’s sympathy for Lisbon’s injury. He then tells her that she and her team are suspended. Lisbon, shocked, asks why.  Bertram responds: “Really, you have to ask? You allowed a clearly disturbed individual to lead your activities. You allowed him to gun down an innocent man.” Lisbon defends that they don’t know that. Bertram repeats Carter was innocent, adding: “On top of which you perpetrated an elaborate deception on me in order to gather evidence that I your own boss am part of a vast criminal conspiracy. Shall I go on?”

-I really love Bertram’s benign matter of fact tone here. Gaston always manages to come off as being both nice and creepy at the same time. But what is really compelling about this scene is Lisbon’s wonder at being suspended. It’s quite different from her usual willingness to accept punishment (‘Blood Money’, ‘Redacted’). In fact, her disbelief here is quite Jane-like; she’s acting like he does when he feels he’s unreasonably being made to pay for his actions. I’m dying to know whether the medication Lisbon’s on has her missing the magnitude of the protocols she and the team have breached, or, as in the case of people who spend a lot of time together, Jane’s habit of expecting people to cut him slack has rubbed off on her (more on this in the next VIS). Then there’s the less fun possibility that Lisbon’s surprise and Bertram’s explanation could have just been done for expository purposes and I’m reading too much into the scene.

VIS #3: Lisbon’s first visit to Jane in jail (AKA the meeting all viewers were anticipating)

Jane enters the visitor’s room, sees Lisbon, smiles and approaches her. He sits down, gives her a tiny nod and gestures slightly towards her injury before he asks, “So how was your week?” eliciting a startled laugh from Lisbon.

-Of all the ways to handle Jane and Lisbon’s reunion post Carter’s shooting, I honestly believe this was the best choice. I loved how there was very little drama in this scene. This is exactly what made me fall in love with The Mentalist in the first place. Subtle writing + subtle acting=perfection. Heller wisely makes use of Jane and Lisbon’s established friendship and Baker and Tunney’s talents to paint a picture worth a thousand words. Jane and Lisbon stare at each other quite a bit, taking in their respective appearances. Jane’s body language clearly conveys how worried he is about Lisbon, his relief at seeing her okay, and his pure joy that she visited him. Likewise, Lisbon rushing from her hospital bed to meet Jane, her initial moroseness at seeing him in jail coupled with her beautiful laugh at Jane’s ironic quip shows that the feelings are mutual.

And if that doesn’t convey their care clearly, then the rest of the exchange does:

Jane: “You should be in the hospital. What are you doing here?”

Lisbon: “I’m okay. You on the other hand-”

Jane: “I’m okay too.”

The concern they have for each other and disregard for their own plight is beautiful. It gets even better though. In an almost direct role reversal of ‘Red Badge’, Jane is in a situation where his sanity is being questioned. Jane tells Lisbon that he didn’t go nuts, and she answers that she believes him but expresses doubt that a jury will. Jane answers: “Yeah, well, that is a problem and I did what I had to and I will live with the consequences.”

You hear that sound? It’s not a flood. It’s me bawling my eyes out with joy.  Where did the brat who refused to pay his speeding ticket (‘Red Alert’) last season go? Our man is finally growing up!

Now one might claim that Jane’s resignation here is a bit off character, but so was Lisbon’s earlier indignation at being suspended. Together, these two instances of character change don’t seem coincidental; but rather examples which show that Jane and Lisbon’s personalities are developing; becoming more like each other. I find this possibility extremely interesting, not to mention realistic. At seven plus years of knowing one another, it would be strange if that didn’t happen.

This doesn’t mean Jane plans on going down without a fight, as evidenced by his later making bail and working to justify his shooting Carter. But his maturity here was nevertheless a pleasure to see.

Now the cynic in me kept rearing its ugly head to point out that Jane telling Lisbon he’ll accept the consequences of his actions could have been due to his knowing that it would get Lisbon to act on his behalf; that he was in fact being subtly manipulative. But the optimist pointed out that while Jane can hoodwink the worst of criminals, lately, he’s been much less successful at pulling one on Lisbon. Plus, he seemed genuinely sincere.

The scene then ends with Jane asking Lisbon to bring him a blueberry muffin next time she visits. More than continuity on Jane’s love for these muffins, Jane’s wording here shows more growth; this time of his relationship with Lisbon. Unlike when he needed to cajole Lisbon into visiting him in jail (episode Black Gold and Red Blood) Lisbon visited Jane here on her own. And there’s was no question on whether Lisbon will visit Jane again; it’s a given to both of them.  The continuous development in their relationship from season to season is extremely satisfying to see.

VIS #4: Lisbon and Grace

Lisbon and Agent Grace Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti) question Sally (Kate Norby), Timothy Carter’s widow. Grace is unsympathetic when the widow tells them her husband was not Red John; that she knew him very well. Afterwards, sensing Grace is still affected for having to shoot her criminal fiancée, Lisbon tells Grace that she should apply for her psych counseling ASAP. Van Pelt denies needing the sessions. Lisbon disagrees and points out that the sessions are mandatory after a shooting. Van Pelt complains that while everyone says a having a psych counseling sheet on file “doesn’t matter”, it actually does.

-I assume Grace meant career-wise. It’s been established that she is a very driven woman- she initially refused to date Rigsby because she didn’t want to be transferred (as interoffice dating is forbidden). She fought with him when they were dating over the same issue, and she’s always looking to take more responsibilities on the job. But her worry over the psych session recalls an episode where Grace stated that her sister killed herself (Throwing Fire). In that episode, Grace later denied the fact claiming she only said it to stop a suspect from committing suicide, but I always thought her statement had been too intense to have been a lie. This leads me to think that Grace’s refusal to seek counseling in Scarlet Ribbons is more than her not wanting to discuss her latest tragedy of shooting her fiancée. I think Grace fears the can of worms (of her past) which her psych session might open and what that might do to her career.

Lisbon won’t have any of Grace’s excuses. She states: “Grace, I’m asking you as a friend, get help. See the shrink, talk about what happened. Don’t let this eat away at you.” Grace is quite affected: “I appreciate the concern, really. Thank you.”

-I’ll bet all the Van Pelt/Lisbon friendship shippers are having a field day. Not only is Lisbon consistently calling Grace by her first name as opposed to “Van Pelt”, but she actually asked Grace to seek help “as a friend”. Looks like Jane is not the only one with character growth. Lisbon is finally letting go of her die hard professionalism which stood in the way of her connecting with her colleagues.  This is a great omen for team love.

VIS #5: Lisbon picks Jane up from Jail

Before I discuss this scene I need to point out that at his bail hearing Jane tells the judge that he’s happy to stay in jail because he needs time to think. He only decides to go out on bail after Lisbon tells him that they’re at a dead end in proving that Carter is Red John. Jane had mused that Lisbon must now be starting to doubt his word that he shot an armed man; that she thinks he’s crazy. She denies this initially but at Jane’s stare she relents that the idea crossed her mind. Jane answers “Fair enough,” seeming unconcerned over Lisbon’s admission then adds “Guess I’m gonna have to get out of here to help you with this”.

After Jane raises the bail money, Lisbon comes to pick him up from jail. Jane looks a bit apprehensive as he greets Lisbon. Then in the car, he stares out the window looking preoccupied.

-At first I thought Jane’s demeanor was indicative of him being nervous over the possibility that Lisbon might ream him for shooting RJ; that one of the reasons he might have wanted to stay in jail was his wanting to avoid a confrontation.  This could still be true and yet…

In the car Lisbon asks: “So, what did you do? Honestly.” Jane’s knee jerk response is: “He had a gun.” Lisbon clarifies that she was asking about how Jane got the bail money.

-Again, I thought Jane’s quick defense of his decision to shoot Carter was an indicator of him worrying over how he’ll defend his actions (revenge) to Lisbon (especially in light of Season three’s ‘Red Moon”) but then…

When Jane realizes Lisbon is talking about the bail money he quips: “Oh, that. Murder for hire. Killed a snitch. Stabbed him in the kidneys.” Lisbon blandly responds “You did not.” Jane agrees that he didn’t, that he won it in a card game, before adding: “But I had you for a moment.” At Lisbon’s silence he remarks “You really do fear for my sanity”. Lisbon’s answer is an emphatic “No”.

What’s interesting is that Jane’s “I had you for a moment” doesn’t sound very smug despite how he usually takes pleasure at tricking his colleagues. Instead he seems bemused (maybe even upset) at the thought that he was able to trick Lisbon into thinking, even momentarily, that he is able to kill someone for money. Like he believes she should know him better than that; like its news to him that Lisbon is never really sure what to expect when it comes to him.

I once stated that despite Jane’s annoyance with Lisbon’s spirituality and love of rules, those are the very facets of her character which could represent his salvation. She’s like his moral yard stick. If she likes him despite his flaws then he is able to feel good about himself because she has such high standards/pure beliefs. Conversely if Lisbon starts doubting Jane; then it’s a red flag that he’s gone too far down a dark road. Perhaps this is what worries Jane in this scene.

Of course this is all conjecture. But what isn’t is the fact that in addition to justifying his shooting of Red John, Jane’s response of “He had a gun” also came from his desire to assure Lisbon of his sanity; that despite his earlier “fair enough” he actually is quite bothered by the idea of Lisbon doubting him.  Even the slightest indication that another person’s opinion matters to Jane makes me insanely happy. It normalizes him.

But I must point out that just because Jane thinks Lisbon fears for his sanity doesn’t mean he’s right. This could just be his insecurity talking; fearing that the person he wants to know/trust him most in the world, does not.

VIS #6: Jane is found Not Guilty/Shocking revelation of RJ’s non-demise

Acting as his own lawyer, in his closing argument, Jane convinces the jury that Timothy Carter was Red John. He tells them that he has a right to kill the man who killed his family and asks them what they would have done. Jane earns the jury’s sympathy and they come back with a verdict of not guilty. But Jane does not seem as happy as one would expect.

Lisbon waits for him outside the courthouse with a big smile. Jane on the other hand only manages a tight grin as he waves in greeting, followed by a look of fond regard before he joins her in her car. Lisbon asks Jane if he feels any different, if he feels better now that he killed Red John. Jane replies that he feels guilty. Surprised, Lisbon asks him why. Jane says it’s because he lied to the jury about Timothy Carter being Red John, but adds that he had to as going to jail would have been a victory to RJ. Confused, Lisbon states that RJ is dead. Jane states that he isn’t. Red John is still alive. Timothy Carter was not Red John. Lisbon stares at Jane in shock before he reminds her to keep her eyes on the road.

-First question: How does Jane know Red John is still alive?

I’m guessing the fact that no evidence whatsoever was found in Carter’s home to prove he was RJ was Jane’s first clue. Second, Carter’s MO (kidnapping a woman) is different than RJ’s (cutting them in their homes). Third, the fact that the first officer on the scene ended up dead, and the evidence which was taken from the crime scene makes it seem like someone is still messing with Jane, setting him up to go to jail. Like Jane said, this would have been considered a victory to RJ.

-Second question: How do we feel about RJ still being alive?

Regular readers know that last season I wished the RJ plot would be wrapped up so that the show will go back to more fun (IMO) individual case based episodes. Most readers, however, disagreed with me, according to last year’s poll (taken during the Red Queen Preview ).

But despite my delight in Strawberries and Cream that RJ was finally gone, I feel strangely ambivalent to the knowledge that he’s still alive. Maybe it’s because after believing that he really was dead, and now being told that he’s not, I’m not sure what to believe anymore. What if Jane was just speaking figuratively? What if RJ is dead and Jane was just referring to the fact that RJ still has a lot of accomplices, as evidenced by the dead security guard and missing evidence. What if he lied to the jury because he wasn’t prepared to pay the consequences for his actions like he said and that’s what he feels guilty for?

Time will tell.

But if we go with the idea that RJ really is alive, then there are both pros and cons to the situation.

Pros:

• Many viewers were concerned that The Mentalist without Red John wouldn’t work; the reasoning being you can’t have Batman without the Joker. If he’s still alive, there’s no need to worry about whom will fill RJ’s shoes as Jane’s new arch nemesis.
• Story-wise, the decision makes sense. If Mentalist is to have seven seasons, then we’re in the middle of the series; a good time for the story’s climax; which Strawberries and Cream undoubtedly was.
• Speaking of the season three finale, I don’t think the fact that Timothy Carter was not Red John detracts from the powerfulness of that episode. After all, Jane and the entire CBI team thought he was RJ.
• Making Jane (and viewers) think that he shot RJ was a like having the ultimate fire drill. An experiment, if you will, for writers to see how best to handle the final showdown. I am very interested to say how Jane acts given a do-over.
• Lisbon’s absence during the showdown in Strawberries and Cream, while very clever, felt wrong. RJ not being dead provides an opportunity to remedy this.

Cons:

• Many viewers (including moi) had genuinely fallen for the idea that Red John was dead. We had all summer to get used to it. Now we’re suddenly being told that he’s not. I used to take pride in the fact that Mentalist writers have an honest relationship with their viewers. If it’s our interest they’re trying to keep, they shouldn’t fear, we’ll always keep watching. Really, there’s no need to mislead us. Unless they wanted us to feel the same anticlimax that Jane did. If so, mission accomplished.
• Crying wolf can get old very quickly. Next time really should be the real deal.
• Now that Jane’s been acquitted of killing Red John, he can hardly use the same defense for when he actually does kill the murderer.

Suspects (AKA Conspiracy Theories)

This is a new category where I’ll talk about characters which seem suspicious of being RJ spies and/or members of his cult within the show’s episodes. Previously discusses suspects were CBI’s Ron, Bertram, LaRoche, and Partirdge). In this ep we have:

Forensic tech: When Rigsby tells the first tech to respond to Carter’s crime scene that someone took a cell phone and gun from the crime scene, he states: “Not me. There was no gun, not that I saw.” Rigsby asks him to look him in the eye and say it. The tech does and repeats “there was no gun.”

-The tech seemed honest about there being no gun (that he saw) but his non-remark about the existence of a cell phone, coupled with his “Not me” makes me think that he might have seen someone else pocket the phone.

Jessica the waitress: She states she didn’t see a gun or notice the newspaper that Carter was carrying, that she went to his side to comfort him as he was dying, that he was still alive when she got to him, and that Carter told her: “Give my love to Sally and Charlene” before the security guard chased her away, ordering her to get away from the body and evidence. She adds that the guard was a jerk about it and had “crazy eyes”.

-In the season three finale, we saw this woman run off after Jane killed Carter. We also saw Carter (at least I think we did) die immediately after he was shot.  Methinks this woman is very suspicious. That she set up the security guard to make it seem like he took the missing evidence. The guard was then killed so that he won’t be able to exonerate himself from suspicion hence distracting the cops from this woman’s culpability.

But why would she do that? Was she’s another of RJ’s men, as Timothy Carter no doubt was? Is she herself Red John? (How cool would that be, if Red John was a woman?)

Best Scenes:

The winner: VIS #3: Lisbon’s first visit to Jane in jail (AKA the meeting all viewers were anticipating)

I was so worried about how and Lisbon and Jane’s first scene together after he shot RJ (Carter) would play out. IMHO it was perfect. Not only did it not break my heart, it reinforced the strength of Jane and Lisbon’s precious bond.

1^st runner up: Jane and Lisbon visit to Carter’s widow.

Jane’s visit to Sally Carter  made for a very emotional scene. Simon Baker and Kate Norby did very well, having their respective characters firmly stand their ground. Jane states that if he did make a mistake in killing Sally’s husband then he would spend the rest of his life making it up to her. This was a very stirring declaration.  As someone who lost his own spouse; Jane would never want to inflict that pain on anyone else. Sally insists that her husband was a good man. Jane’s reaction to this (asking for tea) comes across as not only to buy himself time to investigate the woman further, but also to take a moment to emotionally collect himself. Lovely.

2^nd runner up: VIS #4: Lisbon and Grace

Besides the reasons I stated above, Robin Tunney and Amanda Righetti were very good in this scene. The former expressed heartfelt empathy and compassion. The latter, denial followed by contained (yet genuine) gratitude.

Icings on the Cake

-There was a lot of continuity in this episode regarding Jane’s favorite foods: tea, eggs, blueberry muffins. Jane requested tea “hug in a cup” at least twice. Love the subtle indication to his agitated state.

-The scene where Lisbon and Jane find out about the responding officers death, they have the same reaction of “That’s good” followed by a guilty conscience. More support that they’re thinking more alike.

-I appreciated the straightforwardness of this episode as well as the reference to time. Scarlet Ribbons starts immediately where Strawberries and Cream left off, then picks up two days later. This gives viewers an idea of where the characters are physically as well as emotionally. But while this was an icing on the cake, it indirectly led to a….

Pet Peeves

1-Why, oh why, couldn’t there have been a caption at Jane’s trial stating “one week” or “1 month” or any realistic time frame “later”? It would have given the trial much more credibility via passage of time. It’s one of those tiny details which I feel would have given the illusion of realistically paced events. As it was, I almost got whiplash from the supersonic speed of the episode’s conclusion.

2-When we were promised a trial, I expected, well, a trial; possibly one which would take place mid-season until which Jane would continue consulting for the bureau. Jane’s trial would have been the perfect opportunity to answer the many, many questions raised in season three (did Jane ever register his gun being one of them). I was so disappointed to see everything wrapped up so quickly. On the other hand, I’m still smarting over the embarrassment of ranting over Steiner’s ill timed death (sorry again Mr. S), only to discover that it needed to happen so that Jane can bring himself to shoot RJ in the finale. So I’m keeping my mouth shut for now in case Jane’s speedy trial is also part of a bigger strategic plan for the show and not a cop out. Otherwise, couldn’t the premiere have been a two hour episode? A two parter? Anything that would have given Jane’s trial the magnitude it deserved?

Conclusion (aka random ramblings)

Personally, I wanted season four to give Jane a chance for character growth and resolution; something which only seemed possible with Red John’s death. But Scarlet Ribbons suggests that this could still happen, even with RJ alive. How guilty Jane felt over lying to the jury, and how easily he came clean to Lisbon about this fact has me feeling very optimistic. Jane, being Jane, of course justifies his actions as being a means to an end. But his simple admission that he feels bad is a huge step forward.

My inner cynic however, thought that Jane sharing this information with Lisbon was largely due to Jane’s selfish desire to have someone share the burden of the truth with him. Cynic also stated that Jane needs Lisbon to know the truth so that she’ll continue investigating Red John cases with him. I pointed out that there’s nothing wrong with needing to confess your sins to a friend; that’s part of what friends are for. Also, that Jane had been investigating the RJ case on his own all last season; he hardly needs Lisbon’s help. Cynic countered that if it wasn’t for Lisbon’s help then Jane wouldn’t have been able to reveal Craig as RJ’s spy in the season three finale. I conceded that point but proceeded to lock Cynic up and stuff him in the darkest dungeon in my memory palace as I refuse to let my mind use Lisbon’s awesomeness in an argument as evidence that Jane is manipulating her.

Speaking of Lisbon, I’m dying to see her reaction to Jane’s revelation that RJ is alive. It’s one thing for her to accept Jane’s killing RJ; he’s said he’d do it for years. It’s a whole other ball game knowing that he shot some random criminal. She took a risk with the reward being Red John’s capture. Now that she knows it’s not Red John, she might not be as docile towards the whole situation.

By the way, Cynic (screaming from his dungeon) wants the record to show that he mentioned the fact that while Jane is upset over lying to the jury, he’s not upset that he killed a man. Cynic adds that this is the second time Jane killed someone, and that he once stated “good riddance” when a suspect (Gorman from Blood for Blood) was killed during his arrest. I agree that Jane’s disregard for human life he deems unworthy plus his unapologetic demeanor is worrisome. It’s something I’ve been concerned about since he jaded himself by watching Steiner’s suicide. It seems a legitimate issue and I’ll be watching for future developments. Perhaps Jane telling Lisbon that he shanked a guy for money in prison was his subconscious expressing his own concern for his sanity (humanity), but Jane was projecting this concern onto Lisbon.

Cynic is laughing at me.

You guys don’t think I’m crazy right?

I didn’t include a Best Lines in the review. There were many good ones and I thought it’d be more fun for readers to share their favorites 🙂  Please don’t forget to rate the post and feel free to share your own views on the episode by commenting on this post. If you want instant alerts whenever a new post is added to the blog, you can register.

Finally, here are a couple of promo’s for the next episode titled Little Red Book airing September 29th. Looks fabulous!

CBS’s promo

CTV’s promo

 *All material posted in this blog is the intellectual property of reviewbrain (unless otherwise stated). Readers are free to make use of the information provided they cite the source (this blog) either by name (reviewbrain’s blog) or by linking to it. Please extend the same courtesy to the authors of the comments as well (by mentioning their names) to ensure that credit is given where credit is due.

Mentalist Like a Red-Headed Stepchild Review

NOTE: The following analysis in its entirety was written by Violet, an avid reader and commenter to this blog. Only the grade was decided by myself; it was assigned after reading her review, based on her comments. I would like to thank her for her wonderfully generous contribution and unique perspective. I can honestly say I could not have done better. -Reviewbrain

Synopsis

Patrick Jane (Baker) and Agent Teresa Lisbon (Tunney) meet Agent Wayne Rigsby (Yeoman) at a crime scene in Hangtree California where a prison guard was stabbed to death. After closer inspection, Jane deduces that the victim aspired to become a detective and states that the killer is an ex-convict. Back to headquarter, Rigsby, who has seemed uneasy since Lisbon decided to check the ex-inmates in the area, notices that his father is on their list and leaves quite abruptly to visit him alone. Their meeting is rather fiery, as Steven Rigsby (William Forsythe) hates cops with a passion and considers his son’s choice of career as a failure and a betrayal; on the other hand, Rigsby is less harsh but it’s obvious he still resents his father for his difficult childhood. Rigsby Senior refuses to help his son, but he affirms that he is able to learn who killed the man… While Rigsby deals with his problematic father, Lisbon and Jane investigate the victim’s personal life, which lead them finally to Carson jail. They interrogate an inmate, Marcus Lansdale (Jamie Harris), whose sister appears to be the victim’s girlfriend. In the meantime after talking to Lisbon and having her approbation, Wayne rises to the bait and comes back to get his father’s help with Grace Van Pelt.

Concise Verdict

All in all, “Like a Redheaded Stepchild” was a quite unsatisfactory episode. It finally gave us some more personal information on Rigsby, a welcome addition as we are still in dire need of more background on the team, but I can’t help but feel disappointed that those new elements only confirm what we already guessed about his past. No great revelation here. The structure was nevertheless rather well-thought, as it tried to make his character progress in a rather realistic manner. And, although the whole ordeal was apparently reduced to a way to explain a change of attitude towards Grace and her wedding, it seems relatively justifiable in Rigsby’s character development. If the result was not stellar, it remained fairly acceptable.

The episode was a kind of breather in a very Jane-centric season. Tension of a different nature coupled with some amusing scenes managed to somewhat (finally) distract us from the omnipresent RJ plot, another good point in its favour. Now if only we could have had the impatiently awaited serious discussion between Jane and Lisbon… Its absence and the lake of concrete mention about it was without any doubt the most frustrating point in this otherwise not so badly done episode.8.0

Detailed AKA Humongous Analysis (spoilers galore)

In spite of the writer still managing to dedicate an important but discreet subplot to Jane and Lisbon -that will be discussed later- this principal storyline this week follows for a change the growth of a less essential character of the show, Wayne Rigsby.

After a sequence of episodes showing us Jane’s actions and reactions (“Bloodstream” being the only recent episode more centred on Lisbon), “Like a Redheaded Stepchild” restores a balance by giving us more insight on the team. I purposely use “team” here, instead of just “Rigsby”, as I have the feeling this episode tried to break the almost exclusive focus on the two heads of the SCU : our younger male agent is, by essence, the most representative of the three remaining co-workers.

Indeed, Wayne is the most endearing member of the team, with his awkwardness and his funny moments, and is usually in charge with Jane of the comic relief. He was moreover since the start and for a long time the official “lover” of the show and the romance has been centred on his point of view. In fact, he has until now the largest number of personal and introspective parts with the exception of the duo Lisbon/Jane. On the other hand, Cho, always the stoic, only had an episode for him in season 2 and gets at best a few moments recently: the brief mention of a potential alien abduction, his mixed uneasiness and harshness towards Lisbon when he was briefly promoted… the most significant of them is his reaction to Rigsby’s lie about his father. He’s harder to guess and has generally more of an external and rather distant point of view on people. The same goes for Grace: she’s a nice girl but there is still a kind of distance with her. Now I can’t figure if it is something emanating from her (she ditched Rigsby quite easily to protect her career, she hesitated before refusing to become a spy for LaRoche, the little scene when she quickly silenced the barking dog in “Every Rose Has Its Thorns” could also show there’s a colder side to her) or if that impression is falsely induced because viewers can’t help but compare her with Rigsby, who is a much warmer character.

Her scenes with Craig are generally seen from her ex’s perspective. The moments where the engaged couple is alone are quite rare: they mostly occurred when she was suspected of being negligent on her duty during Trina’s father’s murder (Blood For Blood). What’s more, we are used to seeing her through Wayne’s admiration, like an inaccessible girl and, even now, there is always a notion of unrequited love attached to her character.

So viewers identify more easily with Rigsby than with Cho or Grace and he’s the most natural choice if writers want to give the spotlight on somebody in the team.

Of course, it also doesn’t hurt that he’s a protagonist in a major plot of the show beside RJ’s: the only official and certified romance. It is certainly not a coincidence if that aspect is refreshed on the threshold of the season finale. A double balance is achieved then: the team versus Jane and Lisbon, and the romance versus Red John’s plot.

It is also not difficult to notice that Wayne’s character development has been carefully prepared for some time as it offers a total continuity with the elements we already had about his past (‘Red Menace’). Earlier in the season (‘Bloodsport’) his problematic relation with his criminal of a father has already almost jeopardized his career and his friendship with Cho, when it was discovered he lied to provide his father with an alibi. That would explain, by the way, Cho’s absence by his friend’s side this time: Wayne wouldn’t risk the friendship again by asking him for support or advice on this particular topic.

I must say I’m rather fond of the way things were handled with our arson specialist here. During the whole episode, he is indeed forced to deal with his father and his feelings in a series of confrontations, almost step by step. He comes to term with his childhood, but progressively. I’m quite glad that it didn’t seem too rushed, like it sometimes feels in this kind of scenarios in TV. There is often that same old pattern:

1) Ambivalent meeting – sometimes the situation seems to get better

2) Conflict

3) Resolution: he/she still loves the character because family is important or he/she is a bad person and the character is sad, so the episode ends in a depressing note.

Here, the plan, although similar, still tries to be more gradual. Although the usual moment where a close friend gives the protagonist some advice is mostly reduced to some sentences hurriedly uttered before an action scene which he seems almost not to pay attention or to brush them off. The same went for “Cackle-Bladder Blood”: Jane’s meeting with Danny followed the same conventional steps, but the traditional rhythm was altered from the start, since the first meeting was a pretext to lure Jane to a crime scene…

So, even if the result may end up somewhat mildly convincing (honestly, the whole thing isn’t entirely unexpected), I still enjoyed the effort to wander a little off the beaten clichéd path…

And I’m almost ashamed to say I liked how the ordeal ends relating with one of the recurrent sub-plots of the season, the remaining feelings for Grace. Although I’m not particularly a shipper for their couple, I found that a little too easy for the writers to resolve the problem by simply putting Rigsby in a new relationship. Reviewbrain has certainly another opinion on this as she’s been openly hoping he could get a love life of his own, but I still quite agree with Dr Montague: before starting a new love story, I think it’s necessary to properly end the previous one, or the other has a lot of chances to fail. The balance has to be settled, things cleared out.

That’s why I’m going to include in the Very important Scene’s  every moment between Rigsby and his father as well as the ending as they form a chain, a progression, leading to a conclusion between them and a sort of closure for Rigsby.

– 1^st Very Important Scene (VIS): Rigsby and his father meeting

The first meeting between both of them tries to deal with what could be considered a great incoherence of the episode: would it be acceptable for an officer of the law to investigate a family member? In a more realistic world, Rigsby would have been removed off the case at least until his father was proven innocent. Writer Jordan Harper tries to remedy the problem by making Rigsby leave the bullpen with the list of the ex-convicted in the area, alone and quite abruptly: in theory, nobody could have eyed it and picked up Steve Rigsby’s name. Then, after that first talk and Steve having properly mentioned an alibi, we understand that Wayne is more willing to use him as an informant than to really suspect him of murder. Mother Teresa also seems eager to cover up for him. And after all, it isn’t the first time Rigsby has taken liberties with the rules to protect him.

Yet, this protection is not well accepted by Steve and is rather reluctantly offered by Wayne if we can judge by their discussion. Both of them have obviously very little contact and Daddy Rigsby accuses him of “keeping tabs” on him, adding with irony “ain’t that sweet”. Their antagonism seems to have more than one layer. Steve is angered by his son’s choice of career. Although he affirms he could find the killer “in ten minutes”, but states that it’s not to be so, that cops have “procedures”.  Similarly, Rigsby can’t approve of his living on “smuggling cigarettes, dealing meth again” and has clearly not gotten over his resentment over his difficult childhood and the repercussion it seemed to have had on his mother.

Reviewbrain has stated for “Bloodsport”:

“His father was part of the “Iron Gods” motorcycle gang and was convicted of manslaughter; among other things. LaRoche’s asks if Rigsby is in contact with his father; he denies it. LaRoche’s then confronts him with evidence that his father contacted him a couple of years ago. Rigsby admits that his father needed his help to sort out a misunderstanding with his parole officer….. He confesses to Cho that he used him to create an alibi for his father; that he lied to his father’s parole officer, telling him that the three of them were together.

Also…

It is interesting that ‘straight edge’ Rigsby lied to protect his father. On the other hand, it is not that surprising.  Rigsby comes across as a fiercely loyal (and decent) person. Even if his father abused him as a child (if we are to believe Jane’s claim, then it’s not unreasonable to assume that Rigsby’s criminal father was the one that hurt him), it is easy to believe that he’d help him.

Now, we know all of this was quite accurate: that Rigsby and his father only see each other when a law-related problem rises, when they can’t help it. Steve has already used his son for getting out of trouble and isn’t the least bit thankful about it. Moreover, the scene responds to Jane’s allusion that he has been hurt: Steve really was an abuser to his son. He calls him a “self-righteous bastard” and rhetorically asks “how many times I’ve straighten you out?” which considering the ending of the episode can only mean that he’s beaten him up to make him do his will.

Also, this point explains from the start the title “Like a Redheaded Stepchild”, a reference to bad treatments towards a child, which also implies the expression “beating someone like a red-headed stepchild”, meaning beating somebody up with great violence. The “Stepchild” here is Rigsby of course, but only figuratively speaking since Steve tells it’s his “own flesh and blood” that has become “a lousy cop” and that it “makes (him) want to puke”.

To conclude, this scene has two purposes: making Steve into a potential informer for the case in a preparation for the next events and exposing the situation and the difference of attitude between father and son.

VIS #2:

Following his boss’ order to take somebody with him to go and talk to his father, Rigsby visits him a second visit with Van Pelt. After a short discussion, the son asks the father to show him than he isn’t “just a big talk”. When his father tells him to ask nicely Rigsby painfully admits that he needs his help. Rigsby Sr. then takes the agents to meet a woman; Rocket whom he states can provide them information.

In this context takes place our second VIS: as they wait in the car outside a bar for Steve to get the woman, Van Pelt and Rigsby casually talk about him. Rigsby is comfortable enough to open up about his untrustworthy father and Grace, always the optimist, states delicately that “he’s a character” and that this is may be an occasion to the two becoming closer. They are interrupted by a ruckus coming from the bar and watch as their supposed informant is running out. Van Pelt gets her, while Rigsby barges inside. He finds his father threatening a man with a knife, who apparently tried to attack him over “last time” while the bartender is aiming a gun at him. Steve is dead serious and states to his concurrent that he doesn’t do fist fights: he has his blade. Wayne has a hard time convincing his dad to put his knife down and, when they are outside, Steve has some harsh words again: “you trying to embarrass me? Never get between me and my business again”…

The exchange enlightens even more their respective personalities. Steve considers his shadowy business as his exclusive priority: he obviously doesn’t give much about his son’s case and has indeed a very violent streak. He also doesn’t seem to mind that Wayne, a cop, has seen him putting a knife against a man’s throat, whereas Wayne seems more troubled by his father’s unconcern about danger than by the fact that he has obviously used the occasion for his illegal business.

Because until that point there was nothing to suggest that Steve was using the occasion. He states the man was angry over “last time” and wanted to fistfight with him; that he held a grudge, so by business, Rigsby’s father was speaking figuratively.

Making Grace come along with Rigsby adds an emotional intensity to the scene: she’s meeting her ex-lover’s father for the first time; she has the most influence on him and knows him better than anyone else in the team. So, it’s interesting that she’s his partner here and not Cho, who’s investigating in Carson: the man is his usual confident and Rigsby trusts him deeply since he has named him to create his dad’s alibi. Grace’s presence instead hints that the arc is bound to have a different impact on Wayne, because of her place in his life (affection and influence) and her personality. She isn’t just going to tell him blunt truths like Cho (“you’re going to die alone” for example), she will try and support him. Their difference in attitude was perfectly shown in “Every Rose Has its Thorns” when Wayne appeared wearing a shiny suit for an undercover operation. He felt awkward and Grace tried to reassure him by mothering him and telling he looked good, while Cho remained quite indifferent, showing his usual quiet irony and detachment.

In the meantime, Jane and Lisbon’s parallel investigation also put the notion of family under the spotlight: the victim’s girlfriend refuses to make an assessment against her brother Marcus who is in jail at Carson. She’s in fact in a similar situation than Rigsby; she doesn’t approve of her brother’s criminal activities but protects him, because he’s family.

VIS #3:

Later, Van Pelt and Wayne are about to arrest a suspect. Just before Rigsby makes a dangerous move, Grace tells him that he is a good person, that he has nothing to prove and that he doesn’t owe his father anything. The exchange is brief and Rigsby seems to brush her words off.

Nevertheless, they answer an underlying uncertainty of his, because, as Reviewbrain pointed out for “Bloodsport” when LaRoche was interrogating him: “he’s afraid he’ll end up a criminal like his father. When LaRoche mentioned that criminal behavior can be hereditary, he definitely hit a nerve with the young agent.” In a few sentences, Grace hits right on the spot….

This moment also reminds of the scene where Craig, Grace and Wayne were about to get a suspect in “The Red Mile”, as Rigsby was beginning to have doubts about O’Laughlin’s eagerness or ability to protect Van Pelt. The setting is really similar. The discreet reference here makes us feel once more the shadow of the storyline about Red John with the suspicions we can have about Craig. At the same time, that time, Wayne saved Grace physically, just like she’s trying to help him here by offering a much needed moral support.

VIS #4:

The struggle between the Rigsby’s takes a turn to worse when Wayne finally understands that he’s been manipulated. Just like in VIS #2, Steve has used the case as an opportunity to get rid of a concurrent. When Wayne comes to that conclusion, he confronts his father in the same bar. His Daddy then shows him the same knife he used before and warns him, repeating « I don’t do fist fights ». This affirmation takes a new significance in front of Wayne, who, unlike Steve, is a very loyal man. Steve pointedly places his own son at the same level than his rivals, considering him as a threat because he’s meddling in his activities and represents the law. For the viewer, it’s more apparent than ever that the younger Rigsby is a far better person than his dad.

Steve here offers troubling similarities with Jane’s father: living on illegal (or semi-legal) business, showing the same indifference for their son, having no problem with manipulating them to get more money. They are lousy fatherly figures. Yet, Jane and Rigsby develop two different reactions to them: while Jane followed his father’s steps by conning people, Rigsby has chosen law enforcement. Yet, Jane like Rigsby is a better person than his father. Jane loved his family and Rigsby, well, is Rigsby, but neither of them seems to entirely believe that. It’s quite sad, because part of Jane’s guilt probably comes from the (mistaken) certitude that he’s not a commendable person and Rigsby has, until now, seemingly been held back by similar fears.

What is more, is that me or Steve also reminds a little of Jane himself? A few hints seem to draw an analogy between them: in VIS #1, he affirms he can get the killer in ten minutes (that’s so Jane-ish!) and he’s sprawled on a couch. He’s a cold manipulative jerk. He slyly plays on Rigsby’s feelings, calling him “son”, never by his given name, even when he insults or threatens him. And what is more revealing, Wayne’s attitude towards them is comparable: he never tried to set the record with Jane’s sometimes mean tricks, nor does he with his father. He lied for them and let them get away with it even when he knows that he’s been had. That is, unAnd that’s where we can see Grace’s influence, because he decides to react after this last manipulation.

VIS #5:

Indeed, Rigsby finally waits for his father in front of his house, drinking beer and burning his stock of illegal cigarettes. That was quite clever, because the beer has a double meaning:

1) The meeting is this time informal, he’s gotten in the house and helped himself with a beer. He is a son in his father’s house.

2) He’s off duty, hence the drinking. He refused twice before when Steve offered him a drink.

Burning the cigarettes also held the same ambivalence. As a cop, he doesn’t expose his father, but impedes his illegal selling; meanwhile Steve only interprets it as he would with a delinquent in one of his usual deals: “I do you, you do me, that’s the way it should be. So that makes us even?” Rigsby denies the contention. He wants a physical confrontation and so they fight.

Wayne removes the bullets from his gun and put it on the side, while his dad also takes out his knife to set aside. Neither has a weapon, the fight is fair this time because, as Steve puts it “Just this once, I’ll give you a fair chance”. At the same time, since every object in this scene seems loaded with symbolism, by removing their weapons, they have both also taken off the emblem of what they have chosen to become: the duty gun for the cop, the blade for the criminal. The fight is indeed very personal, between father and son.

And, once again, we can see the difference between them: Steve hits first, in a traitorous move. A few seconds after, Rigbsy has almost the same movement, abruptly directing a punch from a crouched position, but unlike the other, he warns his adversary just before hitting. They end up struggling on the floor and Wayne has the advantage but he hesitates and finally refuses to hit Steve. He even offers him his hand to stand up. Wayne has grown up: he has symbolically killed his father’s influence by getting over his anger towards him. They have the same reflexes towards violence, but Rigsby manages to sublimate them for becoming a better person. And that he has understood.

VIS #6:  the conversation between ex-lovers

Made stronger-willed by his altercation, Wayne apparently decides to settle things with everything frustrating in his life and goes and talk to Grace. He tells her that he won’t go to her wedding, because he still loves her but he understands she’s marrying a good man.

Now, there is very probably the main point where my opinion and others may differ tremendously, because, for me, this type of scene was necessary in their story.

Indeed, there was a straight line of related moments during the whole season showing us that Rigsby, despite his best efforts, hasn’t yet gotten over his break-up. He’s been continuously trying to find a new girlfriend and has, apparently, always failed: his creepy date in “Bloodsport”, Dr Montague who ditched him after one dinner, and more recently Sarah, the bubbling and nice girl he met in an investigation on a matchmaking service, when Cho insensitively told him he should give it a try to stop “dating (his) coworkers”.

But, in spite of the huge number of scenes where he’s depressed or searching a new love interest, we never really knew what Wayne wanted with Grace. He was obviously having regrets and difficulties to accept her new relationship with O’Laughlin… but he never told if he was still suffering but truly wanted to move on, like she did in “The Blood on His Hands”, or if he was still hoping to get her back…

In fact there is a word to characterize Rigsby until now: passive. Just like he accepted his father using him, he has allowed Jane to do so. He never tried to seduce Grace, although he was attracted to her, and in spite of the pushes Jane was giving him. The first time he confessed, he was under medication and, later, she was the one who really made the decisive move. In the same way, he has shown a passive acceptation for women who had been interested in him: that charming cougar in S1 “Scarlett Fever”, his date in “Bloodsport” who fantasized about his supposed violent tendencies, Sarah shyly hitting on him. He didn’t really insist, protest or try to change Montague’s point of view when she stated that they had no future since he was still in love with someone else.

We can go even further in this analysis.  Reviewbrain previously stated that:

“Now we know that Rigsby is a man who respects rules. This is evidenced by how long it took him to act on his feelings for Grace (because inter-office dating was against protocol) and the fact that he is always the most reluctant (aside from Lisbon) to play along Jane’s unorthodox schemes. Jane even called him a ‘wuss’ in the season two premiere. “Bloodsport” gives us a possible explanation for Rigsby’s attitude; he’s afraid he’ll end up a criminal like his father.”

But what if his respect of the rules, his sticking to the law because he just believes he should do so? Doing what is right by duty but not by choice could be another form of his passiveness. Deep down Rigsby wanted to act on his feeling for Grace, just like maybe most of the time he’d like to follow Jane, like Cho does without remorse. After all, the two men went together to make Bosco change his mind when Jane was in jail: they were already equally “corrupted” by the charming ways of their consultant…

So, I like to believe that here is the first time we get a real and sincere reaction from Wayne: for the first time he did something that he wanted to do, doing right by himself. He doesn’t seem to think he’ll get anything from it, but he was being true to himself. And I think it’s a far more responsible attitude.

Therefore, I don’t feel Rigsby (and the storyline) is regressing: I think he’s simply seeking closure. The issue was positive for him because he clearly was not managing to move on. He was just trying until now to escape reality with new girls. It doesn’t mean that he needs to keep pining for his lost love: now that he’s made peace with his feelings for Grace as he did for his father, he is probably readier than before to let go. That is, if the writers let him, of course, because the wedding seems surrounded by many dark clouds.

This season, the writers seem to enjoy making the characters confront their past: with Jane, the topic is recurrent, but the visiting of the graves was particularly powerful. Lisbon was also forced to do so in the episode with Trina. Now, it’s Rigsby’s turn. And, every time, it seems to have an effect on them: Rigsby decides to assume his feelings. Lisbon managed to take a difficult decision about Trina (it was certainly positive from Jane’s point of view, even though for us it may be more arguable) and Jane’s actual attitude conveys the impression of finally starting to move on.

Speaking of them, onto the second plot in the episode!

Subplot: Jane and Lisbon or The Mystery Of The Missing Scene

We left the consultant and his boss in the end of episode Redacted with the idea of them being about to have a discussion about his revelations in the attic. And there is none; even worst, there is no statement that they had finally resolved their issues. Once again viewers are forced to play the epic Jane/Lisbon hide-and-seek game: we are reduced to squinting our eyes to find some indication of what has happened and what they are thinking.

So, onward with the suppositions! First of all, there is a faint continuity with last episode: the perpetrator is a thief (like Culpepper), Jane is in jail (investigating, but he could have ended up in a similar environment if he was exposed), he even refers to being a former convict. The killer also manages to find a simple way of escaping, just like Jane has tried get Culpepper to do in “Redacted”. Thus, even though there is no explicit mention of the previous episode, it is kept fresh in our minds since the same elements are mixed differently, like shuffled cards: the ghost of the past ep is discreetly but surely looming over this one…

So now that it’s been (hopefully) established that I’m not pulling imaginary continuity out of thin air, I’ll say that although we actually can’t be assured that they had “the talk” and, if so, that they have -or not, more probably- gone further in the discussion of RJ, there is a subtle shift between them in two revealing aspects:

–         their general attitude

They stand in close proximity, particularly when they interrogate for the second time Marcus’ sister. They always act as a pair when investigating, and are often visually associated -almost matching clothes in S1, in style and colours but here, it’s even more flagrant. They look like a duo, even finishing the other’s questions! And physically, they are actually closer in this scene. But I admit that is totally subjective…  Still, he tries to give her advice about a new haircut in the beginning of the scene: now, Jane acting as her beauty consultant? Improbable to say the least if they have not cleared things out and he’s expecting a disagreeable talk to come; far more credible if things have already been hashed out and had gone smoothly…

Second point, Lisbon doesn’t hide her amusement at Jane’s antics. When he calls her in front of the class his “lovely assistant”, she just roll her eyes, makes a half crooked smile and immediately joins him in his act. She acts more agreeably than when she got the same treatment during the talk-show in “Red Carpet Treatment”.

She is also less on edge when they are waiting for the murder suspect to show up, especially in comparison to previous episodes (for instance when Steiner was pretending to be a blackmailer, or under the table near the coffin in “Pink Channel Suit”).

Instead, in this episode, Lisbon plays along and tries to guess the animal Jane’s shaping with his hands in his improvised shadow puppet show: “Is that a rabbit?” adding that it seems to be dancing (one of the cutest moments ever)… They gave the vibe of acting like friends who are completely comfortable with the other, with no snappy or witty comment.

– professional attitude

As All-I-Need pointed out in her comment for “Redacted”, Jane comes to the crime scene with Lisbon, in her car, which contrasts with his lateness at a crime scene. Now, this could mean that she’s keeping tabs on him. But then Jane doesn’t leave as soon as he gets an opportunity to do so. Assuming he still doesn’t have LaRoche’s precious updated list, why doesn’t he try to find a new, fool-proof subterfuge to get it? During the whole episode, he completely focuses on the case. The only time he sneaks out of Lisbon is when he goes back to Carson prison. This reminds me of “Red Gold”, when he has been also coming in her car and was so eager to behave… admittedly because he was pleased with her about her previous decision about Trina in “Blood For Blood”. He was happy with her and intended to show it. So it is not a stretch to assume the same is happening here, in a more moderate and natural manner?

Second valid argument from All-I-Need, when he calls Lisbon from jail and tells her to join him, he asks her to trust him. He wouldn’t be asking for a trust she knows he doesn’t deserve if he hasn’t previously convinced her that he now merits it…

Moreover, he actually tells her his ideas before putting them in action: she knows that the girlfriend is Marcus’ sister and he probably even told her beforehand about their common tell before lying. He sticks with the law: in Carson, he only makes observations, no foolish games. He set everything in place (observing the inmates’ actions, speaking to robber Nick) but he waits for her, and implicitly her agreement, before putting his plan into motion. In fact, if we pay attention, we can notice that he still can stop everything if she refuses to come.

Besides, Jane didn’t put any innocent person in danger in his alone time: he only tricked an admittedly unpunished assassin (Marcus) and the actual killer (Nick). Even so, Nick would only be in real physical danger if he goes back to Carson. His confession would get him out of that trouble: Jane playing with others’ lives is a means to an end here, a way to ensure the perpetrator will confess his crime.

As for Lisbon, when she learns from Grace that Jane has sneaked out first thing in the morning to return to Carson, she only asks what for, then simply concludes “whatever”. She isn’t annoyed or worried of what he could be cooking. When he calls her, she hangs up on him just after she learned what she wanted to know: he needs her to come for the investigation, she comes. All-I-Need is right again, she seems to trust him and his judgment enough to drop everything else. More importantly, she’s not just putting up with his professional antics here. On the one hand she’s more relaxed, showing her amusement, on the other she doesn’t systematically try to control him, doesn’t ask what he’s been doing. She seems to know perfectly well that he’ll be coming to her when he finds something. And I think that shows her trust for Jane and a renewed confidence in her status with him.

For all these reasons, for this accumulation of little elements, I really believe they had “The Talk”. I even wonder if it hasn’t implicitly already taken place during last episode: after all, Jane was in her office when LaRoche gave her a piece of his mind. Lisbon isn’t the kind of person to wait to make her position clear. The discussion could as well have consisted (once more) on her insisting on the necessity for him to tell her the truth and/or him giving her more detail about Todd Johnson and Hightower.

But, let’s be pragmatic: Lisbon doesn’t suspect anything about the poem and Jane isn’t in direct danger anymore. Why would he need to tell her about it?

 To conclude, this episode tends to show that the tension is slowly rising towards a climax. The expectations for the finale always remain in the back of our mind, from Grace giving her wedding invitations and details about the seating arrangements at the beginning to Nick telling Jane that he carries a knife, because when one’s life is in danger, they defend themselves and that he, Jane, can understand that. That’s a new addition on the ever growing list of people who can discern something more in him (the husband in “Bloodstream”, Erica in “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”), as well as a clear allusion for the viewers to a possible encounter with the knife-brandishing Red John. And a question is raised: we’ve been told that the new coming season would be marked by a change in the team dynamic… Now, if something happens to O’Laughlin during the wedding, whereas he’s implicated in RJ’s net or becomes a victim, how could Grace and Wayne keep working together?

Best scenes

The winner: Rigsby and his father, the final confrontation. I actually loved this scene because there was a lot of subtext. That was not the usual natural conclusion for Rigsby. It’s obvious his previous problems with Steve always ended with his father threatening him, physically or emotionally, and him letting things go: the story should then have ended at VIS#4. This same pattern must have been repeating itself every few years, not quite often but every time his father needed him, to have an alibi for his parole officer or something else. So, I enjoyed the writer was able to give such a vibe to that one debacle between them both. And, yeah, it was nice to see Rigsby break free and man up.

1^st runner up: Rigsby telling Grace his feelings… (See above for analysis). It was the conclusion of an important chapter of their love story. Like Jane in the previous episode, Rigsby has finally opened up to his true feelings and we actually have at least one of the serious talks we needed at the end of this season.

2^nd runner up: Rigsby and Lisbon almost sibling relation evidenced by the very brief talk in her office. She’s a great boss and a symbolic older sister figure. And Rigsby trusts her enough to want to tell her about a very delicate matter, professionally and personally speaking. She already knew about his past and never mentioned it. Typically Lisbon, she supports him and only asks him to bring someone with him next time, probably for having a potential witness if things go wild as well as for protecting him. And, considering the whole trust issue with Jane, her simple “I trust you, Rigsby” is quite powerful.

Honourable Mention:

I must admit I enjoyed quite a lot Owain Yeoman’s acting in this episode. He’s not as brilliant as Baker, but he managed here to convey complicated emotions with only a few expressions; restrained and credible.

Icing (s) on the Cake

Jane eagerly jumping on the occasion of mimicking a teacher was a very nice and funny touch: it was unexpected and just light enough to counterbalance the tension around the Rigsbys’ plot. Sure, this manner to link the investigation to Marcus was a bit of a stretch, but I liked the scene and particularly that Jane couldn’t help pulling his usual trickster stance. Calling Lisbon “his lovely assistant” was enough to show the blurry line he skates between teacher and magician. No matter what, he’s always the showman!

Best Lines

“Wow, this is great. Reality TV at its finest.” Jane- in front of the multiple surveillance screens at Carson.

“Snitches get stitches.”- Jane subtly trying to convince an inmate to expose one of his fellows.

“That’s a popular misconception. Stitches are for alive people” Nick’s answer to the above.

“Rabbits don’t dance.”- Jane to Lisbon about his shadow puppet … That made me smile…

“My mind is a computer… a steel trap computer… a steel trap…”Jane, in response of the teacher’s assertion “the human mind is not a computer”. His line somewhat ends in babbling and is quickly interrupted by Lisbon but the whole exchange was hilarious.

Pet Peeves

–  First of all, obviously, Rigsby allowed to continue investigating his father… (See above for more details.)

– If Wayne didn’t trust his father, why didn’t he follow him in the bar? Even if he didn’t want to risk frightening Rocket, that was completely naïve from him! Is that me or almost every character on this show really needs to take classes on distrusting people? As if it wasn’t enough with them still following almost blindly Jane in spite of all… And did he need to call Steve “Dad” in front of the bartender when he was brandishing his blade? He could have gotten himself a complaint. The bartender could have argued he was only protecting his clients… So many incoherence’s in so little time…

– The trap with Jane telling Lisbon the “snitch’s” name while surrounded by inmates? Yeah, very subtle, almost credible…

– Rigsby’s “You’re marrying a good man” to Grace about Craig. Couldn’t he add ‘I think he almost let you get killed a while back’? Now, is Rigsby an honest, almost fiery protective person, or is he not?

Reviewbrain: I’d like to thank Violet once more for proving that she really was the perfect choice as guest reviewer. Thank you for your hard work and for keeping the reviews coming while I am otherwise engaged.

I’m just going to add one more poll to get readers’ input on where they think the Rigspelt (Rigsby/Van Pelt relationship) will go from here…

*All material posted in this blog is the intellectual property of reviewbrain (unless otherwise stated). Readers are free to make use of the information provided they cite the source (this blog) either by name (reviewbrain’s blog) or by linking to it. Please extend the same courtesy to the authors of the comments as well (by mentioning their names) to ensure that credit is given where credit is due.

Mentalist Blood For Blood Review

Synopsis

Agent Grace Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti) arrives at Justin DeGeorge’s (John Mese) home to bodyguard him. He is a vital witness for the State’s case against major drug trafficker Adrian Essex (Gabriel Salvador) accused of shooting a woman. She takes over the night shift for US Marshall Gorman (Daniel Travis) who gives her the key to the house and reminds her to sweep the perimeter after one hour before he leaves. When the time comes, Grace leaves the house to check the perimeter, stopping to lock the door of the house behind her. As she is doing so, a noise distracts her and she follows it looking for the source. She is subsequently attacked and falls unconscious. When Van Pelt comes to, she rushes back to the house to find the door unlocked, Justin dead, and his daughter Trina (Kaitlyn Dever) missing. As Grace cannot remember if she ever did lock the door behind her, the head of the professional standards unit J.J. Laroche (Pruitt Taylor Vince) conducts an investigation into her actions.

Concise Verdict

This was an entertaining episode. However, “Mentalist” is a show that is supposed to be fun and smart. Until now, I have not had to make a conscious effort to suspend belief while watching it; one of the main reasons why I enjoy this series so much. Unfortunately that was not the case in this episode. As I am loathe to start now ( I refuse to lower my expectations when I know that the show can do better) I’m afraid I must give the one: 7.5/10. (The rating was actually lower, but I decided to raise it for the continuity it provided (I’m a continuity sucker) and its great character interaction; (for whatever that’s worth here).

Detailed  AKA Humongous Review (spoilers galore)

In my Mentalist overview, I stressed that one of the main reasons I love the show was that it didn’t go for “cheap thrills” and that it was subtly entertaining”. Now season three has been consistently raising the excitement factor (and quality) of the episodes. I’ve repeatedly wished for mellower, more profound episodes in the vein of the first two seasons. Just to be clear, I have no problem with exciting plots when they are done right like in “Red Alert” and “Red Moon”. “Blood for Blood” is another exciting episode. Unfortunately some aspects of the script were weak making the episode itself weak despite its excellent potential.

Problem #1: Grace’s Plotline

First of all, the whole plot is built on the unrealistic fact that Grace is guarding an important state witness alone. It would have been more believable if she was overseeing some of the local cops (even one would have been better than none), then she gets attacked at as she’s canvassing and the cop and the witness  inside are shot. That would have made the premise more feasible while at the same time raising the stakes.

Later when Grace is being investigated by the head of the professional standards unit’s head, J.J. Laroche, she is given a disturbing choice. He basically tells her that if she is willing to help him in his investigation of Todd Johnson’s murder (‘Red Moon”, “Jolly Red Elf”) he will be lenient in his investigation of her. By help, Laroche means he wants her to spy on her unit because he suspects someone in it is the culprit. This scene between the two was quite good. Righetti does well with the material. Grace holds her ground despite Laroche’s disturbing proposition, asking him outright if he is threatening her.

Unfortunately Grace falls for Laroche’s mind games when he tells her that: “a good cop wouldn’t have left that door open.” Being a good cop doesn’t make a person infallible.

Another problem with how her plot was handled is that Grace only tells Laroche that she won’t spy on her team  after she finds evidence which clears her from any wrongdoing. Meaning, there was no choice to make at that point, which unfortunately doesn’t tells as much about her character. Why have an episode revolving around a side character if we are not going to learn anything new? When the spoilers promised us a change in the team dynamic, I hoped we’d get insight into the side characters, even as I stressed over it meaning that one would turn out to be Red John’s accomplice and/or getting killed or getting booted off the show.

Thankfully, none of that looks like it will happen. But there were many directions this episode could have taken that would have still produced a far more interesting result than the one we got. For example, when Grace shot Gorman, who turned out to be a crooked cop, I thought we would see an effect on her. Like, it might make her agree to Laroche’s proposal because she realizes that even those she thinks she trusts  may not be whom they say they are, (and this is the second time she’s been deceived, Season One “Bloodshot” was the first) so it would have been understandable for the event to affect her. Or, the incident might have served to reaffirm her trust in her teammates as they’ve always stood by her.

As it is, it just looks like she got off making a hard choice. We needed just a bit more from her, like maybe telling her boyfriend that Gorman’s actions made her realize that she has to believe in the people she already knows; something like that. Or her denying Laroche’s offer before knowing she’d survive the investigation. I was disappointed in the wasted opportunity here.

Speaking of Grace’s boyfriend…

FBI agent Craig O’Laughlin (Eric Winter) and Grace are having dinner when she tells him about Laroche’s threat, and how uncomfortable she’d be spying on her friends. His response:

“They’re your colleagues they’re not your friends. I’m your friend. I’m the one who’ll be there for you no matter what.”

I’m going to pull a Jane here and say: he’s either jealous, or insecure, or a jerk, or possessive, or Red John’s operative.

I added the RJ operative thing because Craig just seemed way too creepy when he said that. What kind of man would tell his girlfriend that her colleagues, whom she spends most of her day with, are not her friends, when they clearly are? Plus, if she had taken up LaRoche’s offer, it would have made her working environment absolutely terrible (another reason why that would have been a good plot line). O’Laughlin telling her it’s ok to spy on them makes him really despicable in my view.  This is why I conclude that Craig’s advice comes from an ulterior motive; maybe even a sinister one.

Hmm. What if Craig and LaRoche are both working for Red John? LaRoche didn’t pay any attention to Craig when he met him at CBI, but that could have been intentional. Craig certainly was pushing Grace towards working with the man.

I have finally made my decision regarding Craig O’Laughlin: I hate the guy. The marriage proposal was the final straw. The whole situation just doesn’t seem to bode well for Grace, despite how happy she looks. I must say I’m disappointed in her lack of reaction to her boyfriend’s statement that her colleagues are not her friends. She may not have liked it, but she didn’t argue it either. If she found Craig’s statement romantic in any way then she’s just as gullible as Jane says. Or maybe she just doesn’t care that much about her team. Either way, it doesn’t portray her in a particularly positive light.

Now, If Grace really is getting married and living happily ever after, then that just makes the decision to keep Rigsby single all the more inexcusable tome. Rigsby would be devastated by the news even if he was seeing someone. But at least if he was, then he’d have started to move on. And Montague (Linda Park, episode “Bloodhounds”), for all her seemingly robotic demeanor, seemed warm enough that she might actually have been able to help Rigsby get over Grace.

Problem #2 Jane’s Manipulation: AKA Jane’s annoyance with Lisbon, Part 2

When Trina’s aunt calls Jane to help her because her niece is having some sort of implosion, he brings Lisbon along, knowing that the girl will end up confessing that she killed her father in self defense. Lisbon is rightly outraged with him, and starts to call juvenile services, saying that she doesn’t Trina to be taken to county for booking. Jane snatches the phone from Lisbon’s hand, saying that the girl doesn’t deserve to go to jail; that her father was an abuser. To which Lisbon responds: “So was mine, I didn’t shoot him!”

I was blown away by this statement and mentally prepared myself for the awesomeness that was sure to follow. This was the first time Lisbon EVER talked about her dad (a comment to a grieving father and her shrink don’t count). The revelation came out in the heat of the argument. But Jane quickly recovers to point out that Trina had been acting in self defense, and Lisbon pulls it together to forge ahead, obviously wanting to forget she said something so private. She points out that Trina will get acquitted, and Jane counter argues that the courts make mistakes. To which she responds that they get it right most of the time.

And here is where the scene takes a dive into the surreal.

Jane: “Ok, so she’s proven innocent. How much time do you think she’ll spend in foster care? Six months? A year?”

Jane’s contention that the girl would have to spend time in foster care seems completely absurd. She has a loving aunt with a seemingly stellar reputation (army nurse) to take care of her. She’s already in her custody after her father was killed. Why would any of that change if she’s accused of murder?

And the fact that Lisbon answers “I don’t know,” instead of pointing this out to Jane is even more absurd. By now Lisbon is a pro at cleaning up messes; she’s had a lot of practice. I find it very hard to believe she wouldn’t have been able to do so to get a girl out of spending any time in jail, or foster care (again, makes no sense) for killing her abusive father in self defense. Especially as the girl had no recollection of it whatsoever, was taken to the hospital where her memory loss was documented by doctors, and she confessed to the cops as soon as she regained her memory. One call from Hightower to the nice deputy AG Nicky Weymouth (Mozhan Marnò ) and Trina would have been released into her aunt’s custody, pending her trial, where any rational judge would have acquitted her.

Cool, calm, Senior Special Agent Lisbon should know this.

Hence, a beautiful, beautiful scene was completely destroyed by a small but important detail.

Not only that, Lisbon comes off looking like a mark, which we know she isn’t. I find that unforgivable.

Now, there is one explanation that prevents me from saying that the writer made a mistake: Jane might have intentionally used the foster care argument, knowing that it would distract Lisbon.

We know that Lisbon’s father was abusive, but we also know that there is no official record of that abuse (Season 2, “Red Badge”). Lisbon probably never reported her father out of fear of the system and that she and her brothers would be separated.

If, and this is a very big if, if Jane guessed that Lisbon has a lingering fear of foster care from when she was a child, and that is why he used foster care in his argument; preying on her fear to distract her into agreeing with him, then the scene might make sense.

Personally, it’s too much of a reach for me. But there you go. We viewers are left to decide whether the writer botched up the scene, or Jane is a cold manipulative bastard and Lisbon fell for his trick.

Admittedly, we already know the latter for a fact.

So now we are left to ponder Jane’s reasons for manipulating Lisbon into compromising her integrity in a situation where she had no need to do so whatsoever.

In my Red Alert Review, I stated that:

Jane could just want to corrupt Lisbon so she’ll be more likely to cut him slack. But I don’t think so. There just seems to be something more personal about it. It’s almost like he’s willing to forgive her following the law because she’s a cop and therefore is obliged to (as opposed to citizen consultants who don’t *sarcasm*). But more often he seems disappointed in her for not going by her own instincts when he knows she’s smart enough to make her own choices.

And that:

Jane recognizes Lisbon is an intelligent woman and therefore considers the law beneath her and that, like himself, she shouldn’t have to follow rules

And finally:

Jane wants to feel that there is someone he can depend on; someone he cares about who also cares about him, someone who knows him…

I also wondered:

Is he (Jane) starting to actually see a life after the capture of Red John? Or does Jane only want revenge provided he gets away with it (like Max Winter in Red Carpet Treatment?)

And hoped that:

The fact that the episode ends on Jane, going to Lisbon’s office, for the sole purpose of bantering with her about not paying the ticket, obviously enjoying himself, suggests that Jane realized that maybe, despite himself, he actually has something to lose now if he pursues unlawful vengeance.

The final scenes of this episode makes any one of the above speculations possible.

Jane’s tells Lisbon:

“We don’t have to do this. We can let her go just this once. Just once.”

Jane’s use of “we” here seems incredibly telling; like he desperately wants Lisbon to see eye to eye with him; wants her to agree with him. His fear that he misread her when she glares at him and leaves the room is real; as is his disappointment. Later, when he and Lisbon are escorting Trina to the juvenile detention facility, Jane watches Lisbon the whole time, like he’s hoping against hope she’ll change her mind. At the gate, Lisbon pauses. Trina sweetly tells her it’s okay. Lisbon glances at Jane, who looks away from her, like he  doesn’t want to influence her final decision. Finally, Lisbon tells Trina she’s taking her home and leaves. Jane tells the officer that he just witnessed a beautiful thing then follows them.

The look of pure delight on Jane’s face is undeniable. He looks like he won the lottery; and the prize was Lisbon eventually letting him get away with killing Red John; maybe even his having something to blackmail her with. But there is another interpretation. LittleMender over at fanfiction.net got me thinking more about Jane’s smile. I started wondering if maybe the delight on Jane’s face was due to a less sinister reason; if it was pure. That maybe the prize he feels he won is Lisbon’s understanding; that her letting Trina go somehow brought them closer together; and that all the tension that had build up since their revenge argument in the episode “Red Moon” was lifted off his shoulders.

The problem is that this assumption seems like pure conjecture. It is understandable that a certain amount of mystery will always prevail with regards to Patrick Jane’s intentions. However, I think viewers deserve some clarity third season into the series. I’m not asking for romance, or even a heart to heart. Just for episodes which address such vital issues to have a solid basis, and with very little mistakes so that we can actually take what little evidence we are given seriously. Mentalist is ambiguous enough as it is without adding the problem of unlikely scenarios into the script.

Scenes as important as the last two of this episode have to be perfectly scripted. Contrary to what Jane says, details are important. Details like:

1-      Why did Lisbon end up taking the girl to Juvie? Didn’t she say she was going to call and have them come over? That she didn’t want Trina to have to go to booking?

2-      Where the heck was super protective Aunt Jodi in that final scene? I find it hard to believe she wouldn’t accompany her fragile niece.

To be fair, I have to point out the good aspects of the episode: the case itself was interesting and well spun with plenty of mentalism. Also, the familiarity between the Jane and Lisbon that hadn’t been there for a long time has been rekindled. Jane actually grabs Lisbon’s hand at one point in the episode, directing her flashlight to where he wants it. He hasn’t been this comfortable around her since season two’s finale.

Continuity wise, writer David Appelbaum also establishes how close Jane and Lisbon have become. This perhaps is the only realistic reason for why Jane brought Lisbon along with him to listen to Trina’s confession: he wanted to test her: see if he could trust her.

Now we’ve known since season one that Jane trusts Lisbon (Carnelian Inc.) But here, I mean that he wants to see if he can trust her with his ultimate baby: Red John.

Perhaps Jane realizes he can’t catch Red John without Lisbon, at least not do so and get out alive and not end up in jail. Maybe he wants to share whatever information he has on Red John with her, but doesn’t want to do so unless he’s sure she’ll follow his lead; his plan; his rules.

Which raises the issue of trust vs. control; both Jane and Lisbon are serious control freaks; both try to get each other to see things their own view. Usually, Jane has the upper hand, and he knows it.

When earlier on in the episode Jodi asks Lisbon to control her man, Jane tells her with a huge grin “Oh believe me, she’s tried.” For her part, Lisbon seemed resigned at this statement. I guess she thought it wasn’t worth arguing over, especially after how nuts Jane went over Lisbon forcing him to pay a speeding ticket just last episode. And while she may have initially been able to coerce him into doing so, (he never did do it), the odds have definitely been tipped in his favor here: Jane succeeding in convincing Lisbon to let Trina off goes far beyond anything Lisbon ever got Jane to do.

It seems that while Lisbon is prepared to accept Jane as he is and only really gets into it with him to keep him out of trouble, Jane is hell bent on changing her; doesn’t seem to want to respect her unless she starts seeing things his way.

I hate how weak Lisbon seems here in comparison to the previous episode. I guess it could just be that she’s starting to trust Jane more; as evidenced by her is going along with Jane’s schemes more willingly this season even when she doesn’t know what he’s up to. In this episode, she runs interference for Jane at the hospital so that he can go and question Trina, and helps him get Jodi out of a room even when she doesn’t know what he has planned. She’s taking more chances with him, trusting him more. But now that she has, we need something to show us that Jane is actually deserving of that trust. Something seriously needs to happen this season to remind us that Jane sincerely cares about Lisbon; not just for what she can do for him.

I am reminded of how Jane’s psychiatrist Sophie said (Season 1, Red Brick and Ivy) that she was drawn to controlling, emotionally damaged and unavailable men. She had been talking about her ex-husband at the time, but it was clear that she was also alluding to Jane.

This episode certainly proves the controlling aspect of Jane’s character. And we know he’s emotionally damaged. But perhaps not as emotionally unavailable as he used to be…

To conclude…

1. Jane manipulated Lisbon to establish a pattern of her breaking rules (her letting Bosco get away with murder, letting Danny get away, and now Trina)  making her more likely to help him kill and/or get away with killing Red John in the future.

Or

2. He’s gotten so close to her that he wants he wants her to be like him. Drawing from commenter Violet’s observation, I’ll wrap up by saying that gaining Jane’s affection comes with the price (or gift) of him trying to convert you to his religion; that religion being, that he’s always right and Red John is the devil.

Speaking of religion, to me, (and I suspect to Jane, on some level) Lisbon represents Jane’s salvation. I’m guessing that Jane thinks if he can get Lisbon, perfect pure Lisbon to agree with him, then that makes him a good person; makes him feel better about himself. In that sense, she’s like his moral yardstick; his conscience. Because, I suspect that deep down Jane does respect her, her opinion does count, even when he acts like it doesn’t. Jane my not believe in the afterlife, but he does believe in Lisbon.

Let’s just hope that Lisbon believes in herself enough to be able to continue keeping Jane out of trouble.

It remains to be seen if Jane’s actions in this episode will have a visible effect on their relationship. It should. As the series has been very good with continuity so far, I am optimistic that we will get to see it.

Honorable Mentions

Yancy Butler who plays Jodi, Trina’s aunt was fabulous. As was Kaitlyn Dever who plays Trina. I foresee many jobs for her in the future.

Best Scenes

The winner: Jane and Lisbon’s argument over Trina’s fate. Despite my deep qualms over the script, Baker and Tunney were stunning in this scene. The chemistry between their characters (as friends, siblings, lovers, whatever it is) was perfect and their acting was astounding.

1^st Runner up: The hospital scene. Lisbon running interference for Jane so that he can question Trina shows just how in sync these two are. Also, Jane’s gentleness to Trina was moving. He initially wanted to hypnotize her but changed his mind (he does have a heart) and even tried to shut her aunt up when she goes off on him for thinking he did so, trying to keep her from inadvertently letting the girl know that something is wrong. When Trina does figure it out, Jane takes it upon himself to tell her that her father’s dead. Lisbon’s distress at the girl’s pain was also very moving, and the two female guest actresses were excellent. Lovely scene.

2^nd Runner up: When Grace tells Rigsby about her engagement. Oh Rigsby! Owain Yeoman broke my heart here. The man looked like someone stabbed him in the chest, yet valiantly congratulated Grace, because apparently, he’s an angel.

Best Lines

“Horribly cold night tonight Lisbon.”- Jane’s acknowledgment of the weather made me ridiculously happy. His suits can’t possibly be appropriate for all seasons, even if some of them are winter suits.

“Seems like an excellent facility.”- Jane to Lisbon after two attractive nurses flirt with him at Trina’s hospital. This is the first time Jane responded to female attention. Previously, he’s shown his wedding ring; saying that he’s married, or shaken his head no with an embarrassed smile. Could this be another sign that he’s thinking of moving on? Or did he say that for Lisbon’s benefit?

“Uh, huh.”- Lisbon to Jane, in response to the above. I heart Lisbon.

“I don’t want to talk about your feelings.”- Cho to Rigsby, after seeing him leave Grace with her boyfriend Craig. Cho rocks.

“Good, me neither.”-Rigsby to Cho. Rigsby not wanting to talk shows just how messed up he is over Grace.

“What is he doing, could you please control your man?”-Jodi.

“Oh, believe me, she’s tried.”-Jane, in response to above.

“On the contrary, its so conscionable, we can conscion this very easily.”- Jane to Jodi when she says his actions are unconscionable. I find this statement nicely refers to Jane’s ability to spin any argument to his favor.

“How do you sleep at night?”- Jodi to Jane.

“Most nights I don’t.”- Jane to Jodi, in reply to the above. I love how Baker read this line; very honest and matter of fact.

Pet Peeves

Okay, when I asked for someone on the show to get married I didn’t mean for that someone to be Grace. Cho and Elise,  Cho and Elise! How can they mistake that for Craig and Grace? They are two entirely different couples.( Of course, I know that these episodes were taped long before I ever expressed my views- it’s a joke). Sigh, and I’m not even a Rispelt fan. I don’t want to imagine what they are going through. My condolences.

Because this episode raises pretty much the same issues as the last one, there is no new poll. Readers can go back to Red Alert Review and re-vote based on the new evidence provided here. Better yet, leave a comment and put your opinion in writing.  Also, if you want to get an instant alerts when new material is posted, you can subscribe.

Finally, here’s a treat for fanfic readers: a list of the best fics based on this episode:

Assurance

Mentalist Blood for Blood 3/14 tag

Just This Once