The Mentalist 11/3/11 "Blinking Red Light"

Yes he did, and excellently done. I'm sure everyone else did the same as me, figured it out as soon ast SJK started going off on how stupid Red John "was"

great episode

Yep, knew what he was doing immediately. Very interesting. Given what we know of Red John, it seems unlikely that he didn't understand what Patrick was doing, but he came out anyway.

I hope they don't just drop this on the floor, and they spend some time dealing with it in the next episode. Now everyone will know that Patrick was wrong, and/or lying, when he was on trial and acquitted.

Yup, an awesome twofer. Did anyone else's program say at the end "stay tuned for scenes from the next episode" and then not have any scenes from the next episode? Evil network!

We already know Red John doesn't like others getting credit for his kills or being thought of as being "smarter" killers then he is.

The ending was a given.

The question is if the TV reporter was either "in on it" in advance or at least knew what was happening.

lew said:

The question is if the TV reporter was either "in on it" in advance or at least knew what was happening.

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I don't think Jane is in the habit of letting participants in his schemes know that they're participants in his schemes...

madscientist said:

Now everyone will know that Patrick was wrong, and/or lying, when he was on trial and acquitted.

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I thought Patrick was acquitted because he shot the man he believed responsible for the death of his wife/daughter...and that is what happened.

Amnesia said:

I thought Patrick was acquitted because he shot the man he believed responsible for the death of his wife/daughter...and that is what happened.

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Right, which means he was either wrong or lying. And now everybody will know that.

Which really is an interesting point...Patrick has a pretty strong ego. Everybody will now know that he killed the wrong man. How will he spin that?

Rob Helmerichs said:

Everybody will now know that he killed the wrong man. How will he spin that?

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I don't see what the problem is. Didn't the guy claim to be Red John? Didn't Patrick believe him? So he killed the person who claimed to have killed his family. I might have done the same thing.

And what's ego have to do with it? He's already told Lisbon that the dead guy wasn't Red John...

But can Jane live with the world knowing that he bungled it? That Red John tricked him into killing the wrong guy? That Red John outwitted him?

That, in effect, Red John is better than him?

What---Red John tricked him into killing a kidnapper/murderer? I think Jane could handle that...

Now if the guy were an innocent person, that might be a little different...

Rob Helmerichs said:

But can Jane live with the world knowing that he bungled it? That Red John tricked him into killing the wrong guy? That Red John outwitted him?

That, in effect, Red John is better than him?

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I think the only thing Jane ultimately cares about is seeing Red John dead. That he could care less about what the world thinks. It's one big "long con" to Jane. Jane didn't get Red John last time but he is still alive and not in prison, so he has another chance at getting Red John.

Jane cares a LOT how people think. There have been a couple of episodes where he was wrong (in the middle, of course; he always figured it out by the end), and he clearly HATED being wrong, and more specifically, people seeing him be wrong.

Rob Helmerichs said:

I don't think Jane is in the habit of letting participants in his schemes know that they're participants in his schemes...

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which is why the second part of my sentence wondered if she figured it out. Didn't Red John kill Jane's wife and kids after Jane made some kind of comments on TV. Jane wasn't very subtle.

lew said:

which is why the second part of my sentence wondered if she figured it out. Didn't Red John kill Jane's wife and kids after Jane made some kind of comments on TV. Jane wasn't very subtle.

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Yes, but Jane wasn't aiming his trick at Red John. He was aiming it at typical American television viewers.

Hence, the much lower level of subtlety that was required.

Before he called on Red John to take care of SJK, I Was thinking we needed a Mentalist/Dexter cross-over. Bit of a geographic problem I suppose.

Rob Helmerichs said:

Jane cares a LOT how people think. There have been a couple of episodes where he was wrong (in the middle, of course; he always figured it out by the end), and he clearly HATED being wrong, and more specifically, people seeing him be wrong.

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I don't believe he would let what others think of him get in the way of getting Red John. Of course Jane has an ego. I think Jane would live (doesn't mean he likes it) with the negative opinions of others if it meant ultimately getting Red John.

Rob Helmerichs said:

But can Jane live with the world knowing that he bungled it? That Red John tricked him into killing the wrong guy? That Red John outwitted him?

That, in effect, Red John is better than him?

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Jane won't have a public opinion problem. While some might not believe the guy told him things only R.J. should have known, it is pretty common knowledge by this point that the guy and his wife had the hobby of locking young girls in their secret room.

It might be that R.J. maneuvered Jane into killing one guy, but if Jane got R.J. to kill the SJ Killer, then they're about even in that regard.

I think Jane deliberately provoked SJK to mouth off about Red John, thus giving Jane a fresh Red John trail. What puzzles me is why the writers didn't have Jane maintaining some sort of survelliance on SJK, hoping to spot Red John if he came. Unless they plan to reveal this in a future episode.

Thom said:

I think Jane deliberately provoked SJK to mouth off about Red John, thus giving Jane a fresh Red John trail. What puzzles me is why the writers didn't have Jane maintaining some sort of survelliance on SJK, hoping to spot Red John if he came. Unless they plan to reveal this in a future episode.

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If they had surveillance on SJK we'd have seen them capture someone just after they killed him. The following episode we'd have seen that yet again it wasn't R.J. doing it but another one of his minions.

The way it's going, we might eventually find out that R.J. never actually killed anyone. Rather, he jobbed out all the killings. The authorities might have a heck of a time convicting him if he coerced a dozen people to murder based on a specific signature and it turns out that most of them are dead already (each killed by the replacement disciple ).

R.J. might not be an actual serial killer, but a franchise.