The Mentalist - season 3 thread

Amazing.  I actually thought, "What if he had a pistol in his pocket and just fired through is coat and killed the bastard?" a split second before it happened - but I didn't expect it. 

The implications for the show seem to be catastrophic - far more so than those from the season finales of shows like "Castle" (we're pretty sure the character shot just before the ending will live somehow) "CSI" (the actor who killed a bad guy will be back) or "Fringe" (the actor whose character vanished will certainly be back, although how is a mystery.)  

Jane appears to have shot and killed an apparently innocent man in cold blood in front of dozens of witnesses.  Hard to see how he gets out of this and the show returns to its normal lighthearted self. 

Also the pursuit of Red John has defined Patrick Jane.  It is why he quit the fake psychic business, it is why he joined the CBI, it is what gets him out of bed in the morning, his reason for living. 

Now that he has achieved his revenge (I'm assuming the guy she shot was, in fact, Red John - more on that below) Jane needs something else to live for.  Even if he didn't have any kind of legal problem as a result (if he'd killed Red John in secret and disposed of the body, say) Jane (and the show) would have to deal with the fact that his quest has been fulfilled.  What next?

Now I've always thought they should wrap up the Red John story sooner rather than later.  I didn't want the show to turn into "The Fugitive" or "ST: Voyager', where each episode as just a way of *not* resolving the major story arc.  I think at some point every show that starts with a very specific premise needs to move beyond that premise and grow.  That's why I was glad that "Lost" didn't end with everybody being rescued in the last episode, which a lot of people expected when it debuted.  (Early in S2, I predicted that at least some of them would get off the island much earlier and that the show's focus would shift after that.) 

So, assuming the dead guy really is Red John, how does the show go on from here?

(The first two ideas deal with Jane getting away with the murder, and apply whether the guy was Red John or just one of his minions that Jane *thought* was Red John.)

Jane has two possible outs:  Self-defense and some version of a diminished capacity defense.

1)  Jane claims that Red John threatened to kill him and was reaching for something in his own pocket.  Jane fired self-defense and kept firing until the threat was over - as cops are trained to do.  No one was standing close enough to hear what Red John actually said, and their position in relation to passers-by no one could swear that Red John didn't make a threatening move. 

The obvious objection to this is simply that Jane *had* a gun.  The goes to premeditation - especially for a man who famously dislikes the things.  The prosecution would argue that Jane brought the gun with him with the purpose of killing Red John when he walked into his trap. 

I'm actually a little fuzzy on what Jane's plan actually *was*.  Not only his "real" plan, but also what he told the CBI crew.  Was he expecting Red John to show up to kill Hightower himself?  Send another minion that they could follow back to RJ when Hightower didn't show up?

Either way, Jane's defense would be that he was going to be sitting at the table with the mole, waiting for a dangerous serial killer to show up, and with backup posted too far from him to render immediate aid. So he carried a gun - despite his distaste for them - as a last option.  He certainly didn't expect to stand up in front a of bunch of armed CBI agent and murder Red John in mid-arrest (which would have been the expected scenario.)  Jane was never supposed to be alone with Red John.

Again - the obvious objection is that Jane planned things so that he'd be alone with Red John.  This is wholly implausible.  For this to be the case, Jane would have had to know who the real mole was before they went to the mall.  Then he waited to tell them until he had identified Red John in the crowd.  But that means he would have been willing to put Lisbon, the rest of the team, Hightower and *Hightower's two children* at risk.  Jane would never have put innocent lives in danger, not even to get Red John. 

2) Jane gives the same explanation for having the gun.  Then he simply tells the jury what Red John said to him about the smell of his daughter's shampoo on the day her murdered her and how without even realizing it, his hand tightened around the trigger of the gun in his pocket and he fired three shot into the man who destroyed his family.  Red John had both uttered "fighting words" and created in Jane an "irresistible impulse." 

"Insanity" or diminished capacities don't work very often, and for good reason.  But for Jane it could work.  He is famously the victim of a horrible crime, and he has been a great assistance to the police in solving other crimes and in making it possible to stop Red John.  If anybody might snap in one moment and kill a monster - and then be no further threat to society - it is Patrick Jane. 

Jane is also wealthy, and can afford the best possible counsel to help him make either of thise arguments.  Since the prosecution has the legal burden of proof - even in the face of an insanity defense - if Jane's team can raise enough reasonable doubt about Jane's intent in either case, he could easily walk. 

In fact, either of these defenses is good enough that the District Attorney might not even file charges.  DA's like to win, and one way to keep up that batting average is to avoid going to trial in cases that look like sure losers.  At the very worst Jane might plead to involuntary manslaughter (he was reaching for his gun to detain Red John for the cops and he accidentally discharged the unfamiliar weapon) and probably a gun charge.  (Unless Jane actually got a gun and concealed weapons permit at some point.  I wouldn't put it past him.)  Or maybe he'll just walk. 

Either way, he still needs a way to move into the future.  Does he stay with the CBI because his fears for Lisbon when he thought she'd been shot bring feelings to the surface?  (Notice he didn't ask about Grace, who would presumably be most in danger from O'Laughlin.)  Maybe he starts to feel some guilt about taking a human life.  For all that Red John was a monster, most people aren't casual killers.  Even trained cops and soldiers who have killed in the most obviously "right" circumstances - defending themselves or others from imminent threats of death - often  feel horrible guilt.  (Many people are surprised to learn of a post-WWII study that found that even *combat soldiers under fire* often refused to shoot enemy soldiers.  On average only about 25% of soldiers shot at enemy troops with the intent to kill.  The other 75% either didn't fire their weapons at all, or deliberately shot high or completely away from human targets.) 

Jane may find he has something to atone for.

Or maybe he'll take Red John's advice to heart.  His mission over, Jane can move on, start living a human life again.  The CBI is the closest thing he has to a family now, and Lisbon the closest thing to a love interest.  Maybe it is time for him to accept that reality.  Then the trick will be getting *her* to do so.  (Without using hypnosis.  That would be cheating. ;-))

Finally there is the possibility that Jane will get past his legal problems and later discover that the man he killed wasn't really Red John, but yet another minion.

I *really* hope that they don't go this route.  It would just be the horror movie cliche of the Jason/Freddie/Michael jumping up out of the open grave just after everyone thinks he's dead.  Been there, done that, haven't actually leapt from my chair at this track in about 30 years.  Red John should stay dead.  He served his purpose.  By now Jane has other reasons for sticking with the CBI, and it is OK to adjust the show to a new reality.  That's what keeps a series like this one from getting stale - losing the initial gimmick.  Does anybody remember when Jim Rockford* only* investigated *cold cases*?  The idea was too limiting, so they dropped it.  I *hope* that "Castle" will wrap up the "who killed Beckett's mother?" story early next year, because she her life is changing and the single-minded vengence thing just gets boring after awhile.  I'd hate to see it turn into the kind of baroque mythology that eventually sank "The X-Files". 

 

The plan as best as I can tell was to fake turning Hightower over to the Presumed Mole in a public place figuring RJ would be somewhere in the vicinity

either watching or in position to take custody after the switch.   Obviously Jane was prepared for RJ to be there by carrying his gun.   When it turned out

that the Boss wasn't the real Mole, I guess it was a bit fortuitous that RJ was actually keeping tabs on Jane (or Jane knew that RJ would always be following him

since the obsession goes both ways).   I'm assuming RJ knew that the FBI real mole was going after Hightower and had no reason to believe he would fail to take

out Hightower.  

[Aside - I still want to know whether the locket was a camera or tracking device since that was never explained)

As far as how will Jane get off -- I'm betring there is an audio recording of the confession involved since Jane obviously had some sort of communication device to talk with the

other team members in the Mall.   Red John obviously was carrying a gun so self defense should be easier to prove since RJ was facing Jane when he was shot.

I don't think Jane will have much problem getting "off" with what he did. A more pertinent question is will there be a reason for him to continue with the CBI now that he has put his demon to rest? Of course, Red John does have minions out there that could continue to be a problem, so I'm thinking that's where it might go.

Really enjoyed the episode also and couldn't really add much to your fines posts.  I am wondering who will arrest Jane though.  Lisbon?  Or LaRoche?  Nobody asked too many questions about LaRoche shooting the store clerk and he had such a guilty look on his face.  I imagine the CBI crew will be hard at work trying to prove Jane's innocence while LaRoche prepares to throw the book at him.  I agree they should let Red John go, but they did kind of make it look like they wouldn't.

All anybody would see was Jane and the CBI chief sitting at one table while RJ sits at another minding his own business.  Then Jane dismisses the CBI boss while talking on the phone to Lisbon.  A few minutes later he hangs up with her, walks over to RJ, engages him in conversation for awhile and watches him start walking away.  Finally Jane says something that makes RJ stop and turn back, catches up to him and shoots him three times with no obvious threat or provacation from RJ. 

As it moved to a close, I was starting to think a regular or simi-regular cast member would be killed.  I was favoring La Roche as the mole.  However, I did think it highly inappropriate for Grace to reveal so much info to her fiance (O'Laughlin?).  The first glimpse I got of the guy at another table, I knew he wasn't just an extra.  When I saw it was Bradley Whitford, my first thought was RJ was now going to be a recurring on camera character.

I found it reasonable that Jane set up the meeting there in the mall.  He thought the CBI boss was the mole and RJ would be there.  He probably didn't think anything bad would go down there.  The gun was a precaution.  If it comes out in court what RJ has done, the jury will not convict Jane regardless.  He did not think he was  placing Hightower and Lisbon in danger. 

When O'Laughlin took the locket from Grace was it an act of kindness?  Was he saying he wasn't worthy of her?  Or was it just him saying he never loved her at all?

Was RJ sincere about retiring or was he just screwing with Jane?  Would he really give up his life's work which he so clearly enjoys?

I have one big problem with Jane killing RJ.  If RJ is such an great, evil, genius, why didn't he notice Jane with his hand in his pocket, with a bulge in it pointed at him.  I noticed it, but wasn't sure what it was.  It seemed to me RJ was too easy to kill.

As for continuing the series:

If RJ is really dead and he really has many, many followers in high places, what becomes of them?  Is there a number two in command who is now  number one?  That could be a subject of many episodes.  Something to keep Jane interested.  I also find it reasonable for Jane to realize that now that the thing that had been driving him is done, he enjoys working with the CBI and maybe he'll start letting himself to have more feelings for Lisbon.