The Mentalist” in a nutshell: it’s all been done before.Patrick Jane hits the rocks in Sin City and ostensibly doubts the moral difference between right and wrong (white hat v. black hat), attracting heartless siren Lorelei MAR-tinS, the bird in the scarlet red dress and black winglets, who spreads her wings and tempts him to the dark side of RED JOHN in the “Crimson Hat.“Crimson Hat” is old-hat: The series’ cliffhanger involves yet another mole in the FBI, another CBI “number 1″ gets the boot, and RJ using the old cell phone gag gets away Scott-free. It’s the “Usual Suspects,” and RED JOHN like Keyser Söze vanishes like Jane’s hidden coin trick, “First he’s there, and like that he’s gone.”Et two, Bruno?Either Bruno Heller thinks the viewers have the memory span of a fruit fly or he’s trying to make a point: since the Pilot (through the Looking Glass with the Lyin’ fish – “one man’s fishbowl is another man’s snow globe”) Jane has a split personality like Verbal Kint aka Keyser Söze, and, like Verbal Kint , Jane has been making this story up as he goes. In the end of “Usual Suspects” Detective Kujan realizes with a shock that details and names from Verbal’s story are culled from various objects around the room – including Rabin’s crowded bulletin board and the “Kobayashi Porcelain Company” logo on the bottom of his coffee cup. (Well, call me Cho-bayashi.) Kujan realizes that most of Verbal’s story was improvised for his benefit. (Lisbon likes BOSCO.)Jane: “old cell phone gag”? I invented that right there and then… rather brilliantly, I thought.
Lisbon : Oh, please. I’ve seen that done a dozen times.
Jane : What do you mean? Where?
Lisbon : On TV.
Jane : Well, anything can happen on TV. The question is, where have you seen that done in real life?
Patrick Jane: Life is a million to one. The universe is one big coincidence.Anybody think it coincidental that Citroen, the car Jane drives, just happens to be the name of the gang member (Citron) suspected in the death of the nameless and faceless shotgun victim, which conveniently provided Jane the Rigsby body double? (Talk about a Crimson Hat.)Anybody troubled by Jane telling Lisbon to pinky-swear not to tell ANYONE about his fake breakdown and then the CBI scoobs are suddenly in on the great deception?Lorelei, on Keston, almost performs a “Verbal Kint” makeover on Jane’s left hand and gets caught on Debonair. Loved the final scene of Lorelei facing her opposite, Teresa Lisbon.Jane (to Lorelei): I know it’s hard to believe now, but you’re gonna talk to us. You’re gonna break down, and you’re gonna tell us everything you know about Red John. You’re gonna sing like a bird. A Scarlet Tanager(NB “Tanager” was the name of the ship in the “Usual Suspects.”)The clever long con of “Usual Suspects” was Keyser Söze’s identity. (Fast Fact: Kevin Spacey revealed that Bryan Singer managed to convince every one of the major actors that they were Keyser Söze. When first screened for the company of actors, Gabriel Byrne (Keaton) was so stunned when he found that he wasn’t Keyser Söze that he stormed off into the parking lot and argued with Bryan for a half hour.)The clever long con of “The Mentalist” was Red John’s identity. As in the “Usual Suspects,” Bruno has dropped more red herrings that cast false suspicion on every character in the show. As in the “Usual Suspects,” the answer was right in front of us the whole time: Jane was Red John, his imaginary nemesis. (Fast Fact #2: The CBI Headquarters is actually the rear entrance of the Pico House, a former luxury hotel and a National Historic Landmark located in Downtown Los Angeles, designed by architect Ezra Kysor.) (FF # 3 Patrick Jane loves Pekoe tea.)Burning clues: Jane appears to be a Sherlock Homes super-sleuth character but in reality is a mental patient who suffers from paranoid delusions due to feelings of extreme guilt in the deaths of his wife and child who were burned as he was (CBI = intensive burn care?) in a horrific car accident involving a driver named Tanner when he failed to stop at a BLINKING RED LIGHT – hence the RJ symbol – while he was driving intoxicated and spends his days watching TV shows, which generate his ideas for the delusional episodes. “The Mentalist” is obsessed with fire, as in half the episodes it plays a significant plot point. “Tiger, Tiger burning bright, they were “Au-burned.” In the “Red Mile” episode Jane arrives at a crime scene outside Auburn, California. Shouts from Alabama football fans of “Roll Tide” first appeared during the Alabama-Auburn Tiger game in 1907. Curiously, a corpse was found in a burned car in “Ruby Slippers,” in which Jane discovers the identity of Fifi Nix, like Jane’s Phoenix, has risen from the ashes of his past life. The fake Jane character in “Red Moon,” where another corpse was found in a burned car, was named Ellis Mars.The Mentalist – Tommy Westphall – Mars and Tin Man ConnectionGreen Tea for Two: Red John is Patrick (green) Jane’s imaginary evil twin, his “perfect symmetry” alter-ego (Jane/John), Professor Moriarty character in a “Tommy Westphall” imaginary world like “St. Elsewhere’s” snow globe and “Life on Mars” that is the dream state of Jane. Roy Tagliaferro (read: “cut iron”) anagram is “court irony.” Ironic that failure to obey a Red (don’t cross) and Green (cross) light will get you a “Crimson Ticket.”Who’s a Lyin’? Jane or Mar-tinsSJane: Perhaps we can see each other again.
Lorelei: That’s not up to me.
Jane: Oh, you have no say in it?
Lorelei: None at all. It’s very “Westphall.”
Jane: I don’t follow you.
Lorelei: I do what Red John tells me to do.The characters of Rigsby, Cho, Van Pelt and Lisbon are also Jane’s creations ala the “Wizard of Oz;” the Tin Man, Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion, and Dorothy – in reality are the assistants and doctors at the mental hospital and the RJ minions are Jane’s fellow mental patients. In the final scene Jane confronts “Red John” and in an homage to “OZ” awakens from his dream state to realize the true identities of Lisbon et al.
