The Mentalist Season 5: Season so far recap
NB: Note that I’m Italian so there may be some grammatical errors in the article.
With season 5, The Mentalist moves on Sunday, leaving its usual Thursday night. But the change doesn’t only involve the timeslot, but the entire series.
Season 4 left viewers on a cliffhanger with Patrick Jane getting closer to Red John (again) but unfortunately he only came home with Lorelei Martins, one of his many accomplices. It seemed that spending 6 months in Las Vegas, apart from his team, didn’t work so much. Anyway, the CBI had Lorelei in custody, but Jane and the team had to fight against FBI to have the ‘exclusive’ on Red John’s associate.
Series creator Bruno Heller said season 5 would have showed us a dark Patrick Jane, because he would do anything to get to Red John. In season 5 premiere Jane asked Lisbon to be alone while he’ll be interrogating Lorelei. Anyway, Agent Lisbon listened everything and she stated that Jane is too close to Lorelei since they slept together before she revealed to be Red John’s mistress. Meanwhile, FBI kept claiming their right to the custody of Lorelei, and they finally got their wish, thanks to a judge which Jane convinced CBI director Bertram to reverse. However, the episode ended with Jane and Lisbon arriving at the jail to take Lorelei back, but the prison guard presented them a different woman who’s not Lorelei Martins.
This key character will be present for a few episodes in this season. In episode 8, Jane managed to bring her out of prison with the help of the ‘Visualize’ boss, Brett Stiles. Lorelei revealed Jane that Red John is someone he knows, since he already shook hands with him. In episode 16, things got complicated between Jane and Lisbon since she seemed to already know that Jane brought Lorelei out of prison. Lorelei wanted to get revenge against Red John because he killed her sister. Jane wanted to help her so she could tell him who’s Red John. But Lorelei had it coming... she died and Jane stood with no name. The episode also showed two further accomplices of Red John: Julia Howard and Jason Lennon. Lorelei killed Julia at the beginning of the episode, then she shot Jason before he could possibly reveal Jane Red John’s identity.
But Patrick Jane is still a mourning man. Episode 2 brilliant brought this aspect out when he drank belladonna and started having hallucinations about his dead daughter – maybe was she also his conscience’s voice? Almost ten years wasted chasing after Red John and Jane didn’t find him. His obsession for Red John became more evident during this season, but he also discovered a lot of things about his enemy. After Lorelei said to Jane he’d already known Red John, he started to narrow down a list of possible suspects. In episode 13, he also learned Red John was a member of ‘Visualize’ in ‘80s.
Teresa Lisbon had her storyline during this season. Lisbon found herself obsessed with Tommy Volker, a multi millionaire who’s also the mastermind behind some homicides. In episode 7, Lisbon wanted to get revenge on a girl who’s been strangled to death, so she started her hunt for Volker, since she had her suspicion on him. Her hunt will be concluded in episode 12, with his arrest.
Lisbon also started discovering feelings for Jane. According to Bruno Heller, that “Love you” Jane told Lisbon in season 4 finale before shooting her, won’t be forgotten.
The “partner” thing is one important feature in Jane and Lisbon’s relationship: even when she got the chance to have a job promotion (episode 13), she refused because she loves her team – and being partner with Patrick Jane. He also showed her his attic with all the cases connected to Red John. In episode 20, the two were exchanged for a couple, and Jane replied “Ours is more a platonic love.” He may feels something for her, but until he won’t catch Red John, he won’t be able to have a real relationship with his lovely partner.
Wayne Rigsby had an interesting face-to-face with his dad in episode 4. When they finally seemed to get along after a very long time, Mr Rigsby got shot and died afterwards. This would impact Rigsby’s personal life when he will have an open confrontation with Grace Van Pelt, his partner and his former girlfriend. The authors had to give a storyline to Van Pelt, since the actress who’s playing her, Amanda Righetti, got pregnant during this season. So, they decided to make her leave CBI for a couple of episodes (15-16-17) with the excuse she had to attend computer classes far from Sacramento. During her absence, Rigsby found in Cho a good confident, and he realized he’s still in love with Van Pelt. In episode 20, when Rigsby and Van Pelt went undercover to find a killer in a radio station, they got the chance to talk about their past relationship and they realized they’re still in love with each other.
The authors didn’t forget about Summer, Kimball Cho’s ex girlfriend, so they decided to give a closure to their story. In episode 10, the ex hooker asked Cho for help when she got arrested... but he found out she’s about to get married and she’s pregnant too! Cho also found himself interested in working on a new team, while in episode 17, he took the lead during the investigation into a barracks, since he had a military background.
Last but not least, a new character was introduced: Robert Kirkland. We met him in the 100th episode of the series, “Red Dawn”, which it’s been set several years ago with Jane meeting the CBI for the first time. Kirkland seemed interested into Jane and Jane’s search for Red John. In the flashback episode, he thanked FBI director Alexa Shultz (another recurring in the season) for asking Virgil Minelli to keep the FBI updated on Red John investigation. In the present, Kirkland appeared again in episode 7, 8 then 16 and further, and he’s Homeland Security Agent, and he’s interested on Red John’s case. Kirkland’s real intentions were showed in episode 18 when he killed Jason Lennon, the only one who could reveal Red John’s identity to Jane. In episode 19, two Homeland Security agents broke into Jane’s attic and took pictures of all the information on Red John that Jane had.
Season 5 finale, “Red John’s rules” airs this Sunday. Patrick Jane marrows down his list of suspects to only seven names, while Red John kills again, and the victim has a link to Jane’s past. We’ll also meet Kevin Barlow, an Irish psychic, maybe an old friend of Jane. According to Daniel Cerone, this season finale will herald a next-level hunt for Red John, and “the viewers will know some very specific things about who might be.” Don’t forget to tune on May 5th for The Mentalist season finale, written by series creator Bruno Heller and directed by Chris Long.
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