The Mentalist: Red John's Friends (Episode 111)

Let me tell you the story 'bout the call that changed my destiny.Ah, suburbia.  Where the grass is always green and the sun is always shining.  We open up on a shot of a beautiful suburban home, where everything looks peaceful and perfect.  But since this is a crime drama, it only takes about half a second for the utopian scene to be disrupted by the arrival of a SWAT team.  They burst into the house and immediately head for a locked room.  Inside, a semi-naked man is sitting on a bed with the bloodied body of a semi-naked woman lying next to him.  He’s crying and seems to be in a state of shock, and doesn’t respond when the SWAT team breaks down the door.  This whole scene would be a lot more interesting if my sister hadn’t forced me to watch Desperate Housewives all week. This guy ain’t got shit on those crazy ladies.

Fast forward one year, and we’re in the present day.  Jane enters a prison unaccompanied by Lisbon or any other team members.  He’s goes over to a table where the man from the flashback is waiting for him.  The man claims to have “dynamite” information on Red John.  Does he also have a polyester jumpsuit and a DVD copy of I Love the 70s?  I bet he’d think those were dynamite too.  In any case, he says that Red John is a “friend of a friend,” and that he’ll tell Jane everything he knows if Jane can get him out of prison.  He’s currently doing time for “raping and murdering [his] housekeeper’s daughter,” and every conceivable bit of evidence that could indicate his guilt does.  He maintains his innocence, though, saying that he fell asleep after a night of drugs and sex, and when he woke up Undine (the victim) was dead.  This seems unlikely, since the door to the room was locked from the inside, but Jane’s hair says that the man is telling the truth.  Jane decides to ignore the hair and refuses to help the guy.  When he starts to walk away the man tells him that Red John painted his wife’s toenails with her own blood, something he’d never done to any other victim.  The police never released this bit of information, so the man must really know something significant about Red John.  Jane agrees to try and help him, and the hair demands a deep conditioning treatment for Jane’s momentary doubt in it.

Over at the DOJ, Bossman is not very receptive to Jane’s plan.  A very resourceful fan pointed out that Bossman’s actual name is listed on IMDB, but I’m refusing to use it on principle.  A show should actually mention the name of its characters, so until it does I’m not mentioning it either.  You will not break me, show. Bossman informs us that the man’s name is Jared Renfro and says that they can’t just reopen his case because it’s important to Jane.  Jane seems to agree, but both Bossman and Lisbon know that he’s full of shit.  After they leave Bossman’s office Lisbon tells Jane she’s not going to try and stop him and HOLY SHIT JANE SAYS BOSSMAN’S NAME!  Eleven episodes in and we finally find out that his name is Minelli.  Break out the confetti and noisemakers, because this is cause for celebration!  My little rant is pretty pointless now, but I have to admit that I’ve gotten used to the name Bossman.  I’m not really sure I want to stop using it.  Anyway, Lisbon tells Jane that Jared was found with a butcher knife in his hand, that he’d been stalking Undine for weeks, and that he has a history of violence. She’s sure that Jane is getting conned, so she tells him to call her when he gets into trouble so she can try and do damage control.  She also tells him not to use his CBI badge, and he agrees.

Jane heads over to the Renfro house that we saw in the opening scene.  A woman speaks to him over an intercom at the house’s enormous gate, and he tells her that he’s here to see Gardner Renfro in regards to his brother’s case.  His name is Gardner?  Why does this show insist on giving the minor characters’ ridiculous names?  The woman tells him that Gardner refuses to see him, but the man changes his mind when Jane says that he can prove Jared’s innocence.  He goes inside and meets with Gardner and his wife, who looks more like a mannequin than a real person.  Gardner isn’t too happy when Jane admits that he can’t really prove Jared’s innocence and tries to kick him out of the house.  Jane simply goes into the backyard to find Gardner’s mother while Gardner’s wife calls the police.  When Jane finds Mrs. Renfro she’s willing to talk to him, even though he son tells her that she’s being childish.  Oh, shut the fuck up.  I hate it when people treat older people like they’re infants.  Once Gardner leaves, Mrs. Renfro tells Jane that Jared was a bit of a sadist as a child.  She found this rather amusing until he got older and started getting arrested.  Eventually he cleaned up his act and came home to help run the family business.  His father died only a week after the murder, not of grief for his son but of embarrassment.  God, this family fails.

Mrs. Renfro shows Jane the room in which Undine and Jared were found.  She also mentions that Mariska, Undine’s mother and their housekeeper, had been with them for 20 years.  Mariska said that Undine told her Jared was stalking her, even while Jared insisted that they were having an affair.  After Undine’s death Mariska left the family, and Mrs. Renfro goes to get her address for Jane.  While she’s gone Jane notices some fishing wire in a hall closet, and examines the door and lock to the room.  Gardner reappears with the police.  Jane stalls by pretending that he’s the homeowner until Mrs. Renfro returns and yells at him.  Can y’all feel the love?

When Jane returns to the DOJ Bossman Minelli is pissed that he went to the Renfro house.  He says he has to give Jane an “official reprimand,” but Jane refuses to stop pursuing the case.  He knows that Jared is innocent now, but he can’t prove it yet.  The two argue back and forth until Minelli finally says that if Jane doesn’t leave the case alone he’ll have to fire him.  Jane saves him the trouble by turning in his badge.  He thanks Lisbon for all she’s done for him and leaves the office.  Word apparently travels fast in the CBI, because when Lisbon meets with the rest of the team they already know that Jane quit.  And they are not happy about it.  Lisbon tries to tell them that they can’t help, but Van Pelt has already found a connection between Jared and Red John.  Jared once shared a prison cell with the now deceased Orville Tanner.  In his 1998 murder trial, Tanner said that he was only an accomplice, and that the real killer was someone named Red John.  It’s not the strongest connection, but Van Pelt looks very proud of herself.  Does anyone else get the impression that she has a little crush on Jane?  Maybe it’s just that she’s intrigued by him or maybe it’s because the actors have really good chemistry with each other, but I’ve always gotten that vibe from her.  Lisbon says that they can’t investigate, but if they could she would tell them to look into Tanner’s background to see if they can strengthen the connection.  Sneaky Lisbon is sneaky.

The team members go to their desks and get their investigation on.  Van Pelt wonders why people say “eureka” when they do something good, and Cho tells her that “it’s Greek for Bingo.”  Hee! I’ve missed you, Cho.  Van Pelt gives a little “eureka,” because she’s found the autopsy report from Tanner’s alleged victim and she was “cut up Red John style.”  Everything is looking up until Minelli walks into the room and catches them in the act.  Lisbon comes in and tries to cover for the team, who in turn try to cover for her.  Minelli says that if they continue to research the case they’ll all be suspended, and Lisbon tells him that he might as well just suspend them now.  She was hoping that Minelli would back down, but he decides to suspend them all.  Cho and Rigsby looks surprised and Van Pelt looks like she might throw up, so Lisbon follows Minelli into his office to try and right the situation.  Once there he tells her that he’ll be visiting his sister in Hawaii for a week and won’t file the suspension papers until he gets back.  This means that, if the team can solve the case within the week, they won’t have the suspension on their records.  I guess Minelli isn’t a complete asshole after all.

Jane is sitting on the front steps of a building, flashing back to the night his family was murdered when Lisbon calls him.  She asks him to pick up a pizza and come back to the DOJ, and he thanks her for her help.  The team gathers at the DOJ and discusses the case while they eat.  And seriously, one pizza is supposed to feed all of these people?  And three of them are guys?  Nice try, show.  Mariska Kopeki’s testimony that her daughter was afraid of Jared was the most damaging thing to his case, since his entire defense rested on his insistence that he loved Undine.  Jane tried to speak to Mariska, but she’d moved and hadn’t left a forwarding address.  Luckily, Van Pelt finds something in the DOJ secure search network.  A civilian, Dr. Joe—N.H, IMed her a link to a document saying that Mariska changed her name to Vanna Clooney.  When she searches this name Van Pelt finds Mariska’s current address.  The only problem is that a civilian shouldn’t have been able to access the secure network.  Jane looks at the screen name and realizes that “Dr. Joe—N.H.” is an anagram for “Red John.”  OH SHIT.  This is all sorts of creepy.  Van Pelt types “Who are you?” and Red John answers “...:-)...is Jane there?”  Jane takes over and types “This is Jane” and Red John responds “Keep up the good work.”  Jane tries to ask him why but Red John signs off, and they can’t locate the source of the IM.  Jane realizes that Red John wants them to succeed so that he can silence Jared once he’s out of jail.  Jane isn’t too concerned with Jared’s safety, since all he can think about is the fact that the man really does have important info on Red John, so he wants to exonerate Jared and use him as bait.  And I have to give show props for one hell of a suspenseful scene, since it often has problems in that department.

Jane and Lisbon go over to Mariska’s new home.  Lisbon has absolutely no idea how to talk to her without being able to show her badge, so Jane has to get them inside.  Hee.  Socially awkward Lisbon is kind of adorable.  When Jane confesses that they’re there to talk about Undine, Mariska tries to throw them out.  Jane manages to talk her down, telling her that he knows how much she hated being a servant for all those years and how she felt like all of her work was wasted when Undine died.  Mariska admits that she doesn’t care who killed her daughter, since nothing will bring her back.  “So if you get paid to lie about what happened to her, where’s the harm?” Jane asks.  Mariska denies the accusation, but Jane doesn’t relent until she finally admits that she was paid to say that Jared and Undine weren’t lovers.  She says that a private investigator named Austin Samson approached her with the deal, so she doesn’t know who paid her off.

Lisbon tries to contact Samson, but he was hit by a bus and died.  Wow, they are having really shitty luck in this episode.  Since they’re suspended and can’t use a court order to get info on the man, they take Rigsby and head over to the Renfro house.  He informs the family that someone paid off Mariska, but Gardner is hung up on the fact that the door to the room was locked from the inside.  But since the key was in the door, Jane says that there was a way someone could have gotten in.  He demonstrates his point by knocking the key out of the lock, letting it fall on a newspaper he’s placed under the door, and pulling the key to him with the newspaper.  He puts the key back by threading some of the fishing wire we saw earlier through the keyhole and under the door, tying the key to it, and pulling the wire until the key slides back into the hole.  He uses a lighter to get rid of the wire.  That is really, really clever. That combined with Mariska’s new testimony should be enough to win a new trial, at which “the truth will come out.”  The trio tells the Renfros that they’ll keep the info to themselves if they’re given enough financial motivation to do so, and that they have until four to call with an offer.  The family doesn’t seem to go for it, but Jane is optimistic.

His optimism is valid, since he gets a call from Mrs. Renfro asking him to meet her at the house.  They talk in the backyard, and he gets her to admit that Mariska only left their employment after her husband’s death.  Somehow Jane manages to deduce that Undine was really Mr. Renfro’s child.  INCEST!  THERE IS INCEST HERE, Y’ALL!  Oh God, it’s not like I don’t get enough of that in the Supernatural fandom.  Now it’s taking over all of my shows.  Admittedly, it wasn’t intentional incest, since Jared and Undine didn’t know that they were siblings, but still.  When Mrs. Renfro found out about the ‘cest she ordered Jared to stop seeing Undine, but he wouldn’t listen.  So she did what any rational person would do and killed the girl.  She wasn’t planning on letting her son rot in jail forever, so she took a vile of Undine’s blood that she could use to prove her guilt once Jared had learned to always listen to his mother.  You know, I think that might actually be more twisted than the incest.

The team has apparently been reinstated, and they prepare to take Jared to an awaiting safe house.  Lisbon urges Jane to be careful and not get to comfortable with the plan.  Jane, Rigsby, and Cho go over to the jail to pick up Jared.  Jane asks Jared to tell him what he knows, but the former prisoner asks to have a chance to catch some fresh air before he gives up the information.  Oh, this does not look good.  On the way to the safe house the car gets caught in the middle of an animal rights protest.  I wonder if it’s run by the Animal Equality League.  Once again I have to give the show credit, because this scene is tense.  I was convinced that a sniper was going to shoot Jared through the window.  After a few moments Jared throws his coffee in Cho’s face and bolts from the car.  The guys run after him, but they can’t catch him.  It seems pretty idiotic to run away from a safe house when a serial killer is after you, but Jared just threw coffee in my man’s face, so he deserves whatever he gets.

Five hours later they still haven’t found Jared, and Cho feels pretty guilty about the whole thing.  More importantly, Cho is fucking ripped.  Sorry about your emotional turmoil, Cho, but if it’s gets you to strip down to just a t-shirt I’m willing to have you get distressed in every episode.  Jane tries to comfort him by saying that the whole thing is really his fault, and Lisbon says that they shouldn’t focus on assigning blame.  Just then Jane’s cell phone rings, and it’s none other than Jared himself.  He’s in a motel room with a very unfortunate-looking hooker and he apologizes for bailing on Jane.  He can’t be too sorry, though, because he still refuses to give up the info in hopes of remaining on Red John’s good side.  God, this guy is an idiot.  Van Pelt works on tracing the call and Jane deduces that Jared’s in Tijuana, Mexico, “in a motel room with a hooker.”  Man’s got skills.

A few hours later the team breaks into Jared’s motel room, guns drawn.  By this time, though, it’s already too late; both Jared and the hooker are dead and bloody in the bathtub.  Above them someone (presumably Jared before he died) has written “he is mar” in blood.  Is that the first part of Red John’s real name?  There’s no way to know, and Jane seems devastated by this fact.  This whole experience has taught him that “Red John is far more powerful than [he] ever thought.”  Lisbon tries to comfort him and seems to be getting through when someone calls the dead hooker’s cell phone.  Jane answers and is greeted by the sound of maniacal laughter.  This is a fantastically scary way to end the episode, but it also kind of convinced me that Red John is actually the Joker.  Hey, they both love smiles, right?  It could happen.