Dad: He was acting like a bum. It was all an act.
Me: Wait, what? I just thought he was really strung out after the murders.
Dad: No, he knew that would get him in the door with the Red John files.
Readers, it has happened. My dad caught a plot line that I missed. I guess it’s good for the old man to get a few in once and a while. This week, “The Mentalist” gave a look back to see how Lisbon and Jane started working together. And in my opinion, not a lot has changed. Except Rigsby’s goatee. I’m so glad that thing disappeared.
An unshaven and drunk looking Jane walks into the CBI office. He wants to see the Red John files. Lisbon says they can chat later and has Hannigan, a former team member, escort him to the elevator. The two chat and Jane starts antagonizing Hannigan.
Dad: I knew Hannigan was going to punch him.
Dad was right. Hannigan punches Jane. To smooth things over, the boss tells Lisbon to let Jane see the Red John files. I was so glad to see the boss. I miss him. The boss also invites Lisbon on the case he’s working. The victim was an appellate-court judge’s son. After investigating the scene, and angering Hannigan some more, Jane and Lisbon visit the judge. Jane says he can tell the judge is disappointed in his son’s drinking. This outburst makes the judge mad. Jane’s reading of Lisbon also makes her mad. Things don’t seem to be going well.
Me: I like how the team didn’t just go along with Jane’s antics in the beginning.
Dad: No, they just kept asking Lisbon why he was there.
Me: Oh, and I love how Cho was the only team member who looked exactly the same. He hadn’t changed a bit.
(Side Note: I mentioned Rigsby’s goatee but Lisbon also had a weird haircut. Van Pelt isn’t a member of the team yet.)
Cho interviews the victim’s date who believes her ex-boyfriend was the killer. He admits to following the victim, but says he gave up the chase when the guy was driving too fast. So far in the suspect pool we have the dad, the date, and the ex-boyfriend. As they investigate the victim’s past they find out he was let off the hook in a DUI crash that killed a woman. When they visit the cop who handled the case in the bar he owns part-time, he says the evidence didn’t hold up.
Dad: Why would they interview the cop in a bar?
Me: I thought that was a little weird, too.
So, the team talks to the family of the woman the victim killed in the crash. You can tell her husband and sister are so angry. They seem like obvious red-herring suspects but let’s tack them on the list for good measure. The team gets stuck on the case so before Lisbon lets Jane look through the files she asks him for help. This is probably one of my favorite reveals ever. Jane has the suspects, plus the cop from the original case, in one room.
Dad: Why is the cop in the room?
Me: I guess he’s a suspect. SHHH!
He tells them all to think of the last scary dream they had while he lays impromptu tarot cards he made on the table. They reach for a random card and as they flip them over, Jane explains how they link to the dreams. The date fears she’ll never find true love, so she subconsciously picked the lovers card. The cop picks the magician card because he’s balancing a lot and Jane says he has trouble reading his fear. When Jane flips over the ex-boyfriend’s card, it’s also the magician. So when he goes back to the cop card, he has the hangman, the sign for guilty I guess.
Me: Wait, how did he switch the cards?
Dad: I don’t know. I kept looking for that.
Me: I rewound it several times and I still couldn’t figure it out.
Dad: I don’t think we’re supposed to.
Me: That’s not right.
Dad: You hate not being able to figure things out, don’t you.
Me: Yeah…
The cop killed the victim because he didn’t want to clean up his mess again. When the victim killed the woman in the original crash, the cop switched blood samples from the hood of the car to help get him off. The cop needed the judge to approve his liquor license for the bar. On the night of the murder, the victim called the cop saying he’d hit someone else and needed the cop to fix it. The cop got angry and shot him. It turns out, the victim only hit a deer. He was too drunk to realize the difference.
Since Jane helped solve the case, he’s officially hired as a consultant. Hannigan refuses to work with him so he transfers out of the group. Lisbon tells Cho and Rigsby to look through the list of bureau graduates to pick someone. The first file Rigsby opens is Van Pelt’s. Cho instantly says she’s out of his league. I hope not for long in the present.
