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New permanent character and likely antagonist introduced involving the “Red John” murders.

While the season opener of The Mentalist is a self-contained unit that anybody can enjoy without having seen earlier episodes, it does contain important information about the “Red John” murders. This summary will, therefore, be broken up into two parts. The first section will be important information you need to know about the ongoing “Red John” case, and the second section will be a summary about two separate murders discovered and solved.

After a quick and quirky murder discovered and solved, Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) and Teresa Lisbon (Robin Tunney) enter their superior’s office. They are immediately told that they are off the “Red John” case, as they are too personally involved. Sam Bosco is then introduced, played by Terry Kinney. Kinney is well known for his role as McManus in the violent HBO series Oz. While in that show he was the compassionate architect, in this episode he proves to be an unlikeable and arrogant bureaucrat. Patrick asks him what he knows about the case, and for his benefit (and the viewer’s) tells him that “Red John” is a serial killer, and he killed Patrick’s wife and child. After this short meeting, Patrick quits. Then he doesn’t. Then he quits. Then he doesn’t.

Later in the episode Patrick and Sam Bosco meet for a discussion. Patrick asks to be kept up to date on the serial killer case. Here, Bosco proves to be unhelpful, to say the least. Unprovoked, he assaults Patrick with a verbal barrage. He says, “You’re not a detective, you are a victim.” He calls him a “party entertainer, a clown . . .” The insult Patrick later shares with Teresa is when Bosco tells him “I wouldn’t direct you to the bathroom if your ass was on fire!” Bosco even throws in his own Patrick like diagnosis, calling him “equal parts self-loathing and self-love.”

Of course, we know that Patrick isn’t simply going to forget about the case. At the end of the episode, we see Patrick on the phone. He imitates Sam Bosco on the phone, and asks to change his password.

The episode starts with a quick (5 minutes or so) murder discovery and solution. Patrick Jane and Teresa Lisbon are led by a cop, who tells him that he doesn’t believe in “that E.S.P. nonsense.” Patrick then sees the body, in a shopping mall, and rattles off eight things about the victim. There are a number of people waiting to be interviewed. Patrick asks questions, dismisses some people, and keeps others. He asks one man “Green Lantern vs. Thor, who wins?” The man says “Thor.” Later he uses a trick to discover the murderer. He says he’s going to find the murder weapon by looking at one person. The group follows. Patrick then finds the murder weapon, but does so by looking at where a person in the group didn’t want him to go. The man runs away and is caught.

The primary murder case involves a woman found in an apartment. Her place is ransacked. Eventually the identity is discovered. Her identity is Monica Dunninger, and she was a missing person believed to have embezzled $1 million from her job. In order to discover her murderer, Patrick Jane sets a trap. He asks everyone involved in the case if they’ve ever heard of someone named “Miles Thorson.” This is a person that has nothing to do with the case. He deduces that the murderer will be so curious by the name, that they’ll reveal themselves. This eventually happens, as the victim’s boss shows up at the (vacant) residence of the home she thinks is that of Miles Thorson, only to find Patrick Jane and Kimball Cho waiting.

The twist to this case is the motivation of the victim. Everyone, including her family, thought she was a thief. It turns out she found out about the embezzlement, and was paid off not just with a salary, but the help of the boss in fighting the cancer her son was fighting. Once the son no longer had cancer, the boss killed Dunninger thinking she had no more reason to be in hiding. Dunninger, however, placed an accounts ledger and DV D in a library for hiding, discovered again with the help of Patrick Jane. It was hidden in a place where a library book that was checked out would have been. The book was out-dated, and Jane knew of no real interest to Dunninger.

It will be interesting to see what comes of this season. Bosco appears to be an intriguing foil to Patrick Jane’s antics. Please stay tuned to this site for future updates of The Mentalist.

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