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Red John unleashes his evil upon those investigating him.

The show opens with Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) and Grace Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti) sleeping together. First Rigsby answers a phone call from Teresa Lisbon (Robin Tunney), and then Van Pelt does. They hope she doesn’t know about their relationship.

Walking towards a crime scene, Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) answers a phone call from Sam Bosco (Terry Kinney). He then finds, along with the rest of the CBI team, a dead naked man, with yellow roses covering his groin. It is discovered that he was put in refrigeration for a period of time, and then moved. While the team is here, Jane indicates that he knows Rigsby and Van Pelt have been together, noting they both smell “like lilacs.”

Then the episode accelerates. Members of the team and a secretary named Rebecca (Shauna Bloom) walk into Bosco’s office, and see officers bleeding and down. Rebecca screams and spills coffee. Lisbon and Jane try to resuscitate a gravely wounded Bosco. Two others lay dead. Bosco is incubated and removed. The building is put into lock down in an attempt to trap the perpetrator.

The perpetrator isn’t found, and soon Van Pelt discovers that someone has hacked into the computers at the office, and two cameras weren’t working during the assault. Later, as per usual episode, there is a Red Herring. This involves an Armenian drug cartel, and the Secretary mentions there was a break in that case right before the assault. Records show the leader of the cartel left the country three days earlier. Meanwhile, Jane keeps asking about the body with the yellow roses. Someone then mentions the name of the deceased, and Jane rushes off towards a hospital. Running towards a door, he sees yellow roses on top of a chair. Jane picks the locks to a door that belong to Dr. Towlen Morning. Jane enters, and through a window he sees the tell-tale sign of Red John, a bloody smiling face. Below this grim image rests the body of Agent Hicks (Dominic Hoffman).

Jane goes to visit Bosco in the hospital. Bosco is unconscious. Jane pulls out the plug giving Bosco morphine. Lisbon confronts him, and Jane pleads that Bosco may die, the morphine is just for pain, and Bosco would want to tell them what he knows. Before this can happen, however, a nurse who overhears the argument comes in and plugs the machine giving the morphine back in.

Later it is discovered that a body belonging to someone named Carter Peak was found, and a police bulletin was issued. Bosco was interested in the medical reports. Peak was a victim of Red John’s nine years ago. Perhaps the body contained some of Red John’s DNA? Jane rushes to the morgue, but the body and all its belongings had already been checked out by someone pretending to be CBI. Jane deduces it was Red John. However, when he finally tracks down the person working at the morgue during that time, they describe a woman wearing a barrette. 

The next scene is a cut to the past. It shows the secretary walking into Bosco’s office, and then shooting everyone. After that it cuts to Bosco’s hospital room. She closes the curtains. She pulls out a gun with a silencer. Before she can shoot Bosco, however, Van Pelt pins her to a wall, and Lisbon points a gun at Rebecca’s face. The tension is such that Lisbon may fire her gun out of anger. Bosco then wakes up, and Van Pelt takes Rebecca away.

Later we see Jane interviewing a chained Rebecca. Unfortunately, Rebecca (Shauna Bloom) is a bad actress. She fumbles through her lines. She seems bored. However, what she says is important to the pathos of Red John. She tells Jane, “He’s on a mission of enlightenment . . . without death, no life, without darkness, no light. . .” Later she says, “I got rid of Bosco and his team, so you could have your case back. Red John misses you, and it’s what you wanted too, isn’t it?”

After this there is a montage of scenes. The music being played is somewhat obscure. It’s DARKENING SKY by Peter Bradley Adam. It’s a lament about a love that just died. During this sequence, Rebecca is shown walking with guards. A figure, obscured, appears and taps her hand. She falls down, dying. Jane shows up, and sees foam around her mouth. Her hand has a deep gash, surrounded by green ooze. The witness is dead.

Next scene shows Lisbon talking to Bosco. He tells her that he loves her. She tells him the same thing. She starts crying. Then, Bosco talks to Jane. He tells him, “do me a favor, when you catch him, don’t arrest him, kill the son of a bitch.” Jane replies, “That’s the plan.”

Bosco then whispers something to Jane that we can’t hear. Bosco’s eyes close, and he flat lines.

One week later, Lisbon is talking to her boss, Virgil Minelli (Gregory Itzin) about the funeral. Minelli is packing his belongings, as he is retiring. Lisbon tries to get him to change his mind, but he won’t.

Lisbon is then talking to Jane. She queries him on what Bosco whispered to him. Jane tells her “he told me to look after you.” After this, the team gathers together and does a final toast to Bosco, then start to sing Amazing Grace. The show ends with Jane opening a box full of folders on the Red John case.

This episode is called “His Red Right Hand.” This is an allusion to Milton’s paradise lost. However, songwriter Nick Cave’s song “Red Right Hand” can suffice as a description of Red John as a figure like Satan:

He’ll wrap you in his arms,
tell you that you’ve been a good boy
He’ll rekindle all the dreams
it took you a lifetime to destroy
He’ll reach deep into the hole,
heal your shrinking soul
Hey buddy, you know you’re
never ever coming back
He’s a god, he’s a man,
he’s a ghost, he’s a guru
They’re whispering his name
through this disappearing land
But hidden in his coat
is a red right hand

Red John is playing a game of chess with Patrick Jane. They both have a key similar quality, and that is the ability to manipulate people. Red John is most similar to Charles Manson, except it is evident that Red John has most likely, directly killed people. In future episodes it is most likely that Jane will have to confront more people Red John uses as pawns in order to finally get to him.

Please stay tuned to this site for future updates of The Mentalist.

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