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Friday 15 March 2013

The Mentalist 5.13 "Red Barn" Review

Lisbon (Robin Tunney) finds Patrick (Simon Baker) hold up in his attic with the door locked from the inside and I commented someone could just padlock the front and leave him in there, although he'd have his phone.  Wouldn't think he'd be using a padlock though, they're easily broken. Also ever since he's been working on narrowing down who he's shaken hands with he's become more confined to that attic of his and being secretive. They're called to a CS where the Vic is still alive and kisses Lisbon.  It's her 10 year anniversary after she left the San Francisco police and joined the CBI.  She tries to escape the annoying stripper! )Nate Scholz).  "Get out of my butt" she tells him!  Cho (Tim Kang) and Patrick leave when they're called to a real CS.  The discovery of two DBs in a barn from 1988.  The scene gets a bit too much for Patrick as he says and so he walks outside where he turns around after staring into the sun and sees the Red John smiley face on the side of the barn.

Cue lots of suspects for us and Patty and a lot more closer to Red John being a member of Visualize, with Brett Stiles being conveniently out of the country that very same morning.  Lisbon and Patrick speak with Jason Cooper (Robert Picardo) who tells them Stiles was forgiving after his attempted coup last season.  He tells them about the farm which was started by Stiles but they weren't farmers and it failed.

Chief Rick Anaya (Jacob Vargas) tells them to head to Ellie's diner for Chilli and there Lisbon and Patrick talk to a school teacher Miles MacCambridge (George Gerdes) at least patrick reads him as such and he's the town gossip, though he doesn't really tell them much.  Lisbon tells Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) she won't forgive him for that stripper and she enjoyed herself, as did Rigsby with the tequila.  Cho and Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti) tell him Lisbon will get him back.

It's career evaluation time for Lisbon, although not of her own choosing, it's Agent Ray Haffner (Reed Diamond) who brings it up.  He wants to see her for lunch and she kind of reluctantly told Patrick that when he asked her what he wanted, especially since he was the one who got Haffner gone from CBI as their boss.  Strange then he should make an appearance now and just when Visualize is in the spotlight again as is Patrick's narrowing down of the Red John pool of suspects, I was going to say gene pool for some reason, ha.

Haffner wants Lisbon to come work for him at a security firm he's starting up and tries to tempt her with big money.  She's here to stay since it's her job and she likes doing it, irrespective if money.  He brings up Patrick and that's one reason why she doesn't want to leave, as if there's more between them, which isn't the case, as far as we know.  She tells him Patrick's easy to handle if you know how.  Of course Lisbon wouldn't take the job since she was there long before Patrick came along and will be there long after.  When he left last season, she didn't have any qualms about staying and continuing her work without him around.  But he is a big help to her, sometimes a hindrance, but as she says at the end, they're partners.

The way the DBs were tied up and shot, though Lisbon says guns are not Red John's weapon of choice, he would have been young at the time and probably just starting out, but it's rather creepy, scary to know that he has been killing for so long and just starting out.  As is the case with serial killers, they start out with animals and move on to humans.  Thus it was probably a fluke or something more that led him to hone in on Patrick and his family.  Going back all the way to when Patrick was on TV.  Also clues as to Red John's involvement was Patrick being uneasy at the CS, as if he had a feeling at the back of his mind.  It's not often he walks off leaving behind vital info he could have given to Cho and getting one over on law enforcement officials.

There were quite a few suspects for the murders, the Vic's brother, Gordon (JD Cullen) the disgruntled tax avoiding farmer, Tom Creyhew (Chris Mulkey) the disgruntled tax avoiding farmer,the vet Ellen Preston (MJ Karmi) her daughter, Holly (Jenica Bergere) the chief and the priest, father Peter DiBuono (Kyle Secor).  But it was apparent the chief was corrupt, hence he has a long tab at the diner and why the teacher ran off when he arrived.  Crayhew points them to Ellen who was angry at the way the cult, notice they call Visualize a "church," members treated their animals, bringing up Satanic rituals.  Ellen has Alzheimer's (conveniently) but Holly has many qualifications so we and Patrick wonder why she ended up dog walking.  She was hiding something though and even Patrick noticed whilst playing with the dog.

The Vic, Lester (Gregory Marcel) used to give the workers drugs as they were made to work long hours and DBuono tells Van Pelt it was was probably speed.  Patrick has time to catch up to him to ask about the smiley face and he can only tell him that was creepy and he saw it the one and only time he went back after leaving.  Yet he doesn't know who put it there.  Patrick also gets the chief to admit he was the drug dealer and he would have been in high school at the time.

Haffner comes in to see how the investigation is progressing, but really under the guise of the job, which Lisbon tells him she doesn't want.  He lets slip Jason Cooper's name and Lisbon is as sharp as ever telling him no one but her and Patrick knew about his involvement.  He's a member of Visualize, thus another suspect in the list of Red John suspects.  He can't give her a list of members dating to 1988.

Patrick knows who killed Lester and wants the suspects gathered at the diner, where the night before he uses lemon juice to draw the Red John symbol onto some paper.  Hey he was a dab hand at that drawing wasn't it, me thinks it came a little too easy to him.  When he puts the coffee pot down the symbol appears which causes a reaction Ellen.  Holly admits she killed him only cos he was harassing her mother and shot their dog.  They buried him in the barn, but the other two DBs were already there.  She also felt they were being watched.  Hey Patrick had a bit of a smirk on his face then.

Haffner tries to get Lisbon to have the charges increased from manslaughter to murder one but she believes she was protecting her mother.  He is also surprised Lisbon didn't make more of his being a member of Visualize, but that's where he's getting part of the money to fund his firm.

Lisbon gets into the attic and finds Patrick has been a busy boy mapping out everything on to a board and telling her he's narrowed down his suspects to about 408 but with the Visualize members he can narrow it down more.  He doesn't believe it was any women, well that's a pity, do we believe that?  Lisbon says they can't get a warrant since Visualize is a church and no judge will give them one.  He's sure he's got more to go on now.

Oh and CBI Ron (John Troy Donovan) was mentioned by name at the beginning by Lisbon as most fans believe he is Red John or has ties to him. Also Patrick at the time must have been how old, in his teens too, so either he isn't Red John at all, end of story or maybe he could be as he was just starting out.  Surprising Patrick's power of recall when he dismisses people he's remembered meeting or having brief encounters with.  Yet he does dismiss some of them too readily since even a brief handshake can lead to another encounter or rather friendship.  Lorelei said she's surprised after their handshake Patrick hasn't made friends with Red John already.

Cho and Rigsby and how he was embarrassed by Rigsby singing Bohemian Rhapsody on the table, Cho was embarrassed.  Van Pelt still thinks Brett Stiles is doing a good job and clearly the impression he made on her in His Thoughts Were Red Thoughts and that bit of subtle brainwashing is still lasting on her when she thinks his work isn't a bad thing and can improve your life, especially if you're a good person.  Showing her vulnerability a little to need something of Brett Stile's teachings in her life.

The same with Haffner, he must have had a difficult period in his life to become a target of Visualize, or more particularly I want to know why he asks Lisbon, "Why would you ask me that?"  When she wants to know if he was at the farm.  Then she doesn't let on to Patrick about this little morsel she's found out, that he's a Visualize member, instead she asks for names on Patty's list to see if they can narrow them down, but maybe to see if Haffner may be on it.  Was she playing Patrick here: friends with Haffner, partners with Patty?
Lisbon: "You think you're so mysterious in there.  I know what you're doing in there."  Yet she still manages to 'force' her way in and get a look see.

Actually we seem to be getting mysterious with Lisbon aren't we, especially from the time she keeps a hammer in her desk, to telling Patrick he doesn't know all her secrets and here she doesn't tell him about Haffner.  Also why did the Father not know of Red John he's big news in the media.

Agent Haffner: Sure. And you guys-you guys have a track record, I-I understand why you wanna stick with that. But if there's one thing that I've learned about Jane, it's that catching bad guys is a game to him, and-and he's gonna quit someday. Maybe because he gets Red John, maybe because, what, he just gets bored. When that happens, you're gonna be on your own. Driving out to some crime scene in the middle of nowhere at 5:00 a.m., asking Rigsby what sort of sad story you gotta unravel this time. Is that what you really want? Because I think you deserve better. Think about it.

Liked this conversation quite a bit about Patrick and Lisbon has also been though that, being alone when Patrick went of to do his Red John 'thing' meeting Lorelei and trying to get him to reveal himself.  It is a game to him, what he does but also he has said in the past for him, it's something to do.  But for how long?  As well as being on the inside for all the Red John scoop.

There was a real murder in a red barn in 1827 in Suffolk, England.

Illusions or allusions to Ellis Mars in 3.9 Red Moon and Ellison farm here perhaps?

That photo of Patty at the top of the page, uncanny or creepy, it could be a mirror image, Patrick smiling whilst basking in the sun and that smiley face behind him.  otherwise it could be a little prophetic, mocking him from behind!
Has Patrick shaken hands with CBI Ron? Agh will have to re-watch eps now!!

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