The Mentalist Brings Jane Closer to Catching Red John

• Tweet
• Pin It

If you were hoping The Mentalist Season 5 would be the season The Mentalist would finally have Simons Baker’s Patrick Jane catching Red John then you might want to rethink your hopes and dreams, maybe find a more attainable goal for the series. I’m not saying it won’t happen eventually, just not in this season. But we will see some great strides made in the case, taking the whole investigation to a whole new level than we’ve seen before in the past four years: we’re going to be given a precise whereabouts of Red John. And then the chase will begin. This will be a big deal for Jane, but it might put him at odds with Agent Lisbon.

Mentalist creator Bruno Heller spoke with TV Guide on where the season will take Jane in the investigation and how the cocktail waitress/Red John disciple, Lorelei, will help Jane get closer to catching Red John. “He’s more intense,” said Heller. “He is, in a very real sense, happier, more excited, more galvanized and kind of on his toes. It’s like he can taste it. This is the closet he’s gotten to Red John — ever.” Jane will do his best to seduce Lorelei, utilizing every ounce of his charm to get the information he wants. The downside is he’ll find himself in a professional and personal conflict with Lisbon. Lisbon will do her best to keep Jane away from Lorelei, and she won’t be the only one.

Agents Anna Schulz and Gabe Mancini will try to take the case into their own hands. One of them is certainly not to be trusted – Red John has a man inside the FBI – but Jane doesn’t trust either of them. And they don’t trust him either.

Returning this season is cult leader Bret Stiles (Malcolm McDowell). We’ll meet a girl (Dove Cameron) claiming to be Jane’s daughter, Polly Walker, as well as seeing a case for Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) and his father (William Forsythe). Lisbon will find herself personally involved in a midseason case, one where a witness she had encouraged to step forward in murdered by one nasty baddie. “Lisbon gets her own little nemesis and is a bit like Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive — a relentless man hunter.” This case will help her come to understand Jane’s obsession with catching Red John. A relationship between her and Jane isn’t going to be proclaiming their love for each, but the audience will certainly start to see something.