Person of Interest/The Mentalist

[silverscreenselect]

Two of my favorite TV shows are building up to episodes this week that should mark the culmination of long running plot lines and will undoubtedly feature the main characters going postal to dish out some long overdue payback:

1) Person of Interest appears to be wrapping up its story line involving the crooked cops organization HR, which has been around since almost the start of the show. At the end of the last show, there was a big twist when

Spoiler

Detective Carter, one of the more popular characters on the show, who had seemingly cracked the case and gotten her shield back, was gunned down by the rather slimy Officer Simmons, one of the few HR cops still on the loose. The promos for the episode had been leading people to believe that Detective Fusco would be the one killed, but when Carter and Reese had a liplock during the episode, I kind of knew what was going to happen.

Now, John Reese is out to get Simmons and the promos for next week's episode indicate the showdown will be rather bloody.

2) The Mentalist will be wrapping up the Red John story line this week with the final showdown between Patrick Jane and the as-yet unrevealed serial killer Red John, who killed Jane's family years earlier and has bedeviled him ever since. Three years ago, it looked as if Jane had disposed of Red John in the season finale, but in the following season opener it was revealed that the dead man (Bradley Whitford) was merely one of Red John's many minions. This time it appears as certain as it gets on TV that this week's episode will be the final showdown, since the series will jump forward two years in time to the following episode. The producers also came up with a list of seven suspects at the end of last season and claim Red John will be one of the seven, and the first few shows this season have served to narrow the field as most of the seven now appear to be dead. However, being TV, when a master criminal appears to be dead, that's often not the case. Still, I'm pretty sure that there won't be any more stunts like the producers pulled three years ago and that whoever is revealed this week will be the real Red John.

I'm definitely looking forward to these two shows.

[Ritterskoop]

My prime suspects for Red John are Bret Partridge, who is supposedly dead but whose face-on-a-body we haven't seen, and Michael Kirkland, twin to Bob, who we did see killed.

And CBI Ron is still lurking (he walked past Bertram last week and said, "Hi, Boss" and Bertram grinned).

[Bob Juch]

Two of my favorite TV shows are building up to episodes this week that should mark the culmination of long running plot lines and will undoubtedly feature the main characters going postal to dish out some long overdue payback:

1) Person of Interest appears to be wrapping up its story line involving the crooked cops organization HR, which has been around since almost the start of the show. At the end of the last show, there was a big twist when

Spoiler

Detective Carter, one of the more popular characters on the show, who had seemingly cracked the case and gotten her shield back, was gunned down by the rather slimy Officer Simmons, one of the few HR cops still on the loose. The promos for the episode had been leading people to believe that Detective Fusco would be the one killed, but when Carter and Reese had a liplock during the episode, I kind of knew what was going to happen.

Now, John Reese is out to get Simmons and the promos for next week's episode indicate the showdown will be rather bloody.

2) The Mentalist will be wrapping up the Red John story line this week with the final showdown between Patrick Jane and the as-yet unrevealed serial killer Red John, who killed Jane's family years earlier and has bedeviled him ever since. Three years ago, it looked as if Jane had disposed of Red John in the season finale, but in the following season opener it was revealed that the dead man (Bradley Whitford) was merely one of Red John's many minions. This time it appears as certain as it gets on TV that this week's episode will be the final showdown, since the series will jump forward two years in time to the following episode. The producers also came up with a list of seven suspects at the end of last season and claim Red John will be one of the seven, and the first few shows this season have served to narrow the field as most of the seven now appear to be dead. However, being TV, when a master criminal appears to be dead, that's often not the case. Still, I'm pretty sure that there won't be any more stunts like the producers pulled three years ago and that whoever is revealed this week will be the real Red John.

I'm definitely looking forward to these two shows.

They just want you to think that they're coming to a climax. Person of Interest's Episode 12: "Aletheia" airs 7 January 2014 and The Mentalist has 22 episodes this year, however next week's title is "Red John".

[Ritterskoop]

They just want you to think that they're coming to a climax. Person of Interest's Episode 12: "Aletheia" airs 7 January 2014 and The Mentalist has 22 episodes this year, however next week's title is "Red John".

It's one of the sweeps months. Climax does not mean end of the season.

Every episode of The Mentalist over six seasons has had red/crimson/some variation of red in the episode title. Episode 9 is Blue Heaven, signaling a new era.

[silverscreenselect]

They just want you to think that they're coming to a climax. Person of Interest's Episode 12: "Aletheia" airs 7 January 2014 and The Mentalist has 22 episodes this year, however next week's title is "Red John".

Person of Interest has a number of major story lines with ongoing villains, both individuals and organizations, that they keep going, so wrapping up one won't affect the others. This coming episode only really became a big emotional moment after what happened in the last episode.

It's pretty clear that The Mentalist will wrap up the Red John story line this week, because the producers have already let on that the next episode takes place two years in the future as the characters are moving on with their lives. Also, the title of every Mentalist episode has had the word "red," a type of red (crimson), or something that is red (blood) in the title. The next episodes will be entitled "My Blue Heaven" and "Green Thumb"

[silverscreenselect]

My prime suspects for Red John are Bret Partridge, who is supposedly dead but whose face-on-a-body we haven't seen, and Michael Kirkland, twin to Bob, who we did see killed.

And CBI Ron is still lurking (he walked past Bertram last week and said, "Hi, Boss" and Bertram grinned).

A primary rule of screenwriting is that if they introduce the fact that a character has a twin, that will play into the story somehow.

It's not necessarily Michael, the twin, who's Red John. Bob could be Red John and duped his brother (who he said was under Red John's influence) into taking the fall for him.

Before they introduced the twin angle, my money was on Sheriff McAllister whose one appearance on the show before this story arc was definitely creepy (plus I like Xander Berkeley). Now I'm split 50/50 between him and one of the Kirklands. Another primary rule of screenwriting is that characters who are burned/blown to bits and only identified by DNA samples (replacing the old standby dental records) often aren't dead.

[Bob Juch]

They just want you to think that they're coming to a climax. Person of Interest's Episode 12: "Aletheia" airs 7 January 2014 and The Mentalist has 22 episodes this year, however next week's title is "Red John".

It's one of the sweeps months. Climax does not mean end of the season.

Every episode of The Mentalist over six seasons has had red/crimson/some variation of red in the episode title. Episode 9 is Blue Heaven, signaling a new era.

There have been exceptions, e.g. "18-5-4".

[silverscreenselect]

They just want you to think that they're coming to a climax. Person of Interest's Episode 12: "Aletheia" airs 7 January 2014 and The Mentalist has 22 episodes this year, however next week's title is "Red John".

It's one of the sweeps months. Climax does not mean end of the season.

Every episode of The Mentalist over six seasons has had red/crimson/some variation of red in the episode title. Episode 9 is Blue Heaven, signaling a new era.

There have been exceptions, e.g. "18-5-4".

18 = R
5 = E
4 = D

[jaybee]

I'm firmly in the "Red John appears to be dead but really isn't" Camp. The making Bertram look guilty thing that is going on is more about him being guilty of being a higher up in the TigerTiger clan rather than actually be Red John.

But I don't have a good guess as to which one it is.

I've watched about 1/3 of the Mentalist over the years.

[Estonut]

They just want you to think that they're coming to a climax. Person of Interest's Episode 12: "Aletheia" airs 7 January 2014 and The Mentalist has 22 episodes this year, however next week's title is "Red John".

It's one of the sweeps months. Climax does not mean end of the season.

Every episode of The Mentalist over six seasons has had red/crimson/some variation of red in the episode title. Episode 9 is Blue Heaven, signaling a new era.

There have been exceptions, e.g. "18-5-4".

Google again. 18="R", 5="E" and 4="D".

[christie1111]

It's one of the sweeps months. Climax does not mean end of the season.

Every episode of The Mentalist over six seasons has had red/crimson/some variation of red in the episode title. Episode 9 is Blue Heaven, signaling a new era.

There have been exceptions, e.g. "18-5-4".

18 = R
5 = E
4 = D

LOL! I didn't pick that up.

I am glad they are moving along and being done with Red John. I have wanted the story line killed awhile ago. Just getting tired.

Hope they transition well to the end of the year. I do like the show quite a bit.

[silverscreenselect]

Apparently, the Red John episode of The Mentalist has now been leaked and is available online. In addistion, the IMDB listing for the show gives away the identity of Red John and there is a lot of online chatter about the episode.

Anyone not wanting to be spoiled (which includes me), needs to be careful what you look at over the next two days.

[ghostjmf]

Count me among the "not wanting to be spoiled", so thanks.

I really don't like how this arc has played out; I don't like seeing characters like the CBI head trashed when he was primarily sympathetic before (& how does that

Spoiler

"tongue in a box"

episode) jibe with him being Red John, anway? Wouldn't RJ have handled the whole thing himself?

Of course, CBI head has been killing people right & left recently. He's effectively trashed.

Since we have so many shoulder-dot-tattooed people running around, who's to say they aren't all RJ? I think the tattoos just make you a member of the cult. The person giving the tattoo clue was killed by someone with a tattoo, but there were plenty of those people to go around at that time, & prolly still are.


As far as what happened on POI (if you-all don't care about it, I've found various places that do), don't get me started. That really hurt.

Whereas IDing RJ, unless they write it a lot better than the lead-in series of episodes, I hate to say it but I almost don't care.

[tlynn78]

Count me among the "not wanting to be spoiled", so thanks.

I really don't like how this arc has played out; I don't like seeing characters like the CBI head trashed when he was primarily sympathetic before (& how does that

Spoiler

"tongue in a box"

episode) jibe with him being Red John, anway? Wouldn't RJ have handled the whole thing himself?

Of course, CBI head has been killing people right & left recently. He's effectively trashed.

Since we have so many shoulder-dot-tattooed people running around, who's to say they aren't all RJ? I think the tattoos just make you a member of the cult. The person giving the tattoo clue was killed by someone with a tattoo, but there were plenty of those people to go around at that time, & prolly still are.


As far as what happened on POI (if you-all don't care about it, I've found various places that do), don't get me started. That really hurt.

Whereas IDing RJ, unless they write it a lot better than the lead-in series of episodes, I hate to say it but I almost don't care.

I'm still in denial over that..

[Estonut]

I'm still in denial over that..

Spoiler

PoI? Me too. I can't wait to see Reese wreak vengeance, but I'd rather still have Carter around...

[silverscreenselect]

About The Mentalist

Spoiler

Well, my first guess was proved right, but tonight's episode left a lot of questions unanswered. The whole business about Jane's list and Red John figuring it out never made a whole lot of sense to me and they conveniently avoided answering it on tonight's show. The way the show played out, it seemed very arbitrary them choosing McAllister as RJ, without anything from the show's previous story lines to support it. And of course, the mysterious twin never showed up. I'm hoping they tie some of these loose plot threads into future episodes in which they come up with a reason for Jane to return to the States.

One thing, I've always liked Xander Berkeley and he really nailed the part in this episode. Now he's got a signature role he'll always be remembered for.

[ghostjmf]

Spoiler

One suspect I had in mind but didn't post here in time was Lisbon; completely out of character, but what says RJ has to be a "he"? Well, the various women RJ seduced & then turned into killers, but the could have been seduced by subordinates; how would their victims know?


As for the identified RJ, the "don't hurt me" pleading seemed out of character for a serial killer.


What wasn't out-of-character was Jane reciting a list of what RJ was, including "sociopath". I know the medical community differs on these defs, but to my mind RJ is a psychopath. At any rate, if you take "serial killer" out of the list, all those things Jane listed (highlighting "sociopath") could just as easily be about Jane.


I know the show will explain away Jane chocking RJ (if it really is RJ) to death by "forensic whatever says they were in a struggle", because by the time they catch up with Jane he'll have made himself look like it was a struggle. If he even bothers to.

Warning; spoilers, with philosophical ramblings, about a lot of crime/cop shows other than Mentalist follow:

Spoiler

I know a lot of viewing public these days apparently likes their show's main charcter to be a serial killer (Dexter, The Sopranos; yeah, I know, different defs of "serial killer") but network shows I've liked to watch ( I don't have cable) have also revealed their otherwise-heroic characters to be killers, under the "right" circumstances. Just to play with watchers' heads.

ER did it with their main Dr. not reviving a felon, while making medical sounds to seem as though he was. 3rd Watch did it with a very good cop shooting the head of the Russian mob point-blank. Head of Russian mob had had cop's Russian no-good stepson, then much-loved Russian wife killed previously, but at this meeting said "you won't shoot me because you American cops are so honest you don't do that", right before he got shot.


ER did it again with a nurse finally killing her abusive ex-husband. She was not involved in life-or-death struggle with him at the very moment, but I believe he'd just left her & their son for dead on the highway, or something.


Homicide has a trio of cops shoot an expert-at-beating-the-system drug lord who had actually come out with his hands up. Of course, they struggle with what-they-did in major ways, after. One of the shooters OCDing to the point of cleaning the grout around his bathtub in the middle of the night with a toothbrush really sticks in my mind as a great example.


3rd Watch had "not pulling out & reviving drug lord they'd shot who fell into his swimming pool" done by 2 cops, one of who gets promoted to detective on the basis of having hunted the drug lord down. (The other already was a vice-squad detective.)


But this is the 1st of the programs I watch where the show-hero killer slowly strangles someone, instead of shooting them, or failing to revive them. I don't think we'll find Jane has developed an appetite for strangling people from this. At least I hope not. Didn't look like it, the way it was shot.

[Ritterskoop]

This is Bertram, about whom we should have gotten more explanation but whatever:

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2 ... Gaston.jpg

This is LaRoche, who is still around and to me is still sympathetic (he's the one with the secret Tupperware box which was a crackling good story):

http://cdn.hitfix.com/photos/644239/men ... t_main.jpg

[tanstaafl2]

About The Mentalist

Spoiler

Well, my first guess was proved right, but tonight's episode left a lot of questions unanswered. The whole business about Jane's list and Red John figuring it out never made a whole lot of sense to me and they conveniently avoided answering it on tonight's show. The way the show played out, it seemed very arbitrary them choosing McAllister as RJ, without anything from the show's previous story lines to support it. And of course, the mysterious twin never showed up. I'm hoping they tie some of these loose plot threads into future episodes in which they come up with a reason for Jane to return to the States.

One thing, I've always liked Xander Berkeley and he really nailed the part in this episode. Now he's got a signature role he'll always be remembered for.

What? Percy's death in Nikita not good enough for you?

[silverscreenselect]

One hardcore fan of the Mentalist was definitely not happy about the Red John reveal (the language he uses is rather salty):

http://tinypic.com/player.php?v=i220ec&s=5#.Uplp0s4o45v