The Mentalist 5x05 - Red Dawn! An Instant Classic!
Watching Red Dawn [The Mentalist 5x05] is just like traveling back in time inside a DeLorean. It's a great episode. I wished if it was written for the "Pilot".
Sofiane Merouani
I just came back from a twelve-hour flight and here I'm watching the 100th episode of The Mentalist. Entitled "Red Dawn", written by the hard-to-spell Tom Szentgyorgi (Lie to Me) and directed by the Chris Long, this epic episode brings the audience back in 2004 and follows Patrick Jane in his first day at the C.B.I. There he met with Senior agent Teresa Lisbon, Kimball Cho and Wayne Rigsby (with his cute goatee). And for Grace Van Pelt. She was not present at that time, being hired only in 2008.
Anyway, Jane, as many of you know, is not a psychic. He is a fraud and a charlatan who has been fleecing his clients by fooling them into believing his is a psychic. However, his career came to a halt when he made a mistake in slandering Red John on TV. Something that the killer did not really like and as a result, he murdered Jane's wife and his lovely daughter. Since then, Patrick was off-radar and has been committed to the insane asylum. He's grieving his lost and has a bit of a "homeless vibe" if I have to reprise Lisbon's quotes.
As usual, Red Dawn, despite being the 100th episode, does not change the rule. There is still the "case of the week" to be solved. And we see how Jane puts his bravura of his former calling as a psychic to find the murderer using cold-reading and "The Tarot Cards" -- But what I loved the most is how the mystery deepens about Red John's case. Near the end of the episode, Minneli is speaking to Alexa Shultz who is asking him to keep him on the loop about the case. She chimes in when she told him that Jane spent a year in an insane asylum. This explains why Virgil was too much careful about Jane back in Season 1 and why he gave the Red John case to the late Sam Bosco. Maybe Virgil is a member of the league too ? Who knows ? -- and one last thing, who was the guy sitting in the limo with Alexa ? Surely not Red John! Heller is too much careful when he comes to lay out his plan. He said that he already cast Red John back in the previous seasons. So may be this guy, along with Alexa are all People of Red John.
This episode puts lot of question marks instead of answering questions. But this episode also gives the feeling that Jane is fighting something much much bigger than a pathetic serial killer "who is hiding down a basement" if I have to reprise Bruno Heller's quotes in an interview. Red John is not a "Ted Bundy" on steroid. He is an organisation with higher-up and pawns. Hopefully, Lorelei will surely provide some insight and details about the killer. Can't wait to watch the subsequent episodes. Season 5 is full of surprise.
I'll try to review about The Mentalist in a more appropriate time. Now, I'm tired. I need a shower and a sleep. See ya!
Sofiane Merouani follow me @sofianemerouani