Monday, May 6, 2013

The Mentalist Season Finale (Season 5) Red John: Psychic or Mentalist?

 The following is the only explanation that makes any sense to me.

"This is the final chase," Heller says. "We will know who Red John is and we will catch him next season. Everything that has happened over the past five years will come to a head, and things will change drastically. This is the biggest finale in terms of game-changing and setting up for the last act of the Red John saga. This is as definitive and revolutionary as you can get." [from the Red Blog]___________________________________________________________________
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BUT THE REAL MYSTERY IS THIS:

It would seem that either

a) Red John IS psychic, otherwise how would he know not only Jane's exact final list of suspects which only Jane knows, but also Jane's memory of the girl Eileen whom RJ murders? also, that the memory was a treasured one, which he destroys on purpose by killing Eileen.   (Note: Heller obviously wants us to believe along with Jane that there are no real psychics, only clever fakers, so I doubt that this is the answer.)

OR

b) Red John is Patrick Jane (how else would RJ know these things if there are no such things as psychics and only Jane knows them?)

OR

c) Red John is a mentalist like Jane and is using trickery to make it seem like he is really reading Jane's mind when actually he is just using info he got from carney people from Jane's youth, and his list of suspects matching Jane's is the result of theft...see explanation below.

If we are going on the assumption that there are no real psychics and Red John is NOT Patrick Jane (this would be horribly obvious and derivative--Fight Club already did this better than Heller would be able to do, and it would be a simplistic plot device  not worthy of TM writers.) then we must find out how the hell could RJ have possibly known things known only to Jane himself.

At first glance, it seems that the only possibility here is that Jane told someone else about both the memory and the suspect list, but whom and when?*

It would have to be someone who either told RJ directly or someone RJ got this info out of by force or by bribe.  For the Eileen memory, it might be someone from his past who observed that Patrick was happy at the scene we see when he was 12 years old.  Or maybe just someone who knew the kind of memories Jane would treasure of someone RJ could kill. Possibly Sean Barlow, the creepy psychic who probably is a mentalist almost as good as Jane, gave RJ this info.   Eileen was his niece, so he probably saw them playing together.  He has already disowned her, so he doesn't care if she dies.  He does want his grandchild, so RJ makes sure he has an accomplice kidnap the baby.

The list of suspects is trickier.  The only way someone other than Jane could access it is someone who broke into his room and was able to find it.  Jane is far too clever to leave the real suspect list where an intruder could find it, so he probably memorized it and left a fake written list.  There was an earlier break-in in which Kirkland ends up with the RJ timeline collage (also almost certainly faked)

What might have happened is that Jane left a fake suspect list where an intruder found it and conveyed it to RJ.  So only Jane knows the REAL suspect list but RJ got the fake list. (Jane's photo cards with the suspects' faces on them are also fakes--he actually has a whole different list in his head)  So the list Lisbon sees is not the real list and Jane knows it. He also has managed to fool RJ.  Jane undoubtedly prepared for the event that RJ gets hold of his suspect list by creating a fake one to throw him off the scent.

The appearance of Lorelei on the video reading RJ's letter was not a surprise to me; I have always thought that she faked her own death, that it was staged.  The video could not have been made before her "death" because Jane did not have the final 7 suspect list yet.  So we know that Lorelei is still alive. She says Red John will not make her suffer as much if she reads the letter to Jane, so RJ must be holding her hostage. 

* actually, RJ makes no direct reference to the actual scene of the memory that we see.  It was enough for him to make it seem like he knew the exact memory when in reality he only knew that it was a memory--any memory--of Eileen would be enough to hurt Jane.  All he would need to find that out is someone who knew Jane and Eileen as kids and saw them playing together.  This points to Sean Barlow for sure.  He could have told RJ to stick it to Jane by killing Eileen.
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WHAT DO YOU THINK?

3 comments:

Taissa said...

Well, I don't think TM will go through the "magic" road, so I'm not convinced that RJ is a psychic. One thing I noticed from his message to Jane was that he said "You think you are clever? You were lucky. I'll show you what is clever" He doesn't say I'll show you what is magical or anything like that. He said clever specifically, so he wasn't refering to anything extraordinary, so I belive he is a very good mentalist, specially considering what he did to Kristina Frye. I think he probably was present the day Jane had that memory and figured out that Jane would hold that day as a happy day, maybe he saw Jane looking at that girl and was able to read him, so he used that information to kill the girl and then sayd he killed a happy memory, but, like you stated yourself, he doesn't describe that memory, so it could be any memory related to that girl during that day.

As for the RJ is PJ theory, I really don't think they are the same person beacuse that would leave several plot holes trough the story, it would be like when they revealed who Gossip Girl was.

Bruno Heller already said that is the real list and that RJ is one of those people. So, for the part where RJ guesses the list days ahead of Jane, I think it is possible that Kirkland works for RJ and he took those photos of Jane's mural (that was obviously messed up and with fake info) and showed to RJ. Than RJ figured it out it was fake info and guessed what the real list would be, kind of like when Jane guesses a truth from a lie. I don't know how he did it, but I guess they will explain it next season.

"The appearance of Lorelei on the video reading RJ's letter was not a surprise to me; I have always thought that she faked her own death, that it was staged. The video could not have been made before her "death" because Jane did not have the final 7 suspect list yet. So we know that Lorelei is still alive. She says Red John will not make her suffer as much if she reads the letter to Jane, so RJ must be holding her hostage."

Well, she is dead. Is not like she went missing or something. They found her dead body and all. The fact that the video was made before RJ killed her is the twist at the end of the episode, that RJ was able to guess Jane's list and that he predicted (or more like orchestrated) Jane's moves way ahead of him.

Well, I can't wait for next season. I've been thinking who RJ could be from that list and from info given in previous seasons. I was also thinking abou that "He is mar..." or "man.." that Jared Renfrew left written on a wall during 1st season. I thought it could be 'married' or 'manipulated'(wich could leave a bigger vilain for Jane to catch after he catches RJ), also he could be writting in code, 'mar'ar the last 3 letter in Betram, he could be trying to wirte "martreb". But I'm not really sure Bertram is RJ, there are a few things in his personality and how he behaved in some episodes.

Well, I think I wrote enoguht (too much!) I'll wait for ReviewBrain's review and talk more there. :D

Carla Oliveira said...

Good thoughts. But, in a interview, Bruno Heller has said with all letters that Jane is not RJ and that RJ is one of the suspects in Jane's list. The list is real, according with Heller. But I think you are right aboult Lorelai is alive and that video is current and the list was stolen. About Jane's memories, I think you are right, jane has told them to someone, maybe Sophie Miller, his doctor long time ago. He had a nervous break down, he cannot remember because of this. I don't think RJ is a psychic, but a mentalist, like Jane, maybe better than Jane. The list which Lisbon knows is real, think. In the end of episode Jane was devasted.

Carla Oliveira said...

Good thoughts. But, in a interview, Bruno Heller has said with all letters that Jane is not RJ and that RJ is one of the suspects in Jane's list. The list is real, according with Heller. But I think you are right aboult Lorelai is alive and that video is current and the list was stolen. About Jane's memories, I think you are right, jane has told them to someone, maybe Sophie Miller, his doctor long time ago. He had a nervous break down, he cannot remember because of this. I don't think RJ is a psychic, but a mentalist, like Jane, maybe better than Jane. The list which Lisbon knows is real, think. In the end of episode Jane was devasted.