Mini Recap — The Mentalist 2.08 “His Red Right Hand”

Tonight’s episode of The Mentalist, “His Red Right Hand” saw the return of Patrick Jane’s nemesis Red John and plenty of shocks for the audience.

“His Red Right Hand” begins sweetly enough, with Rigsby and Van Pelt sharing a moment cuddling in bed before they’re both phoned separately by Lisbon. They arrive at a cemetary building, where a dead and frozen man has been found naked–his modesty preserved by a carefully arranged bouquet of yellow roses. While on the scene, Jane gets called by Bosco, who tells him to come see him as soon as he can.

The CBI returns to the department headquarters, joining Bosco’s secretary Rebecca as she’s bringing coffee to her boss. The coffee is soon spilled, as Rebecca discovers Bosco and two of his agents gunned down in his office. Stunned by the bloody crime scene, Jane stands immobile as Lisbon tries to revive Bosco, only spurred into action when Lisbon shouts at him to help. The building is locked down; Bosco is revived on scene by paramedics and taken away in an ambulance.

Lisbon sends Van Pelt and Rigsby to interview people in the building and check the security cameras. Jane still seems to be in shock, but then he tells Lisbon that Hicks is missing. The team investigates, and finds he’s not at home and his car is gone. They interview Rebecca, who tells them Bosco’s team was close to making arrests in a drug cartel case. Van Pelt is stunned when she and Rigsby discover there is missing security footage; that the cameras were disabled during the crime.

While Lisbon and her team investigate the cartel leads, Jane insists on pursuing their original frozen man case. The victim turns out to be a Dr. Towlan Morning, and Jane goes to the hospital where he works. Lisbon and Cho follow. On the way in, Jane becomes agitated when he sees a vase of yellow roses by the door. Approaching the doctor’s office, Jane first sees the telltale Red John smiley face on the wall. He also finds Agent Hicks, dead on the desk.

CBI boss gives a press conference about the agent’s deaths, and has a meltdown when asked to describe his “feelings”. He says he’s tired with the press and their horse’s assery, and that they have no idea what the fine agents of the CBI go through each day. “I feel sad, you moron,” he tells the reporter, before ending the conference. Lisbon commiserates with him after, assuring him that he told the truth.

Through further investigation, the team discovers that Bosco had a lead on one of Red John’s mistakes–a missing victim named Carter Peaks. The body was found at a construction site, and Bosco hoped there would be DNA evidence to help them find Red John. Lisbon and Jane head down to the Cloverville morgue to collect the body and evidence, only to be told that an Agent Roho from their division already picked up the body. Asking the man on duty that night for a description of the agent, Jane realizes it’s Rebecca–Bosco’s secretary.

With her insider access, Rebecca was able to disable the cameras and get close enough to Bosco and his team to shoot them with a silencer gun (while announcing “Red John Says ‘Hi.'” Lisbon and Van Pelt catch Rebecca in Bosco’s hospital room, trying to finish the job, and Van Pelt nicely slams Rebecca face first into a wall. Lisbon is contemplating shooting the maniacally grinning Rebecca when Bosco wakes up to ask what’s going on.

There’s heavy police and S.W.A.T. protection as they bring Rebecca in to the CBI. They put her in a room with Jane. They sit in silence for awhile, then Jane asks one of his usual innocuous questions about music. Rebecca doesn’t fall for it, telling him she knows all his tricks. Jane tells her she is nothing but a useful object to Red John, that he is not a good man. Rebecca counters that Red John is “on a mission of love and enlightenment. Without death, there is no life, without dark there is no light.” She tells Jane he is a perfect example, that when his family was murdered, he finally saw the world for what it truly was.

Jane assures her that she will one day regret what she’s done and open up to him. But he asks her to explain why Red John had her murder Bosco’s team when he already had the body and the evidence. In a chilling moment, Rebecca tells him that Red John thought he would understand, that he killed the team so Jane could have the case back. “He wants you back. And it’s what you wanted to, isn’t it?” Jane’s slight smile is hard to read, but then he becomes serious and ends the interview.

While she’s being transferred, someone passes her in the hall and slaps a poisoned substance onto her hand. She dies instantly, removing the last link they had to Red John.

Back at the hospital, Bosco gets Lisbon to tell him the truth about his condition–he’s lost too much blood and probably won’t make it. He tells Lisbon he loves her–that it had to be said. She reciprocates, but it seems they both know he means it more intimately than he does. Bosco asks to talk to Jane, and tells him that he will catch Red John. And that when he does, he shouldn’t arrest him, he should kill him. Jane replies “That’s the plan.” He then whispers something else which Jane leans down to hear, and he then he’s gone.

Lisbon returns to the office, only to find that their boss Minelli has decided to retire. It’s clear that the loss of four agents has been too much to bear. Lisbon is upset, but she understands, and hugs him goodbye. Back in the office with her team, they drink the last of Bosco’s secret stash of tequila. While Rigsby quietly leads them in a verse of “Amazing Grace”, which was played at Bosco’s funeral, Jane slips away to immediately dig into the Red John case.

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PHOTO: Simon Baker as Patrick Jane, The Mentalist “His Red Right Hand” screencap, c2009 Primrose Hill Productions, Warner Bros. Television, CBS.