Lisbon gives a police talk to kids, Jane longs for companionship (6x09 spoilers)

TV Guide Magazine: You directed the next episode, where the show leaps ahead two years. What can you tell us about it?

Baker: It's almost like a pilot for a new show. When we come back after Red John's death, Jane is somewhere in paradise. A large portion of the episode is in Spanish. Cho is now with the FBI. Rigsby and Van Pelt have their own little detective business. And Lisbon is in Washington state working as a chief of police in a podunk kind of town. The episode opens with her talking to grade-school kids about what the police do. I had so much fun with the episode. It was such a reprieve from all the tension this season.

TV Guide Magazine: Any chance of a Jane-Lisbon romance? A lot of fans are dying to see that happen!

Baker: You will see that he really misses Lisbon and is a sad, floundering shadow of a man. He's afraid and just going around and around in circles. He's completely lost his mojo and he's asking himself, "Is this what you want to be? Is this the way you see the rest of your life?" He's offered a chance to go back to work for the F.B.I. and declines because he's trying to move on from that life. The episode has an interesting kind of noir-ish feel to it. Jane had been filled with this deep desire for revenge, which is generated out of self-loathing, right? Take that revenge out of the equation and he's just this guy who is empty. But the episode is also really romantic in a way, because you see how much Jane longs for companionship. You want to know something I've never talked about?

Read more:

Interview with Simon Baker
10 more spoilers (6x09, 6x10)

When are Jane and Lisbon working together again?

Are you looking forward to the big reunion-of-sorts on “The Mentalist” season 6? Well, we can at least tell you now when you will see Jane and Lisbon working together again: The new episode airing a week from Sunday. While it could be during Sunday’s “My Blue Heaven” that they start to spend some time together, they will be back together during the December 8 episode, which has a different sort of color-oriented title in “Green Thumb.”

First of all, we do at least appreciate that the show is trying to do something to show that shows some time has passed. For example, Patrick looks more like a guy who has spent the past year or so on the beach than he ever did while trying to find Red John. He also looks far less comfortable in a suit. The interesting part of this story is going to come from seeing just what his relationship with Lisbon is like now. The last time he communicated with her, it was with a voice message that he left, in which he proclaimed that Red John was dead.

Also, we wonder just what Lisbon has been up to in the last little while, given that whenever she was around Jane over the years, she was basically throwing herself into all sorts of situations involving trouble. There really was not any escape at all from the madness. So what is she going to do now? While there has been plenty of speculation that Jane could be dating the new character of Kim Fischer (Emily Swallow), what may be just as interesting a question now is whether or not she is still on the market. Two years is a pretty long time, and quite a bit can happen in between then and the present.

SRC: cartermatt.com/

The Mentalist 2.0: 10 Things to Know About Señor Jane, Chief Lisbon and Life 'In the Future' (6x09 & 6x10 spoilers)

CBS’ The Mentalist begins a new life this Sunday at 10:30 pm/9:30c — life without you-know-who — and TVLine got a sneak peek at the first two episodes, titled “My Blue Heaven” and “Green Thumb.”

As previously reported, the action picks up two years after the events of last week’s episode, with Jane now in a very different place, spiritually and geographically — and with a new woman about to enter his life. Lisbon, Van Pelt, Rigsby and Cho also followed new paths in the wake of the CBI’s disbandment, while the FBI isn’t done just yet trying to get their hands on ol’ whatshisname’s killer.

All told, here are 10 teases from The Mentalist‘s upcoming episodes.

1. Laying low on an island where, he says, only one other person speaks English, Jane’s Spanish is atrocious — as is his choice in breakfast beverage — the locals privately snark. That said, he does look out for his neighbors’ best interests, especially in the wake of a horrible killing.
2. New series regular Emily Swallow (of TNT’s Monday Mornings) makes her debut this Sunday as Kim, a vacationer who catches Jane’s eye — even if she is reading a murder mystery (gah!) when they first meet. Kim also makes a very nice cup of tea; it’s up to you to decide if I mean that as a euphemism.
3. Lisbon for the past 18 months has been keeping “busy” as the police chief of a small Washington burg, where she hunts down… bicycle thieves and such. At night, she is known to catch up with private security firm owners Rigsby and Van Pelt, or curl up on the sofa with some wine and [spoiler].
4. Cho? As full of bubbly personality as ever.
5. FBI Special Agent Abbott (new series regular Rockmond Dunbar), even two years later, is anxious to once and for all track down Jane — and for a very specific reason.
6. In the Dec. 8 episode, Azita Ghanizada — formerly of Syfy’s Alphas — plays a woman named Defiance, which amused me. Alphas. Defiance. All that’s missing is a warehouse numbered 13.
7. Things are quite hairy My Blue Heavenin the future. Jane’s beard. Lisbon’s longer locks (when not stowed away in police chief mode). Van Pelt’s bangs.
8. Jane’s wedding ring and whether or not he still wears it is at one point a conversation topic.
9. A loose thread from the Red John storyline at one point resurfaces. That said (as Simon Baker previously indicated), the words “Red John” are not once uttered — though the serial killer is referred to.
10. At the close of the second episode, Lisbon surprises Jane with something.

SRC: tvline.com/

Mentalist exit 'sad' for Righetti (interview, video)

The Mentalist's Amanda Righetti has revealed her departure from the show is "bittersweet".

The actress, who plays special agent Grace Van Pelt, will leave the crime drama with co-star and screen spouse Owain Yeoman (Wayne Rigsby) after the current sixth season.

"I'm still filming. I'm getting ready for it. I'm anticipating life without The Mentalist, which is a mixed bag," she admitted.

"It's a little bittersweet. It was a long run, an unexpected long run, but a welcome one and the show's been great to me. There's a part of me that is sad to see it coming to a close."

The 30-year-old said she would miss her co-stars including Simon Baker, Robin Tunney and Tim Kang the most.

" You become like a family after six years," she said. " It's a long shoot - we shoot nine and a half months out of the year - and the days are long so you better be doing it with people that you like otherwise it can be really miserable."

Amanda, an original member of the cast since The Mentalist started in 2008, admitted that the show's writers have kept the cast in the dark over their exit storylines.

"They tell us but then it changes so you can't really trust what the writers tell you. Even the stuff they give us are very small and ambiguous," she said.

"They lie to us, absolutely! They'll say (one thing) and then they will change their minds and say, 'I think we're going to go a different direction this episode'."



SRC: independent.ie/

5 things to look for in 'My Blue Heaven'

Even before "The Mentalist" comes on screen Sunday (Dec. 1), you may notice something different about the show.

All but a handful of the CBS show's 124 previous episode titles have made some reference to the color red -- either variations on the color itself or things (roses, blood) that are red. Now that Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) has finished his quest to find and kill Red John, however, creator Bruno Heller says he's "very happy" about leaving "Red" out of episode titles.

He's sticking with the color theme, though -- Sunday's episode is called "My Blue Heaven," and the one that follows it is called "Green Thumb."

Here's more of what you can expect to see in "My Blue Heaven," which Baker also directed.

There's a time jump. The story picks up two years after the events of "Red John." The Red John-Blake Association scandal that took down the CBI has scattered the show's regulars. But don't worry ...

Where are they now? The episode -- perhaps the least crime-solvingest one in "Mentalist" history -- spends most of its time with Jane, who has built a quiet, if somewhat lonely, life on an island south of the border. But we also catch up with Lisbon (Robin Tunney), who's now a small-town police chief, and Cho (Tim Kang), also still in law enforcement. Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti) and Rigsby (Owain Yeoman), however, have moved into the private sector with their own security company.

New girl. Jane's solitude is broken up some with the arrival of Kim Fischer (new cast member Emily Swallow), who gives him some much-needed conversation (in English; however long he's spent in exile, his Spanish still is pretty weak) and companionship.

Gone but not forgotten. Two years down the road, though, Jane is still a fugitive, and FBI Agent Dennis Abbott (Rockmond Dunbar) is still looking for him. He goes to see Lisbon to see if they've been in touch, and maybe finds a clue there.

Jane can't help it. Though he's out of the crime-fighting business, Jane can't help but try to right injustice when he sees it. So when he has a run-in with a local drug dealer, it ends up being bad news for the dealer.

"The Mentalist" airs at 10:30 p.m. ET Sunday on CBS. The network has an NFL double-header Sunday that may cut into primetime, so the start time is approximate. 

SRC: blog.zap2it.com/

RED JOHN BLUES (Review)

So, Patrick Jane finally learned the identity of Red John and sent him to his maker on “The Mentalist.” For those who haven't had a chance to see the episode yet, I won't give away his/her identity here, but I will say: Prepare to be disappointed.

Has there ever been a long-running story line so ineptly and unsatisfyingly concluded? (Except for “Lost,” of course.)

I'm just glad Red John is done. Perhaps “The Mentalist” can now return to the episodic stories that made it such a fun show in its early days. Any retooling probably comes to late to save the show, which seems likely to be canceled after the current season ends in May.

SRC: ocregister.com/

6x12 title revealed

The Title of The Mentalist episode 6x12 is "Golden Hammer".

SRC: www.spoilertv.com/

'The Mentalist' ready to leave Red John behind (Preview)

This past Sunday's episode of CBS's "The Mentalist" rocked the show's premise with the revelation of the identity of Red John and more (warning: spoilers from the Nov. 24 episode ahead).

It turned out that Red John was not Patrick Jane's boss, CBI director Gale Bertram (Michael Gaston), but instead it was Thomas McAllister (Xander Berkeley). And by the end of Sunday's episode, Jane (Simon Baker, "The Guardian") had killed Red John with his bare hands.

"It was a real pleasing emotional closer to that story," said "Mentalist" executive producer Bruno Heller in a teleconference with reporters last week. "For me it was giving Patrick Jane exactly what he had hunted for all these years. I didn't think it was a moment for cleverness or moral ambivalence. He wanted revenge, and he got it."

Mr. Heller said there was no definitive identity to Red John at the beginning of the series, but McAllister emerged as the leading contender over time. As to the timing of this revelation, Mr. Heller said "it just seemed like, from a story-telling point of view and an audience point of view, it was time to move the story forward, and the best way to move it forward in a way that's exciting to the audience is to move forward much faster than they think."

Don't expect the show to go back and explain how Red John did everything he did over the years; Mr. Heller said it's time to move on. But how?

"Jane is a tragic figure who's gotten his heart's desire, the evil grail he's been chasing all these years," Mr. Heller said. "What does that do to him as a person? Can he begin a new life, and what kind of life does he want for himself and how will he define himself now that that part of his life is over?"

This week's episode (10:30 p.m. Sunday, KDKA-TV) picks up the story two years later.

At some point the show will return to a case-of-the-week format, although the CBI set has been torn down ("Yes, we'll be returning eventually to crime solving but not necessarily the same kind of crime solving"). With the Red John story done, could this be the last season of "The Mentalist"? It certainly seems like the end could be near.

"Tomorrow is never a given in this business," Mr. Heller said, noting that he'll be writing toward a season finale and not necessarily a series finale to air in May. "In a very real sense Jane is a happier person and a weight has been taken off his shoulders, and a weight has been taken off the show. It's gonna be the same show to some degree, but it's gonna be a show with less darkness at the edges and more freedom to roam."

First, of course, there will be ramifications for Jane killing Red John.

"When Red John dies, a large part of Jane dies in that moment as well," said Mr. Baker. "I think it takes a little time for him to get back on his feet again. He doesn't have a wife and kids. He doesn't have relationships with anyone other than the people he worked with at CBI and this perverse relationship with Red John. Now that that's over, he doesn't have a lot other than the CBI people."

SRC: post-gazette.com/

6x09 "My Blue Heaven" (CTV Promo)

6x09: Patrick Jane Meets NEW Series Regular In Post-Red John World (spoiler, snak peek)

Two years after killing Red John, The Mentalist's Patrick Jane is secretly living south of the boarder, seemingly content until Kim Fischer comes into his life.

A new sneak peek clip from this week's upcoming episode, "My Blue Heaven," shows Jane (Simon Baker) meeting Fischer (Emily Swallow) for the first time at a local restaurant (see video below). While recent previews suggest that the pair will enjoy each others company, Jane should treed lightly since Fischer is actually and FBI agent.

With the FBI still pursuing the faux psychic for his murder of his serial killer nemesis, Fischer could be poised to bring him in and somehow set him back on the path of crime solving.

"When you're as good a detective as Jane is, it's very hard to walk away even when you want to walk away," said series creator Bruno Heller, according to TV Line. "Some people won't let Jane walk away from what he's so good at. And our new female lead has something to do with that."

However, it does sound like FBI Agent Dennis Abbott (Rockmond Dunbar) will get his chance to arrest Jane.

"You can't go around killing people willy-nilly without some sort of ramification," Heller told TV Line. "Jane is going to be in a position where his personal desires are not the point.... What he does in the future is not going to be entirely up to himself."



SRC: enstarz.com/

Prime time's death toll rises as shows like 'Family Guy,' 'Boardwalk Empire,' 'Sons of Anarchy' lose big characters (Review)

Red John, we hardly knew ye: From 'The Mentalist' and 'Boardwalk Empire' to 'Family Guy,' shows have been killing off characters.

"Person of Interest's" Joss Carter and John Reese, played by Taraji P. Henson and Jim Caviezel

Warning: Spoilers ahead for several recent shows.
Call it the November Massacre.
For whatever reason, prime-time television decided to erase a startling number of entrenched characters over the last 10 days.

FOX

Fans of 'Family Guy' got quite the shock Sunday night.

And not just more zombies on “The Walking Dead.”

These were characters who had been around a while, which is always somewhat startling.

Sonja Flemming/CBS

Simon Baker on 'The Mentalist.'

Most shows like to keep characters alive as long as possible, even if they’re evil — maybe especially if they’re evil — once the show has invested time in them.
But not always. Just ask:

Frank W Ockenfels 3/ CBS

'Person of Interest' lost a fan favorite.

–   Joss Carter, played by Taraji P. Henson, on CBS’ “Person of Interest.” She was the week’s least likely victim, a sympathetic character killed saving colleagues.
–   Clay Morrow, played by Ron Perlman, on FX’s “Sons of Anarchy.” Clay was the oiliest guy in a gang that regards the law as just a suggestion. Still, he was a central player. Oh yeah, he was executed by the man he raised as a son.
–   Richard Harrow, played by Jack Huston, on HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire.” Audiences liked Richard, who was damaged beyond repair by World War I. His death at the end felt like a formality.
–   Red John, real name Thomas McAllister, played by Xander Berkeley on CBS’ “The Mentalist.” We didn't really know Red John, except that Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) wanted to kill him. And so he did. The impact on the show will be mostly strategic: It will now fast-forward two years to Jane’s life after Red John.
–   Brian Griffin, voiced by Seth MacFarlane on Fox’s “Family Guy.” MacFarlane felt it would invigorate the show to have a character die, and perhaps to the mild surprise of those who follow his work, he had a car run over the dog instead of one of the kids.

SRC: nydailynews.com/

Is ‘killing the dog’ TV’s new strategy to keep viewers watching? (review)

TV shows have long been challenged, particularly network and basic cable series, by technology, ever-expanding viewing platforms, limited attention spans, etc. And with things like “binge watching” and “speed plotting” entering the lexicon, what used to be the zeitgeist and tomorrow’s watercooler talk are so five seconds ago. Spoiler alerts are still expected, but we also live in an age of “you snooze, you lose.”

What’s a poor program to do? One answer is to go for the ultimate shock and awe. Just this past week alone saw three established series – “Person of Interest,” “Sons of Anarchy” and “Boardwalk Empire” – kill off major characters who had been on the show since episode one. And last night…, “Family Guy” bid a fond farewell (sincerity on “Family Guy,” whodathunkit?) to a member of the Griffin family. SPOILER ALERT (as if you haven’t seen it taking over the internet all day) ………. RIP Brian Griffin. (Methinks his voicer, Seth MacFarlane, will be OK.)

And that’s not even taking into account the weekly body count leading up to last night’s five-and-a-quarter-season in the making Red John reveal on “The Mentalist.”

In that vein of cutthroat creativity, we’re wondering what other characters you would send to eternal (digital) sleep. All in the interests of juicing up the plots and action, mind you; we’re not just talking about characters you hate (although a few of them do dovetail nicely).

Are you hoping to never again hear a voiceover from Meredith Grey on “Grey’s Anatomy“? (Think it’s impossible to off the title character? Just ask Valerie Harper of
“Valerie”“Valerie’s Family”“The Hogan Family.”) Should Ice T’s Finn Tutuola from “Law & Order: SVU” leave the groaning one-liners to other detectives? Is it time for Randy Jackson from “American Idol” to prove that all dawgs do indeed go to heaven? (That guy is fictional, right? I mean, he can’t be real.)

We came up with a random sampling of 20 characters from across the dial whose deaths could jump start their shows. Vote for one or give us an even better example.

What TV character should be killed off to juice up the plots?

• Glenn from "The Walking Dead"
• Frank from "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia"
• Meredith from "Grey's Anatomy"
• Fitch Cooper from "Nurse Jackie"
• Butters from "South Park"
• Pierce Hawthorne from "Community"
• Betty Draper from "Mad Men"
• Finn Tutola from "Law & Order: SVU"
• Ted Mosby from "How I Met Your Mother"
• Castiel from "Supernatural"
• Sue Sylvester from "Glee"
• The entire cast of "Two and a Half Men"
• Bill from "True Blood"
• Jay from "Modern Family"
• Mrs. Wolowitz from "The Big Bang Theory"
• Randy Jackson from "American Idol"
• Marnie from "Girls"
• Brodiy from "Homeland"
• Kalinda from "The Good Wife"
• Abby from "NCIS"
• Other (Tell us who in the comments)

View Results

SRC: blog.timesunion.com/

Insider's Blog: 6x08 Red John (Bruno Heller)

This week's Insider's Blog is written by The Mentalist's Creator Bruno Heller, about Sunday's episode 6x08 "Red John":

The final chapter of Red John has finally come to a close. I would have to admit that the biggest challenge in writing this episode was not what way to kill Red John, but simply the length of the episode. We have 42 minutes to wrap up a story that’s been running for six years. It’s very hard, if not impossible to contain all that the story demands in those 42 minutes. A lot of the big creative choices come down to what you leave out; what you don’t write. This is why I decided to make Patrick Jane’s final scene with Red John as intimate as possible. There is no murder more personal than killing someone with your bare hands.

One of my favorite things about this episode was the pigeon gag in the chapel. The pigeon gag is a plot device that could only work on The Mentalist - Playful, unexpected, a little preposterous, but eminently logical. This gag is very common in the Carney lifestyle and seemed perfectly fitting for Jane’s final gag on Red John. A lot of people didn’t believe it would play out, but I was determined to keep it, and I think it played out perfectly. We created the bird phobia for McAllister to open up his character and give Jane something fun to play with. We created little quirks to McAllister’s personality along the way. If you take a look back you might be able to catch some of the clues we laid in earlier in the season.

Director/EP Chris Long did an amazing job as always, and made sure to carefully calculate and perfect every little detail in the episode. I wouldn’t have wanted any other person to direct such an important episode of The Mentalist series. His creative directive mind knew exactly the right direction to take this piece in.

Check out the extras in the last frame of the show and you’ll see how much attention to detail goes into the work, and how carefully Chris Long plans his shots…The extras represent the life Jane could have had if fate and Red John had not intervened…

Written by
Creator Bruno Heller

6x09 "My Blue Heaven" (Sneak Peek, video, spoiler)

Robin Tunney and Simon Baker about The Mentalist 6x08 (video interview)

SRC: robingreenshades.blogspot.com/

Simon Baker: All those times we heard the voice of Red John? That was me.

All those times we heard the voice of Red John? That was me.

TV Guide Magazine: Seriously?
Baker: Yes! In the Season 2 finale, when Jane was captured and Red John did that "Tyger, Tyger" thing with the mask on? That was me. I played both characters in that scene.

TV Guide Magazine: Wow. That's especially trippy considering there was a major theory going around that Jane was Red John. So in a way that turned out to be true!
Baker: That was the reason I did that. There was a point where Bruno was saying, "We don't know who we're going to cast to play [the masked Red John]." I said, "Don't cast anyone! I'll do it." Bruno was, like, "I love it! I love it!" So I put on a mask and did that funny, wispy little voice. And for seasons after, whenever Red John spoke, I had to go record the voice.

More here

'Mentalist' actress talks big Red John reveal (Amanda Righetti, video interview)

SRC: www.usatoday.com/

6x10: 'Green Thumb' (synopsis, promotional photo)

"Green Thumb" - The FBI reluctantly enlists Jane's help to find a missing computer programmer, but he won't help unless Lisbon is brought on board as well, on THE MENTALIST, Sunday, Dec. 8 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET, 10:00 - 11:00, PT) on the CBS Television Network.


CHEAT TWEET: It’s a whole new world for Jane – and for the FBI. Is this new arrangement going to work? #TheMentalist 12/8 10 PM


SERIES REGULARS:
Simon Baker (Patrick Jane)
Robin Tunney (Teresa Lisbon)
Tim Kang (Kimball Cho)
Owain Yeoman (Wayne Rigsby)
Amanda Righetti (Grace Van Pelt)
Rockmond Dunbar (FBI Agent Dennis Abbott)

GUEST CAST
Emily Swallow (Kim Fischer)
Joe Adler (Jason Wylie)
Azita Ghanizada (Defiance Schneiderman)
Shannon McClung (Agent Collins)
Shane Edelman (Abel Schneiderman)
Alejandro Cardenas (Jose Martinez)
Francois Chau (Mr. Nguyen)
Matt Gossen (Henry)
Billy Malone (Agent Davis)
Sean Patrick Murphy (Agent Stanley)
Jake Vaughn (5 Year Old Boy)
Phong Tran (Mr. Lewis Henchman)

WRITTEN BY: Daniel Cerone
DIRECTED BY: Robert Duncan McNeill

Post Mortem: Is The Mentalist's Red John Saga Truly Over? And 7 More Burning Qs Answered

DID RED ALWAYS END UP DEAD? | Heller says that Jane coming face-to-face with his family’s killer “wasn’t a time for moral ambivalence,” and as such “any other ending would have almost been dishonest.” The means of death also is signficant. “To pull a trigger is just pulling a trigger — the gun does the killing,” Baker posits. “But to actually grapple with someone and kill them with your hands is far more intimate.” Heller concurs, saying the end result was “hard, but good, to watch” for viewers craving closure.

WILL JANE PAY FOR HIS CRIME? | Sure, there didn’t seem to be anyone around, but the DNA evidence (and motive!) is surely substantial. And as Heller notes, “You can’t go around killing people willy-nilly without some sort of ramification.” As such, whatever The Mentalist looks like sans the CBI, “Jane is going to be in a position where his personal desires are not the point…. What he does in the future is not going to be entirely up to himself.”

WHERE’S THE WHY? THE HOW? | If there’s one quibble about the resolution of the Red John arc, it’s that McAllister did not fill in all the blanks about his decade-long run of bloody chicanery. Nor will those answers come post mortem. “One of the things you discover when these figures of great evil are unmasked in real life is…. they tend not to be very interesting…. They tend to be egomaniacal one-track minds,” Heller explains. “As we laid out in the episode, and as Jane himself says, ‘The rest is details’” — the stuff of “great Internet fodder, but not very entertaining for a weekly TV audience. So as much as some people would love to delve into that, it’s not what this show does.”

HOW DID RED JOHN OBTAIN JANE’S LIST? | With his final breaths, McAllister claimed that he was an actual psychic and used those skills to divine Jane’s list of suspects. But was that but a final bit of posing? Could RJ instead have had a mole inside Jane’s innermost circle? Heller told TVLine that, for now, he will leave “that thread dangling.” Parsing McAllister’s words, he says, “Jane feels very strongly as I do that psychics don’t exist, though you can’t tell that to the millions of people who get genuine solace and understanding from [them]. Any and all answers to that question … depend on your point of view.”

IS RED JOHN NOW A FOUR-LETTER WORD? | For the foreseeable future, yes. Says Baker, “I think it’s really nice to have a clean cut and not mention Red John at all for a while. Even if [Jane] speaks of the [death], he doesn’t mention Red or John in the same sentence.” And as for any “disciples” of the killer ever picking up the baton, “I never say never,” Heller allows, “but the audience and the story demands that we step away from that trope for a while.”

WILL THE MENTALIST LIGHTEN UP? | Returning next Sunday with a two-year time jump and the characters scattered here and there, The Mentalist will certainly feel a bit different — and that includes the tone. “A great weight has been taken off Jane’s shoulders — and to that degree a weight has been taken off the show,” Heller says of the 5-1/4 season storyline. “It’s going to be the same show… but with less darkness at the edges,” now rid of Red John’s looming presence.

HOW WILL LISBON & CO. BE AFFECTED? | Already, Amanda Righetti – who, like TV husband Owain Yeoman, is exiting the show later this season — has shared how life will change for Van Pelt and Rigsby. And that’s just one of the wrinkles resulting of the CBI shut-down/Red John take-down. “It’s a little like the children of divorce. What’s next?” Heller offers. “They’ve been enthralled to somebody else’s mission, in a world that they didn’t choose, and now the world is changing around them…. It’s a process of growing up and leaving home.” All told, The Mentalist minus Red John, Heller feels certain, “is going to be a great show. It’s up to the audience to decide whether they like it or not.”

AND LASTLY: HOW LONG DID JANE HAVE THAT PIGEON IN HIS POCKET?! | Heller says that Jane borrowed the bird much earlier in the hour, “just before Lisbon arrived in that park, when he is feeding those pigeons.” Still, considering the ensuing car chase/FBI road block, then subsequently shaking the Feds and racing to the graveyard, that’s a long time to keep the bird cooped up (and quietly, at that). “Pigeons are very friendly, amendable creatures,” Heller says. “It’s quite easy to kidnap one from a park, if you want to try it!”

SRC: tvline.com/

What really drives 'The Mentalist'?

I made a little study, using google trends. Any feedback is welcome. Since it's not very serious and reliable, I hope it has at least amusing factor. It's catchy and fancy, isn't it?

---

According to data below the show is driven not necessarly by Red John plot. It's rather self-driven (perpetuum mobile?).



Moreover according to search patterns (provided by 'google trends' tool) Simon Baker seem to be the driver no. 1, what makes him the biggest asset to the show. It's quite easy to believe, isn't it even obvious? Have suspected? But now you know, for sure.



Red John impact has been recently enormous too. Especially this year interest was rising and reached a peak around the episode that revealed Red John's identity. But RJ driver has no future (beside viewers outside US who need to catch up with 6th season). It's done.

What to do with the lack of RJ? How to fill the void and fix the wounded show? Is there anything left? Something that can attract attention of the viewer and keep his interest in watching the show (and CBS's - in renewing it for its 7th season).

Jisbon plot seem to be quite weak in comparison to RJ, hovewer internauts interest in Jane-Lisbon relationship is seemingly rising since late 2009 when the term 'Jisbon' first appeared. Will Jisbon be the new RJ? Time will tell. Since Jisbon plot has been neglected (or saved?) there is a room to exploit its potential now. What else left? No reason to wait, it may be the last season of the show so it's 'now or never' call. And it's never too late to give a devil (shipper) his due.

What do you think? You can respond f.e. by voting whether you are pro or against 'Jisbon' in the opinion poll (see above, on the right).



PS. Sorry for my english i'm far from being a native (obviously).

Will ‘Fugitive’ Patrick Jane Find Out if Red John Was Really Psychic?

After the ‘Red John’ episode of The Mentalist, Patrick Jane is now a wanted man. But that doesn’t stop him from rebuilding his life. As the CBS drama jumps two years into the future, the FBI's Dennis Abbott (Rockmond Dunbar) is still looking for the man who killed Red John, reports Enstars.

Although Jane (Simon Baker) is now secreted away in a South American country, series creator Bruno Heller tells TV Line that, not only will the faux psychic have to face the consequences of his crime, but the fate of his future is largely out of his hands.

However, Jane will still get to experience life free of the burden of finding his family's killer.

"In a very real sense, he's a happier person; a weight has been taken off his shoulders. In that way, a weight has been taken off the show," Heller told Entertainment Weekly. "So it's going to be the same show, to some degree, but a show with less darkness at the edges, and more freedom to roam. Jane has more freedom and a sense of possibility and liberty."

While the show won't be mentioning Red John anytime soon, there is one bit of the story that Heller may choose to revisit. Was Thomas McAllister (Xander Berkeley) really a psychic or was he given the names of Jane's Red John suspects via a mole from Jane's trusted companions?

Heller will leave "that thread dangling," according to TV Line.

When The Mentalist returns next Sunday with "My Blue Heaven," expect to see the former CBI team scattered while Jane buddies up with a new woman (a romantic angle in the works?)

SRC: ibtimes.co.uk/

TV ratings: 'The Mentalist' and AMAs rise Sunday but NFL dominates (24.XI.2013)

Fast National ratings for Sunday, Nov. 24, 2013

The American Music Awards captured their biggest total audience and best adults 18-49 in four years on Sunday, but that was only good for second place on the night. NBC once again led with "Sunday Night Football," which got big numbers from a highly anticipated game between Denver and New England.

Also Sunday, the reveal of Red John on "The Mentalist" gave the show its biggest audience in 10 months, but a character death on "Family Guy" didn't move the needle -- it was even with its performance last week. "The Simpsons," however, was up with an NFL lead-in.

NBC averaged 19.6 million viewers and an 11.3 rating/17 share in households for the night, numbers that will likely rise in the final nationals with its life NFL broadcast. ABC (11.4 million, 6.6/10) came in second. CBS (9.78 million, 6.2/9) and FOX (9.77 million, 5.7/8) are currently in a virtual tie for second place, pending updates for NFL games that ran into primetime.

NBC dominated the 18-49 demographic as well with a 7.0 rating. ABC and FOX tied for second at 3.7, and CBS trailed with a 1.5.

On CBS, 60 Minutes earned a 1.6 down 6 percent from last week's 1.7 adults 18-49 rating. The Amazing Race notched a series low 1.5 down 25 percent from last week's 2.0 adults 18-49 rating. The Good Wife scored a 1.3 down 7 percent from last week's 1.4. The long brewing revelation of Red John’s identity on The Mentalist garnered a 1.5, up 7 percent from last week's 1.4 adults 18-49 rating. Football delays in many Eastern markets means these numbers are subject to adjustment.

On CBS, 60 Minutes earned a 1.6 down 6 percent from last week's 1.7 adults 18-49 rating. The Amazing Race notched  a series low 1.5 down 25 percent  from last week's 2.0 adults 18-49 rating. The Good Wife scored a 1.3 down 7 percent from last week's 1.4. The long brewing revelation of Red John’s identity on The Mentalist garnered a 1.5, up 7 percent from last week's 1.4 adults 18-49 rating. Football delays in many Eastern markets means these numbers are subject to adjustment.

Broadcast primetime ratings for Sunday, November 24, 2013:

Time	Net	Show	18-49 Rating/Share	Viewers (Millions)
7:00	FOX	NFL Football - Live	7.3/21	22.03
	NBC	Football Night in America Part 1 - Live	2.4/7	7.47
	CBS	60 Minutes	1.6/4	11.03
	ABC	America's Funniest Home Videos	1.5/4	6.69
7:30	NBC	Football Night in America Part 2 - Live	3.8/10	10.67
	FOX	NFL Football/The OT -Live	6.2/16	17.57
8:00	NBC	Football Night in America Part 3 - Live	6.3/16	18.83
	ABC	The American Music Awards (8-11PM)	4.5/11	12.90
	FOX	The Simpsons	2.9/7	6.65
	CBS	The Amazing Race	1.5/4	7.99
8:30	NBC	Sunday Night Football:(Broncos/Patriots) -Live (8:30-11PM)	8.8/20	23.99
	FOX	Bob's Burgers	1.9/4	4.02
9:00	FOX	Family Guy	2.2/5	4.51
	CBS	The Good Wife	1.3/3	9.50
9:30	FOX	American Dad	1.8/4	3.81
10:00	CBS	The Mentalist	1.5/4	10.62

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Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2013 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.

SRC:  blog.zap2it.com/ & tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/

6x09 - My Blue Heaven (Promotional Photos)

SRC: spoilertv.com/

Is Jane’s post-Red John future without punishment? (6.09, spoilers)

Of course, we start this story all about “The Mentalist” out with a pretty substantial warning: If you want to avoid spoilers about the end of the Red John case, stop reading now.

The dust has settled now on the case, and the stunning information has been revealed that the guilty party was none other than Sheriff Thomas McAllister. We don’t quite know all of the details surrounding the why or the motivations behind all of his moves, but we suspect that it was never really the point to know every little detail about the move. The point here feels a little more like it was meant to be this powerful moment where Patrick Jane kills the man responsible for murdering his family with his own hands. It was a simple, but realistic chase, and there was almost a sense even in Red John’s face that he knew that this showdown was meant to be the end and that he had done all he could do.

While there are all sorts of questions that we could ask about Jane’s future, and the promo for Sunday’s “My Blue Heaven” gives some of that away, what we are most curious about now is how in the world is Jane going to be able to now go and continue living his life? This is a man who just killed somebody, and while he was killing a killer, revenge is still frowned upon. Jane’s also not Dexter Morgan, a man without emotion. As creator Bruno Heller notes in an interview with TVLine, this is a deed that will be have repercussions in some form moving forward:

“You can’t go around killing people willy-nilly without some sort of ramification. Jane is going to be in a position where his personal desires are not the point…. What he does in the future is not going to be entirely up to himself.”

What we could see from him presumably is a situation, similar in a way to “White Collar,” where he helps to work in order to secure his freedom; or, he may choose to stay away from places where he could be arrested. With the two-year time jump coming, the character and the show have a little bit of a clean slate to try out some new stuff.

Simon Baker Breaks Down the End of Red John and The Mentalist's Future

[Warning: The following story contains major spoilers from Sunday's episode of The Mentalist. Read at your own risk.]

Be careful what you wish for. The Mentalist's Patrick Jane finally got his revenge on the man who slaughtered his wife and daughter - the sardonic, William Blake spouting serial killer Red John. But now what? TV Guide Magazine had a chat with Simon Baker, who plays the crime-busting Jane, about where the show and his character will go from here. Will Red John's death really help Jane deal with his grief? Can he move on with his life and maybe even find love again?

TV Guide Magazine: This feels like the end of an era! Was the audience ready for closure on the Red John saga? Baker: The end of Red John is a moment the fans wanted to see, but for many different reasons. Some just want it to be over. They're, like, "Enough, already!" Some really want to see Patrick heal and get on with things. And some just like it a lot more when The Mentalist does crime-of-the-week. What's great is that we're able to make this choice for the right reasons - not out of desperation or some last-ditch effort to avoid cancellation. A lot of times you get that call from the network saying, "We're pulling the pin," and then it's a scramble to wrap things up. Here we can give the audience that has been with us for so long some real gratification and then move the show in a cool new direction. We're not letting go of that part of the franchise where Jane solves crimes. We'll just be doing it differently.

TV Guide Magazine: So no qualms about this? After all, the hunt for Red John has been the main focus of the series. It's what put the fire in Patrick's belly. Baker: You feel an incredible intensity when, in one fell swoop, you're killing the arch nemesis of your series and, in a way, the series itself. In order to reboot this show, we have to kill off its most important element - Patrick Jane's very reason for being - and that's risky. The adrenalin was strange. After we shot Red John's death, we all took a collective moment, had a glass of champagne and marked it, because the event was so huge.

TV Guide Magazine: His death came in such a low-key way - no spectacle, no sirens, no hovering helicopters, no CBI team. Just Jane and Red John. Talk about that choice.Baker: It just had to be the two of them. It was almost like a love scene, as perverse as that sounds. The end of Red John was originally planned to take place at night on the street with people watching, but I pushed to do it in a quiet, beautiful place where they could be alone. There is no human act more intimate - not even sex - than killing another human being with your bare hands and watching him die. It is really subversive for a network series. The risk is huge.

TV Guide Magazine: Before the script came in, did you think Jane had the stomach for this? Baker: I don't think even he thought he had the stomach for it but there was just so much momentum built up that he had to go through with it and choke the guy to death. It was a hard thing for Jane to do but there was also some weird sort of release in it. I didn't know how that scene was going to go until I actually shot it. It was really full on.

TV Guide Magazine: Did Red John have a death wish? Did he realize he just couldn't beat Jane? |Baker: No, I don't think so. It was more like delusions of grandeur. It was not enough for Red John to kill Jane's family. He desperately wanted a relationship with Jane - to the point where he exposed himself and put himself in jeopardy. 

TV Guide Magazine: What does this gruesome triumph do for Jane? Often when we get what we want, we find out it's not what we wanted at all.Baker: "Protect me from what I want!" My wife has that saying on a little plaque in our kitchen. That's the catchphrase I took to [series creator] Bruno Heller and said, "This is what we have to do as the show moves forward. We have to deal with the comedown, the disappointment, the loss of focus." It's that meandering feeling you get after you've achieved the very thing that's driven you for years. Okay, you got what you wanted. What now?

TV Guide Magazine: You directed the next episode, where the show leaps ahead two years. What can you tell us about it?Baker: It's almost like a pilot for a new show. When we come back after Red John's death, Jane is somewhere in paradise. A large portion of the episode is in Spanish. Cho is now with the FBI. Rigsby and Van Pelt have their own little detective business. And Lisbon is in Washington state working as a chief of police in a podunk kind of town. The episode opens with her talking to grade-school kids about what the police do. I had so much fun with the episode. It was such a reprieve from all the tension this season.

TV Guide Magazine: Any chance of a Jane-Lisbon romance? A lot of fans are dying to see that happen!Baker: You will see that he really misses Lisbon and is a sad, floundering shadow of a man. He's afraid and just going around and around in circles. He's completely lost his mojo and he's asking himself, "Is this what you want to be? Is this the way you see the rest of your life?" He's offered a chance to go back to work for the F.B.I. and declines because he's trying to move on from that life. The episode has an interesting kind of noir-ish feel to it. Jane had been filled with this deep desire for revenge, which is generated out of self-loathing, right? Take that revenge out of the equation and he's just this guy who is empty. But the episode is also really romantic in a way, because you see how much Jane longs for companionship. You want to know something I've never talked about?

TV Guide Magazine: Hell, yeah!Baker: All those times we heard the voice of Red John? That was me.

TV Guide Magazine: Seriously?Baker: Yes! In the Season 2 finale, when Jane was captured and Red John did that "Tyger, Tyger" thing with the mask on? That was me. I played both characters in that scene.

TV Guide Magazine: Wow. That's especially trippy considering there was a major theory going around that Jane was Red John. So in a way that turned out to be true!Baker: That was the reason I did that. There was a point where Bruno was saying, "We don't know who we're going to cast to play [the masked Red John]." I said, "Don't cast anyone! I'll do it." Bruno was, like, "I love it! I love it!" So I put on a mask and did that funny, wispy little voice. And for seasons after, whenever Red John spoke, I had to go record the voice.

TV Guide Magazine: Love it! So you're feeling good about the future?Baker: I am! We're going to have some fun putting Jane into an entirely different work environment. He'll not only find his spark again - he'll have a whole lot of new people to rub the wrong way! I think we have a lot more miles to go. But you know what? We've had great times. I've invested so much of myself in this show and developed relationships with people I've genuinely come to love. It's been really, really fantastic - so much so that, if the thing finished tomorrow, I would walk away happy. I would walk away proud.

SRC: the-leader.com/

After 'Red John,' then what? Simon Baker, creator Bruno Heller tease Jane's future

The final shot of Sunday's (Nov. 24) episode of "The Mentalist" featured Patrick Jane running. But is he running away or toward something?

Maybe both, say series creator Bruno Heller and star Simon Baker, who plays Jane. After years of searching for Red John, the serial killer who murdered his family, Jane finally discovered his identity -- Napa Sheriff Thomas McAllister (Xander Berkeley) -- and made good on his promise to kill Red John.

So what comes next? Read on as Baker and Heller discuss the fallout for Jane and the CBI.

How will killing Red John affect Jane psychologically?Heller: Jane is this tragic figure who has gotten his heart's desire, has found the sort of evil grail he's been chasing all these years. Now it's very much a question of what does that do to him as a person, can he begin a new life and what kind of life does he want for himself? How will he define himself now that part of his life is over?

Baker: The character made the decision to kill Red John from the first time we ever saw him. In his head, that was going to happen. What we didn't know is how he would react and whether he would go through with it, and in what fashion. To me that was just jumping off a cliff. ... [The death scene] is interesting because he's got Red John within his grasp, literally -- he doesn't take a moment to hesitate. ... When he's on top of him, the idea of just shutting him up in that time is less about network television always wanting to explain everything, and Jane just wanting to get on with the job. ...

Going forward from there [it's about] when you achieve your objective, then what happens? ... My favorite part of that is the transition out of it. That's done, now what do I have to live for, and where do I go from here? Was it that gratifying for Jane? There's all of those questions -- we sort of deal with that in a lot of ways in the next episode.

Will there be any legal consequences for Jane?Heller: You can't go around killing people willy-nilly without some kind of ramification. Very much so.

Will Jane continue to work in law enforcement?Baker: I don't think, not immediately.

Heller: I can tell you he's going to be placed in a position where his personal desires on that level are not to the point. He's done something highly illegal -- what he does in the future isn't necessarily going to be entirely up to himself.

Even though Red John is dead, his disciples and the Blake Association are still out there. Will we hear from them again?Heller: I never say never, but I would say I think the audience and the story demands that we step away from that trope for a while. The trouble with these sorts of stories where you're playing tricks on the audience, with who-is-it mysteries, is you can get way too mysterious. There are people who said all the way along that Patrick Jane is Red John. When you've got that kind of elaborate thinking out there, it's dangerous to come back to that story unless you're coming back full force, because then maybe will start thinking, "Oh, maybe Red John's not dead." Red John is dead. 

SRC: blog.zap2it.com/

The Mentalist 6x09 (Extended Promo)

Patrick Jane became Dexter: ‘The Mentalist’ ends its run with a vigilante-style killing

Simon Baker’s Jane catches up with Red John and strangles him with his hands in a scene fit for broadcast television, shot without the gruesome details.

In 'The Mentalist' on Sunday, Patrick Jane (right) finally comes face to face with Red John, the serial killer he’s tracked since the madman murdered his wife and daughter.

At the end, Patrick Jane became Dexter.

One of the longest-running story arcs on prime-time series television, the Red John drama on CBS's "The Mentalist," ended Sunday night with the finality of a 1970s-style vigilante vengeance movie.

Simon Baker's Jane at last caught up with Red John, the psychotic serial killer who 10 years earlier had murdered Jane's wife and daughter.

After Jane made the positive ID, a wounded Red John made one futile run for it, crashing through a house and ending up in a park – sort of a long ambulatory version of the police car chases memorialized in films like "The French Connection."

At the end, Red John had lost too much blood to go any further, and Jane caught him.

Jane then sat on top of him. After a few moments of conversation during which Red John still seemed to admire his own cleverness all these years, Jane strangled Red John with his hands.

None of this wishy-washy mercy stuff. No navel-gazing ruminations on how the guy wasn't worth it.

Jane had the chance, since naturally Red John had fallen where no one else in this fairly active park could see them, and he took it.

"That was the only way it could end," Baker said in a conference call late last week. "Jane has been wanting to kill him for almost six years. So when he caught him, that's what he had to do.

"And I thought doing it with his bare hands felt right."

Since it was on broadcast TV, not cable, the scene was not filmed in a particularly gruesome way. Viewers mostly saw Jane, not Red John.

Through its first five and a half seasons, "The Mentalist" interspersed Jane's quest for Red John with weekly cases investigated by the police CBI unit, for which Jane worked as a consultant.

After taking several wrong turns and even shooting a man who was not Red John, Jane caught up with him the last three weeks.

Even then there was misdirection. The week before, viewers and perhaps Jane were left with the impression Red John was CBI boss Gale Bertram (Michael Gaston).

Sunday night, however, when Jane outfoxed Bertram during a standoff in a church, Bertram said he was not Red John, but merely one of Red John's operatives in a ring of high-level corrupt police and politicians.

That sent Jane to the real Red John.

"The Mentalist" still has another dozen episodes left this season, and director Bruno Heller said it will be a very different show.

The next episode, on Dec. 1, will jump ahead two years, and Heller said the relationships among the characters, including Jane and CBI unit leader Teresa Lisbon (Robin Tunney), will be "different."

CRS: nydailynews.com

'Red John' revealed at last as Jane finds his man

Those of you who figured Jane naming Gale Bertram as Red John wasn't the last word in "The Mentalist's" long-running serial-killer storyline, well done: Sunday's (Nov. 24) episode showed there was still more to be told.

If you were looking for a grand explanation of Red John's motives, methods and all the rest, though, you may have come away a little disappointed.

Sunday's episode, fittingly titled "Red John," finally brought an end to Jane's quest to find and kill the man who murdered his family. Once he did catch up with the killer -- which was not without complications -- he wasted little time in making good on his promise to end Red John's life. It was a raw, real moment that Simon Baker played the heck out of -- the play of emotions on his face as he throttled the last breaths from Red John was impressive to watch.

It did not, however, wrap things up in a very tidy package.

Bertram, as it turns out, is not Red John -- the killer is Napa Sheriff Thomas McAllister*, who shoots Bertram dead in the chapel of the cemetery where Jane's wife and daughter are buried. Jane eventually gets the drop on McAllister, wounding him. A Red John disciple distracts Jane long enough to allow McAllister to get away, but Jane eventually chases him down and ends his life.

(*Series creator Bruno Heller says he told Xander Berkeley only recently that his character is Red John. Berkeley was "thrilled" to find out, Heller says.)

McAllister tries to tell Jane that he knew the seven final suspects because he really is psychic, but Jane brushes him off, keeping his hand on McAllister's throat until he expires. That line is left purposely ambiguous -- I read it as McAllister searching for a way to extend his own life, but Heller and Co. are clearly OK with viewers taking it at face value if they choose.

The big question for the show now is what comes next? Talking with reporters earlier in the week, Heller says one of the things the show wants to explore post-Red John is now that Jane has fulfilled his mission? The CBI as we know it is in shambles -- Lisbon and the rest of her team spent a good amount of the episode in handcuffs, and more of it in the dark about Jane's plan. Jane is now a fugitive, as far as the FBI is concerned. The last image of him in the episode is of him running away -- free of Red John at last but also just a couple steps ahead of Agent Bennett and the feds.

It's unlikely the show will just return to normal next week, but just how it all comes back together remains to be seen.

What did you think of "The Mentalist" this week? Were you satisfied with how the Red John story came to an end, and what would you like to see on the show in the future?

SRC: blog.zap2it.com/

The Mentalist's Red John Speaks (Xander Berkeley's interview)

So did you figure it out or were you shocked you-know-whatless? After five seasons and change, The Mentalist has finally revealed the identity of serial killer Red John — it's Thomas McAllister, the quirky Napa County sheriff played by Xander Berkeley! "Xander is a wonderfully subtle actor who can go deep — deep enough to be our Red John," says series creator/exec producer Bruno Heller, who says he selected McAllister to be his Big Bad "about a year ago, after carefully weighing all other options. McAllister made the most sense. He had the perfect cover job as the sheriff of Napa, where he was the master of his domain. No one ever questioned his whereabouts. He didn't have to answer to anyone. He needed that freedom and the quiet loneliness of the countryside to do his thing as Red John." But let's hear from the badass himself!  

TV Guide Magazine spoke with Berkeley (Nikita, 24) about his new place in TV infamy and Red John's startling death.

TV Guide Magazine: How'd it feel when you got the news you'd been picked to be Red John? 
Berkeley: Fantastic! I was stunned and flattered. Earning this little place in pop-culture history was the last thing I ever expected. Truth be told, I thought I was a red herring. I thought, surely, there was someone more deserving of the title.

TV Guide Magazine: Yet McAllister was the perfect choice since he goes almost all the way back to the beginning of the series, right? 
Berkeley: I did the very first episode after the pilot. I remember it all looked like such a lark back then. Though this was a show with this tortured mentalist and this dreadful killer, the series seemed to have a really special sense of humor and so I played McAllister as a cornpone guy who had a bit of a swagger — the kind of guy who wished he was a sheriff in the Old West. I thought it was just a quick, little tongue-in-cheek job, never imagining I would linger for years!

TV Guide Magazine: Considering Red John's grand, operatic crimes, it's so interesting that his life ended not with a bang but with a whimper.
Berkeley: Yes! It's such an incredible choice to end it with Red John and Patrick Jane alone, eye-to-eye. It was so personal, so right, that Patrick would strangle him. The perfect way to go out. So simple, really. Of course, prior to that we had that endlessly complicated chase scene which we actually shot in numerous neighborhoods all over the place. We were in Hollywood, Pomona, Pasadena, Whittier. [Laughs] I was chased all over Southern California! Red John wouldn't f—king die! He even went through some poor, unsuspecting family's plate-glass window and kept going. It went on for so long that, after a while, I was thinking, "Is the bullet still in him?"

TV Guide Magazine: When and how did you find out McAllister was Red John?  
Berkeley: I sort of figured it out early this season through osmosis, and then I called up Bruno Heller and set a meeting to discuss it with him. I really felt a lot of responsibility to give him what he needed. He was very sweet and very flattering, telling me that McAllister had always been one of his favorite characters. He thought the sheriff persona was the perfect mislead — for a sociopath to adopt that kind of career just seemed so extra creepy. But, still, why me? [Laughs] I never saw it coming!

TV Guide Magazine: Well, you do have that vibe!
Berkeley: [Laughs] Yeah, I guess there is a certain quality X that suspects are required to have. It's funny, because on the audition circuit I'm always running into the guys who played the other Red John suspects. In fact, I'm old friends with Michael Gaston, who played Bertram, and Kevin Corrigan, who played Kirkland. The three of us did a movie together in Pennsylvania. We know how to make the audience just slightly uncomfortable without overdoing it, and how to deliver a line that can be read two ways, so the audience can project whatever they want onto us. That's the dance we actors love to do. But you never know where a character is headed. My wife, Sarah Clarke, was Nina Myers on 24. In her mind, she was playing a nice, devoted member of CTU and was just gobsmacked to find out she was not only playing a traitor but that she'd be shooting Jack Bauer's pregnant wife in the stomach! It was crazy!

TV Guide Magazine: Were the other potential Red Johns jealous when you won the prize?
 Berkeley: One day on the set Malcolm McDowell [Bret Stiles] said to me, "Mate, you're Red John! Do you know what that means? Do you realize how much money you're going to make on this?" I'm, like, "Huh? What do you mean?" He said, "At the conventions! Don't tell me you don't go to the conventions! Listen to me, mate. Get that girl over there with the camera and tell her to take loads of photos with you and that guy over there" — he points to Simon Baker — "and you go to those conventions with stacks of those photos and people will line up with their money and they will pay you to sign them! It's true! You go, 'Next! Thank you very much! Next! Thank you very much!' It's huge!"

TV Guide Magazine: You've played a lot of baddies. Safe to assume Red John ranks right up at the top?
Berkeley: Absolutely, but as good as it's been for me, I am hesitant to keep going there. There's the typecasting thing — in Hollywood they see you do something and they want to see you do it again and again. But also I have two little girls now. I don't want them to think their dad is such a creep. I didn't ever want to play someone who'd done the horrible things Red John has. I just don't want to put that crazy-psycho stuff out there. [Laughs] I'm trying to go through a bit of redemption! Of course, I played an arch-villain [Percy Rose] on Nikita for two seasons but found a way to justify that guy's behavior — his Machiavellian ends justified his means. I didn't feel I was tapping into any really deep, dark place with that. But Red John? That's a different matter. He's so sick. But the good thing about being him so late in the game is that I didn't actually have to shoot any of the grotesque things he did to his victims. Nobody has any images of me doing that. There is no footage. It's all in your imagination. And he's dead, he's done, he got what he had coming. So it's all good.

TV Guide Magazine: Of course, this isn't the first time you've died in spectacular fashion! 
Berkeley: [Laughs] No it isn't! I have 200 credits on my resume and I have probably died in half of them! I've fallen from 30-story buildings three times, including once as a transvestite psycho-killer in a tutu and a red wig. I've died in a few plane crashes, in The Rookie with Clint Eastwood, and in Air Force One. I also crashed on 24 — that is, after I inhaled airborne plutonium. In Candyman, I was ripped open with a hook by Virginia Madsen in the ultimate revenge on a cheating husband. Some very traumatic deaths! [Laughs] And I never learn! In Terminator 2, I had the line, "Tell that f--king nut to shut up!" and — bam! — I got shish-kebobbed through the head. Never say that on film if you want to live to see the next scene! [Laughs] But I can't complain. I've got the kind of career where I can get away with making pad puns like, "Dying...it's a living!"

SRC: tvguide.com/

6x09 Promo | "My Blue Heaven"

Any thoughts from Jisbon shippers? Is it possible to let down fans on some many levels just within 2 weeks?

Red John reveal: Even less convincing than Bradley Whitford (review)

After seasons of following ‘The Mentalist’s’ Patrick Jane and his quest for the identity of Red John, its reveal is finally here … and you know what? I don’t accept it.


Remember a couple of years ago, in the season three finale of The Mentalist, when we were supposed to be led to believe that Bradley Whitford’s character, Timothy Carter, was Red John? And then it turned out he wasn’t? I wasn’t convinced then .. and I’m even less convinced of Sheriff McAllister being Red John this season.

After everything we’ve learned up to this point about the elusive and infamous Red John, it turns out that everything lead to a cowardly, sniveling old coot with no remarkable traits to his name other than his fear of pigeons. There were several clues that led to McAllister being Red John throughout the season, but that’s not what I have a problem with. What do I have a problem with? Where do I start? …

First let’s consider everything Red John’s been up to since the first season of the show, and how we’ve gotten no answers to them whatsoever:

1. Why has Red John been toying with Patrick Jane, essentially following him and continuing to make his life hell and reminding him of what he’d done to his family?
2. What’s with his smiley face mark? Not a single insight into what made him use that as his calling card. What about the name “Red John” for that matter?
3. The Blake Association seems to like to clear up loose ends quite quickly — wasn’t Red John a big ol’ loose end/canon that could ruin their organization? Why didn’t they just get rid of him long ago?
4. All along we were led to believe Red John had a connection with mentalism in some way, perhaps having supernatural skills of mind reading. Not a peep of that, other than McAllister strangely interested in wanting Jane to know how he knew who was on his Red John suspect list.
5. What about of all of the Red John disciples we’ve seen throughout the series. What the bloody hell did they see in this guy? How was this coward even remotely able to call people to sacrifice themselves for him?
6. Why was Brett Partridge killed? I get that his tattoo served to allow McAllister to (very temporarily) elude the authorities, but that’s not why he was killed. …
7. THIS was the guy eluding Patrick Jane all this time? Really?
8. This now means Jane has killed two people due to being Red John suspects. How the hell could he ever be allowed back near the CBI?

There’s probably more, but to get into it all would just make me more sad. I think what pisses me off the most is that we’re supposed to believe that Red John is this guy who fled from Patrick Jane like some petty criminal, leading up to him actually attempting to … oh God, I can’t believe this happened .. call 9-1-1 for help. It can’t be. CAN’T! BE!

I’ve just decided that I refuse — RE-FUSE — to accept that McAllister is/was Red John. He’s simply not worthy of the title. Timothy Carter was a far more convincing Red John than McAllister in every way, and even then I wasn’t convinced. I get that creator Bruno Heller said that Jane’s list definitely had the name of Red John on it, but either Heller’s lying or it’s NOT McAllister.

Am I missing something here? Was Heller making a point that Red John should never have been such a big deal on the show, so he went and made him a wuss? Or will we start to follow a hell of a lot more clues into who the real Red John is, once we see what Bertram’s encrypted file translates to? Maybe that’s just the start to a whole new ongoing mystery for the show?

I’d still like to hold onto the Patrick Jane as Red John theory. I know a lot of people seem to hate that one, but this episode did nothing but enforce it in my eyes. How about McAllister’s “who are you?” question to Jane? The way it was asked, and then the way Jane answered, for someone like me who’d like to hold onto the Jane=John outcome, it sure felt like a hat tip in that direction. Jane’s Red John persona is so buried that McAllister questioned him that way to be sure it still held.

I get that a LOT of people are just done with the Red John plot and would be happy to see it end, and I can sympathize with that. But this isn’t how you go about it.

SRC: cliqueclack.com/p/

'Mentalist' Boss, Simon Baker on the Red John Reveal, Jane's Future and New Conflicts

"When you achieve your objective, then what happens?," Baker says of the aftermath. "Now what do I have to live for and where do I go from here? Was it that gratifying for Jane? There's all of those questions. We deal with that in a lot of ways in the next episode afterwards."

The Mentalist's Red John case is now closed.

After putting the Red John spotlight on California Bureau of Investigation Director Gale Bertram (Michael Gaston), he turned out not to be the madman Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) had been searching for the past several years. Who was Red John? Sheriff Tom McAllister (Xander Berkeley), who had been one of the three who presumably died in the blast during "Fire and Brimstone."

It was a cat and mouse game after the reveal -- in the same cathedral Jane was seen in at the end of "The Great Red Dragon" -- but Jane and McAllister would meet again, this time at a local park. With McAllister pinned down to the ground after being weakened by a gunshot wound in the abdomen, he pleaded with Jane to spare his life. But for Jane, his sole mission in life was to end Red John for good. And so he put his hand on McAllister's neck and suffocated him until he was dead.

It was important to "give a real emotional, pleasing end to that story," creator/showrunner Bruno Heller told reporters, admitting that the ultimate Red John identity slowly "emerged" over the last few seasons. "For me it was about giving Patrick Jane exactly what he's wanted for all these years. He wanted revenge and he got it. I think that's what the audience wanted so that's what we gave them."

"I did feel a sense of pressure because we've been working towards this for so many years and it was something that had pushed the character from the very beginning [since] 2008. Somehow I had to live up to that in that one moment -- the one moment in the life of the character where he's stepping out into the unknown," Baker acknowledged. "The way we did it was important because I felt like to pull the trigger is just pulling a trigger but to actually wrestle with someone is far more kismet."

With the Red John mystery behind them (and the show making a big two-year time jump next week), Heller and Baker discussed the repercussions of Jane's actions, where this leaves the rest of the former CBI members and the new conflicts that will arise in the post-Red John era.
On Jane's future now that he's gotten what's he's wanted
Bruno Heller: Jane is this tragic figure who has gotten his heart's desires and found the grail -- this evil grail he's been chasing all these years. It's very much a question of what does that do  him as a person. Can he begin a new life? What kind of life does he want for himself and how will he define himself now that part of his life is over.
Simon Baker: When you achieve your objective, then what happens? A lot of the time you focus all your energy on trying to achieve your objective but you don't consider how it leaves you standing afterwards. My favorite part of that is the transition out of it. Now what do I have to live for and where do I go from here? Was it that gratifying for Jane? There's all of those questions. We deal with that in a lot of ways in the next episode afterwards.

On Jane killing Red John
Baker: The character has made a decision that he was going to kill Red John from the first time we ever saw him. He made that decision and then he said that was going to happen. What we didn't know was how he was going to react and whether or not he could go through with it and in what fashion. To me that was just jumping off a cliff, really, and jumping off a cliff so it's like -- he's got what he wants and what he's wanted for so long. The idea of what drama is sets out to achieve an objective but doesn't quite achieve it and they'd have to change tactics and approach. This is interesting because he's got Red John within his grasp, he doesn't take a moment to hesitate and I think there was a line in there where he said "I'm not hesitating, I'm just going to stay in the moment" in the church. When he's on top of him, it's the idea of shutting him up. Jane just wants to get on with the job and from that moment on, you gotta try to be there and be alive in the moment.

On how Jane is affected by Red John's death
Baker: When Red John dies a part of Jane dies in that moment as well. It takes a while for him to get back on his feet and if you look at it, he doesn't have a wife and kid, he doesn't have any relationships other than the people he's been at work with at the CBI and his perverse obsession/relationship with Red John. He doesn't have a lot other than the CBI people.

On the option of Jane not killing Red John
Heller: Certainly I never considered any other ending. I always hated those heist movies where they didn't get away with the heist or revenge movies where they didn't reap their revenge. It would've been almost dishonest not to take that as the conclusion of that particular chapter.

On Jane's potential legal ramifications
Heller: Yes [there will be legal ramifications for killing Red John]. You can't go around killing people willy nilly without some ramifications. Very much so.

On the likelihood of Jane's return to law enforcement
Baker: Not immediately.
Heller: He's going to be placed in a position where his personal desires on that level are not point. He's done something highly illegal. What he does in the future won't be entirely up to him. ... His life as he knows it is over, but it's the beginning of a new life.
Baker: Once the dust settles you start to see who's important to who and how each person sees themselves and who they care about.

On Jane and Lisbon's bond
Baker: I think absolutely. I think even stronger.
Heller: Now Jane and Lisbon have a chance to take a breath and think about each other in a way they haven't before.

On how the Red John wrap-up affects Lisbon and the others
Heller: For the other characters, it's a little like children of divorce. They've been involved with somebody else's mission and now that mission is gone. They were in a world they didn't choose and now they're in a world that's changing around them -- again, not of their own volition. What this is going to be for these characters growing up and leaving home; Jane has big questions about what he's going to do with himself and Lisbon, Van Pelt, Cho and Rigsby also have to make those choices.
On whether Red John's disciplines will take action

Heller: Never say never but I would say the audience and the story demands that we step away from that trope for a while. The trouble with these stories where you're playing tricks on the audience with "Who is it?" mysteries is that you can get way too get way too mysterious and there were a lot of people who said all the way along that Patrick Jane was Red John. When you've got that kind of elaborate thinking out there, it's dangerous to come back to stories unless you're coming back to that story with full force because people will start thinking "Red John is not dead!" Red John is dead.

On if Red John will still be part of the fabric of the show's future episodes
Heller: We won't be going back. One of the things you discover when one of these figures of great evil are unmasked ... once the curtain is drawn back from these evil Wizard of Oz characters they tend to not be very interesting companions.

On whether The Mentalist will go back to cases of the week
Heller: What this fresh version of the show is about is what happens afterwards. In a very real sense, Jane is a happier person. A weight has been taken off his shoulders and to that degree, a weight has been taken off the show. Jane has more freedom and more a sense of possibility and liberty. ... We'll return to crime-solving.

On worries about The Mentalist losing steam without Red John
Heller: [I'm] not really concerned. If it can't, then that's what happens. it felt to all of us that that chapter of the story was done. Frankly I think the great asset and value of the show is in Baker's head and what he does. Red John never even appears in as a character physically in the last episode. It was a feeling in the show and a sort of objective but in terms of moment by moment pleasures of the show, those are delivered by Simon Baker and his people, not by Red John. Frankly I don't know but I don't mind, but I think it's going to be a great show after Red John. Then it's up to the audience to decide if they like it or not.

SRC: hollywoodreporter.com/