The Mentalist sets up season six finale with “Mr Ridley” villain

As the sixth and most transformative season of The Mentalist winds down, the show is still trying to find its bearings within a new agency, a new city, and a new supporting cast. Red John is dead, two years have been skipped over in the timeline, the CBI disbanded, Rigsby and Van Pelt married off and sent packing, and now the show is centered at FBI headquarters in Austin, Texas – and all of this has transpired within the second half of the season. With this past Sunday’s episode Brown Eyed Girls, The Mentalist has finally cemented the two prevailing themes heading into its season six finale next month.

Titus Welliver to play a new recurring villain, Mr Ridley

The first is a new recurring villain who is only known thus far as Mr Ridley (Titus Welliver). And unlike his predecessor Red John, we’ve already seen Ridley’s face and briefly seen him in action. He is, at the least, the kingpin for an operation which kidnaps and smuggles American teenage girls into Mexico. And at the end of the episode we learn that he’s adept at dispensing with any of his henchmen who have the misfortune to get caught. While we know his name and face, the FBI doesn’t; they’re at a dead end. And this is all playing out while the season’s second major theme carries on in the background: Agent Lisbon has a boyfriend and is tempted to follow him to Washington DC, which as we learned this week, Patrick Jane wants to be happy about but isn’t.


With season six ratings tenuous enough that it’s not guaranteed a season seven, the producers of The Mentalist must decide whether to wrap these plotlines into a tidy bow, or leave them on a cliffhanger while running the risk that they may never get resolved. Taking down the bad guy in the season finale would be easy enough to pull off. But how will Patrick keep Lisbon in town short of making a move on her? These issues come just as the show seems to be finding its new epicenter in Austin. The writers have finally figured out how to write interesting parts for longtime fan favorite Agent Cho within the FBI context, and Jane has finally developed the kind of textured love-hate-acceptance relationship with his new boss that’s served the show best in years past. But if ratings don’t pick up heading into the finale, Mr Ridley may be the least of the crew’s problems.

SRC: stableytimes.com/