Original Post Date: 7/12/11
I sort of wish I had created a blog before the last episode of Mentalist's Season 3. I had thought it was obvious that Craig O'Laughlin was working for Red John since he was brought into the show just before Todd Johnson was burned in that holding cell and then it was fully confirmed when he demonstrated no care for Grace's safety. There's still a lot left to theorize about though. :)
There are three things that stood out in the final season.
* The first is that things are getting really weird for J.J. LaRoche. He acts all suspicious, it appears that he hands off the cuff-keys (or a pick lock) to that terrorist (Gupta), then he acts all nervous like he's going to do something bad, and then suddenly Gupta is killed in the backseat of the car. LaRoche says, "He tried to escape, he went for a gun, I had no choice." Even though he never moved in the car, and the only closest gun was on the police officer sitting next to him. His holster, however, was on the right side of his body meaning that Gupta would have had to lean on top of him, reach over to the other side of the car, and try to unholster the gun.. but he never actually moved. I don't know how they could have made this more obvious that LaRoche didn't want him questioned about his connection to Red John.
I guess it makes sense that the writers rushed this so soon. If Gupta had suddenly been killed in Season 4 in another holding cell, then everyone would know that R.J. is still alive. But, they want everyone to think RJ is dead since he'll be making a "surprise return" later in Season 4.
The writers are trying to do too many things though, and they're just confusing the plot. It's really just getting silly now too; LaRoche frames Hightower, Hightower goes into hiding, suddenly RJ and all of this friends want Hightower killed even though she doesn't know anything. Now that Craig is dead and revealed to be the mole, I guess Hightower doesn't need to be in hiding any more and LaRoche presumably won't be suspected to be the mole anymore.
* The second thing that stood out is the "red shirt guy" in the final scene between Patrick Jane (PJ) and Red John (RJ).
Here's a video link to the scene I'm talking about: [LINK]What's interesting about this is the scene where PJ stands up. The "red shirt guy" stands up and walks away at the same time. There is also a lot of strange hesitance when first standing up (gets up and down then up) as though we was waiting for the exact moment to stand up. Almost as if the director instructed him specifically what to do.
Second, watch all of the extras. It always fun just to watch all of the extras instead of the main actors. They walk back and forth and keep circling in the mall (before RJ shows up) and the scene over and over. Throughout the entire episode, the "red shirt guy" only makes this one appearance and he's not reused anywhere else. How very odd..
Third, the entire scene was built around the proximity of "red shirt guy" to RJ. "Red shirt guy" first entered the scene and sat down before RJ. Now, either the scene was initially setup wrong or the "red shirt guy" was added last minute. The two tables between the "red shirt guy" and RJ were moved very close together for that one shot and it's purpose was not to get a cleaner picture. Even their chairs were accidentally setup wrong during the relocation. "Red shirt guy" went from 2 chairs to 3 chairs space totally different, and RJ went from 3 chairs to 2 chairs.
I might be over analyzing this, but it appears that the scene was intentionally setup to bring the two guys very close together and the "red shirt guy" received special instructions from the director.Since there was no need to ever move him in the first place, he's either there with purpose (another friend of Red John), he's a red herring (which means they have plans for more RJ in the future) or he's just a really bad extra.
* The third and final thing that stood out was the conversation between PJ and RJ.
This was an example of another contrived and unrealistic situation created by the writers. PJ is supposed to be a smart man, and yet he never actually ask for real proof proof that this man indeed RJ.
PJ would have asked a very specific question that only RJ would know. Instead, he just says "I don't know that you really are Red John" and then he provides information that the real RJ could have told him to say, just like everything else he's said until this point.
Red John is retired and he's all about manipulating people from a distance, never being directly involved or following people, and having them do his dirty work for him. Many of the "newer" Red John cases are probably just his friends following very specific instructions.
In order to receive real proof, PJ would have asked something specific. "That's all well and good, but what were they wearing? What music was playing? Oh, so you remember every smell with great detail.. but you don't remember what they were wearing or anything else?"
Seeing as how everything was very rushed in this episode, it's no surprise that the writers screwed the pooch on this scene and ended up with lazy and unimaginative writing. They practically screamed that this guy was not RJ.
I wonder if they'll remember to fully investigate the deceased (fake RJ) in the next season. The first couple episodes might just focus on PJ in jail awaiting trial (maybe even solving crimes while in prison), but RJ did have a gun after all and even though there were security cameras in the mall, PJ could have easily walked into a blind spot and just claim that RJ pulled a gun on him first and he simply acted in self defense. There are a ton of ways non-clever writers can write him out of his predicament.