The Mentalist 5.18 "Behind The Red Curtain" Review

A woman falls from a balcony at a fundraiser for a show and Lisbon (Robin Tunney) arrives on the scene, she questions the producer Warren Dodge (Matt Servitto) director Brian McTavish (Erik Jensen) and publicist Sylvia Clare (Julie Claire) of the show, Torch which the producer aims to get onto Broadway.  Lisbon wants them up in the room so they can investigate and calls Patrick (Simon Baker).  She hopes he's not at the hospital which he what he tells her cos it's what she wants to hear. She can't have it both ways, either he's here or he's not.  She wants him at the CS.  Patrick waits in anticipation for Jason Lennon (Christopher Cousins) to wake up and ID Red John to him.  But fate has already been decided here as Kirkland (Kevin Corrigan) turns up and sends Patrick away.  Patrick has the nurse, Shelia (Rose Abdoo) on side though donuts will get you far!  As she later tells him she likes his smile and Patrick adds a smile goes a long way.  She doesn't like the FBI/Homeland Security agents, there's a vibe about them like they're aliens who will take off their masks and become lizard aliens.  Patrick knows what she means.

Patrick arrives at the CS and isn't given much of a chance to be introduced until later when Lisbon calls him a consultant now, as he carries on with the questions.  Lisbon is clearly peeved with Patrick and she tells him so, "you're creeping around Lennon, getting into Kirkland's business of course I'm glum...if you need to break the rules, break them on your own time"
Patrick: "When am I never on my own time."  True he's always doing something for them, but rather why is Lisbon so trustful of Kirkland, she hardly knows him and yet she wants Patrick to follow some rules for once. Why when obviously Kirkland doesn't.  Patrick wasn't happy with that line of on his own time.

Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) examines photos and surveillance from the night and Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti) returns, she hates California and is glad to be back.  Lisbon hugs her but Rigsby does not.  Though he doesn't mind when she sits next to him and hands her a file to help.  There's photos of everyone coming and going  and even one of the lead actress Deandra (Donna Murphy) who left by the back door.  Everyone assumes she was drinking and so is probably in some hotel bar.

Rigsby accompanies Patrick to the rehearsal and he gives each of the dancers a reveal about themselves - on what they're really like and how two of them, Mandy (Alexis Carra) and Bridget (Gabrielle McClinton) hated Sharon and didn't want her being second lead in the musical. As for the male singer, Howard (Nick Cobey)  Patrick calls him 'bitchy', loved his impersonation and eyeball rolling!  They hang around as Patrick tells one of the actresses, Maggie (Briana Cuoco) there for an audition that Brian hates jazz hands, she should pass it round.  Everyone gets the message except for Bridget who auditions in that way as Mandy didn't tell her and she wanted her off the production.  Patrick leaves the two squabbling and runs off as usual, leaving Rigsby to stop them fighting.

Rigsby also interviewed Sharon's boyfriend Racine (Derek Ray) who tells them about her being mugged and attacked, he was there to protect her.  Sharon also has a foster mother, Polly (Maggie Egan) who tells them about Racine abusing her.  Mandy attacked Sharon cos she wanted her to leave but didn't kill her.

Later when Deandra is rehearsing Patrick says she's Sharon's real mother and he was sitting in the chair in the dark listening to her sing.  Lisbon didn't see him him when she came in and neither did we.  Sharon knew about her MS and she went to get her meds from the room which is why she was there.  She hasn't had a drink in 14 years.  Patrick enlists LaRoache (Pruitt Taylor Vince) to help nab the killer after he sees a man in a scarf leaving via the fire escape in one of the photos, when they notice Dodge wasn't seen anywhere in the footage.  He's calling in his favour and gets LaRoache to act the part of Burt, an investor, only he doesn't exist and it's only until Dodge says he doesn't exist that everyone listens.  He wanted the show to go ahead and he was using his own money, Sharon caught him coming out of the room but she wouldn't stay silent.  She regrets what he did and Cho (Tim Kang) has nothing to say to him.

Sheila calls Patrick to tell him that Lennon's being brought out of his coma and Kirkland asks him if he knows him or recognizes his face.  He replies in the negative and Kirkland calls himself a 'friend.'  Either Red John's friend or Red John himself, either way he kills him, then innocently waits outside the room when Patrick arrives he knows Kirkland's been up to no good.  So you gotta ask why Lisbon was keeping Patrick away from the hospital since this is the first lead Patrick's had on RJ, why take him away from that since he's spent his entire time locked in his attic in search of leads.

Kirkland shows his true colours here though it was expected and anyone who thought otherwise was very naive.  Just left to work out who he really is now.  Why kill Lennon if he doesn't know him, what possible reason could he have for that, to stop him talking, from talking to Patrick, acting on RJ's behalf.  This ep once again brought on more questions than any definitive answers.  Kirkland tells Lennon he hopes a friend will do the same for him if he ends up in the same position and not have to go to jail.  IS that a loaded statement or what, will Patrick be the one to do this, but he's not a friend though it's always Patrick's intention to kill Red John if and when he finds him.
As for this 'freind' phrase, it's been bounded around quite a bit, what with Patrick saying the same of Kirkland in Red Sails in the Sunset, when he referred to him as "your new best friend" to Lisbon.  Perhaps he is seeing as she warned Patrick to stay away from him here.  But Lisbon wouldn't be compromised in any such way would she?

Good to see LaRoache return but thought it would have been for something more sinister than to help with the current case.  Best line: Patrick: " that's my arm you have two of your own." Great play on words here with the title, were we really behind the Red John facade with Kirkland, or was he just revealing himself to be involved  deeper than even Lisbon could suspect.