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Tuesday 26 November 2013

The Mentalist 6.5 "The Red Tattoo" Review

                                                
 A man (Kirk Zipfal) and a boy (Aiden Sussman) get into a lift with another man who appears to be in distress.  He pushes the boy aside and runs to his room.  Hotel security (Brian Leckner) later breaks down the door and finds the man has been stabbed as he falls to the floor, but no one else is around.  Lisbon (Robin Tunney) arrives after Patrick (Simon Baker) is already there and so does Ray Haffner (Reed Diamond) who arrives with Jason Cooper (Robert Picardo) from Visualize.  Haffner is here since the DB, Parkman (Jeff Griggs) was a member of Visualize.  He has a letter from the Lieutenant Governor authorizing Haffner to be present on the investigation.  Haffner adding, "I do really like working with you Teresa." Which sends shivers down Patrick's spine, so he has to leave.  They can't figure out where the killer went without being seen.  Patrick calls it a trick.

He leaves when Haffner arrives and he gets into the lift with him, where he tells Patty that Bret Stiles has them studying Patrick,  His moves etc and he tells Haffner he's angry and he can see it on his face.  Haffner adding, "you're so much smarter than anyone else."  Er, yeah he is.  He's smarter than the average psychic or criminal or law enforcement agent.  I was going to refer to Yogi Bear being "smarter than the average bear," but never mind! Ha.   Also adding he's about as good a psychic as he was a cop.

Cho (Tim Kang) and Patrick head to the gym where Parkman was a coach and Patrick talks to a parent, Ed Reed (David Starzyk) filming his daughter at gymnastics.  He knows Parkman was in Visualize as does the owner, Mylar (Ray Abruzzo) who lies about not knowing.  But Patrick catches him out.
A woman walks up to Cho and asks him about the pricing but Cho tells her he doesn't work here and she is curious when the murder is mentioned.  Oh no Cho wasn't attracted to her was he, another blonde like Summer.

Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) is at the car jacking scene where Devin Frost (Eric Pumphrey) was killed.  They suspect he killed Parkman and then was killed in his car, but how did he get from the hotel to the park.  Also the gun was found in the alley in between the two spots.  A bit of a conundrum for Patty cos as well as figuring out how the killer got from one place to the next he must watch Haffner. Which he doesn't do.

Rigsby tells Lisbon about the report of Kirkland being dead.  Apparently he tried to escape from custody. Rigsby calls in a favour from the detective on the case who gives him the report.  The young corrections officer was stunned at what he's done and has PTSD.  Rigsby smells a rat, a red rat, as he finds Kirkland was shot six times whilst not listening to warning calls.  Cho agrees.  The scene with Rigsby and Cho in the park was funny as Rigsby orders fruit and Cho doesn't like fruit.  He puts him off it when Rigsby tells him how he owes Cho for helping him with Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti) and for making him take the risk.  He's going to find someone for Cho.

No one told Patrick about Kirkland's death and was that cos it's being saved for another episode and especially since Kirkland knew more than he let on and wanted to share this info with Patty.  Ooh I just thought of Kirkland when he killed Lennon in season 5 and how he got away with it.  He was psychotic as Cho calls him and nothing more?  Was it something to do with him that Kirkland wanted to reveal, since Lorelei knew him too.

Apparently Bret is missing and no one from Visualize knows where he is.  He disappeared shortly after RJ sent Patrick the video of RJ suspects as Lisbon tells him.  Did she get this from Cooper as she took off her jacket revealing a sleeveless top.

Kira (Beth Riesgraf) comes to the CBI under the pretences of buying Cho coffee and asks Van Pelt if she thinks she's being too stalkery.  Patrick asks what she was doing here and then realizes why she was here. He finds a bug in Cho's desk and confronts her about this whilst enjoying her muffin!  She's a PI and was hired by someone from Visualize she says, to bug the CBI.  Only she won't say who that is.  A shame Patrick doesn't realize she's in danger until it's too late since he and Lisbon arrive too late to save her, but not too late for Patrick to hear her as tells him Red John has a tattoo on his left shoulder, three dots.  SO if she was killed by Red John he didn't leave a smiley behind or he didn't have time, or was someone else sent to do the dirty work. We're meant to believe Haffner since he was missing at the end and didn't turn up to see Lisbon.  Patrick saying the tattoo gives him 'leverage.'  Oh boy was that an in joke!  What at this time of the show and important proceedings.  Surprised he managed to say that with a straight face!! Ha.  Beth Riesgraf was in the series Leverage!  Well there goes Cho's love interest.  Patrick: "That's my leverage.  I got him."

Anyway the murder wasn't as interesting as the little hints we were meant to pick up since Patrick figures out how Parkman killed Devin in his car with the shotgun before heading to the hotel.  He didn't reckon Devin would have a knife and would stab him and thinking he wasn't seriously wounded he returned.  He had to get rid of tee gun so he used one of those elastic gym bands and stretched it as far as possible for the gun to reach the alley.  Which Patrick demonstrates with a TV remote from the room and an eaten apple, having left Rigsby and Cho in the alley.  Parkman and Devin were lovers but the attraction began when Devin was a minor so needed it keep quiet.  Parkman thought Devin was leaving him and was being replaced and so he blackmailed him, but he was an Olympic coach so he couldn't let that happen.  Parkman's aorta ruptured when he pulled on the plastic.  Patrick: "The trick was there was no trick."

Patrick finds out Cooper didn't bug the CBI.  Thus only now realizing Kira is in danger.  Why would RJ bug the CBI now?  Also why not bug it himself.  Throwing doubts on Bertram being RJ and also Reede Smith.  Haffner would have bugged them himself cos he was here, so that leaves McAllister as a suspect and Bret Stiles, but he's not RJ, he would have needed a lot of energy to kill Kira in that way, unless he sent a minion.Which leaves Haffner or McAllister as suspects.   Unless it's going to be someone not on the list!  Oh I give up, at least until the next ep!!  Patrick wipes away the three dots from her arm so no one else sees them.  Then again Patrick didn't spend much time with Haffner and preferred to be away from him, was it cos of his interest in Lisbon?  Cos seeing as he's a RJ suspect he sure didn't look for any tell tale signs or clues from him.

Lots of running around from Patty this ep clearly he was being kept on his toes.  Let's hope Van Pelt and Rigsby leave happily and nothing happens to one or either of them since Rigsby keeps bringing up being so happy with Van Pelt, don't jinx it Rigsy!!

I'm seriously re-thinking my conclusion of Haffner being Red John in my Mentalist Red John Suspects piece on my blog cos he doesn't fit the profile for me anymore.  The way they introduced the spider and his phobia of spiders just seemed a little too tacked on, like adding it for the sake of throwing us off the scent or onto the scent.  Just like they did with McAllister.  He could climb a ladder but hated pigeons, was this some sort of reference to RJ and The Red Barn.  Clearly pigeons are found in barns and also are spiders.  Since we know from that ep Haffner was there at the time of the other murders.  Does he have some sort of phobia against animals.  I am seriously liking McAllister as RJ now but I discarded him before.  They keep bringing back the same suspects over again in an attempt to stymie us and keep us guessing to the last minute.  Especially when you consider that Patrick has only narrowed down two suspects and so still has five to keep him on his toes.  So what was this warning to Patrick from Haffner about him getting his comeuppance, since he has gotten on the wrong side of very powerful people and not just Red John and he also warned Lisbon and Van Pelt from working too closely with him.

It appears that whoever wanted the bug planted was more to do with the Tyger conspiracy than with Red John.  He wouldn't start making all these silly mistakes now would he after all this time.  Who knows if RJ has a tattoo, it could be anyone else and what if his minions all have to have those, or people in some sort of cult, though none of the Visualize members appear to have any.  It could just as easily be another red herring.


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