Supernatural 6.21: "Let It Bleed" Review

                                   
Crowley kidnaps Lisa and Ben in the hopes of keeping the Winchester's from interfering in his plans for purgatory along with Cas, who still helps Dean.

March 15th 1937  Providence, Rhode Island

As a writer types, the door opens.   HP Lovecraft (Peter Ciuffer) is killed.   Sam (Jared Padalecki) comments at least Dean (Jensen Ackles) tried with Cas.   There's nothing in the journals on how to stop Cas (Misha Collins) from opening Purgatory.   Moishe Campbell of the New York Campbell's made a copy of the journal and Cas took the original.   Sam knows the name HP Lovecraft.   Dean was "too busy getting it on with women."

Cthulu Talisi by Lovecraft is read by Ben (Nicholas Elia).   Lisa (Cindy Sampson) watches TV with her boyfriend who is killed and she and Ben are abducted.   Ben calls Dean but doesn't get out of the widow quickly enough.   It could only be Crowley's (Mark Sheppard) plan of course, using them as insurance.   Calls Sam, 'Jolly Green' as in giant.   Dean must assume Cas knows.   Sam and Dean summon Balthazar (Sebastian Roche).   Cas told him about Crowley.   Dean thinks maybe he's decent and he's asking him for help.   Sam wants to call Cas instead.

Bobby (Jim Beaver) meets a man as a journalist who has a collection of Lovecraft's letters.   He's too late as Cas has already been here as he describes a man with a "Columbo trenchcoat."  There was a party on the 10th March of a black magic cult and they opened a door to another dimension.  Bobby talks to one man who tells him about the maid and her son.

Dean tortures a demon for info.   It was obvious he would break the circle.   It's Dean's fault.   Sam doesn't listen to him and goes ahead and calls Cas.   Who shows up but doesn't reveal himself to Sam and confronts Dean instead.   Crowley's "top- coiffed heroes" a reference to Sam and Dean.   Cas only stop Crowley if he finds purgatory.   Balthazar calls for Cas who lies about Crowley.   Balthazar calls him a rotten liar since he wants to take all the souls into himself and if he explodes he'll take the planet with him.    Bobby tells the son he believes in monsters and he admits the spell worked and something came through and took his mother .   Bobby is the first person to say sorry about her and shows her photo.   Bobby looks surprised but he knows the woman.

Dean is being careless when he breaks the circle himself and Cas arrives to save him again.   Dean can't believe him.   Cas thinks of him like family and he did everything he asked, he answered Dean's calls and wanted one thing.   Cas feels he's earned purgatory.   Cas: "Stand behind me the one time I ask."  Dean will find Lisa and Ben himself.

The boy's mother was Ellie (Kim Johnston Ulrich) who is hiding out but Bobby found her easily enough.   This house isn't safe and he knows what she is.   She's from purgatory and is a friend.   Ellie came though the door but didn't open it and likes it here.   Dean took the sword to stop Eve.   Bobby needs to know how to open the door.   Think she should have listened to Bobby about protecting her cos she couldn't protect herself.

Dean drinks some more.   Balthazar didn't like Cas's answers and wants to help him.   He's changed his tune pretty quickly after calling them "howler monkeys."  He's found Lisa and Ben and he takes them there.   Sam's caught out again.   Lisa's possessed courtesy of Crowley.   She calls Dean Ben's real father but she's joking and lying like demons do.   Lisa would have been better off if she didn't meet him.   Dean's about to exorcise her using his Latin and he doesn't need a book to read from now.   She stabs herself and Dean exorcises her.   Sam's still out cold.   Ben has to use a gun now, something Dean never wanted him to do.

Cas arrives at the hospital and heals Lisa and Dean wants him to make her forget about him and their lives together.   Cas is sorry and Dean must thank him but nothing's changed.   Cas knows he wanted to fix what he could.   They were both in a car crash and Dean pretends to be the other driver.  "Their lives can get back to normal now."  One thing I have to add quickly is what about the things Lisa may still have at her house about him, photos or other stuff, won't she wonder who that is, presumably she still recalls where she lives.   Also Ben might still have something of his too.   Saying goodbye was hard for him.

Dean doesn't tell Sam he knows.   Dean threatens to break Sam's nose if he talks about Lisa or Ben.   That's not nice!  Ellie is caught by Cas.   At least the Lisa and Ben storyline was finally concluded this season, they were kind of out of place the way they kept creeping back into Dean's life when he'd left them.   Cas would always be one step ahead of the Winchester's as they always have been struggling to find his plans.   Bobby should have been more insistent and more instrumental in protecting Ellie knowing she was up against Cas and Crowley and what they're capable of.

Dean not knowing of HP Lovercraft especially when he's into movies, but he's also heard of books too, even if he hasn't read them, such as The Da Vinci Code.   Also what hasn't he head of Metallica's "The Call of Ktulu."  Great scene between Cas and Dean, as always, in that Cas still wants to help Dean after what they've done to each other and in terms of Cas's betrayal of them.   Still after everything Cas had done for them, Dean can't see his way of approving Cas's plan for purgatory and his dire need for those souls.   It's another question of free will.   Dean has that freedom  to choose and he knows opening purgatory isn't in the best interests of humans and earth.   Yet Cas also now fully grasps this same concept of free will, needs those souls and will do whatever it takes.

A particularly heart wrenching episode for Dean having to deal with saying goodbye to Ben and Lisa for good and still battling Cas and his pans.   No wonder he threatened to break Sam's nose if he talks about them.

Bobby wouldn't really be shocked for sleeping with Ellie -a creature from purgatory, that was summoned from purgatory by Lovecraft and his black magic circle.  All of the Winchester's have faced such demons.   Sam and werewolf, Madison.   Dean kissed the crossroads demons several times and a vampire in season 1. Ben reading Lovecraft when this episode mentioned him and was about Lovecraft opening the door to purgatory.   Ben's graphic novel, entitled, Cthulhu Tales Volume 2: Whispers of Madness, published in 2008.

Scandal 2.11 "A Criminal, A Whore, An Idiot and A Liar" Review

This episode flashes back to how Fitz's (Tony Goldwyn) closet advisors rigged the election so he would win the Presidency, whilst in the present Fitz struggles to return to the Whitehouse and his duties after the shooting.  As the action goes back and forth, we can see how deeply invested Olivia (Kerry Washington) was in Fitz and not just his public life either and wanting him to win at all costs.  Those costs we saw turned out to be rigging the election.  Didn't think she had it in her.  Langston (Kate Burton) is ready to tell the people about the letter and that he's unable to do his job when Fitz walks in.

Hollis (Gregg Henry) believes that Fitz will hang himself with a noose of his own making, showing he's unable to do the job.  He will be prone to many side effects from the shooting his doctor tells Fitz, including aphasia (no, first Mac Taylor in CSI:NY and now Fitz too.)  Which he demonstrates when he takes the meeting with the military advisors and authorizes a SEAL team to take the President of East Sudan. He can't finish his sentence as he doesn't recall his name or the country.  Which Langston does so on his behalf though not out of any compassion.

Before the election Fitz is lagging behind ten points and they feel his father, Jerry (Barry Bostwick) should be brought in to help but Fitz is dead set against it.  His father is self made, been a governor etc and knows how politics work in comparison to Fitz.  Mellie (Bellamy Young) wants him to do just that and wants Olivia to convince him, which she does, but only cos Fitz wants to get down and dirty with her and agrees to make her stop talking about the campaign.  Hollis knows someone who can get the vote rigging going but they all need to be behind this.  Fitz is at loggerheads with his father and pretty much estranged as he's into "whores" and cheating on his mother as his past behaviour has shown.  Well Fitz is no saint and even if he's not cheating with a whore, he is still cheating on Mellie, so the apple hasn't dropped far from the tree.

Leading to the present where Edison (Norm Lewis) works out that Olivia must be sleeping with Fitz and that he's the boyfriend she doesn't talk about.  She's his mistress.  This riles her up, yes it being true aside, she screams he's being sexist and that he has no choice but to go in and tell them about the letter and it was forged.  He asks if there's anything she ants to tell him otherwise he can't help her.  She accuses him of calling her a criminal, cheat, a whore, which is what some would say too, ha.  Olivia calls Harrison (Columbus Short) telling them they're in trouble.

In the flashback she brings in her team to help with the election as Jerry tells them they need to dig up dirt on Governor Reston (Tom Amandes) otherwise Fitz will lose.  Olivia introduces Harrison to Abby (Darby Stanchfield) who tells them he has a meeting with his probation officer and then in walks Huck (Guillermo Diaz) still smelly and long haired.  Abby and Harrison go dumpster diving and find pills belonging to Reston, anti-depressants.  Jerry tells them to use that in the debate when he talks about the military and not leaking it to the press as Olivia believes.

Fitz is angry at his father and he doesn't want him in Florida, bringing up the dirt on him being a cheat.  Then a drunken Fitz comes onto Olivia in the lift and is caught out by Mellie who thinks he's behaved like that cos he's drunk.  She reinforces how much they both need Olivia.  Fitz is angry that nothing is ready for the debate and Olivia asks him what he really wants.  He talks about what they want but no one really knows him, she does cos he's let her know him.  At the debate he doesn't mention the drugs, but when asked about a woman's son going to join the military, he talks about his own experience and how he was afraid everyday of not returning home.  So as their Commander-in-Chief, he will know this and what it means to be afraid.

He's still down in the ratings and Olivia still doesn't agree to the rigging.  Then he gets a call saying his father died from a heart attack after telling Fitz he will "never be a winner" like him.  After the funeral Fitz can't cry for him until Olivia asks him what he wants?  Cyrus (Jeff Perry) tells her they are the people and they will be the ones who will be voting for the President.  She cries and finally agrees to the vote rigging.  Well Hollis was quick to jump onto that bandwagon cos he 'll be owed!!  SO that's how they all came together.

Think Olivia did that more for Fitz cos deep down she knew he was hurting over his father but also that he was right and Fitz was going to lose bigtime, so he wouldn't be able to live with his father's last words to him.  She had to prove Jerry wrong but also cos Cyrus told her how Fitz is really good and they need someone like him running the country.

Edison comes begging for forgiveness and admits he loves her and wants to marry her.  Just as Fitz asks Mellie for a divorce cos that's what he wants (now.)  There was Mellie thinking things would be different cos cos he'd been shot, well he didn't exactly lose his memory.  So nothing much happened this episode aside from Fitz saving himself and being able to stand up in the press conference until the end even Langston had to give in and give him her letter reinstating him.  Though she still has ulterior motives and no she wasn't convincing at all when she told him she was worried about the country.  She was worried about herself and wanting to remain the first female President for good.

Guess if you think about it, each one of those words in the title could apply to those who agreed to the vote rigging too! ha.  Also Hollis was brought in specifically for season 2 and to add more weight to the vote rigging idea since there was no mention of him or the rigging in season 1.  Showing it was his brainchild.  They needed a bad guy now that Cyrus seems to have moved on from that role in season 1.

CSI:NY 9.7 "CLUE:SI" Review

                                                    
A ballerina finds the DB of a fellow ballerina hanging from the balcony after a feather falls on her.  Flack (Eddie Cahill) tells Mac (Gary Sinise) she was doing one of those "twirly things" which Mac recalls is a pirouette, cos it's not an easy word to recall.  Hawkes (Hill Harper) tells them she was strangled and then hanged from the rope.  The Vic was Ellen White (Sierra Hoyle) and her understudy, Alex found her DB. Danny (Carmins Giovinazzo) processes the rope from the CS and also Ellen's belongings.  He finds trace of black powder, the type manufactured before the Civil War, used in an antique gun.

Mac tells Christine (Megan Dodds) about his aphasia and she wonders why he didn't share this before, but knows why, cos she knows him; he very thing that she likes about him is why he couldn't tell her.  His pride as I said previously.  Sid (Robert Joy) quotes Martha Graham, "a dancer more than any other human being dies two deaths." He tells them Ellen was bulimic and also self-mutilated.  She doesn't have any defensive wounds, so she knew her killer.

Adam (AJ Buckley) runs from the lab (and I don't blame him!) telling Danny to tell his wife he didn't do it. Lindsay (Anna Belknap) has blue circular marks around her eyes after falling for a prank, she looked through the microscope.  What would be even better is if black was used instead giving her dark circles, ha. Oh Lindsay you're so dumb, call yourself a CSI, who said that would have been intended for her, well she did, cos everything's about her.  She promises to get to the bottom of it.  But it's obvious who it was, Danny of course, if you hadn't already guessed.  But obviously he wouldn't have meant it for her!  SO she goes around wearing a large pair of sunglasses, as if everyone hasn't seen it by now! Ugh!!

As Hawkes tells her, he's more interested in the case, as were we and not her pathetic little 'crusade.' Lindsay was testing a gun, also an antique which was used to kill a Jane Doe in the alley.  The powder from the rope matches the powder from the gun, but how did it get there?  A man points a gun at a woman in an alley and he's arrested.  It's the murder weapon.  Did we really need Lovato (Natalie Martinez) present in the interrogation again, not like she was needed or contributed anything, aside from face pulling that is! Oh and mumbling her lines!  The suspect is Sam Cross (Benjamin Ciaramello) who left the gym and saw her in the alley, with his record he didn't call the police, but he took some jewellery, cos she wouldn't be needing it and also the gun.  He doesn't know Ellen and he was with a woman at the time.

Lindsay tells Jo (Sela Ward) she found methylated blue was used on the microscope and also found some letters on the side of the bench.  Obviously from a shield, but took her ages to figure it out! She found anti-depressants in Jane Doe.  Christine tells Mac she wants to help him and regular as clockwork, Lindsay arrives wearing those shades! Trioxiphil was the drug and it is in the clinical stage, the FDA is working with selected psychiatrists to try it out.  Carly Emerson (Tara Summers) is one such doctor and identifies the Vic as Lisa who had bipolar disorder.  Ellen was also her patient.

Sam's alibi crosses him off the suspect list  nd Adam finds the gun was brought by Carly, but she really couldn't have been the killer.  Except for that Brit accent she was murdering! ha, even if she is British.  Mac was so impatient for Adam to tell them about the gun, but it was okay for Lindsay to go on and take forever.  Also if it had been anyone other than Lindsay getting pranked, he'd have gone ballistic!  Especially if Adam was involved as seen from past behaviour.

Flack finds Carly is missing and also Polaroids on her desk.  Hawkes finds the photos only had Carly's prints on them.  Mac puts the clues together and works out White was killed in the conservatory with the rope. (Well she was actually strangled first, so the killer was adapting the game to fit his own version).  Lisa was killed in (Hells) Kitchen with the gun and she had scarlet hair.  Thus she was Miss Scarlett from a game of Clue or Cluedo as we call it here.  (They call it Clue, cos they don't have a Cluedo, ha.)  They find the next Vic should have been Mustard but he's missing and so the next Vic after him will be Green.  Lindsay shows up at the next CS where a man has been killed on the golf green with a candlestick holder.  But she tells Mac she can't figure out the room, well if you had looked, you'd have seen the ballroom, love.  Ugh strike that love part ha!

Mac follows the blood trail showing the Vic was dragged.  Flack tells him Carly couldn't have lifted him and dragged him all that way here.  He was struck from behind .  Lindsay finds a piece of hair-like trace besides the Vic and it turns out to be a hair from a snow leopard.  Prompting Danny and her to end up at the zoo. She thinks Danny could be behind the prank since the letters show it could only have been a detective.  The leopard keeper, Robby (Joe Nieves) is the only who who handles it and he doesn't own a car but hires one. The next person who hired the car could be the killer. It was Steve Davis (Jake Thomas).

He was Carly's patient since he was 12 and he suffered from OCD and depression.  Carly no longer treated him since he fell in love with her.  At his apartment they find Carly tied up and the board all laid out and his next Vic will be Plum at the library.  Also finding a schedule which Carly recognizes as her fiance's, Clayton (Jay Boyer). Blood stains in the rented car match Shane's the golfing Vic.  In the library the students are made to leave but they find nothing.  See Lovato undo her hair to go suspect hunting! Huh!  Jo says the university was built in the 1800's so there's another library.  Adam finds the location on the old maps.  They find Clayton already stabbed and Mac gets to Steve before Flack does.  Yeah Lovato slowed him down!!

Steve is surprised Clayton is still alive.  He told Carly he loved her but she told him she didn't feel the same way.  He saw the photo of the two of them together.  When he was her patient, Carly told him to pick any game to play so that they could get to know each other.  He chose Clue.  Why would she have such a game in her office anyway?!  Carly was Mrs Peacock and he was Col Mustard.

Danny brings Lindsay roses to take her to dinner and confesses it was him, but it was meant to be Adam in ballistics, not her.  She was too overly pissed so he didn't tell her.  Mac tells Christine he loves her.

Flack's remark of not needing a white coat to determine what happened, "I may not be the owner of a wonderful white lab coat, but it sounds to me you're saying somebody strangled her and then strung her up." Kind of funny him mentioning the colour 'white, seeing as the Vic was called Ellen White and the ep was about the game, well based on the game.  Also he couldn't resist adding, "Mac Taylor in the lounge with the Glock."  Even Lindsay had to get in on this when she says it was Messer in the ballistics lab" Danny adding, "with the methylene blue."   Since it was Danny she forgives him, poor Adam he'd never have heard the end of it if it was him and she'd be getting her own back on him too!! To quote her, "whoever did this is going down," and he would have too!  Bigtime.

Flack had to finish Mac's word of "building" this ep and Christine later mentions the "blue" in the lab for him. Clearly Flack saw something was wrong but Lindsay didn't, too caught up in her own world.  Jo also notices how he's struggling but of course she can't say anything.

Martha Graham was a modern dance pioneer and the quote is from her 1991, 'Bloody Memory' memoir. Parts of this episode reminded me of the one with Stella  when her 'stalker' Drew kept leaving those clues behind which turned into a  puzzle.  He also turned out to be Mac's '333' stalker.  In 4.10 The Thing About Heroes, he had the team on the subway train which went on a ride of its own.  Always loved that part.  Especially how Stella was the first to run through the train both times, thinking of herself first! Ha and how Danny saved them cos he got left behind.

Once Upon A Time 2.22 "And Straight On 'Til Morning" Review

                                             
Henry (Jared S Gilmore) is on the swing, isn't he too old for that and clearly school's out, or he doesn't bother going anymore, with Granny (Beverley Elliott) keeping guard as Gold (Robert Carlyle) shows up and has yet another one of his flashes, he makes the rope break so Henry will end up on one of the rocks.  He tells the others he lost Bae but he can still watch his grandson.  As Snow (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Charming (Josh Dallas) break the news to him about Bae being shot by Tamara (Sonequa Martin-Green).  You'd have thought being the Dark One, he would have wanted to avenge Bae but no such luck there.  He lets his son go for a second time really.  He showed more passion when he was after Milah and Hook (Colin O'Donoghue).

Hook is with Tamara and Greg (Ethan Embry) as they set off the Failsafe to destroy Storybrooke, needing one of the dwarf's pick axes to do so.  Hook resigns himself to dying too to set their plans in motion, at least on the surface.  Regina (Lana Parrilla) wakes and finds the device has been activated, saying goodbye to Henry cos she knows she's never coming back, which is what Emma (Jennifer Morrison) tells her.  Regina is more resigned to the fact that it's better to be alive even if Henry will be alone in Storybrooke since he was born in this world.

Snow and Charming think they can find the beans and get everyone to safety.  Hook tells them what they plan to do and has a change of mind, he doesn't want to die.  The folk of the two are more willing for Snow and Charming to lead them as they have done so in the past and Archie (Raphael Sbarge) leads them on to agree to this.  Grumpy (Lee Arenberg) comes to the store to find Sneezy's (Gabe Khouth) beer mug and he tells him it's not stealing if it belongs to them.  Also the Blue Fairy has found a formula to make him remember.  She needed Pinocchio's hair for the final ingredient.  Grumpy gives a vial to Gold for Belle (Emilie de Ravin) so she won't have to die as Lacey.  She made him remember who he was once and he wants to help her now.

Gold mends the cup and gets Belle to drink from it, after she uses Bae's robe to mop up the spilt whiskey.  So they find each other, okay that's Snow and Charming's line but works for others too.  She's sorry he lost Bae.  He's sorry he brought her back to this but he needs her.  Charming and Hook arrive at the cannery, for the amount of time Tamara and Greg have been here, you wouldn't think they'd have brought so much with them and files too, in this day and age of technology and computers.  SO clearly whoever is behind the Home Office is not that big on technology again suggesting it goes back centuries, at least.

Charming says he's doing this for his family but Hook says he's doing this to save himself and that's motivation enough.  They fight and Hook manages to get his hands on a magic bean which is all they need. Tamara and Greg run and Hook doesn't let Charming go after them.  Only for Hook to take the magic bean even after Emma's speech of not being alone and he will be here.

Hook recalls rescuing Bae (Dylan Schmid) and finding out whose son he really is as the Lost Boys come on board to search for him.  'He' wants him.  Hook teaches Bae to sail the ship (which is why he knew how to sail it in when they brought it back to Storybrooke with Gold dying.)  Bae finds out Hook's father abandoned him too just like his own and also finds Milah's picture as he threatens him with a sword, as the Lost Boys take him this time.  Suppose Hook mentioning the mermaids was a reference to the Little Mermaid (wonder if he came to Bae's rescue.)

When they arrive at the mine, Emma finds Hook tricked them and took the bean, yes Emma don't bother checking the pouch when he gave it to you.  She thinks she can help Regina stop the Failsafe and together they do that, but Henry is taken by Greg and Tamara.

He says he doesn't want Bae but rather Peter Pan is in  search of Henry as we're shown his picture, that's why Tamara and Greg took him and jumped through the portal with him.  So there must be some connection involved with Wendy here.  Hook sails away but returns cos he wants to do the right thing and save the town, which he's told has already been done.  He can take them through the portal on his ship.  Gold wants Belle to stay and cloak the town cos the others will come and he doesn't think he'll be back. Cos Henry is his undoing but he's his grandson.  Well about that, there are plenty of boys involved and the Seer didn't exactly mention Henry by name, we've also got Peter Pan, the other Lost Boys, as well as Bae who ends up in the Enchanted Forest and is found by Aurora (Sarah Bolger) Phillip (Julian Morris) and Mulan.  Thought that was poetic justice for Bae to end up there now since he was away from it all those years and even wanted to leave it, not wanting anything to do with magic.

What with Gold showing some remorse and shedding tears over Bae and Regina crying cos she won't see Henry and it was all her fault, we finally get to see the villains show some compassion after being associated with evil for so long.  Especially since Hook comes to his senses and finds he no longer wants revenge on Gold, so they can use his ship.  Gold uses his globe once again and Hook tells him they're heading to Neverland in search of Henry.  SO everyone together on one ship.

Charming punching Hook cos he owes him and then threatening to use the gun on him if he doesn't spill (the beans - ha.) As for Tamara and Greg wanting Henry now and taking him to 'Him', it's like something thought of at the last minute.  Cos Henry's been around here  along time and no one thought of it.  SO they came here to rid their world of magic and yet used the magic bean to open a portal to escape, using magic, very clever! To end up in another magical world!  Oh can we just ensure we don't have to see them two next season.  Let's have Peter Pan get rid of them and feed them to the mermaids. Those mermaids must be pretty dark, aren't they meant to be sirens and not mermaids, which aren't really equated with being evil.

Thought Charming took that bean from Hook at the cannery, yet Emma let Hook swipe it back.  Also how could they have taken Henry when he was with Snow and Charming, not very clever losing him like that.  But how long can they keep evil away from Gold and Regina next season and will they go back to it.  Also how long will Hook try and help before being sucked up again by his own selfishness. Why couldn't the Blue Fairy protect Storybrooke? Or help with the Failsafe even if Regina made it.

Scandal 2.10 "One for the Dog" Review

                                        
Huck (Guillermo Diaz) is held at the Pentagon which CIA, NSA, FBI, Homeland Security guy tells David (Joshua Malina) is not American soil and gets a speech on patriotism from him after David tells him what he's doing is a violation of civil liberties and the law.  Like anyone's listening.  Huck is tortured, water boarded, beaten and still won't talk.

Elsewhere someone signs Fitz's (Tony Goldwyn) name to be reinstated as President and Olivia (Kerry Washington) has been distant with Edison (Norm Lewis).  She can't talk about Huck or her work and there needs to be a Chinese wall between them if they are to see each other.  He tells her they haven't had sex in over a week, (is that all, ha) and she tells him they can right now.  Edison also remarks on being saved by  the bell when her doorbell rings.  Edison is getting his mail at her place, it's a letter which mentions the President is awake and wants reinstatement.  Olivia rushes to the hospital but finds this isn't the case, Mellie (Bellamy Young) signed the letter and sent it out.  Does she really need reminding about it being treason and domestic terrorism.

Verna (Debra Mooney) admits she got Huck arrested but thinks Hollis (Gregg Henry) was the one who hired the assassin.  They have their table session, minus Hollis and Verna tells them Hollis has a second phone he keeps in his desk and was heard to be talking on there, she believes to the assassin.  Meanwhile, Harrison (Columbus Short) and Abby (Darby Stanchfield) talk to a woman 'friend' of Hollis's, Harrison tries to pick her up whilst Abby steals her keycard and breaks into Hollis's office to steal his phone, or rather the number he dials.  Hollis tells Langston (Kate Burton) he doesn't believe the President is awake and even with the press breaking the news and Cyrus (Jeff Perry) saying his office needs to be vacated, Langston wants to speak with Fitz.  Of course you know by the end of the ep all will be well and Fitz will be awake, which has nothing to do with Olivia actually resting her head on him.

Huck hears about Fitz and will only speak to his torturers  if he can talk to the people behind the glass.  He tells them if he's awake then his life is still in danger.  David tells Olivia he knows where Huck is and she comes up with a plan to have the President moved to Camp David for his safety and quick recovery. Knowing Hollis will call the number and get Becky (Susan Pourfar) to take another shot.  OH what they'd just wheel him out so someone can take pot shots for a second time, and doesn't that hospital have an underground garage?  Huck is released and he calls the number.  Becky is arrested and she tells him her real name is Kate, which Huck really isn't interested in and doesn't tell her his real name.

Huck is released into Olivia's custody.  James (Dan Bucatinsky) quits his job and he and Cyrus get their daughter from the hospital.  Quinn (Katie Lowes) knows Hollis killed her boyfriend and set her up and she wants to know why Olivia didn't turn Hollis into the FBI.  Just then the phone rings, as Olivia agrees to talk to her and she hears Fitz on the other end.  Right so whilst Mellie is being grilled by Langston about graphology and the 'T's being crossed by a right handed persona and not left, that Mellie signed the letter, Olivia is the first person he speaks with after Cyrus.

David's boss telling him about wearing the white hat but he's in the real world and this is how things are done. Again gotta ask about Olivia's white hat which hasn't been on in quite some time.   Also she and Edison are over which clearly shouldn't have begun in the first place since they were not right for each other, was probably just a way for Olivia to 'move on' from Fitz after their break-up in the restaurant.  Especially since he was also willing to"prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.  And guess what, I make the law..."
Olivia: "Goodbye Edison."

Though Mellie was a tad premature and hasty in sending in  the reinstatement papers, guess she didn't want to lose her First Lady position, it did give Hollis a chance to get out the assassin again and thus inadvertently get Huck released.  Huck saying he'll shoot Becky five times, one for the dog! Hence the title.

The Mentalist: Red John Seven Suspects Reviewed

                                                    
At the end of season 5 we were left with a list of seven suspects which Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) had narrowed down and coincidentally or not, these seven were also the ones on Red John's list he presented to Patrick too.  Have you made up your mind yet?  There's quite a lot to go on, maybe some of the following might help you, then again it might not.  It's an area any fan will and does get bogged down in!

Patrick Jane's list of seven suspects who all seem to sport the Red John cap/mantle in some form or another.

1 Bret Stiles: (Malcolm McDowell)                  
                                                              
Charismatic cult leader of the Visualize cult.  He can get anything done and get anyone to do it too.  Patrick and he have a kind of uneasy truce since they first met and Bret has been a suspect in some CBI investigations.  A lot of law enforcement agencies are after his head.  He was instrumental in the 'release' or re-appearance at least of Kristina Frye (Leslie Hope) when she was kidnapped, allegedly by Red John after she mentioned him on TV in the same way that Patty did and his family was killed by him. (The Blood on His Hands).

Kristina was a suspected Red John for many but seems this direction wasn't pursued and writer and producer Bruno Heller chose to keep Red John firmly a man.  Anyway, Bret has intimated on numerous occasions that he does have knowledge of Red John and whether that extends to being true or not has never really been proved conclusively.  He does seem to have the 'inside' on him and could be one of his accomplices.  Then again as in the past we've seen how most of Red John's accomplices/acolytes etc all end up, usually being killed, so the question is if he's really so close to Red John why was he never taken care of? Some may answer that with the reply cos Bret is Red John.

In which case why would he be so helpful towards Patrick even telling him he couldn't help when he wanted to get Lorelei (Emmanuelle Chiriqui) out of prison, trying to ensure Patrick didn't do the same.  Did he have insider knowledge that if she got out, she would, either, a) reveal something about Red John and overplay her hand, which she did when she told Patty he has shaken hands with Red John.  Or b) Patrick having feelings for her may get her to reveal other things about RJ.  However in His Thoughts Were Red Thoughts, Patrick did sort of play Bret when he was accused of murder and Patrick pursued the line of enquiry which would clear him of any wrongdoing.  (He has gotten away with other crimes in the past).  With Patrick admitting he did that so Bret would owe him a favour.

Suppose it could boil down to Brett just being a criminal mastermind.

2 Gale Bertram: (Michael Gaston) 
                                                      
He insisted on keeping Patrick around when the entire team were suspended.  Patrick even had Bertram wrapped around his little finger when he got the entire team reinstated in 4.2 Little Red Book.   Gale really doesn't know how to handle Patrick and so needs Lisbon around. Patrick also helped him to win at poker, so does he really not have much of a poker face, or was that all just for show.

There are many facets to Bertram.  He is Director of the CBI and what more powerful position can there be. He doesn't get on that well with Patrick, seeing as it was Virgil Minnelli (Gregory Itzin) who really wanted Patrick around as he could be so helpful to them.  In the third season he was also seen as the possible CBI mole which again Patrick proved to be Craig O'Laughlin (Eric Winter) Van Pelt's (Amanda Righetti) fiance. (Still want to know what happened with Van Pelt's necklace O'Laughlin gave her, considering we thought there was a bug inside it.)

It seems the media and media pressure is the only controlling factor that Patrick and Lisbon have against him since he's interested in protecting his image and that of the CBI.  In Red Sky At Night, Patrick tells Lisbon he has a feeling about Betram, whether or not this is related to RJ or just cos he's a stickler for maintaining a public image is hard to say.  He is one for quoting poems and specifically William Blake as in 3.16 Red Queen he quotes, "and when thy little heart doth wake, then the dreadful night shall break" from 'Cradle Song.'  Although LaRoche (Pruitt Taylor Vince) is the one who actually claims this as being by Blake.  RJ of course was into the The Tyger poem.  Todd Johnson (Josh Braaten) also said the title of the poem when he was dying.

SO appears it's not the poem, but apparently the poet who appears to have a significance to Red John for some reason. Anyway RJ must be as adept in reading people, or cold reading as Patrick is.

3 Ray Haffner  (Reed Diamond)
                                                    
hasn't been around that much on our screens at least, though he has been behind the scenes so wonder how much of an RJ suspect he could be.  He has admitted he is a member of Visualize to Lisbon (Robin Tunney) and to my knowledge she hasn't told Patrick about this.  To stick my neck out, for some reason he seems to be my number one suspect.  Okay now I've said that, or worst still written it down in writing, it probably won't be him.  Ray is a supervisory agent at CBI so is/was in a good position to know everything that's going on there and even to follow Patrick in his RJ investigation.  He also was Patrick's 'boss' in season 4.2 ep  and Patrick 'used' him to get the team back together  and we were first introduced to Ray in Little Red Book.

Patrick chose to 'mock' him frequently when he took him along for questioning at the gym, making Ray get Cho (Tim Kang) to spy on Patrick.  Was this a ruse to show he was unable to deal with Patrick himself, or did he just think Patrick would open up to Cho more since they've been together for four years.  A display of cunning on the part of RJ.  Then again it makes you wonder if he does have the intelligence to remotely come close to being Red John.

Ray however returned in Red Barn where he tries to recruit Lisbon into a private security company and lets her know he is a member of Visualize since he was a teen and how he was problematic as a teen and the Cult helped him.  He isn't pleased the killer of the Visualize member, Holly, isn't charged with murder but manslaughter.  Lisbon comes out and asks him if he was at Ellison Farm and she thinks he's guilty of the other two murders.  Ray doesn't reply which makes us even more suspicious of him.  Doesn't this reinforce how Visualize must have a connection to Red John, either through its members, some of them or Bret Stiles. But we haven't seen how much he's in favour with Bret, yet if he is Red John then it would show how Bret is so knowledgeable and how Visualize and Bret would have come to RJ, I mean, Ray's help as a teen.  Thus holding them in high regard and why Bret hasn't been silenced by him.

I agree with Lisbon that he was around at the time the Smiley face was drawn on the barn and clearly he could have been responsible for those two murders showing he had 'teen' troubles at that time. For a cult to be the only one to have been able to help him must show how disturbed he really was.  Also Ray is the only one who has been so closely associated with the red barn and the appearance of the Smiley face at such an early time.  As for his timing with asking Lisbon to come into the security firm with him, that was kind of, well, off.  I mean he could have asked her that when she was suspended and he was 'temporarily' in charge. She would have been more conducive to the idea of it.  Maybe he saw it as a chance to get her away from Patrick now when he asks her, or the fact Red John was on the hunt for a new lover.  Trying to entice Lisbon away from Patty cos it's something Red John would do.  If he can keep an eye on her, she's less likely to be trouble for him.  Would RJ really want to rid himself of Lisbon?  Though he wanted her head in the season 4 finale when Patrick went rogue. (The Crimson Hat).

4 Reede Smith: (Drew Powell)
                                                  
Don't know how much of a suspect Reede Smith could be since he only has made a guest appearance and hasn't been shown to be involved in much.  He is an FBI agent and is Gabe Mancini's (Ivan Sergei) partner.  We first saw him in 5.1 The Crimson Ticket.  The spotlight probably falls on him cos his name is an anagram for "red is me and theme is red."  Though this seems to be highly convoluted, since we haven't seen much involvement with him and Patrick.  A suitable case for a red herring perhaps.

5  Robert Kirkland: (Kevin Corrigan)
                                                           
first graced our screens in Red Dawn.  Having FBI connections with Alexa Schultz but that's only to be expected if he's Homeland Security (mentioned in If It Bleeds It Leads when he tells this to Lisbon.)  However his first meeting with Patrick wasn't in the normal sense as he shook hands with him in the corridor, with Patty asking, "do I know you."
Kirkland: "No, but I know you."  Which Patrick didn't deem strange or unusual, infact (I know it came towards the end of the ep) but Patrick didn't even give a second thought to it.  Suppose he would have after Lorelei's revelation of the handshake.  Usually Patrick isn't so complacent about such things.

Kirkland is interested in Red John and also Lorelei but he doesn't admit why he's here, seeing as Homeland Security wouldn't be involved in such cases.  We're meant to be suspicious of him for many reasons, including how he was with Alexa in the limo whilst she was on the phone to Minelli.  (Wonder why he wasn't listed as a suspect since I know many thought of him as a possible RJ - especially with his being so high up in the CBI.)

Kirkland's on the case in Red Sails in the Sunset and believes Patrick helped Lorelei escape, until they find his abandoned car.  In There Will be Blood, he makes another appearance, once again honing in on Lorelei but again we don't know why he's so interested in her.  Is it that RJ was unable to keep her in check like he was bale to with his other acolytes, but more importantly Homeland Security and specifically Kirkland is given carte blanche in the investigation.  Allowing him to get as much info as possible. Declaring Jason Lennon's house to be under his jurisdiction, again why?

Behind the Red Curtain is where Kirkland is meant to have shown his true colours (is that the colour red?) well he killed Lennon and lied to Patrick that he didn't say anything, but even if he asked Lennon if he knew him, that could be for any other purpose or case he's investigating.  Remember Homeland Security's remit are terrorist and national security cases.  Lennon's reply he doesn't know Kirkland and him asking that question was similar to Patrick asking if he knows Kirkland when they first shook hands.  SO there could be nothing in it.  Where would either one of them have known Kirkland from?

I personally don't think Kirkland is Red John, firstly he wouldn't need to go through the trouble of finding out what Patrick was hiding in his attic and wouldn't have sent his agents around to break in (Red Letter Day). Secondly with the revelation he was aware Lorelei told him about the handshake and that Patrick had narrowed down his list of suspects, he had the same information Patrick did.  Surely Kirkland couldn't have been so instrumental in narrowing down and compiling this same list.  I think Kirkland was put there for another purpose which we have yet to learn and is an ally for Patrick.

When Kirkland and Patrick met and shook hands, Lorelei was in prison, how would she then know of their meeting?  I know it sounds moot point. To bring Kirkland into play now as Red John would be an interesting theory since we are going to get the reveal in season 6 and another suspect for us, but he probably has other reasons for taking an interest. My gut feeling is it's not him.  Patrick wanted her out of prison so turned to Bret to break her out, who was the one arranging everything since he owed Patty.  She didn't suspect Patrick wanted her out and was the one behind her prison break.

What about Rosalind Harker (Alicia Witt) the blind woman and lover of Red John, she was left alive also and the one person who can recognize him by touch, even if she hasn't seen his face, it's as good as, and wasn't killed, but Lorelei was, even if what she told Patrick was seen as a betrayal by RJ.  It appears she would no longer be in his control particularly since she found out Red John killed her sister.

6. Sheriff Thomas McAllister:  (Xander Berkeley)
                                                       

His only appearance was in Red Tape and Silver Hair, though don't know if that title was meant to be some sort of RJ connection, McAllister having silver hair. He did seem to portray one of those 'homely' sheriffs without much nouse, or anything 'upstairs' since he didn't understand what Patrick did at the CBI.  Patrick also proceeded to win him six times in their game of Rock, paper scissors.  He also hasn't featured much in the show if at all, his next appearance will be in 6.3 Wedding In Red, which many have said will be when Van Pelt and Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) tie the knot.

Question to ask is whether someone who hasn't been on the show aside from one or two episodes is someone who would comfortably fit the profile of Red John.  Unless we are to think he has been around all the time watching Patrick, or getting others to do this for him.  A sheriff is able to slip away undetected and has the means to carry out nefarious actions, but what are his connections to the CBI?
Oh hang the profiling, need the BAU (Criminal Minds) to profile Red John! ha.

7 Brett Partridge: (Jack Plotnick)
                                                  
is forensics guy for the CBI and is meant to be a veritable expert on Red John crime scenes, yet he hasn't been shown at every single one of RJ's CS.  We first met him in the Pilot. Not much info on him, characterwise or otherwise and it's been said he has a mother somewhere.  Surely Red John couldn't have a 'mother complex' which makes him who and what he is?  That'd be too unoriginal, but could explain plenty in terms of why he kills and leaves behind his trademark Smiley faces.  Infact in the Pilot he says how he's impressed at the Smiley face at a CS which turns out not to have been left there by the real Red John.  So forensics guy why couldn't you work that out?  Strange in that he compliments RJ when he hasn't been involved in the case, trying to throw Patrick off the scent, or testing his mettle?

So if he's an expert how come he doesn't tell the difference between the real RJ scenes and those which were the work of a copycat.  Patrick hates him and he doesn't seem to have much time for Patrick either. There's an underlying animosity between them.  He's shifty and creepy, always wearing that white shirt and in Red Sky in the Morning is perturbed Patrick wants him to leave so he can get his job done. Analyzing the scene.  This was also where Brett fobs Patrick off when he tells him it's the work of a copycat and not RJ.

Patrick sees him as a "ghoul" and he's right about that.  He's a bit like those fiendish types from Scooby Doo and looks like someone who would be revealed under the mask by Valma as being the killer.   In Patrick's notes of RJ suspects in Black Cherry, Patrick notes: "CBI Forensics Department - Totally Macabre - handles Red John cases."  (Don't recall Patty shaking hands with him, but will have to watch that ep over.)

Showed up again in Red Lacquer Nail Polish and again had an altercation with Patrick when he spoke of spontaneous human combustion.  He's into books, Moby Dick, just as RJ is into William Blake and the Tyger poem. Patrick of course looked at the books on the table of the Vic.  One possible basis why he's considered to be RJ is his voice which we heard in season 2 finale Red Sky in the Morning when Patrick was tied up and he appeared to him wearing that stocking.  He could of course use a voice distorter as many of RJ's accomplices have done so.

Funnily enough and I don't think Bruno Heller was giving away any clues but in an interview on season 6 and Red John, he said, "up until now if you're comparing it to Moby Dick, which is one of the analogies I used to describe the length of the chase, next season [6] the whale has been sighted and they're in the small boats and chasing the whale."  Brett Partridge's book he mentioned.

He appears in Red John's Rules when Lorelei is found murdered, but does turn out to be revealed as one of the suspects on the list. Here he said that Lorelei's murder appears to be personal.  He is directly involved with the CBI and is in a position to know what's going on here.  Then again is he the right age to be Red John and does he really have the intelligence? Other than just showing up to annoy us and Patty further.

Brett shares his name with Bret Stiles albeit with a second 't'.  You can of course get some sort of a 'red' in Partridge as far as anagrams go.  Also in Red is the New Black,  Red John left behind the DB of a morgue attendant at Rosalind's house aft r he listened to her playing the piano. Considering Partridge is the forensics guy he could easily get away with killing him.

I would have loved Red John to have been a woman, nothing to do with equal rights and all that, but just cos Patrick's nemesis should have been a woman.  Then again some would argue he wouldn't be as effective or have all those lovers (well two that we know of.)

Anyway time for you to pick your suspect and firmly place down your bets (not really) as to the identity of Red John...