Blinking Red Light is the seventh episode of Season 4 of The Mentalist.
Summary[]
The CBI is on the hunt of a serial killer, but Jane soon suspects that a blogger who is obsessed with the case may actually be the killer.
Recap[]
This episode starts out with Jane getting a flat tire, offering his insights into the murder of a 19-year-old girl over the phone to Lisbon. She was bound and murdered somewhere else and dumped in a park picnic area with pebbles over her eyes and no sign of sexual assault. Just as Jane is telling Lisbon to trust her instincts, those instincts are confirmed. The Fresno police department has four other cases that match it. All teenage girls, all bound, all with their throats slit and all dumped in random locations with objects on their eyes.
The CBI has entered the case of the San Joaquin killer.
The San Joaquin killer’s files from Fresno come with an overwhelming 8 suspects. Jane tells Lisbon that rather than doing the same thing Fresno did over again, she should trust her intuition and pick the suspect she likes most and start there. After deliberating, she decides on Richard Haibach, a man suspected of at least ogling teenage girls, and sets out with Van Pelt to question him. Van Pelt’s confused. Lisbon’s acting a lot like Jane in this episode, talking about “feelings” about Haibach, especially after he was so uncooperative. Meanwhile, Jane’s gone to watch Karen Cross tape a segment for her new show. She’s interviewing Wainwright and blogger James Panzer about the San Joaquin killer. This sets us up for how the rest of the show plays out, with Lisbon and Jane each following their own favorite suspect rather than working together. Panzer is suspiciously avid in his interest in the case, claiming it started because the first victim, Molly Mayer, lived in his neighborhood. He runs a website about the murders and the police investigation and is considered an “authority” on the subject. Both are very viable suspects.
Lisbon starts with hers by sending Cho out to canvas the area around the most recent murder. She doesn’t believe Haibach’s alibi that he was “home alone” the night before. Cho finds someone who saw Haibach at a nearby bodega an hour before the murder. It’s enough for a search warrant and as Van Pelt searches his house, Lisbon stares Haibach down. At least until she realizes there’s something besides wood burning in the fireplace.
At the same time, Van Pelt’s discovered a dark room full of suggestive pictures being developed of scantily clad young ladies, presumably taken around the bodega the night before. Haibach’s arrested and taken in for questioning. Unfortunately, none of the photos match any of the dead girls and taking pictures of people in public places isn’t illegal. When Haibach’s lawyer shows up they have to let him go.
Meanwhile, Jane’s been getting into Panzer’s head. He asks his take on Haibach and Panzer’s positive he isn’t the killer – he doesn’t have the intelligence. Jane tells Panzer the key is often the first victim and asks Panzer to take him to meet Molly’s family. As Panzer talks to Jane on the phone, a stone wall with a dark smudge can be seen behind him. After he hangs up, it can be seen that the smudge is actually a painting of some owls on the wall.
At the Mayor house, it’s obvious that whatever other involvement he may have, Panzer is clearly feeding on the family’s grief. Jane gets reluctant permission to look at Molly’s room and finds a DVD of a dance practice. She’s hauntingly beautiful, dancing to Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World”. Jane leaves her father to his memories and asks Panzer to show him his files. It turns out Panzer has an entire room full of files on the case. Poking around while Panzer gets him a drink, Jane discovers an iPod with “What a Wonderful World” on it. Panzer looks shaken to find it playing when he comes back into the room. He takes that opportunity to tell Panzer he thinks that the killer isn’t the “purist” Panzer claims, but a “deeply damaged man” just killing for the attention. Panzer adamantly defends the killer as a “brilliant man, running circles around the police”. A man to be “feared, not pitied”.
Unfortunately, whether Jane’s right or wrong about Panzer, the added attention of the CBI being on the case, along with the interest of the FBI, has caused the San Joaquin killer to escalate. There’s been another victim, this time there’s nothing on the eyes though. Because there are no eyes. Jane seems to feel guilty for just egging him on and announces that he thinks Panzer’s the killer to the whole team, along with Wainwright. He pledges to catch him by the morning, before the FBI steps in. The plan is to take away what he craves most, the admiration of the media.
The San Joaquin killer was created for “hubris”, the creation of a mythology of the brilliant killer the cops can’t catch. They need to arrest someone he would find pathetic and unworthy to force a reaction. Jane leaks to Cross that they have a suspect and will arrest him by morning. He swears her to secrecy, knowing it’s meaningless, and confides that it’s one of the existing suspects. Then he goes to Panzer with the story. They’re arresting Haibach. He’s faked several alibis and they’ve found evidence against him. They’ll be announcing it to the press in the morning. Jane’s last passing comment on the way out of Panzer's bathroom is that the killer is just a simple, mundane pervert. Then they wait. Sure enough, Panzer goes out carrying a medical bag. They follow him to what appears to be an abandoned warehouse, only to find him under the spotlights of Karen Cross. She claims to have gotten an anonymous call telling her where the actual murder scene was and she called Panzer to have him go over it with her on camera, as the expert on the case of course. At least that’s what Panzer claims. Either way, they can’t arrest him. As Jane talks to Panzer, the painting of the owls that was seen earlier is on the wall behind him again, meaning that Panzer's claim that he had never been to the warehouse before is a lie.
Alas, the FBI is taking over the case, it’ll all be started from scratch yet again and the San Joaquin killer will get to continue his work. Jane’s frustrated that they don’t take his conviction that Panzer is the killer seriously and complains to Lisbon. She just tells him “our hands are tied”. Jane’s only response, “maybe yours are.” He takes Cross up on her invitation to be on his show, as the expert on serial killers in general that he is. His appearance is a clear surprise to Panzer, who thought he had the spotlight. Jane throws him off-guard initially by agreeing that there are “too many cooks in the kitchen” now that the FBI is involved, but then starts working on him, getting into his head, with his further comments that the San Joaquin killer is actually “attached to the case” and “hiding in plain sight”, but that he’s become “so wrapped up in his own mythology”, that it’s only a matter of time until he makes a mistake. He’s successful at goading Panzer into a reaction.
After telling Jane during the commercial break that “You’re not going to ruin this for me,” he starts defending the San Joaquin killer on the air as “growing more bold and confident”, “too good to be caught”, and predicting many more killings. Realizing that Panzer needs to be stopped now before taking more lives, Jane tends a trap for him and comments that Red John thought the same thing. Panzer bites the bait and commits the same mistake that Jane did in the past by insulting Red John in the media, calling him "a common sociopath; lazy, sloppy, delusional", and "nothing compared to the San Joaquin Killer". Jane looks at Panzer and his face expresses that he knows that Panzer has just sealed his own fate. Later after the show, Jane visits Panzer at the dressing room and congratulates him, telling that he was very good out there. Panzer thanks and comments to himself "I was good".
A few hours later, Patrick is at his house when he receives a call from Lisbon and meets her in an alley, along with Susan Darcy and some other cops. Jane asks what's happening and Lisbon tells him to see it for himself. Jane enters the alley and finds a new murder scene, but now the victim is Panzer. The body of the San Joaquin Killer is thrown in the alley underneath Red John's trademark smiley face.
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Simon Baker as Patrick Jane
- Robin Tunney as Teresa Lisbon
- Tim Kang as Kimball Cho
- Owain Yeoman as Wayne Rigsby
- Amanda Righetti as Grace Van Pelt
Recurring Cast[]
- Catherine Dent as Susan Darcy
- Michael Rady as Luther Wainwright
- William Mapother as Richard Haibach
- Paul Willson as Paul Jenkins
- Missi Pyle as Karen Cross
- Ely Pouget as Teri Maier
- David Carey Foster as Tom Maier
Guest Cast[]
- David Paymer as James Panzer
- Kelsi Cullimore as Molly Maier
- Krystal Alvarez as Molly's Friend
- Tony Winters as Producer
- Christian Ijin Link as FBI agent
Trivia[]
- The episode is inspired by the Dennis Rader a.k.a. "The BTK Killer" case.