The Mentalist - Red All Over, S02E20

Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) may be an incredible clever and charismatic guy who always seems to know who committed a crime and is always able to get a confession from that person, though not always through the most legal of means, but sometimes his actions are callous and cruel.

Although Jane improved on his crazy techniques this episode - he actually informed the rest of the CBI team what he was planning on doing to gain a confession from the murderer - his actions put a little girl at risk. Not at physical risk, I doubt Jane would do such a thing anyway, and Lisbon (Robin Tunney) would not have gone along with such a thing, but the child was at risk of emotional damage.

Her father was murdered, and by her grandfather of all people. Not even for the right reasons. The family patriarch had no qualms about his son driving him out of a position of power in the family business, but when he suspected that his wife was having an affair and that her child was not his, but his son's, he went into a rage. The most tragic part of the entire mess was that the son he killed was not the son who had fathered the child.

Jane's plan to convince the man that his granddaughter had witnessed the murder worked well. The grandfather, fearful, it seemed in his confession, for the mental stability of the child, wished to reassure her that he had meant no harm, that they were just playing. The problem is that the child had not been in the room, was not even certain in the way adults are that her father was dead, and could easily have been traumatized by her grandfather's words had she properly understood them. When her mother slapped Jane across the face, I cheered.

And while Jane was not busy tracking down the murderer, he was playing with a Cult Leader. The clashing of the two, and the clearly illegal, but not clearly associated with him, actions that some of the cult members were involved in promise an ongoing battle. I look forward to seeing another villain for Jane to butt heads with, particularly one who is not afraid to show his face, relying more on the inability to tie the crimes to him to protect him than invisibility.

Does this mean Red John might actually be caught? Or will there be two villains to pursue? Or are we going to be given some relief when this new villain is caught after a comparatively short time, while Red John continues to give us the slip?