Quick Shots: The Red Tattoo

There are of course spoilers for tonight's ep of The Mentalist so read with caution.  This is only quick thoughts- tomorrow I'll have the real thing up.  The picture if property of CBS/Warner Brothers.

Cape Fear: 
Once again we are treated to seeing a phobia.  Ray Haffner is scared of spiders.  Really scared.  Like nearly pissing his pants scared.  He may be Red John but not necessarily.   But Red John has a fear.  Everyone does.  Lisbon fears losing Jane, her team, letting everyone down.  Jane fears not actually being the smartest in the room and never getting away from RJ or his past.  Rigsby fears that the other shoe is always going to drop.  For Cho it is fear that he'll have to listen to Rigsby forever.  You see what I mean.  What does Red John fear?  More than anything I think he fears that Jane is smarter than him, knows him better than he should.  Jane is getting closer and Red John is getting sloppier because he fears his own comeuppance coming from Jane.

Visualize This:
Is Red John part of Visualize or does he use Visualize and its members for his own gain?  If Bret Stiles isn't RJ then I'm going to guess he is scared of him- why else would he leave when the list was sent out?  So whom does Stiles fear?  (everything goes back to fear people)  Interesting that the Summer clone plant used Visualize when it wasn't them.  Could Team Tyger, Tyger be a new religion started by RJ of law enforcement to rival Visualize, it's membership, and oodles of money coming in?  If you can't take over the world build your own revolution.  A "brotherhood".

A Moment of Joy:
The big clue in tonight's ep afforded Jane and Lisbon to stand in the eye of the storm for a moment.  They even both smiled.  No fear etched on their faces just joy.  They got the bastard.  Well, they are close to it, closer than ever before.  They both must realize he is making mistakes, too- doing the killing himself, only a few minutes before Jane and Lisbon get there?  Ohhh, RJ, not good.  They were this close to catching him.  Like Lorelei said (she keeps echoing this season)- he is just a man with weaknesses.  Finally there is a light at the end of this nightmare tunnel so for now Jane and Lisbon will take the joy until they face their fears again.


More tomorrow night for the full blog post!