Red John (The Mentalist episode)

Lisbon (Robin Tunney) walks into an empty office currently being cleared out by the FBI. Supervisory Agent Dennis Abbott (Rockmond Dunbar) gathers Lisbon and the rest of her team to explain that they are now under federal investigation due to the likelihood of them also being criminals alongside CBI director Gale Bertram (Michael Gaston), who is publicly believed to be Red John.

At a gas station, Bertram calls Jane using a payphone, but their conversation is cut short when a police officer recognizes Bertram. Bertram's accomplice Oscar Cordero (Joe Nieves) shoots the officer dead and the two leave.

Abbott is unsuccessful in his team's raid of Jane's attic in the CBI. Lisbon insists she doesn't know Jane's whereabouts and leaves, only to be greeted by the rest of her team in the parking lot. Aware of the investigation, they're laying low, and inquisitive on Jane's whereabouts. Lisbon reminds them of the new dangers imposed around them. Lisbon then goes to see Jane at a park, and Jane briefs her on the situation while still remaining evasive. Aware that the FBI is attempting to trace his phone, he pays a random biker $300 for his phone plus a replacement. Calling Bertram, the two arrange a meeting at Alexandria's cemetery, where Jane's family was buried. Ignoring Lisbon's warnings, Jane takes her gun and car keys and leaves. The FBI, meanwhile, have arrived and catch up with an escaping Jane. The team ambushes him and rams his car.

Jane pleads with Abbott to give him one hour, soon backed up by Lisbon. Abbott, still suspecting Jane's corruption, catches onto their urgency. Cho (Tim Kang), Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) and Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti) arrive and hold Abbott at gunpoint, countering him by inquiring whether he too is a member of the corrupt Blake Association. Abbott insists that he isn't, but is unable to provide them with proof amid the setting and circumstances. He is forced to let Jane go but arrests the team shortly afterwards. Jane, on the other hand, misdirects the FBI by allowing a few teenagers to steal Lisbon's tracked car, and hitches a ride to the cemetery.

Arriving at the cemetery's church, Jane, inside, is greeted by Bertram, who goes on to claim that he is not Red John, nor is he even among the Blake Association's higher ranks. However, reluctantly deeming Jane a loose end, he orders Jane killed. Cordero, however, also under orders from Red John, shoots Bertram instead, prompting the real Red John to enter the church: Sheriff Thomas McAllister (an uncredited Xander Berkeley), previously believed to have perished in the explosion in Jane's house at the end of the episode "Fire and Brimstone". Greeting each other, McAllister brags to and berates Jane, gloating over how he was able to survive and also find out the names on Jane's list of suspects. While admitting that he never figured out how Red John knew the names, Jane does disclose his knowledge on McAllister's survival: two bombs went off in his house, one being a concussion bomb that allowed for Red John to drag Jane, Reede Smith and Bertram out of the way before a second lethal bomb killed Bret Stiles and Ray Haffner. McAllister faked his own death by placing a body with falsified DNA evidence provided to him by the now-deceased Brett Partridge. McAllister, impressed, allows Jane to "show him something", only to be attacked by a pigeon Jane hid under his sleeve (taking advantage of McAllister's previously-displayed phobia of the creature). Jane brandishes a gun he had hidden in the church and shoots McAllister in the abdomen and Cordero dead. As Jane relishes having McAllister—whom he finally acknowledges as Red John—at his mercy, he is interrupted by a woman (Kamala Lopez-Dawson) who tries to persuade him to spare McAllister. When Jane tries to get her to leave, she attacks Jane with a knife. Using the distraction to escape, McAllister runs away while Jane overpowers the woman and takes pursuit.

While Abbott's team finds a dead Bertram in the church, Jane pursues Red John through the cemetery, a neighborhood, a playground and over to a park bordering a pond, where McAllister loses stamina and succumbs to his wounds. When McAllister tries to call 911, Jane kicks away his phone and straddles him. McAllister desperately begs for mercy, claiming that he is in fact a real psychic and thus knew the names on Jane's list; a dismissive Jane puts a hand to Red John's throat and has him blink once for "no" and twice for "yes" to answer two questions: if he's sorry for murdering Jane's family, and if he is afraid to die. McAllister blinks twice for both questions. Jane, satisfied with his answers, goes through with his revenge and strangles McAllister to death. He then uses McAllister's phone to leave a message to Lisbon letting her know his quest for vengeance is complete and that he will miss her. Jane then discards the phone and flees the crime scene for parts unknown.

"Red John" is written by series creator Bruno Heller and directed by executive producer Chris Long. This marks Heller's nineteenth episode for the series and Long's twenty-second.