The Mentalist (TV Series) His Red Right Hand (2009) User Reviews

To the 2 star review

[brightest-fairy · 10/10 · 22 February 2021]

I know this comment is old but, do yourself a favor and keep watching. All of your concerns will be answered. This episode was a delightful surprise, most series wait to the end or start of a season, an episode 8 like this is totally unexpected.

Final Thoughts

[ttapola · 9/10 · 28 October 2010]

Arguably the best episode of The Mentalist up to this point, His Red Right Hand has you already when you read/hear the title. Besides being genuinely spine-tingling, it tells you that this one, instead of the not-so-clever-as-they-think-they-are criminals, Jane is up against his true adversary. Anyone who thinks Red John might be caught here is probably too young to remember the quite excellent Profiler from the 1990s. The set-up of that show was similar to The Mentalist in that in addition of the weekly cases, the protagonist, said Profiler, Sam Waters, was trying to catch a man called Jack of All Trades (brilliantly listed among other actors' names in the opening credits just as 'Jack') who - guess what - had killed her husband. And among fictitious TV villains, Jack is a bit of a legend, pulling off one of the all-time great cons on the law enforcers on his tail. But when he was caught, the series lost its appeal. Obviously, the show-runners of The Mentalist don't want to repeat that mistake.

So, as the title suggests, Red John himself doesn't even appear in this episode, but his *presence* is felt throughout. It's like he's The Emperor in A New Hope, represented only by Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin. He is the bad guy so frightening, that when he finally, one day, makes his appearance, the audience should soil themselves. Thanks to great writing, the fact that he is constantly one or more steps ahead of the CBI remains plausible, if, at times, just a tiny bit dependable of variables out of his control. Still, Red John is not as ridiculously prescient as Jigsaw, for example - the Saw films internal logic collapses if one starts thinking about the plots. Here, the pieces fit, the pace is frenetic and the twists keep coming at a well-judged intervals, leaving the viewer breathless. A fantastic episode which also has nice character moments and leaves the audience with some questions, the foremost probably being, "What were Bosco's final words to Jane?"

If everything goes well, this is just a mere prelude compared to the true face-off between Jane and Red John. As such, that epic event *has* to succeed (though many other series have proved that it's possible to fail) in topping this instant-classic, so this is only 9/10, with the hope that the end will be an earth-shattering 10/10.

Bosco's cause of death?

[maysy-97736 · 9/10 · 15 January 2022]

Great episode overall, but what was up with Bosco dying from loss of blood? Surely there was something more specific than that. He was in the hospital for a few days, and was coherentlt awake and talking at the end, so I'm sure they could have given him a blood transfusion if a loss of blood was what was causing him to die. Odd.

Red John Strikes Again

[claudio_carvalho · 9/10 · 17 December 2021]

Lisbon summons her team to investigate a crime scene in a cemetery, when the body of a naked man was found decorated with yellow roses on his genitals. When they return to the CBI headquarters, they learn that Bosco and his agents have been shot and only Bosco has survived in critical conditions. Hicks is missing and becomes a suspect. They interview Bosco's team secretary Rebecca, who had brought coffee for the team; they check the security videos and find that 30 minutes are missing indicating an inside job. Meanwhile, Jane is looking for the forensics identification of the victim in the cemetery. When the victim is identified, they find Hicks in his office with Red John's mark on the wall. When they head to Clovervill to bring the corpse and the evidence the coroner has gotten, they find that all material is gone and soon they identify the killer's identity. Who might be the murderer of the CBI agents?

"His Red Right Hand" is another great episode of "The Mentalist', with many twists and surprises. Unfortunately, the writers have decided to kill important characters, but the series goes on. Looking forward to seeing what Patrick will do when Red John is captured. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "His Red Right Hand"

Strong core in a shell of contrivances

[yavermbizi · 6/10 · 29 October 2021]

My overall rating of "The mentalist"'s Season 2: 4/10.

This episode is the strongest in the Red John arc out of the first two seasons. It has a pretty cool story overall, a lot of emotion and thrill, and a great villain, as well as a cute opening scene. It also happens to have enough strange, illogical things to lessen one's enjoyment, especially to do with Red John's endless too-convenient contingencies and the CBI's failure to follow up on some obvious lines of inquiry: most prominently, Red John's identity could conceivably be established if proper inquiry was launched into how the secretary came to be poisoned (other than "laughably quickly"). Once you learn the poison was so ridiculously quick-acting, you just establish at which point she got the mark on her hand - and then the convoyers should remember the encounter with some guy in the corridor, who probably wasn't supposed to be there. Frankly, if it wasn't a Red John episode, 15 different lines of investigation would have had a chance to bear fruit. Also I have questions as regards workplace drinking etc.

On the other hand, why was the villain trying to kill Bosco with a gun the second time? I guess Red John wanted to "burn" her, as she was certain to be captured, but why - isn't a chance of retaining an informant in the CBI worth something?

fed up

[billandhobbes · 2/10 · 20 November 2009]

I am now totally disappointed and annoyed with this show; this episode did this series in for me. The main enjoyment of the show has been Jane's abilities for observation and insight. It's been bad enough that he's been so glib about it and he doesn't have to work for his conclusions. But now we're stuck with Red John front and center and the writers are making him much too skillful and cunning to approach anything like reality. The major problems i had with this episode 1) Bosco just sat there and watched the other two in the room get shot, then after he was shot he decided "oh, i better defend myself" and went for his gun --too late of course. This is not the way a cop on the force all those years reacts. 2) John (or his right hand) couldn't have had that much knowledge to be able to get into the security system computer and modify things just so. I could believe he could have destroyed all the data, but to specifically target and modify the CCTV data was too much to believe. 3) More importantly, Red John's ability to infiltrate the CBI building to commit his assassination was unrealistic, especially with the recent lock down. 4) Most importantly, Jane would have known Red John wouldn't let his Right Hand live so he should have taken extra precautions to safeguard her life. They made it seem that the thought never crossed his mind.

Jane is not as brilliant as we were led to believe

[CrimeDrama1 · 5/10 · 22 April 2022]

Two things were on my mind before this episode unfolded. This episode aired mid-season and the show was designed to only use season finale episodes to focus on Red John. Plus, with the title of this episode referring to Red John's partner, I was not optimistic. A lot happens but not much is actually learned about the serial killer (by the team). After the team returns to the office from the initial crime scene and finds three agents shot, the episode starts going downhill. Agent Bosco (never a fan) is the only one to survive the attack but is in critical condition. Rebecca is the only one around but appears to have just returned from a coffee run. No one thinks to verify the time she bought the coffee? Jane, more than anyone, knows the corpse found in Cloverville has the potential to identify Red John but neither he nor Agent Cho ask the coroner to keep an eye on it until they get there. Who didn't see this result coming? Even though I saw Red John's demise before having the chance to watch the first two seasons, I could still deduce that Red John is connected to law enforcement, yet it takes a long time on this show for the team to reach that conclusion. Just look at the three agents shot in the CBI office, who has the easiest access and who doesn't? Who is the common denominator between the stolen corpse and the three agents shot in their office? It's not a difficult deduction. Even with delayed timing, Lisbon and Van Pelt foil Rebecca's second attempt at killing Bosco, who dies soon thereafter anyway. What was the point of him surviving the initial shooting? Rebecca is arrested and is then poisoned and if you didn't know it before, the person administering the poison is wearing a law enforcement uniform and is allowed to get close to the prisoner. Jane had told Rebecca that Red John was just using her but no one thought to use her as bait in case someone tried to silence her in jail? Rebecca is dead and she never revealed what she did with the corpse she stole from Cloverville. I find it pretty ridiculous right now knowing how much longer it takes Jane and the CBI to take down Red John. One question, why not call in the FBI right now? A conspiracy that likely involves law enforcement and it is a mess.

Back in the day, I helped write scripts for radio dramas, which would air just before our annual 50-hour trivia marathon. It was serious business. We went spent many hours on the scripts, making sure it would make sense to our listeners. Crime dramas draw on a lot of well-known facts thus it has to make sense and this one could have been a lot better.