Red John

Red John
The Mentalist character
In-universe information
Gender	Male

Red John is a fictional character and leading antagonist on the CBS crime drama The Mentalist. He is a serial killer who murders many people in California, Nevada, and Mexico. Five years prior to the action of the first episode, he murdered the wife and the daughter of protagonist Patrick Jane, making Jane his dedicated nemesis.

In the Season 3 finale, "Strawberries and Cream (Part 2)", Jane succeeds in finding and killing a man he thought to be Red John. He is portrayed by Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning actor Bradley Whitford. However, after this "cliffhanger" episode, it was determined by Jane that the man he killed was not Red John after all in the Season Four premiere.

The Face and other signatures

"The Face"

As part of his criminal signature, Red John draws a smiley face on the wall with the blood of the victim—always clockwise, using the three fingers of his rubber-gloved right hand.

Patrick Jane, the show's protagonist, says in the pilot episode, "Red John thinks of himself as a showman; an artist. He has a strong sense of theater." Jane insists "... the first thing that anyone sees is the face on the wall. You see the face first and you know. You know what's happened and you feel dread. Then, and only then do you see the body of the victim. Always in that order." He uses this information to work out that an apparent Red John murder was a copycat crime.

Additionally, Red John has twice painted his victim's toenails with their own blood. Both of these victims were female. The first was Patrick Jane's wife, to strike a personal blow against Jane for what Red John described as "slander in the media". Years later, knowing the case would be intercepted by the California Bureau of Investigation team, of which Jane is a member, directly as a result of Red John's involvement, and that the reminder of his wife's death would make Jane furious, Red John painted the toenails of a young girl, to draw out Jane's fury and lead Jane into a trap.

Red John's victims are almost all female, but there have been exceptions. One exception was a man Jane helped to be released from prison on the condition he would give Jane information on the whereabouts of Red John. Fearing Red John, the man escaped Jane's custody before giving any relevant information. Later that day, the man contacted Jane to explain that he would be of no further help. Jane used background noises from the conversation as a starting point to find this man, but Red John had gotten to him first, killing both the man and a prostitute that was with him. This took place during the Season 1 episode "Red John's Friends". In the Season 2 episode "His Red Right Hand", it is revealed another man was killed when he interrupted his wife's murder at the hand of Red John. Jane believes this occurred early in Red John's career and that Red John made a "mistake" in the process of the murder due to his inexperience. Jane believes Red John removed the body from the crime scene (something he had otherwise not done) to bury the mistake, which could lead to Red John's true identity. In the Season 2 finale, Red John and Jane meet when Red John rescued Jane from kidnappers; he recited part of the poem The Tyger by William Blake to Jane, who was bound in a chair.

Victims and accomplices

Red John has killed 16 women and 8 men (3 through Rebecca, Bosco's secretary). In episode one, a copycat killer claims in a letter that he has killed 12 women (he claims to have "12 wives" in the letter). This means that only 11 women are killed by the real Red John at the time of episode one. The woman killed in episode one is not a victim of the real Red John but by the copycat.

In the episode "Red John's Friends" (season 1, episode 11), a man with information about Red John, Jared Renfrew, is killed together with a prostitute. The prostitute is Red John's twelfth female victim. Renfrew was a cellmate of Orville Tanner, Red John's partner in his first killing. Jane gets Jared freed from prison but Renfrew flees before telling Jane anything. Renfrew later calls Jane from Mexico on the prostitute's phone, and says that Red John would know that he did not tell Jane anything, suggesting that there is an informant inside the police station. On the wall, written in blood by Renfrew, are the words "He is Ma...",with a third character that was either a r or an n. It could also be "He 15 Mar(n)". It is also revealed in this episode that Red John has access to the police computers.

In the final episode of season 1 (episode 23), Red John kills Emma Plaskett, one of a pair of teenage twins. Emma is his thirteenth female victim. The local sheriff is revealed as his accomplice, and also the son of Red John's first accomplice, Tanner. It is also revealed that Red John, under the alias Roy Tagliaferro, had been in a relationship with a blind woman named Rosalind Harker. His mark is above her bed. She claims he left some six months earlier. However, in a scene, the viewer observes Patrick Jane's struggle with Sheriff Hardy and he is drinking from a china cup that matches Harker's set. Rosalind tells Jane that Red John is just under six feet tall, has short straight hair, is neither soft nor overly muscular, and loved to hear her play the piano, particularly Bach. She says that Red John has strong, rough hands.

In the episode "His Red Right Hand" (season 2, episode 8), it is revealed that Red John killed a man named Towland Morning, who was the doctor for Carter Peaks (a man Red John killed when he walked in on the attack of his wife). Red John orders Rebecca (Bosco's secretary) to kill Bosco and two of his agents. Two of the agents die at the scene and Bosco succumbs to his injuries later. Red John also killed Agent Hicks in that episode. At the end of the episode, Red John poisons Rebecca (his fourteenth female victim).

In the final episode of season 2 (episode 23), Red John killed a female interviewer named Jacqueline Sandoval (the fifteenth female victim) because she called him a 'beast' in an interview with Kristina Frye. Furthermore, Red John possibly kidnapped Kristina Frye. After Red John killed Jacqueline Sandoval and possibly kidnapped Kristina, Patrick Jane, following up a lead on his own in a Red John copycat case, was knocked out and awakes tied to a chair and in front of Wesley Blankfein, the main suspect, holding a knife, pretending to be Red John. Jane figures out that Wesley is actually being manipulated by two other students who are producing a Red John "snuff movie". As the Red John copycat is about to kill Jane, a man dressed in a dark cloak appears, shoots the student "directors" one male one female, then shoots the other student in the leg. Red John gets closer to Jane, when it is revealed he's wearing a red mask and recites the first verse of "The Tyger" to Jane. He leaves Jane and reveals Kristina would want him to send her love.

In "The Blood on His Hands" (episode 3 of season 3), cult leader Bret Stiles gives Jane a chilling message from Red John, saying that he would find Kristina alive. When the team finds her, she is alive, but unresponsive. At the CBI HQ, Jane then uses a candle that Kristina used once, season 1 episode 7 ("Seeing Red"), to begin a séance and to initiate a response from Kristina. When asked if she ever saw Red John, she says that she doesn't know what Jane is talking about, and is convinced that she is dead. Jane becomes completely distraught.

The Jane family

Years prior to the first season, Jane, appearing on a television talk show, claims that he was using his psychic abilities to help the police find Red John. He also makes fun of Red John, calling him weak. When he returns home, he finds a note on the door to his bedroom by Red John. The note says:

"Dear mister Jane, I do not like to be slandered in the media, especially by a dirty money-grubbing fraud. If you were a real psychic, instead of a dishonest little worm, you wouldn't need to open the door to see what I've done to your lovely wife and child.

— "Red John"

Upon opening the door, Jane sees Red John's trademark smiley face drawn on the wall, in his wife and child's blood. In the present continuity of the show, five years later, Jane is shown to return home to the smiley face left by Red John still on the wall. The face is the only notable feature left in Jane's residence as all the furniture has been removed. As of the episode, Red Sky in the Morning, Jane still has the smiley face that Red John drew on the wall, and even sleeps on a mattress on the floor under it.

Ever since he murdered Jane's family, Red John has shown himself to be as obsessed with Jane as Jane is with him. Red John has even risked capture just to observe him as well as having Bosco's team killed so that Jane could have the Red John case back, as shown by Rebecca's statement that "he missed you".

Bosco and his unit

In the episode, "His Red Right Hand", Red John instructs Rebecca, apparently Red John's insider and Bosco's secretary, to kill Bosco and his agents. Lisbon and Jane find Bosco and two of the three men in his unit shot in their office; Bosco is critically injured, and the other two are dead. Later, Jane finds Hicks (the third man) dead in a doctor's office, and Red John's logo on the wall. Rebecca is eventually caught trying to finish off Bosco in his hospital room. Rebecca tells Jane in an impromptu discussion that Red John had her kill Bosco and his team so that Jane could have the case back. Rebecca had already removed and destroyed the incriminating evidence. According to Rebecca, Red John missed Jane, and knew that it was what Jane wanted.

Later Rebecca appears to see Red John while she is being transported; it is later revealed someone brushed against Rebecca and exposed her to a fast-acting poison by making a small slash on her arm. Bosco dies in the hospital later in the episode, just after telling Jane that he will catch Red John, because he makes mistakes, and also not to arrest him, but to kill him.

Identity

Red John has rarely been seen by the CBI. Red John's first physical appearance was in the season two finale, "Red Sky in the Morning". In the episode, Red John saves Jane from two student filmmakers who had copycatted Red John murders. During the encounter, Red John kept his face hidden behind a mask, preventing Jane from identifying him. Before leaving Jane, the killer recited the first stanza of William Blake's poem "The Tyger".

In the season three episode, "Red Moon" Jane exposed an EMT worker, Todd Johnson, as a serial cop killer. After being locked in a holding cell in the CBI headquarters, Johnson said he will only talk to Jane, as he claims only Jane will understand what he has to say. When the guard returned with Jane, Johnson was on fire, burning in his cell. On his death bed, Johnson said to Jane, "Tyger, Tyger", indicating he was in some way connected to Red John. Patrick then started a secret investigation of his own to track the killer. Meanwhile, LaRoche tried to find who killed Johnson, and finally suspected Hightower, due to DNA evidence which Jane believed was planted by Red John or one of his accomplices. Hightower escaped by pretending to take Jane hostage. Jane told her to remain in hiding, not only to evade the police, but also due to the danger represented by Red John.

In the season 3 finale, "Strawberries and Cream Part 2", the mole was identified as Grace Van Pelt's fiancee, FBI Agent Craig O'Laughlin, who was killed by Hightower and Van Pelt after shooting Lisbon in an attempt to assassinate Hightower. In a mall, Jane, who was on a call with Lisbon during the shootout, told her to use O'Laughlin's cell to redial the last number and tell the one who answered that O'Laughlin was dead. When Lisbon dialed, a phone rang near Jane, and was answered by a man reading a newspaper. After ending the call, Jane approached the man and questioned him. At first, the man acted upset and threatened to call security, but then smiled and said he was joking and revealed himself as Red John. The two talked; the man revealed to Jane that he had a gun concealed in a folded newspaper. The man stated that he is tired of killing and wants to start a new life, and he encouraged Jane to do the same. Jane said he would not be able to move on until Red John is dead. The man proceeded to leave and proved that he was the true murderer of Jane's family by revealing details about them that only their killer would have known. Jane then killed the man with a gun hidden in his pocket. In the Season Four premiere, it is shown that this man was not Red John after all, but one Timothy Carter, who along with his wife had kidnapped a woman.