Pages

Monday, November 26, 2012

The Mentalist "Black Cherry" Review

The Mentalist in a nutshell: It's all an ILLUSION (read: VISUAL LIES)... like the real estate bubble.

 Dr. Linus Wagner: Everything you told me, Mr. Jane, is total fiction, isn't it? (See B.S.)

Patrick Jane discovers an ex-gang member in "Black Cherry" has more morals than a disbarred lawyer and cutthroat real estate salesmen, a real killer combination. Cherry-picking his way through a golf course crime scene, Jane deduces victim Lem McVie LEFT BEHIND his OLD life  because "he had a new credit card and driver's license."  In addition to his "cherry on cherry" OLDS LEFT BEHIND, McVie's cufflink is missing and Jane deduces it was LEFT BEHIND at the actual scene of the murder, as it couldn't possibly have been at the bottom of the waterhole where the body was found because the crime team drained the pond LATER and didn't find it, and it couldn't have fallen off in the SUV or in the process of being carried to the car and...well, you get the point.  Speaking of LEFT BEHIND, check out Noah checking out ol' Lisbuns. Jane walks into the first Catalina sales house and instantly feels it is not the site of the murder, apparently because its floor rug is still in place. Upon entering the second model home, Jane notices it does not have a floor rug, assuming it was used to transport the body after the killers clubbed him to death -  and no blood spatter would ever be found all over the house.  Anyway, Jane begins to search for that missing cufflink. Wouldn't you know, he found it.  Turns out McVie had a guilty conscience and was gonna turn his co-workers in for the accidental death of a hunter that CBI discovered McVie was searching an article about his death on the Internet, unaware he was now working for a gang of real psychopaths. As usual, Jane, the professional, tricks the amateur killers into revealing themselves as nuts.  Speaking of nuts, the seeds of black cherries contain compounds that can be converted into cyanide.  In contrast, although the flesh of cherries also contain these compounds, they do not contain the enzymes needed to produce cyanide, so the flesh is safe to eat,  like the "Black Cherry" storyline.  It may taste good but who can stomach the nuts?  Crime solved, Jane retreats to his inner sanctum to peruse the list of known associates as Red John candidates he may have met,  all the while watching his own reflection.  What's next around the corner?  If only we had a nifty Corner Shot assault rifle.

In this episode, as in the others,  so many things are not what they appear to be. Jane was DIRECTING the shots but Bruno Heller always has the last word.  Heller once again stretches the "suspension of disbelief" to make a point -  the viewer with half a REVIEW BRAIN must pay attention.  The plot holes could be a case of unbelievably bad writing - maybe the staff resigned itself to the show's demise since it was dumped in the Sunday graveyard.  But I give Heller and Simon Baker more credit than that and these writers are some of the best. 

The truth is Red John is Patrick Jane's imaginary evil twin, his "perfect symmetry" alter-ego (Jane/John),  Professor Moriarty character in a Tommy Westphall" imaginary world like "St. Elsewhere's" snow globe and "Life on Mars" that is the dream state of  Jane.  (NB. The fake Jane character in "Red Moon" where a corpse was found in a burned car was named Ellis Mars (El - He is Mars).  

Ellis Mars: The mind is a powerful weapon. It can create reality.

 Who's a Lyin'? Jane or Mar-tinsS

Jane: Perhaps we can see each other again.
Lorelei: That’s not up to me.
Jane: Oh, you have no say in it?
Lorelei: None at all. It’s very "Westphall."
Jane: I don’t follow you.
Lorelei: I do what Red John tells me to do.

 

Scrambled Eggs:   Jane appears to be a Sherlock Homes super-sleuth character but in reality is a mental patient with a cracked eggshell who suffers from paranoid delusions due to feelings of extreme guilt in the deaths of his wife and child who were burned as he was (CBI = intensive burn care?)  in a horrific car accident involving a driver named Tanner when he failed to stop at a BLINKING RED LIGHT - hence the RJ symbol - while he was driving intoxicated and spends his days watching TV shows, which generate his ideas for the delusional episodes. Note: Jane's eggshell blue car - a vintage 1972 Citroen DS 20 that Warner Bros., producer of "The Mentalist" for CBS, had in its inventory. It was used in the 2008 movie "Speed Racer." For "The Mentalist," the car was shipped from Germany and painted eggshell blue (it was originally red).

 Burning clues:Jane burns his Red John files with a bottle of booze.  "The Mentalist" is obsessed with fire, as in half the episodes it plays a significant plot point.  Out of the Frye-ing pan into the... As Kristina Frye discovered, when you get too close to Red John, you get burned.  "Tiger, Tiger burning bright, they were "Au-burned.In the "Red Mile" episode Jane arrives at a crime scene outside Auburn, California.  Shouts from Alabama football fans of "Roll Tide" first appeared during the Alabama-Auburn Tiger IRON BOWL game in 1907. Curiously, a corpse was found in a burned car in "Ruby Slippers," in which Jane discovers the identity of Fifi Nix, like Jane's Phoenix, has risen from the ashes of his past life.  In "Red Dawn" Jane is given a desk next to a fire extinguisher that is there, then it's gone, then it's there again.   Fake Red John read all about it - catch the fire-y headline on the front page of the newspaper Tim Carter was reading before Jane shot him.  Red John appeared to Jane in the burn mask.  Jane:  It's not my fire.


 
                         Red Face to Face


 The Mentalist logo.svg
                        Mentalist in a Box

   
 Drink Scotch Whiskey all night long and die behind the wheel


The Man with Two Names -- Red John's alias is Roy Tagliaferro (read: "cut iron").   The ROY CUT IRON  anagrams are "court irony" and "you r citron."  How ironic that Jane, the court jester who arrives at the crime scene in his Citroen,  a master reader of how others' emotions control them,  was a prisoner of his IRON-ic chains to the past.  Until Jane leaves his OLD LIFE BEHIND, The Mentalist is on the mental list, a PRISONER of his own device.



Jane:  Lisbuns,  enjoy life's bittersweet fruits but avoid the nuts.

Read John's "Seven" Come 11:  my mental list of  7 scripts so you can dream along with me 


  "DRAGON STAR  (2014)   Logline:  Code-cracker tracks a serial killer who returns after seven years to terrorize his hometown. Tagline: You can go Holmes again.  The second greatest story ever told.  DRAGON_STAR_-_Final[1] 


MIDNIGHT RIDE”   Logline: Garage band cruises a small Pennsylvania town on a stormy night that changes the course of rock music.  Tagline: “She loves you and you and you, yeah, yeah, yeah.”

"DIVE"   Logline: An American naval officer is forced to pilot a Colombian cartel submarine loaded with cocaine into San Diego harbor. But there's something else on board.  Tagline:  Sub-text: Hidden between the lines.

"COLUMBIA ROADS"    Logline:  US embassy investigator discovers Aurora prophecy that threatens  the US.    Tagline: All Roads lead to Columbia.  Download -COLUMBIA ROADS-

 “FACESPACE    Logline:  CIA Deep Throat recruits a conspiracy writer to stop a mind control op using social networks.    Tagline: Who is like FACESPACE and who can defeat it?  Download FACESPACE 7-21

"SPYDER AND THE FLY"     Logline: A black op team gets caught in its web of deceit.   Tagline:  "Come into my parlor said the Spyder to the Fly, but who was the Spyder and Who was the Fly?"

 "THE 11 O'CLOCK NEWS"   Logline: Two bloggers, Richie Scalia and John Scott,  get in way-over-their-head trouble.  Tagline:  Hindsight is 2021

3 comments:

  1. What about the list of names at the end from his notebook? Anything you can glean from those names that plays into your theory (which I love BTW)?

    ReplyDelete
  2. The name that fits Jane - MEH - in reflection - ME HE

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Where does MEH come from? I don't see that anywhere.

      Delete