The Mentalist

Red Queen

Season 3, Episode 16, Aired 2/24/11

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Episode Summary

The CBI team is under suspicion when a museum antiques dealer is murdered. Evidence seems to suggest that one member of the team is responsible.

8.5

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Cast & Crew

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Simon Baker

Patrick Jane

9.5
Robin Tunney

Teresa Lisbon

8.4
Tim Kang

Kimball Cho

8.8

Fan Episode Reviews (5)

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Hightower takes Jane hostage as LaRoche tightens his net on the killer of a suspect in CBI custody.

7.0

"Good"

By vicbjones, Jun 08, 2011 Report Abuse

There have been at least two episodes of The Mentalist that I thought would have been improved if the order of the scenes had been changed or if the teaser had at least been a flashforward (ala Alias Smith and Jones). I would have preferred if the opening scene after the titles hadn't been captioned "36 hours earlier," but "Red Queen" was still a pretty good episode,.

My interest kind of waned when I realized it was going to end on a cliffhanger. The episode did manage to surprise me, however. I was very interested in how the murder Lisbon's team was investigating would tie in to the teaser and was pleasantly surprised with how they dovetailed into each other. I was also pleasantly surprised with how Jane wasn't automatically convinced of Hightower's innocence and was ready to kill her because he thought she might have inhibited his hunt for Red John. And the repartee between Cho and Grigsby as they approached the warehouse featured the drollest dialogue Cho has had all season. I don't understand why no one bothered to check Hightower's phone records to see who called her before she left the briefing or why no one immediately thought to put a watch on or secure Hightower's kids, but this season's finale is shaping up to be a big improvement over last season's if the threads the writers seem to be setting up amount to anything.moreless
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7.5

"Good"

By thefanof, May 22, 2011 Report Abuse

"Red Queen" continues the Red John story to an extent, although they really need to start moving this along faster. I do think they are planning to reveal him during the series finale, but it is not fair to make the viewers wait that long in my mind.

Good episode here, and they had me convinced that Hightower actually was bad. Shame on me. I liked the Leverage style flashback explaining their plan though.

Whenever The Mentalist has an episode that differs from just the usual murder of the week they have one of the best hours of TV of the week. Now they just need to work on making those regular episodes good again.moreless
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Red Queen...

9.5

"Superb"

By AjMc91, May 14, 2011 Report Abuse

I'm not sure that I can put my feelings for this episode into words. From the get go you knew that this was going to be a particularly good episode of what is already a great show. With Hightower holding a shotgun to Patrick's neck, you knew something was going to be a miss throughout the episode. The standard The Mentalist murder mystery, mixed in with a bit of the hunt for a murderer in the CBI's midst, lead to a sadly obvious outcome that has given a platform for a great ending to this season. The downfall of the writers in this episode was that they did too good of a job making Hightower likable to make it believable that she was in fact the "bad guy". They did it in such a way that it didn't feel like an "Oh my god SHE did it!?" but more like a "There's no way she did it, I wonder what Patrick is up to?" kind of situation. However that small point aside, this was a fantastic episode of The Mentalist. A somewhat subtle suggestion that Bertram is going to be Red John's insider (perhaps even Red John?) with his totally unnecessary poem quotation is really exciting me for the future of this show. One would imagine that some kind of showdown has to occur before the end of the season, but as this show is destined to continue, you can never be sure exactly how they are going to handle the Red John case. Overall a top quality episode of a great show.moreless
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The Red John story continues...

8.0

"Great"

By Shreela, May 01, 2011 Report Abuse

The weekly mystery unravels to bring us more Red John clues. I almost like how they did it, except I'm still confused about the weekly mystery, but not a biggie, since they moved the Red John story along finally.

The big IA cop questioned Hightower (Lisbon's immediate boss) about her relations with a cop that was killed a while back. Hightower clams up, saying something like her private business isn't any of his business.

But later on, the big IA cop brings in this cool poster board with many layers of transparencies, each with the position of each CBI employee in the building the day Hightower's former lover was killed. It was obvious he put in a LOT of work on the poster/transparencies thing. Each time he flipped a transparency, the suspect list narrowed, until there was only five left - Hightower was the only one with known motive (scorned lover). She admitted she was the cop's lover, but there's still not enough evidence to detain Hightower.

Things get really crazy soon the big IA cop's poster board scene. Beware of cops reciting poetry! I'm not surprised Lisbon didn't catch it, since she's a bit coarse and probably wouldn't recognize the poem as Blake's. The big IA cop seems like he might have read poetry in college, but perhaps he's not as invested into the Red John case to know the significance.moreless
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A good one :)

9.0

"Superb"

By 44tvfan, Mar 05, 2011 Report Abuse

The best part was the second half.
I knew Hightower and Jane were "putting on an act" but I still loved it.
I disliked Hightower when she was first introduced on the series, but I really like her now.
It was so funny when Jane went to LaRoche's house and saw him with his little white dog and Hummels on the table.
The best part is they FINALLY gave us another clue to Red John. When the Director quoted the poem by William Blake that was a very abvious "hint" that he's Red John's mole. The poem he quoted was from "The Cradle" William Blake is also the author of "Tiger Tiger" I just hope they're not trying to trick us. It would be nice if they got back to more Red John episodes. Maybe even wrap it up by having Jane kill him!moreless
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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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Trivia
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- This episode reveals that Virgil Minelli has warned Hightower about the presence of Red John's moles in the CBI.
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- Hightower mentions "Virgil" to Jane when the two discuss the extent of Red John conspiracy inside CBI. "Virgil" is the first name of her predecessor, Special Agent in Charge Minelli.
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- William Blake, whose poem is recited by the CBI Director in the aftermath of Hightower escape and name is mentioned by LaRoche shortly after, is the author of Tyger, Tyger poem which Red John and Todd Johnson had mentioned in Red Sky in the Morning and Red Moon respectively.
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Notes
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- Original International Air Dates:
  Canada: February 24, 2011 on CTV
  The Netherlands: April 7, 2011 on SBS 6
  United Kingdom: April 8, 2011 on Channel 5/Channel 5 HD
  Sweden: June 14, 2011 on TV3
  Germany: September 18, 2011 on Sat.1
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Quotes
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- Jane: I'm better off alone.
  Hightower: Nobody is better off alone. (kisses Jane on the cheek and gets into the car to get away)
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- Hightower: If you don't point that shotgun away from me, I swear I will use it to beat you like a rented mule.
  Jane: Spoken like a true lunatic killer.
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- Christo: Montero was on the run.
  Rigsby: On the run from who?
  Christo: Nobody. He- he traveled. He was always running to South America. His career was in ruins.
  Rigsby: Well, tough times for everybody.
  Christo: Not for Montero. He had a lot of money.
  Rigsby: Well, you just said he was in ruins.
  Christo: Yes, Toltec. Mayan.
  Rigsby: Oh, Montero was an archaeologist?
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Allusions
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- The title is a reference to the character the Queen of Hearts in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll who frequently says, "Off with his head!" During this episode, Madeleine Hightower threatens to blow off Patrick Jane's head with a shotgun.
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