(Season 1, Episode 9 – “Flame Red”)
” “ – Jane, to victim’s daughter, who’s wearing headphones
Patrick Jane can be a real wiseass. He’s not even cop — or whatever the people who work for the fake law enforcement agency CBI are — and he just makes incredibly goofy comments to victims’ family members, suspects, and other complete strangers. I guess not being a cop gives him a little leeway to do this, but it sometimes gets to be a little over the top. I wonder how he would have felt if cops joked after Red John killed his family, though I have to admit his wiseass-ness is what makes this show so good. And most family members find it oddly charming.
Tonight, Jane investigates an arson murder. Was it the wife? Was it the friend that was having an affair with the wife? Was it a dead friend back from the dead? Or was it the former child star?
I really liked this episode. Not only did it have an odd, twisting whodunnit, we got a good scene where Jane and Lisbon actually talk about Red John. With all of these cases-of-the-week episodes it’s sometimes easy to forget we have a big plot running throughout the whole series: who killed Jane’s family and how is that affecting him? We’ve seen a few scenes here and there where it has been referenced (such as the psychic telling Jane how he feels a couple of episodes back), but this is the first time we’ve found out how Jane feels about the case professionally. Telling Lisbon that when he finds Red John he’s not going to arrest him, he’s going to kill him, and Lisbon saying that she’ll have to stop him added much meat.
As for the arson murder case, I like how the other cast members were giving a lot more to do this week. I’m not sure if the episode was twisty because of good writing or just because they threw so much into the plot (an arson fire — no three arson fires!, an affair, a conspiracy involving three friends, a handicapped man lurking around, a man who might not be dead after all, a pissy teenager), but in the end it worked. I do have to say though that throughout the entire episode I had a feeling that the killer was the handicapped man and that he was faking. But I actually talked myself out of it until I saw him behind the tractor at the last fire. That’s a neat change up.
And did you recognize the killer? Yup, that was Fred Koehler, who played Chip on Kate & Allie. He’s been a working actor for years, of course, in everything from Oz and Journeyman and the movie Death Race to those Fiber One cereal commercials that seem to run everyday, but it’s always good to see him pop up on TV shows and movies; he’s a good actor.
Anyway, another good episode. I agree with Debbie’s assessment of what the show needs to be even better, but this episode seemed to have a lot of humor, interaction with the team and suspects, and more than a few suspects. Creator Bruno Heller says that the show isn’t quite where he wants it to be, and that has me intrigued about future episodes.
I’d like to know how he did the mind-reading trick in the beginning though.
Clacked by Bob Sassone 
on Dec 02, 2008 @ 23:12 EST5EDT
So from this episode I got a very good thought of what might come in the future.
So Jane talks about when he finds Red John he will make him suffer and then kill. I think that Jane is very capable of doing just that thing. When Lisbon said that she would stop him from doing just that it gave me an interesting idea for future episodes. Could it be possible for Jane to follow through with his plan (killing Red John) and Lisbon would have to start a man hunt out for Jane. We would then follow Jane in his escape from Lisbon and her pursuit for subsequent episodes.
Now I’m wondering if this could work for an extended period of episodes. There’s only so much you can do with Jane being pursued. The interesting factor would be that we have never seen this before, always the guy who wants revenge backs out and takes the high road (because we don’t want our “hero” to be tarnished with blood on his hands). But what if he the writers had him do it, I think it would be a much more interesting show to watch then the case of the week that we have seen so far.
Let me know what you think. I’m interested if anyone else had any of these same thoughts.
Whoa..Now that’s really interesting dude. It would be great if that happened, but I don’t think the writers would take such a risk. It would change the whole element of the show; going from a procedural to a fugitive-esque show.But hey, love the idea.
The mind-reading trick got me as well. Must be something that’s proven to work every time I guess. Anyone else thought of the same shape?
I thought the mind reading trick was done by his hand movements planting the idea of those specific shapes. I will have to re-watch to be sur3e.
Actually, the CBI isn’t a fake law enforcement agency. It just sounds like one. They even have a fancy website at https://ag.ca.gov/cbi/
Their mission: “The California Bureau of Investigation (CBI) provides expert investigative services to assist local, state and federal agencies in major criminal investigations across the state.”
*POST AUTHOR*
Brett: Wow, I stand corrected. Good work.
It really does sound fake though, heh.
Believe me, I was as surprised as you that it was real.
Almost all states have a [first initial of the state]BI, in this case California bureau of investigations.
OK, if I had recognized the actor who played Tommy, I might have guessed he was the killer, but this was the first episode that I didn’t know who it was in the first act. This show is so much fun!
The California Bureau of Investigation is not a “fake law enforcement agency.” It is part of the California Department of Justice.
https://ag.ca.gov/cbi/
just caught up with this episode last night — the theme of the show was being obsessed with revenge and how it can warp you. Jane indicated to Lisbon what he WANTED to do to Red John. Lisbon then told him that her personal feelings would not stop her from bringing him to justice.
but you also had the additional storyline of the daughter — which you didn’t need at all for the procedural part of the story. But for the theme part — Jane explains to her why you can’t let revenge take over — that you need to stick with family and appreciate what you have. Lisbon gives him a look, because it’s so different from what he was saying to her about Red John. Now, Jane is a professional liar, a smooth talker who learned to tell people what they wanted to hear. But, if you look at his story, a different meaning comes forward.
Red John stole his family from him. The CBI is his replacement. As long as he has CBI, he has something other than revenge to live for. Think back over the episodes thus far this season — the CBI members treat the CBI as their job — their profession. The people they work with are their co-workers, as emphasized in Van Pelt’s little speech this week that she can’t get involved because then she couldn’t work in CBI. But to Jane, they are his family. He acts like a goofy uncle or a kind, suppportive father or whatever the context demands, but he treats them like family, not like co-workers.