You know what’s a good time? Revisiting old episodes of The Mentalist. The long-running CBS procedural starring Simon Baker has been streaming on Hulu since March (and also is available with a Max subscription, among others.) Since some of the best streaming services have the show right now, I decided to get back into it and have not been disappointed. But as I’ve been doing that I just learned a BTS secret about Patrick Jane and Red John I didn’t realize during the show’s original run.
Yes, Simon Baker Actually Played Red John For The Majority Of The Show
As the main antagonist, we hear from Red John myriad times before the big conclusion at the end of the show, and Simon Baker told the State Journal Register that he actually voiced Red John until creator Bruno Heller figured out how the final showdown would pan out.
All those times we heard the voice of Red John? That was me. Yes! In the Season 2 finale, when Jane was captured and Red John did that 'Tyger, Tyger' thing with the mask on? That was me. I played both characters in that scene.
There was a fan theory running around when the show was first on the air that Patrick Jane might actually be Red John, and Simon Baker was well aware of the fact, noting it was "the reason" both he and Heller felt like it was a great idea to pepper this little Easter egg in repetitively.
That was the reason I did that. There was a point where Bruno was saying, 'We don't know who we're going to cast to play [the masked Red John].' I said, 'Don't cast anyone! I'll do it.' Bruno was, like, "I love it! I love it!" So I put on a mask and did that funny, wispy little voice. And for seasons after, whenever Red John spoke, I had to go record the voice.
Honestly, I've been watching with a Hulu subscription and would never have guessed this.
Why Patrick Jane's Final Scene With Red John Played Out The Way It Did
For most of The Mentalist’s seven seasons, Patrick Jane is haunted by the death of his wife and child at the hands of a perverse serial killer named Red John. He feels partially responsible because he goaded the killer during a TV appearance and paid for it dearly. Ultimately, the Red John storyline ends with Patrick Jane committing an act of violence, and originally the script had written the scene very differently. It almost came about publicly, as well.
It just had to be the two of them. It was almost like a love scene, as perverse as that sounds. The end of Red John was originally planned to take place at night on the street with people watching, but I pushed to do it in a quiet, beautiful place where they could be alone. There is no human act more intimate - not even sex - than killing another human being with your bare hands and watching him die. It is really subversive for a network series. The risk is huge.
Baker didn't hold back when talking about the "risk" of filming a TV hero going through with a vengeance murder on network TV. It was a notable TV moment at the time, with people feeling very differently about what happened. Some thought the subversiveness worked, some thought it didn't, and as he even noted in the interview "Some just want[ed] it to be over."
Apparently though, if things had played out the way they had been written in the original script, we would have had a very different final showdown between Jane and Red John. It would have been more public but perhaps less poignant than what we ultimately got. Ultimately, however, a creator needs to do what’s right for the character, and the specifics only became clear once they started shooting. Here’s how Baker described it…
I don't think even he thought he had the stomach for it but there was just so much momentum built up that he had to go through with it and choke the guy to death. It was a hard thing for Jane to do but there was also some weird sort of release in it. I didn't know how that scene was going to go until I actually shot it. It was really full on.
Ultimately, the Red John storyline was an integral part of the procedural from the start, and it's honestly a little bit of a surprise that the show made a clean break of things after it wrapped up on network TV. The "Red John" storyline concluded midway through Season 6. Episodes through the series up to that point all had some version of "red" or red-tinted iconography in the title, but after the episode in question, the show's titles each featured a different color, cycling between "violet," "silver," "orange," "green" and many other colors of the rainbow.
The show only lasted a season and a half after the main push-and-pull of Patrick and Red John's messed up relationship concluded, but as I'm getting into those episodes, and Simon Baker took a step back from acting afterward. (Though Baker's comeback year may just be 2024.)
Regardless, I do think it's a good thing the audience gets to see The Mentalist wrestling with the aftermath and moving on to new lives, new team-ups and even a new gig at the FBI. In conclusion, it's a show with a lot of character, and if you haven't given it a watch in a while, now's a great time, particularly now that you know you have Baker's voice to try and catch.
