History Series / TheMentalist

That's the first five seasons, anyway. At the middle of season six, the show undergoes a massive {{retool}} at the conclusion of the first MythArc. The CBI is disbanded, Rigsby and van Pelt leave the series, and Jane, Lisbon, and Cho go to work for the FBI, where they join Dennis Abbott (Rockmond Dunbar), Kim Fischer (Creator/EmilySwallow), and Jason Wylie (Joe Adler) of the Austin, Texas field office. When the Kim Fischer character proved unpopular with fans, a new female agent, Michelle Vega (Creator/JosieLoren), was brought in for the program's final season.

On May 10th, 2014, the series was renewed for a seventh season. However, it was also announced that the episode order was limited and the show was canceled following this final season. The series ended on February 18, 2015 with a two-hour finale. Though there was talk of the show possibly finding a new home on cable, with the various resolutions the characters received, that seems unlikely.

* WeddingEnhancedFertility: Lisbon informs Jane that she is pregnant with his child after they say their vows in the series finale. He's initially stunned speechless, but both of them are thrilled.

** Though the world at large believes Red John dead, Patrick Jane knows otherwise. He and his team encounter a particularly cunning serial killer who covered his tracks well. Jane tricks him into a TV interview, hoping to trip him up and get a confession, but he's too DangerouslyGenreSavvy for that. In a move of desperation, knowing he can't prevent another murder any other way, Jane goads him into belittling Red John, knowing his ArchEnemy cannot stand to be mocked. The CBI finds the new serial killer dead, and it's confirmed that Red John is still alive.

** In the Season 6 finale, TheyDo. ''Finally.''

* TheyDo: Wayne Rigsby and Grace Van Pelt finally marry in the sixth-season episode "Red Wedding". In the sixth-season finale, "Blue Bird", Patrick Jane delivers his AnguishedDeclarationOfLove to Lisbon on an airplane, of all things. She decides not to marry Agent Marcus Pike and returns to Austin and to Jane. They are a couple at the beginning of the seventh season. Jane and Lisbon then marry in the series finale.

* WillTheyOrWontThey: Jane and Lisbon, arguably. They dance around it (and, on one occasion, with each other), and certainly Lisbon has straight-up admitted that she cares about him, but Jane is still hugely damaged and mourning his wife. Doesn't stop the [[{{Shipping}} shippers]]...
** But then it turns out the shippers were right. TheyDo.

** Also, do not invade Kimball Cho's house and assault his girlfriend. [[WhatAnIdiot Don't be so stupid]]! [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge That'll get you killed]]!

** In ''Bloodsport'', it's somewhat unclear whether the victim did have an affair with MMA fighter Manny Flacco. The person this claim comes form his Flaco's grudge-holding opponent. When Flacco denies it his wife seems to suspect otherwise, pointing out previous affairs he's had. Her conduct in the flashbacks prior to be being killed never explicitly suggest this though, and since it wasn't involved with the murder, the answer remains unclear.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: In "Red Bricks and Ivy" Sophie [[spoiler: aka Rosie]] is a young chimpanzee, a great ape, but is several times referred to as a monkey, and none of the characters who would definitely know better ever correct the error. The original script called for a monkey, but the dialogue should have been changed when the species was.

* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: In "Blood for Blood", Jane successfully hypnotizes someone into quitting smoking...in less than thirty seconds. Whether or not it worked over the long term is unknown, but still.

** The series finale "White Orchids" ends with Jane and Lisbon's wedding. One of the final scenes has their friends and family dancing happily to song "September". The series ends with the newlyweds glowing with happiness, Teresa telling Patrick [[BabiesEverAFter she's pregnant]].

** Lorelei Martins, who knows Red John, had a sister who was sold to another family and was later killed by Red John, though she doesn't believe that it was Red John who did it.

** The opening of "Bleeding Heart" has an interviewer asking Lisbon about how local police agencies get along with the [=CBI=]. She assures the interviewer that "We get along extremely well with our local partners in law enforcement." Flashback to the start of the current case, in which a local police chief, Chief Donner, is telling Lisbon "My people can handle this, no problem" and then Jane pisses him off by telling him "Cheap soap, unironed shirt, stomach pains, recent loss of weight. I'm gonna take a wild guess here. You're angry because you're living in a motel. Your wife found out about the woman you're having an affair with. You're a seething mass of self-loathing, and understandably so."

* DictionaryOpening: Season 1 starts with a black screen wich the following text slowly fading in:

* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Averted in "Something's Rotten in Redmumd." [[spoiler: The murderer was a 35 year old female teacher who was having an affair with a 16 year old male student. She killed the victim-of-the-week with a baseball bat because he caught the teacher and the student making out in the woods and was going to report it. Cho points out to the 16 year old student that was his teacher did to him constitutes statutory rape.]]

** Red John does NOT tolerate "poor imitations" of his work, and is even kind enough to spare the life of the patsy the main perpetrators of the plot blackmailed into it (with his mother's life no less) with merely a shot to the leg.
** In the Season 4 episode "Pink Champagne on Ice", a woman who is planning to rob a casino kills her accomplice, finding him too evil as he laughs about killing the room-mate of the girl he kidnapped as a hostage. The woman, Trish, is prepared to kill the hostage and two people who can recognize her despite them giving her the money. She says she would have felt terrible about it though.
** Played straight in season 5 episode 12, when Tommy Volker and a hired hitman drive up to an apartment building to murder a witness to a previous murder done under Tommy's orders. When the hitman discovers that said witness is a nine-year old boy, he immediately rejects the job, saying he's never killed a child before and he's certainly not going to start now.

* EvilUncle: GenderFlipped in [[spoiler: "Red Lacquer Nail Polish]], which also initially seems to [[EvilNephew invert]] this, with the victims nephew seeming like a greedy schemer and prime suspect before it turns out that he's being framed, and his lawsuit with his aunt was in fact fully justified, as she was guilty of embezzlement while he wanted to do a better job of managing a family charity.

* FanService:

* FanServicePack: In the first season, Lisbon was rather frumpy. With season 2, she got the usual upgrades--new hair, better clothes, high heels and she ain't frumpy no more!

* FakeKillScare: In a rare example of this being done by the protagonist, in "Red Brick and Ivy" Jane sets up a particularly elaborate version of this trope while investigating the murder of a scientist who was working on a device that could alter a person's morality. Jane presents himself as an experimental subject and then "accidentally" terminates the procedure when it was supposedly set to eliminate his moral compass (as a test of the system's effectiveness). He then proceeds to "kill" one of the victim's colleagues in order to sell it, so that the suspect will believe that Jane is willing to harm him and react accordingly.

* HopeSpot: Lorelei Martins has discovered who killed her sister. She tells Patrick that she might tell him Red John's true identity if he lets her go. She then tied and threatened to kill the killer, to then tell Patrick Jane that he can ask the killer about Red John. She then shoots the killer and goes after Red John without telling Patrick the truth. The last moment she is seen, she has been killed by Red John.

** In "Blood for Blood", a child confesses to Lisbon and Jane that she killed her father, partly in self-defense (after he turned a gun on her) and partly because he killed her mother. Lisbon wants to take her to Juvenile, but Jane says that if they do that, she'll just get lost in the system, likely spending months if not years in foster care and getting punished. Lisbon points out that they are part of that system, which is good people that are doing the best they can. Jane, naturally, is not persuaded. Lisbon takes the girl to Juvenile anyway, Jane in tow, but when she gets there, she simply stands for several seconds before the guy at the desk tells her to hurry it up because they're very busy. She dithers a bit longer and then tells him to keep up the good work before leaving with the girl. Jane tells the guy at the desk that he's just witnessed a beautiful thing.

* TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat: In a most disturbing variant at the end of "Red John's Rules", Red John reveals through a recording of the late Lorelei Martins that he not only knows what vital clue Jane has received during the season, but also which seven suspect names he has wittled it down to. Doubles as a twisted {{Video Will|s}}.

-->'''Lorelei:''' I only wonder why the two of you didn't become lifelong friends the moment you shook hands.[[labelnote:Explanation]]Lorelei inadvertantly reveals that Jane has ''met'' Red John and shaken his hand, providing Jane with an important cornerstone to establish his list of suspects.[[/labelnote]]

*** Fans generally assume that he was bluffing about there being other members but this is unconfirmed.

** Cho apparently grew up on the shady side of the law, exposed to a lot of gang violence. He was a member of the gang Avon Park Playboys, where his nickname was "The Iceman", because if the gang wanted something done cold, they got Cho to do it. He later spent some time in juvenile hall and straightened out his life when he joined the U.S. Marines.

* CoolCar: Jane's vintage Citroen DS.

* CrusadingWidower: Jane quests to get Red John back for roughly ten years at the risk of his job, his friends, and possibly his sanity (as his attempts get progressively more extreme). In the first season finale, he states that he would be okay with dying if it led to Red John's arrest (although [[TeamMom Lisbon]] insists that he's exaggerating).

* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Averted in "Something's Rotten in Redmumd" [[spoiler: The murderer was a 35 year old female teacher who was having an affair with a 16 year old male student. She killed the murder victim with a baseball bat because he caught the teacher and the student making out in the woods and was going to report it. Cho himself points out to the 16 year old student that was his teacher did to him constitutes statutory rape.]]

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Diamonds are hard, but brittle. Hitting one with a fire extinguisher (like in "A Price Above Rubies") should break it[[note]]And speaking of diamonds, the jewels in the episode [[SpecialEffectsFailure shine like]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubic_zirconia cubic zirconia, AKA CZ, AKA Fianit]][[/note]]. At least it didn't cut through the table as Aristotle wrote.

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%% LawfulGood was moved to the YMMV tab, as it's a subtrope of CharacterAlignment. Please don't add it back here.
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** How about the victim of "Red Carpet Treatment"? Bludgeoned with a sharp rock idol and then shot nine times in the face, [[UpToEleven POST-MORTEM]].

* SpotOfTea: Patrick Jane, an American, loves tea, so much so that he included the need for "an adequate supply of tea at all times" among his conditions for returning to the United States to work for the FBI in the sixth season. Jane claims that tea "is like a hug in a cup." He always drinks his tea out of a special tea cup--a blue Fiestaware teacup and saucer in earlier seasons, and a white tea cup and saucer in the sixth and seventh seasons at the FBI that Jason Wylie warns Agent Vega not to touch because Jane will find out. Lisbon later gives Jane back his repaired blue Fiestaware teacup as a birthday gift in a seventh season episode.

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Jane and his tea.
** However, [[Series/{{Psych}} pineapple is not favored here]].
** And eggs. Jane loves eggs.

* WeddingEnhancedFertility: Lisbon informs Jane that she is pregnant with his child after they say their vows in the series finale. Both of them are thrilled.

* RaisedCatholic: Teresa Lisbon, who attended Catholic schools, wears a cross necklace and is seen praying in a church in the fourth-season episode "Crimson Hat". Patrick Jane teases her about her Catholic schoolgirl past in the fifth-season episode "Red Velvet Cupcakes". Lisbon, unlike Jane, believes in God.