The Mentalist 4x02: Little Red Book

Original Air Date: 29 September 2011

Storyline: With Lisbon suspended and the rest of the team reassigned, Jane is reinstated as a CBI consultant and forced to work with a new team. During the investigation, Jane conspires to bring his former team back together, while also searching for evidence that would prove that Timothy Carter was not Red John.Best Quote:

Jane : Go ahead.
Lisbon: I'm sorry?
Jane : Say it. I won't get embarrased.
Lisbon: Say what? (pause) Oh, you mean say "thank you"?
Jane: Oh, you're welcome. Was it so hard?
Lisbon: The thing is, not dealing with you every day has been very restful for me. My back pain's gone. I sleep really well. So, I'm actually not so sure I'm grateful to be back.
Jane: You're a terrible liar. No offense. Good, honest people- always bad liars.
Lisbon: Which makes you what?

Review: Again, promising plots are ended before they become interesting. I think having Jane work with another team for a while would have been entertaining, but no, they had to bring Lisbon and the others back. It's the same as when Jane worked with Bosco - it was only for one case so it didn't really have time to see him perform in a different environment, one he is not entirely comfortable with. I would have liked this to go on for at least one more episode, so that Lisbon's return can really be appreciated, but no...

Nevertheless, I liked this episode. Not so much as I could have would Jane have messed with Haffner's team a little bit more, but it had its moments. The shoes bit was hilarious, I give you that, and I've always admired Jane's ability to start a brawl. 
The case itself was not much of a headscratcher and not even remotely interesting. The same old motives got a gym trainer killed: money and jealousy. The episode didn't even concentrate on that as much as it did on Jane convincing the others that they have to mess with Haffner in order to get Lisbon reinstated. In reality, it wasn't as much as messing with Haffner as it was to force Bertram's hand by going down the politics road - one that he is always afraid to get on. 
As for the Red John hunt, after Timothy Carter's wife managed to commit suicide while in prison, Patrick asks for help from the only person who had "seen" his nemesis: Rosalind Harker. She confirms his suspicions - Carter was not Roy Tagliaferro, whom Jane strongly believes to be Red John. So I guess it's a good thing that Jane is not crazy and keeps chasing a ghost just to have a purpose in life, but I still protest at the idea to keep Red John alive for more time than necessary. What will Jane do the next time he thinks he has found him? Kill yet another person and have the whole jail-trial-acquittal cycle repeat itself? I find it boring. Luckily, he's is a much more interesting character than Samantha Waters was and The Mentalist might not get down the same road Profiler did for this simple reason.
Other highlights: LaRoche's scene exit (as I presume that was a scene exit) by telling Lisbon that it's been interesting working with her and Jane. He's off my Red John suspect list. Also, Cho pretending to work with Haffner was pretty cool, he had me there for a moment.The Mentalist 4x01: Scarlet Ribbons Back to Season 4