The One Mystery Patrick Jane Couldn't Solve — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Patrick Jane solved every single case
2. 0:02that was ever handed to him, and he even
3. 0:03caught the most dangerous serial killer
4. 0:05in California with his bare hands.
5. 0:07However, there was one mystery he
6. 0:08couldn't solve that Red John has left
7. 0:10behind. So, today, I'll go over
8. 0:11everything we know about the case of
9. 0:13Christina Fry.
10. 0:18Before we get into the one thing Patrick
11. 0:19Jane never figured out, I have to talk
12. 0:21about how ridiculous his record actually
13. 0:23is. Across seven seasons and over 150
14. 0:26episodes, every case that landed on
15. 0:28Teresa's desk got closed one way or
16. 0:29another. And most of them got closed
17. 0:31because Jane walked into a room and read
18. 0:33every story in seconds. He was raised in
19. 0:35a carnival by a father who used him as a
20. 0:37machine for reading marks. So by the
21. 0:39time he showed up in the bureau, he
22. 0:40already knows exactly how people leak
23. 0:42information without meaning to. He uses
24. 0:43cold reading on suspects and on corpses.
25. 0:45He uses hypnosis when nobody is watching
26. 0:47too closely. He stores entire case files
27. 0:49in what he calls his memory palace. and
28. 0:51he builds these long theatrical traps
29. 0:53where [music] the guilty person
30. 0:54basically walks into it on their own.
31. 0:56Think about the seance he pulls in
32. 0:58season 1 where he has Cho and Rigsby
33. 1:00sitting in a van doing sound effects
34. 1:02while a woman confesses to running over
35. 1:03her own mother. It's truly incredible
36. 1:05how he solves these cases. He beat a
37. 1:07serial killer who ran an entire secret
38. 1:09organization of corrupt cops for
39. 1:11decades, which is a level of difficulty
40. 1:12most detectives could never come to. So,
41. 1:14when I tell you there is one room he
42. 1:16walked out of with nothing, you should
43. 1:17understand how rare that actually is.
44. 1:23There's one case where Jane basically
45. 1:24admits he cannot win, and I have to
46. 1:26mention it before Christina because it
47. 1:27shows you exactly how his brain works
48. 1:29when the normal method fails. In
49. 1:30Blinking Red Light, the team catches a
50. 1:32murder that belongs to the Sanwaqin
51. 1:34killer, and Jane figures out very early
52. 1:35that the crime blogger obsessing over
53. 1:37the case is the killer himself. James
54. 1:39Pancer built a whole website about the
55. 1:41first victim. He inserted himself into
56. 1:42the investigation. He played the
57. 1:44grieving obsessive perfectly, and he had
58. 1:46fake alibis lined up for the murders.
59. 1:48Jane knew he did it. He just could not
60. 1:50prove any of it and Panzer was too
61. 1:51careful and too self-controlled to fall
62. 1:53for the usual traps. So Jane does
63. 1:55something quite dark actually. He goes
64. 1:56on Karen Cross's television show with
65. 1:58Panzer and he steers the conversation
66. 2:00until Panzer is bragging until Panzer
67. 2:02calls Red Jon a sociopath who is lazy
68. 2:04and sloppy and delusional. Jane knew
69. 2:06exactly what happens to people who
70. 2:07insult Red Jon on television because it
71. 2:09already happened to his own family.
72. 2:11Pancer turns up dead in an alley that
73. 2:13same night with the smiley face painted
74. 2:15on the wall above him. Jane used a
75. 2:16serial killer as a murder weapon and let
76. 2:18it happen. And to be fair, that is one
77. 2:20of the coldest things he ever does in
78. 2:22the entire show. He still got his answer
79. 2:24though, and that is the point. Even when
80. 2:25the system failed him, he found a way
81. 2:27and closed the case, which is why the
82. 2:29Christina Fry situation stands out so
83. 2:31much.
84. 2:35Christina Fry shows up in season 1 and
85. 2:38she is set up as the one person in the
86. 2:39world who annoys Jane on a personal
87. 2:41level. She runs a place called the
88. 2:42Temple of Harmony. She calls herself a
89. 2:44spiritual adviser and she charges around
90. 2:46$3,000 a week to one wealthy client who
91. 2:48is seeing her five or six times a week.
92. 2:51That client, Rosemary Tenant, ends up
93. 2:53dead and Christina had literally warned
94. 2:54her about it right before it happened.
95. 2:56Jane spends the whole episode trying to
96. 2:58expose her as a fraud because he was
97. 3:00that exact kind of fraud for [music]
98. 3:01years and he knows every trick in the
99. 3:03book. The problem is that she keeps
100. 3:05being very helpful. She tells them the
101. 3:06murder car is sitting in a large body of
102. 3:08water and they pull it out of a
103. 3:09reservoir. She tells Jane's story back
104. 3:11to him and he has to brush it off by
105. 3:13saying his tragedy is easy to research
106. 3:15because it's a famous story. So, he
107. 3:17never proves she is fake and she never
108. 3:19proves she is real. And the episode ends
109. 3:21with her cornering him in an empty
110. 3:23[music] interview room. She tells him
111. 3:24she made contact with his wife and that
112. 3:26his daughter Charlotte was killed in her
113. 3:28sleep, that she never woke up [music]
114. 3:29and was never afraid for a second. Then
115. 3:32she leaves and Jane sits there and cries
116. 3:34and Van Pel quietly shuts the door so
117. 3:36nobody sees him. Whether she made that
118. 3:37up or genuinely believed she heard it
119. 3:39from his family, she at least handed him
120. 3:41a piece of comfort he had been begging
121. 3:42the universe for and he could not do
122. 3:44anything with it except break. That
123. 3:45single scene is why everything that
124. 3:47happens to Christina later hits as hard
125. 3:50as it does. However, this is just the
126. 3:51beginning of her tragic story.
127. 3:57She comes back at the very end of season
128. 3:592 in Red Letter and Red Sky in the
129. 4:01morning. And this time, Jane is
130. 4:03different around her. He still teases
131. 4:04her. He still pokes her about the
132. 4:06psychic thing, but the arrogance is
133. 4:08mostly gone and he asks her to get
134. 4:10coffee. That turns into a date at an
135. 4:12Italian restaurant, which is the first
136. 4:14date he has been on since his wife died.
137. 4:16And you can see how badly it messes with
138. 4:17him because he goes to the bathroom and
139. 4:19stands there twisting his wedding ring.
140. 4:21Then the call comes in that Red John has
141. 4:23struck again and everything falls apart
142. 4:25from there. Christina comes to the
143. 4:26office and offers to work the case and
144. 4:28Jane goes straight to High Tower and
145. 4:30says he will quit if she is allowed
146. 4:31anywhere near it because Red Jon is his.
147. 4:34She accepts that pretty easily. And then
148. 4:35she goes on live television and speaks
149. 4:37directly to Red John, asking him to
150. 4:39reach out and get help, telling the
151. 4:40audience he can change. Jane sees the
152. 4:42interview on a bar TV and literally runs
153. 4:44out of the room because he did the exact
154. 4:46same thing years earlier and it cost him
155. 4:48his wife and daughter. And we know from
156. 4:50the Panzer case that you never talk
157. 4:52about Red J on TV. Jane screams at her
158. 4:54in the office and it's awesome. We get
159. 4:56to see Jane so passionate. However, she
160. 4:58tells him the difference is that he was
161. 4:59lying and she means it. [music] And of
162. 5:01course, that night, Red J kills the
163. 5:02woman who interviewed her. Jane was
164. 5:04right about not talking about Red John
165. 5:05on live TV. After they try to keep
166. 5:07Christina's house secure, she simply
167. 5:08vanishes from her home. It's crazy that
168. 5:10Red Jon could kidnap her in a house full
169. 5:12of cops. And here is where the mystery
170. 5:14begins.
171. 5:18At first, the team genuinely cannot tell
172. 5:20whether she ran or whether she was taken
173. 5:22since there was no sign of any struggle.
174. 5:24But Jane is the one who refuses to rule
175. 5:26out Red Jon. Then in the season 2
176. 5:28finale, Red John gets Jane taped to a
177. 5:30chair in a warehouse, leans into his
178. 5:31face, and recites the famous Tiger Tiger
179. 5:33poem. However, right before he leaves,
180. 5:35he tells Jane that Christina sends her
181. 5:36love. That is Red John telling Jane he
182. 5:39has her. She stays missing through the
183. 5:40season. Then, in the blood on his hands,
184. 5:42the FBI agent working her missing
185. 5:44person's case calls Jane with a lead
186. 5:46because a phone call with Christina's
187. 5:48voice on it got traced to a house. They
188. 5:49raid it and the place is empty. And what
189. 5:51they find inside is a raggedy and doll
190. 5:53shoved under a cot on the floor with Red
191. 5:55John's smiley face painted on the wall
192. 5:57above it, a children's doll, and a
193. 5:58serial killer signature. Everything
194. 6:00about this scene was so creepy to me.
195. 6:02Jane immediately tells Teresa to let the
196. 6:04FBI keep the case because he knows that
197. 6:06the whole thing is a game and they are
198. 6:08being moved around the board. Then
199. 6:09unexpectedly, the visualized cult leader
200. 6:11Brett Styles tells Jane he knows where
201. 6:13she is. He hands him a piece of paper
202. 6:15with an address on it. And here is where
203. 6:17everything goes wrong.
204. 6:22The team goes into that house with guns
205. 6:24up and the house is empty except for one
206. 6:26room and Christina Fry is sitting in it.
207. 6:28She's alive thankfully. She is not tied
208. 6:30up. She is not visibly injured. She's
209. 6:32not screaming or crying or reacting to
210. 6:34armed people bursting through the door.
211. 6:36She just sits there and stares at
212. 6:38whatever is in front of her and nothing
213. 6:39anyone says gets a response out of her.
214. 6:42So Jane, the man who has spent the
215. 6:43entire series mocking the idea of
216. 6:45contacting the dead, lights a candle and
217. 6:47holds a seance for a woman who is
218. 6:48sitting right in front of him and
219. 6:49breathing. And surprisingly, she
220. 6:51answers. She talks to him calmly and
221. 6:53pleasantly, and she tells him the
222. 6:54afterlife is wonderful. When he asks her
223. 6:57how she died, she says she cannot
224. 6:58remember and that it does not matter to
225. 7:00her anymore because that part of her
226. 7:01life feels unimportant. Now, when he
227. 7:03asks whether she knows what Red Jon
228. 7:05looks like, she genuinely does not
229. 7:07understand the question. Jane pushes a
230. 7:09little more, but he gets nothing. and
231. 7:11then he blows out the candle and leaves.
232. 7:13That is literally the last time
233. 7:15Christina Fry appears in The Mentalist.
234. 7:16She's never mentioned again in any
235. 7:18meaningful way. Not when Jane has
236. 7:20Lauraai Martins in an interrogation
237. 7:22room. Not when he has Mallister dying in
238. 7:24a park offering to answer questions. So
239. 7:26much of Red John material after this and
240. 7:28nobody ever brings her up again. So what
241. 7:29actually happened in that house? And why
242. 7:31did the greatest mentalist ever just
243. 7:33give up?
244. 7:37The fans have been dropping takes on
245. 7:39this for over a decade. And there are
246. 7:40basically four theories. The first one
247. 7:42is the simplest, which is that Red Jon
248. 7:44hypnotized her into believing she was
249. 7:46dead and Jane could not find the trigger
250. 7:48to break it. People push back on that
251. 7:49with the fact that Jane snaps people out
252. 7:51of transes constantly throughout the
253. 7:53show, so why not here? The second theory
254. 7:55says she was never hypnotized at all,
255. 7:56that she was tortured and broken until
256. 7:58her mind shut down and the calm psychic
257. 8:00talk was the only script her brain had
258. 8:02left to run. The third one is the
259. 8:04conspiracy version, which doesn't make
260. 8:05much sense to me. Basically, the idea is
261. 8:07that Christina was a con artist the
262. 8:09entire time working for Red John because
263. 8:11look at the pattern. She charged
264. 8:13enormous fees. She got written into
265. 8:15multiple clients wills. She backed off
266. 8:16the Red John case the moment Jane asked
267. 8:18her to. And she is one of the only
268. 8:20people who ever crossed Red John and
269. 8:22lived. If that was the case, the
270. 8:23Catatonia is a performance designed to
271. 8:25break Jane's head open. And the fourth
272. 8:27theory is the boring one, which is that
273. 8:29Bruno Heler wrote a great scene without
274. 8:31an ending attached to it and quietly
275. 8:33dropped the character. There is real
276. 8:35evidence for that since he has admitted
277. 8:36he had not even decided who Red John was
278. 8:39until around season 4. But there is one
279. 8:41explanation that fits every single
280. 8:42detail on screen and it is the one I
281. 8:45think is most plausible.
282. 8:50Here's what I think. Working backwards
283. 8:52from the state we actually see her in.
284. 8:54Red John never had to invent a new
285. 8:55belief for Christina because she already
286. 8:57carried the perfect one. And that is the
287. 8:58entire trick. She built her whole life
288. 9:00and income on the idea that the dead
289. 9:02stay conscious, that they move on
290. 9:03somewhere better and that earthly
291. 9:05details stop mattering once you cross
292. 9:07over. All he had to do was convince her
293. 9:08that she had already crossed. That is
294. 9:10why she is so calm and it is why her
295. 9:13answers stay so internally consistent
296. 9:15because she is following her own
297. 9:17framework perfectly and every response
298. 9:19she gives fits it exactly. The raggedy
299. 9:21and doll under the cot tells you the
300. 9:23rest since that is a child's comfort
301. 9:25object in a room where a grown woman was
302. 9:27held which points to long isolation and
303. 9:29a person regressed until she would
304. 9:31accept whatever she was told. And let's
305. 9:32not forget that Red John was a member of
306. 9:34a brainwashing cult called visualize
307. 9:36whose people are trained in exactly this
308. 9:37kind of conditioning and he had the time
309. 9:39and the manpower to do it properly. Jane
310. 9:41could not undo it because there was no
311. 9:43simple trigger phrase sitting in her
312. 9:45head. The belief was welded to her
313. 9:46existing identity, and to break it, he
314. 9:48would have had to convince her that
315. 9:49everything she had built her life on was
316. 9:51false while she was calm and content and
317. 9:53had zero motivation to come back. A
318. 9:55person who believes she is already dead
319. 9:57has no reason to eat or sleep or speak
320. 9:59or ask for help, which means the only
321. 10:01realistic place she goes after that room
322. 10:03is a locked facility for the rest of her
323. 10:05life. Red John found the one way to
324. 10:07erase a woman while leaving her body
325. 10:09sitting in a chair for Jane to find. And
326. 10:11apart from obvious murders, that is the
327. 10:13crulest thing he ever did to anyone in
328. 10:14this show. So tell me what you think
329. 10:17actually happened. Jane never solved
330. 10:19this mystery and never chased after it.
331. 10:20He didn't know what actually happened
332. 10:22and neither do we, but we can theorize.
333. 10:24Comment down below your theories and
334. 10:25I'll catch you guys in the next