The SMARTEST Traps In The Mentalist — Transcript

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1. 0:00Patrick Jane never needed a gun or a
2. 0:02warrant to catch a killer cuz his real
3. 0:03weapon was getting them to walk straight
4. 0:05into a trap they built for themselves.
5. 0:07So, today I'm going over some of the
6. 0:08smartest ways Jane has ever caught
7. 0:10someone, going from smart to absolutely
8. 0:13brilliant.
9. 0:16We start small, but this one is one of
10. 0:17my favorites for how clean it is. In
11. 0:19Flame Red, the team drives out to the
12. 0:20tiny town of Maquesa where a guy named
13. 0:22Rich Garcia got burned alive inside his
14. 0:25own car and the arson is way too
15. 0:26professional to pass as some accident.
16. 0:28Everybody in town knows Tommy the old,
17. 0:30the local handyman that people treat
18. 0:31like he's mentally challenged and
19. 0:33because of that nobody looks at him
20. 0:34twice. Teresa is on his side because
21. 0:36there's no way a slow guy could build a
22. 0:38device that sophisticated and that
23. 0:40assumption is the exact cover Tommy
24. 0:42spent years building. He figured out a
25. 0:44long time ago that if people think
26. 0:45you're simple, they excuse everything
27. 0:47you do stop watching you. Jane catches
28. 0:49something off though because back at
29. 0:51Tommy's trailer, he spots a copy of Moby
30. 0:53Dick sitting there, which is a heavy
31. 0:55read for a man everyone treats like a
32. 0:57child. So, in the interview Jane does
33. 0:59his thing. He casually gets a detail
34. 1:01about the book wrong and names the ship
35. 1:02the wrong way and Tommy instantly
36. 1:04corrects him without thinking. That one
37. 1:06reflex [music]
38. 1:07is all Jane needed and he just smiles
39. 1:09and tells Tommy the act is over while
40. 1:11the whole personality drops right there
41. 1:13on camera. I think this one is brilliant
42. 1:15because the whole thing runs on pure
43. 1:16psychology, patience and one tiny slip
44. 1:19he engineered on purpose. I even
45. 1:21mentioned him in my smartest criminals
46. 1:22video and if you think reading a fake
47. 1:24persona is impressive, wait until you
48. 1:25see the team fake an actual murder to
49. 1:27break the next guy.
50. 1:31This next one is executed by the team,
51. 1:32but it's Jane's plan. In Blood and Blood
52. 1:34Out, Cho gets pulled back into his old
53. 1:36neighborhood when a former gang friend
54. 1:38named David turns up dead in an alley.
55. 1:40Then it gets personal because armed men
56. 1:42break into Cho's apartment and rough up
57. 1:44his girlfriend. So, now Cho is running
58. 1:45hot to the whole episode. They work
59. 1:47their way to a douche manager named Adam
60. 1:49Reed who'd been blackmailing David, but
61. 1:51the actual killer is Frank, the quiet
62. 1:53janitor who was hiring David to to for
63. 1:55him and then killed him to keep him
64. 1:56quiet. The problem is Frank will not
65. 1:58crack and he keeps his gloves on to hide
66. 2:00the bruises on his knuckles. So the team
67. 2:02pulls the bluff. Out in the dark parking
68. 2:03lot Cho fires his gun into the ground,
69. 2:05dumps red food coloring all over Reed so
70. 2:08it looks like blood and Rigsby drags the
71. 2:10fake body behind a truck like Cho just
72. 2:12executed the guy on the spot. Then Cho
73. 2:14calmly turns to Frank and threatens to
74. 2:16do the exact same thing to him. Frank
75. 2:17fully believes he just watched a cop
76. 2:19murder a man in cold blood so he folds
77. 2:21instantly and confesses to killing David
78. 2:23and attacking Cho's girlfriend. This one
79. 2:25is awesome because it's pure
80. 2:26psychological pressure. They made him
81. 2:28believe the rules were gone and let his
82. 2:30own fear do all the work. And speaking
83. 2:31of selling a lie, the next one is even
84. 2:33better.
85. 2:36Here's where the traps start getting
86. 2:37personal. In Red Badge, a criminal named
87. 2:39McTier turns up dead and he's a guy
88. 2:41Lisbon herself put away years earlier
89. 2:43and then the case turns on her fast. Her
90. 2:45fingerprint is on the gun, she has no
91. 2:46solid alibi and worst of all, she
92. 2:49genuinely cannot remember what she did
93. 2:51that night. She fails the polygraph and
94. 2:52gets suspended and it really looks like
95. 2:54she might have done it and blacked it
96. 2:55out. Jane, however, doesn't buy it for a
97. 2:57second because when she can't recall the
98. 2:59night even under hypnosis, he realizes
99. 3:01she was drugged. Someone dosed her and
100. 3:03framed her. So Jane and Lisbon build a
101. 3:05trap out of her own suspension. They
102. 3:06stage a full drunken breakdown at her
103. 3:08house with pills and booze everywhere so
104. 3:10her therapist, Dr. Carmen, comes rushing
105. 3:13over. Thinking she's seconds from
106. 3:14shooting herself, Carmen tries to talk
107. 3:16her down by describing the crime scene
108. 3:18in soothing detail including a cross
109. 3:19that was near the body. That's the slip
110. 3:21because Teresa snaps completely sober
111. 3:23and asks how he could possibly know
112. 3:25about the cross. It was all an act.
113. 3:27Carmen had been lifting her prints off a
114. 3:29coffee mug for weeks and dosing her to
115. 3:31erase her memory. I love this one
116. 3:32because Jane flipped the entire frame
117. 3:34around turning the enemy's own
118. 3:35confidence into the exact thing that
119. 3:37exposed him. But now we get into the
120. 3:38juicy category.
121. 3:42This one is a proper puzzle box. And
122. 3:43while the episode is crazy, it's
123. 3:45honestly one of my favorites in the
124. 3:46entire show. So basically, a brilliant
125. 3:48mathematician named Noah gets shot by a
126. 3:50killer dressed as a clown who clips off
127. 3:52his index finger to open [music] a
128. 3:54fingerprint safe. Noah had secretly
129. 3:56built what the show calls a universal
130. 3:58decoder, a device that can crack any
131. 4:00encryption on Earth, and a group of
132. 4:01coders for hire led by a guy named
133. 4:03Bunting had offered $2 million for it.
134. 4:06Everybody in the episode is chasing that
135. 4:07device. Jane's eye lands on the wife,
136. 4:09Daphne, for a strange reason, because
137. 4:11when the house got ransacked by the
138. 4:13so-called intruder, the kitchen was the
139. 4:14one room left untouched, and the kitchen
140. 4:16is her domain. So, whoever searched the
141. 4:18place already knew nothing valuable was
142. 4:20hidden there. Now, Jane needs proof, so
143. 4:22he sets the bait. He quietly has a
144. 4:24jailed genius, Oliver, disable the
145. 4:25decoder and prep a fake encrypted disk,
146. 4:28then gathers everyone at Bunting's
147. 4:29[music] house, mentions the $2 million
148. 4:31reward, and tests the device in front of
149. 4:33Daphne. However, the device does
150. 4:34absolutely nothing. But, she just cannot
151. 4:37help herself, so she sneaks over and
152. 4:39flips the hidden [music] switch to turn
153. 4:40it back on, because she wants that money
154. 4:42badly. And that single move proves she
155. 4:44knew exactly how the machine worked and
156. 4:45had been lying the entire time. The
157. 4:47decoded file even loops the words
158. 4:48[music] "My wife killed me." Like, this
159. 4:50one is really genius, because instead of
160. 4:52accusing her, Jane built a room where
161. 4:54her own greed had to expose her.
162. 4:58This is the one a lot of fans bring up,
163. 4:59and for good reason. In Red John's
164. 5:01Friends, a convicted man named Jared
165. 5:02Renfrew, who is locked up for murdering
166. 5:04a young woman named Undine, reaches out
167. 5:06to Jane with an offer. He'll give up
168. 5:07real information on Red John, and he
169. 5:09proves he's serious by mentioning that
170. 5:11Red John painted Mrs. Jane's toenails
171. 5:13with her own blood, which is a detail
172. 5:14that was never released to the public.
173. 5:16In exchange, Jane has to clear him of a
174. 5:17murder he swears he didn't do. Jared was
175. 5:19convicted of a locked room killing, so
176. 5:21on paper, only he could have done it.
177. 5:23Jane reopens it anyway and starts
178. 5:24pulling threads, finding out the key
179. 5:26witness was paid to lie about the
180. 5:27relationship. Then comes the part people
181. 5:29remember, where Jane reconstructs how
182. 5:31someone else could have gotten into that
183. 5:32sealed room. He shows how you knock the
184. 5:34key out onto a newspaper slid under the
185. 5:36door, then reel the whole thing back
186. 5:38with fishing line, which is the locked
187. 5:39room trick that blows the conviction
188. 5:41wide open. On top of that, Jane bluffs
189. 5:43the entire Renfrew family that he's
190. 5:44going public unless they pay him off,
191. 5:46purely to see who flinches and to his
192. 5:48own surprise it's Jared's mother. She
193. 5:50had killed Undine after learning the
194. 5:51girl was secretly her husband's daughter
195. 5:53and she framed her own boy to teach him
196. 5:55a lesson while keeping a vial of blood
197. 5:57as her private confession. I think this
198. 5:58is brilliant because it's two traps in
199. 6:00one. The reconstruction that frees an
200. 6:02innocent man and the bluff that smokes
201. 6:04out the real killer. And on top of that,
202. 6:05the reconstruction of the crime scene is
203. 6:07insanely brilliant.
204. 6:11In this episode a gallery owner named
205. 6:12John Hennigan gets shot by art robbers
206. 6:14when he refuses to hand over one
207. 6:16specific painting which is the one his
208. 6:18late wife was painted in. Jane is sure a
209. 6:20crew boss named McKay is behind it but
210. 6:22he has nothing that would hold up. So he
211. 6:23builds a full week-long sting with the
212. 6:25FBI art squad. They set up a fake
213. 6:27mansion stuffed with genuine recovered
214. 6:29art that the public doesn't know exists.
215. 6:32Put the whole team undercover in
216. 6:33cocktail clothes and slowly reel the
217. 6:35gang in through a party. McKay shows up
218. 6:38and threatens Jane and Teresa demanding
219. 6:40to be cut in on what he assumes is their
220. 6:42heist and Jane simply agrees to every
221. 6:45term. That's the beauty of it because
222. 6:46McKay spends the entire con convinced
223. 6:48he's the one calling the shots when
224. 6:50every single move is being fed to him.
225. 6:52The finish is choreographed down to the
226. 6:53second with a garbage truck and a
227. 6:55marching band blocking his getaway route
228. 6:57on the street and the cabby desperately
229. 6:59jumps into to escape is secretly being
230. 7:01driven by Wile E. straight to the
231. 7:02arrest. I think this is so good because
232. 7:04it's the illusion of choice done
233. 7:06perfectly. McKay feels like the smartest
234. 7:07guy in the room right up until the cuffs
235. 7:09go on. And now we get to the two darkest
236. 7:11traps on the list.
237. 7:15This is where a trap stops being clever
238. 7:16and starts being frightening. In
239. 7:18Blinking Red Light the team is hunting
240. 7:19the San Joaquin Killer, a monster
241. 7:21targeting teenage girls and leaving
242. 7:22pebbles on their eyes. A true crime
243. 7:24blogger named James Panzer is weirdly
244. 7:26obsessed with the case running the
245. 7:27definitive website and playing the
246. 7:29expert on TV. And Jane becomes certain
247. 7:31that Panzer is the killer himself.
248. 7:33[music] The trouble is there's no
249. 7:34evidence at all, nothing forensic and
250. 7:36nothing that lets the team or the FBI
251. 7:38touch him. Panzer's whole identity is
252. 7:40being the brilliant mind the cops can
253. 7:42never catch, and Jane realizes that ego
254. 7:44is the only door in. So, Jane goes on
255. 7:46live television with him and starts
256. 7:48working him over, needling the idea that
257. 7:50the real killer is hiding in plain sight
258. 7:52and getting sloppy. Then, he drops the
259. 7:53name Red John into the conversation.
260. 7:55Panzer takes the bait and publicly rips
261. 7:57Red John apart on air, calling him lazy
262. 7:59and sloppy and nothing compared to the
263. 8:01San Joaquin Killer. Jane's face barely
264. 8:03moves because he knows exactly what he
265. 8:05just did. Insulting Red John in the
266. 8:06media is the same mistake that got
267. 8:08Jane's own family killed. hours later,
268. 8:10Panzer's body turns up under Red John's
269. 8:12smiley [music] face. I already covered
270. 8:13the full episode on the channel, but as
271. 8:15a trap, it belongs near the top because
272. 8:17Jane couldn't reach Panzer through the
273. 8:18law. So, he fed one killer to a bigger
274. 8:20one using nothing but pride. That's
275. 8:22chess with human lives. And the final
276. 8:23entry is the game he spent 10 years
277. 8:26setting up.
278. 8:29Everything Jane ever learned about traps
279. 8:30comes together here. After a decade of
280. 8:32hunting, Jane gets lured to a secluded
281. 8:34church next to the cemetery where his
282. 8:35wife and daughter are buried. Set up by
283. 8:36Bertram, which was the man most people
284. 8:38believed is Red John. Jane walks in
285. 8:40knowing he'll be searched, and sure
286. 8:41enough, Bertram's man pats him down and
287. 8:43takes the gun off him at the door.
288. 8:44Here's the thing though, Jane already
289. 8:46knew the real Red John would be there,
290. 8:47and he already knew it was Sheriff
291. 8:49Thomas McAllister. So, he had planted a
292. 8:51second gun under a bench inside the
293. 8:53church long before he ever arrived.
294. 8:54Bertram gets shot by his own guy, and
295. 8:56then the real Red John steps out and
296. 8:58reveals himself, feeling completely in
297. 8:59control of the room. Jane stays calm and
298. 9:01offers to show him one last thing. He
299. 9:03places a handful of breadcrumbs into
300. 9:05McAllister's open hand and releases a
301. 9:07pigeon, which panics and flaps straight
302. 9:10into the man's face. And in that one
303. 9:12split second of chaos, Jane reaches
304. 9:14under the bench, grabs the hidden gun,
305. 9:16and shoots him. 10 years of obsession
306. 9:18ended in a couple of seconds because
307. 9:20Jane outplanned him on every layer. In
308. 9:22few episodes back, Jane learned that Red
309. 9:24John is afraid of birds. So, this plan
310. 9:26wasn't random at all. And while it took
311. 9:28some chasing to finally nail Red John, I
312. 9:30think this is the most brilliant trap in
313. 9:31the entire show because he had to
314. 9:33predict the location, predict that he'd
315. 9:35be disarmed, pre-plant a weapon, and
316. 9:36then use something as small as a bird to
317. 9:38buy the half second he needed. It's the
318. 9:40perfect ending to the perfect list. The
319. 9:41master manipulator setting one final
320. 9:43stage and walking off it with something
321. 9:45he chased for a decade.
322. 9:47So, that's going to be it for this
323. 9:48video. If you got a trap I left out of
324. 9:50this list, make sure to drop it in the
325. 9:51comments and subscribe if you want more
326. 9:54mentalist breakdowns like this one.