Question: Do you have any scoop on Lisbon from The Mentalist? –Laura Ausiello: Only that the end of the Red John storyline may — I said, may — be the best thing to ever happen to her love life. When asked if Jane and his No. 1 gal will retain have a strong bond once the dust has settled after this Sunday’s big showdown, Simon Baker says, “Absolutely — and I think even stronger.” As show boss Bruno Heller explains, Jane and Lisbon over these five-and-a-half seasons “have been so engrossed in this massive task ahead of them that they haven’t really looked at the people alongside them and… thought about what they mean to them. But now, they [will] have a chance to take a breath and think about each other in a way they haven’t before.”
Question: Is there anything you can tell us about The Mentalist and life after Red John for Jane? —Shena Ausiello: Actually, there’s something I can tell you and there’s also something I can show you. First, I can tell you that there will be a significant time jump between the Red John finale this Sunday and the beginning of Mentalist 2.0 on Dec. 1. Now, let me show you what the the new woman in Jane’s life — the mysterious Kim Fischer (played by series regular Emily Swallow) — will look like when she first appears in the aforementioned Dec. 1 episode. Check out the exclusive image below and then hit the comments with answers to these two questions: Why have we heard so little about who this woman is? Who do you think she is?
Am I going to be satisfied by the Red John reveal on The Mentalist? — Kenny ADAM: I was! As you might have already guessed, there are still some very cool twists to play out before Jane's final showdown with Red John. And while Jane has often been outsmarted by his archenemy, this time, Jane is definitely one step ahead. Most importantly, Sunday's episode leaves a lot of questions for the show to answer in the post-Red John era.
(And surprisingly, what to do with the now-defunct CBI crew isn't the most pressing.)
I fear that many people are going to begin to imagine a romance between her and Patrick. But if she is a special agent of the FBI, she can be only really very important for the continuation of the "career" of the PJ and not sentimentally !
Message edited by Evy - Wednesday, 20-Nov-13, 4:34 PM
I think she looks a lot like Van Pe;t and we know she is leaving along with Rigsby as has been announced. Interesting that she is on the beach, perhaps looking for Jane in his exile.
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From InsideTV: http://insidetv.ew.com/2013....2 I know you can’t say A LOT about The Mentalist. But you gotta give me something on the Red John ep! — Tyler The EPs were not joking when they promised closure. You definitely get that. But, in perfect Mentalist form, the episode still ends with quite the big question mark. And the award for vaguest scoop goes to…
'Mentalist' wraps its brain around Red John story The central driving plot will be solved and the series will jump ahead.
Since CBS drama The Mentalist began in 2008, California Bureau of Investigation consultant Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) has been fixated on finding Red John, the serial killer who murdered his wife and daughter. On Sunday (10 p.m. ET/PT), he gets his wish.
Although the Red John story has been central to Jane's character and the series, creator Bruno Heller wanted to bring it to a conclusion before the show's own ending in order to examine how its resolution would affect Jane. In the Dec. 1 episode, the sixth-season drama will jump ahead two years to look at Jane and his CBI colleagues in the aftermath of Red John and the dissolution of the law-enforcement agency.
The Red John story "has been the anchor of the show and, when I say anchor, I mean it in both senses of the word," Heller says. "It's been an absolutely necessary (device for) stability,but it's also been something that has held Jane in thrall and made him a darker and more driven and more ambivalent character than he would be otherwise. Now that anchor has slipped its moorings," he says. "We wanted to see what Jane is like without this burden," and the mentalist is definitely "happier" and "free to think about what to do with the rest of his life." Even love is a possibility.
Australian actor Simon Baker, who plays Jane, calls the decision to end the Red John story and jump ahead in time "a bold and risky thing to do," especially during the middle of a season. "I think that makes it fun and interesting."
Viewers have gotten to play along, as Jane has been whittling down a suspect list that started at seven.
Last week, the focus shifted to CBI director Gale Bertram (Michael Gaston), the subject of an intense manhunt as tonight's episode opens.
"I thought the list was a great idea," Baker says. "For the first time, there was something tangible. It's just a process of elimination in some way or another. After vamping for so long and giving tidbits of information and then (having) fantastical theories all over the place, to then have something that tangible was very clever."
That solution to the murder mystery comes as the CBI Sacramento office is dismantled, after the discovery that it has been infiltrated by a corrupt secret society of California law enforcement officials that includes the serial killer.
"It was really strange to shoot all of that stuff. It felt enormously like we were at the end. That set is gone. We've got a completely new set now," Baker says. Combined with the Red John conclusion, "It's very clear that we're striking the whole thing and starting again."
CBS supported Heller's proposal to end the Red John story, which has been so central that the color, in various forms, has been woven into episode titles throughout its run.
"In Bruno's version, we realize Patrick Jane is bigger than Red John," says Glenn Geller, CBS' programming chief . "There's much more to the story of The Mentalist than just the hunt for Red John. We really get to see the aftermath and what happens to Jane."
When The Mentalist jumps ahead, the former CBI team members will be scattered, with Lisbon in San Francisco, Rigsby and Van Pelt in northern California and Cho in Austin, the home base of the FBI agent (Rockmond Dunbar, who will become a series regular) assigned to shut down the CBI. Jane is out of the country.
Jane "wants nothing to do with his old life at all. (Lisbon) has made a new life for herself, (but) after two years she finds she's thinking about Jane all the time." Heller says. Their investigations will continue but in "a world of higher stakes and bigger strategies. They won't just be solving crimes in California."
Baker, who directs the Dec. 1 episode, says viewers will see changes in Jane. "It's a coming of age in a way," he says. "It redefines the relationship between Jane and Lisbon (Robin Tunney) in a real and adult way."
No decision has been made regarding The Mentalist's future beyond this season — ratings are down, and CBS needs slots to launch new series — but Baker and Heller say there are plenty of stories to tell in the post-Red John era.
"I think that is going to fall on our writers, if they can come up with stuff that's interesting and if we continue to move forward. That's a challenge. I think they're pretty keen to meet that challenge," Baker says. "We'll give it our best shot."
Date: Thursday, 21-Nov-13, 9:34 AM | Message # 264
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From USAToday interview (this part is whithout spoiler) No decision has been made regarding The Mentalist's future beyond this season — ratings are down, and CBS needs slots to launch new series — but Baker and Heller say there are plenty of stories to tell in the post-Red John era.
"I think that is going to fall on our writers, if they can come up with stuff that's interesting and if we continue to move forward. That's a challenge. I think they're pretty keen to meet that challenge," Baker says. "We'll give it our best shot."
Things are clear about the future of TM : WAIT and SEE !!
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The Hollywood Reporter - Bruno & Simon interview Episode 6.07 SPOILERS
'Mentalist' EP Bruno Heller, Simon Baker Preview the End of the Red John Era Before the Red John arc -- introduced when the show debuted in 2008 -- comes to an end Sunday, the series creator and star discuss the long road to get to this point. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-fe....-658385
The Red John arc is wrapping up on The Mentalist.
By the end of last week's episode, Patrick Jane's list of seven Red John suspects had been whittled down to one name: California Bureau of Investigation Director Gale Bertram. After Jane publicly announced at a press conference that the CBI head was a killer, the FBI -- led by Special Agent Dennis Abbott -- shut down the CBI as a result. If the head of CBI was corrupt, who's to say there aren't more moles? More important, is Bertram Red John?
Sunday's episode, simply titled "Red John," marks the culmination of a series-long journey for Jane, as he comes face to face with the serial killer who murdered his wife and child. For creator/executive producer Bruno Heller, having the Red John case wrap up midseason was a conscious choice.
"Very early on, there were people who were saying in the first season, 'Are you going to find Red John at the end of the first year? Or the second year?' It's a question people have been asking and one we've been asking in the writers' room from very early on," Heller told reporters on a conference call earlier this week. "There was no functional, formal protocol moment where we said, 'OK, when this happens, we will set about closing off that chapter.' "
Instead, Heller compared the decision to close the Red John chapter to "a marriage or any kind of partnership."
"How long is Red John driving the story forward and at what point does it become an anchor?" he elaborated. "It just seems like this was the right time. Ultimately that's a subjective choice. It just seemed like, from a storytelling point of view and from the audience's point of view, it was time to move the story forward. The best way to move the story forward in a way that is exciting to the audience is to move it forward much faster than they think it's going to move."
Heller noted that "there were always three or four possibilities" for Red John, saying that there wasn't an "aha" moment when he and the writers honed in on the ultimate Red John identity. "It seems like the natural correct choice," he added, revealing the actor was notified about his character's Red John identity "at the very last moment and he was thrilled."
Star Simon Baker admitted that the journey for him the past five-and-a-half seasons has been "strange."
"There's reasons and things you sign on for on that show and there's very important elements to the character that you make a connection with immediately. A lot of those things were laid to rest in this episode," Baker said on the conference call. "It did feel incredibly personal to me. I've always been very invested in what my character does and how he reacts to his personal story, which is the Red John story...."
There have been many surprises throughout the years, and there may be a few more on Sunday.
"If you think you know what's happening and you think you know where it's going, you may be wrong," Heller hinted.
As for what The Mentalist may look like following Sunday's episode, Heller assured that though things are changing for Jane, Lisbon and company, there will still be aspects of the show that will remain the same. (He told the USA Today in a piece published Wednesday that the Dec. 1 episode, directed by Baker, picks up two years later.)
"It's going to be the same show to some degree," Heller promised, "but it's going to be a show with less darkness at the edges and more freedom to roam."
Message edited by DS_Pallas - Thursday, 21-Nov-13, 5:40 PM
After six years of waiting to find out Red John’s identity, the time is almost here. This Sunday’s episode of The Mentalist will finally give us the answer we’ve all been dying to know. And as we’re inching closer to the big reveal, creator and executive producer Bruno Heller and Patrick Jane himself, Simon Baker, took part in a conference call to answer some of our burning questions about the “Red John” episode and the future of the show post-Red John.
Part of that conversation will be shared after the episode airs so as to avoid spoilers, so make sure to come back to TV Equals for more this Sunday November 24th, but for now here is something to tie you over until then.
On what Bruno Heller can tease about the episode “If you think you know what’s happening and you know where it’s going, you might be wrong and you should watch this episode to find out.”
On when he figured out Red John’s identity Bruno Heller explained, “It kind of just emerged over the last couple of years. There was always 3 or 4 possibilities and it just happened really. It seemed like the natural correct choice.”
On how are things going to evolve from there for Patrick Jane Heller described Patrick Jane as “this tragic figure who has found the evil grail he has been chasing all these years years.” He added that the question remains, “what does that do to him as a person? Can he begin a new life and what kind of life does he want for himself? How will he define himself now that that part of his life is over?”
On whether Patrick Jane might have some kind of love life Heller teased, “He might.”
On the Lisbon and Jane relationship and bond Baker shared that their bond would be “even stronger.” And Heller added that, “they’ve been so engrossed in this massive task ahead of them but they haven’t looked around and looked at the people alongside of them and thought about who those people are and what they mean to them,’ he continued, “and now jane and Lisbon have a chance to take a breath and think about a each other in a way that they haven’t before.”
On why they decided to reveal Red John’s identity now Heller described the making of the decision like “a marriage or kind of partnership.” He explained, “How long is Red John driving the story and at what point does it become an anchor,” he added “and it just seemed like this was the right time.”
Baker added, “these last 5-6 months we’ve been working on the show it’s been really exciting for me, it felt like I’ve had this enthusiasm that I had in the first season because it’s new and fresh from week to week and it’s going somewhere. Because sometimes the frustration for me as an actor is that we’re not going anywhere, not moving forward and with this we’re definitely going somewhere and the stakes are high and it gives me something to do that I can really get my teeth into.”
Don’t forget to tune in this Sunday, November 24th and watch The Mentalist “Red John” episode at 10pm on CBS, then make sure to come back to TV Equals for even more from the discussion with Bruno Heller and Simon Baker.
The Mentalist's Simon Baker on Ending the Red John Arc: "There's a Level of Disappointment"
Patrick Jane isn't the only person who's eager to bring his decade-long hunt for Red John to a close on The Mentalist. Simon Baker says the conclusion of the story line, after Sunday's final showdown, is a relief for him as well.
"This last five, six months that we've been working on the show, it's been really exciting for me," Baker said on a conference call this week. "It's felt like I've had the sort of enthusiasm that I had in the first season because it's new and fresh from week to week and it's going somewhere. Sometimes the frustration for me as an actor is that we're not going anywhere, not moving forward. In this, we're definitely going somewhere, and the stakes are high and it gives me something to do that I can really get my teeth into."
As Jane has worked to narrow down the Red John suspects at the start of this season, Baker says he tried to keep himself in the dark as well. "I didn't have any theories at all," Baker admits. "Actually, I made a point to not read too far ahead on a lot of these episodes, the first six or seven. I would read the outlines, but I didn't really want to read scripts too far in advance, because I didn't want to get ahead of myself."
Still, after five and a half years of tracking Red John, Baker says it was somewhat of a letdown to finally come face-to-face with the mysterious killer, and that he felt a sense of loss after filming Jane's final showdown with his enemy. "I always felt what was scary was the fact that it could be the guy that you see every day on your way to work that's watering his lawn two blocks away ... the everyday guy that is a serial killer," Baker says. "So when we found out it was who it was — I think, ultimately with anything like this, there's a level of disappointment. When there's mystery, you paint the picture in your head of what it's going to be, and particularly when it's a mystery that holds you under water for so long, the mystery of who it is is mythical. The truth is, it's just a person."
After Sunday's installment, The Mentalist will jump ahead two years, so the immediate aftermath of Jane's final confrontation with Red John will have already been dealt with. But questions about where Jane (and the show) will go moving forward still loom large.
"What this fresh version of this show is about is what happens afterwards," creator Bruno Heller said on the same conference call. "In a very real sense, Jane is a happier person. A weight has been taken off his shoulders, and to that degree a weight has been taken off the show. So, it's going to be the same show to some degree, but it's going to be a show with less darkness at the edges, and more freedom to roam. Jane has more freedom and more of a sense of possibility and liberty."
With that in mind, Baker says he's still trying to work out how to play Jane in a post-Red John world. "To be honest, it's been strange," Baker says. "It's been really strange, because whatever happens in the course of the series, there's reasons that you sign on to that show for, and there's very important elements to the character that you make a connection with immediately. And a lot of those things were laid to rest in this episode. So it did feel incredibly personal to me. I've always been very invested in what my character does and how he reacts to his personal story, which is the Red John story."
But Jane's character isn't the only one who's thrown for a loop. The time-jump reveals that his former CBI comrades are scattered around the country after their agency was shut down, with Lisbon (Robin Tunney) in San Francisco, Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) and Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti) in northern California, and Cho (Tim Kang) in Austin with FBI agent Dennis Abbott (new series regular Rockmond Dunbar).
"It's a little like they're the children of divorce," Heller says of the disbanded CBI crew. "They've been enthralled with somebody else's mission, and now that mission is gone. They were in a world that they didn't choose and now they're in a world that is changing around them, again not of their own volition. So what this is going to be for these characters is a process of growing up. They're leaving home. Jane has big questions to answer about what he's going to do with himself, and Lisbon, Van Pelt, Cho and Rigsby also have to make those choices."
What remains to be seen is whether viewers will stick with The Mentalist after the Red John story line is wrapped up. Baker, who directed the first post-Red John episode, airing Dec. 1, said he was adamant that the name "Red John" not even be uttered in the hour. "We've said, 'Red John' about four million times, and three million times in the last seven episodes, I think," Baker quips. "It's really nice to have a good, clean, fresh cut from that and not mention Red John for a while at all, and have Jane not even speak of him."
Heller is also confident about the decision to put the Red John story line to bed once and for all. "It's kind of like a marriage or any kind of partnership," he says. "How long is Red John driving the story forward, and at what point does it become an anchor — in both sense of the words an anchor? It just seemed like this was the right time. ... It felt very much to all of us like that chapter of the story was done.
"I think it's going to be a great show after Red John," Heller adds. "And then it's up to the audience to decide whether they like it or not."
The Mentalist's Amanda Righetti Confirms Exit, Teases 'Surprise' Send-Off For Van Pelt With her departure from The Mentalist on the horizon, Amanda Righetti is finding comfort in a familiar refrain: change is good.
Speaking out for the first time about her spring exit, the actress concedes, “I feel like the time is probably right,” adding, “It’s the end of one thing but the beginning of something new.”
Righetti, who is leaving alongside leading man Owain Yeoman, admits that she’s still in the dark about how exactly Van Pelt and Rigsby will be written out of the CBS drama. “It keeps changing,” she explains. “It’s been a little bit of a fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants season. I think it was sort of an unexpected turn for the writers too, to have the show kind of be reworked this season. So everybody’s kind of trying to figure it out. And [they're] probably keeping it close to the vest so it comes as a surprise to everyone that is watching.”
In the meantime, Righetti confirms that Van Pelt and Rigsby will play a role in the show’s post-Red John era, which kicks off in the Dec. 1 episode (following a two-year time jump). “Basically, they have their own private security company,” she reveals. “So we sort of are outsourced and freelanced with the FBI, and that’s how we fit in.”
'The Mentalist' regroups and moves forward, in time The Mentalist is redefining itself. In last week's episode, the FBI started shutting down the California Bureau of Investigation, home to consultant Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) and a team of law-enforcement agents. Tonight (CBS, 10 p.m. ET/PT), the show will resolve Jane's central quest to find Red John, the serial killer who murdered his wife and daughter.
And next Sunday, the sixth-season drama will jump ahead two years in its characters' lives, with the CBI out of business and its former members scattered. Jane isn't even in the country.
Red John "has helped define who (Jane) is as a character completely from the very beginning. It's been the driving force and the objective of my character is to find this guy," says Baker, who also directs next week's episode.
He compares the time jump between the two episodes to the development of a young child, with changes to the characters becoming more dramatic with the passage of time.
"You see how things have manifested over those two years. You see some real shifts in character and approach to life," Baker says. "It really does deal with the idea of what's missing in his life and how he's lost his mojo. It's a coming of age in a way."
The Mentalist joins a number of other shows, including Desperate Housewives and Fringe, that have pushed the calendar ahead to change their characters. Series creator Bruno Heller wanted the series to have time to examine how Jane deals with life after his main focus, Red John, is no longer a factor.
"A dark cloud has been lifted from him. … We wanted to see what Jane is like without this burden, a more joyous and happier Jane, a Jane who is free to think about what to do with the rest of his life," he says. Romance and happiness may be possibilities.
Two years after the end of the Red John case and the dismantling of the CBI Sacramento headquarters, former senior agent Teresa Lisbon (Robin Tunney) is in northern California and married former agents Wayne Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) and Grace Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti) are in San Francisco. (Both characters will be written out later this season).
Another team member, Kimball Cho (Tim Kang), is in Austin, the previous stomping ground of FBI agent Dennis Abbott (Rockmond Dunbar), who is assigned to close the CBI after its infiltration by a secret society of corrupt California law enforcement agents, including the man at the center of the Red John manhunt, CBI director Gale Bertram (Michael Gaston).
Dunbar will be a series regular going forward, as will Emily Swallow, whose Kim Fisher character will get the better of the brilliant Jane in a battle of manipulation, Heller says. Yeoman and Righetti eventually will be leaving the series, as has been rumored, but not until much later this season. 'What was so interesting about Bruno's take is that he wanted to do it in the middle of the season," says Glenn Geller, CBS' executive vice president of current programming . "I think when the audience sees and understands what the time jump is about, how the character processes what has happened, how the other characters move forward, it's going to feel very natural."
The Mentalist is averaging 11.1 million viewers, down 4% in viewers and 13% in young adults compared with last season. When The Mentalist returns after the end of the Red John story, "Jane has run away. He wants nothing to do with his old life at all. Lisbon has fewer options because she's a cop. She has to be a cop. She has made a new life for herself, (but) after two years she finds she's thinking about Jane all the time," Heller says.
The initial geographic separation between characters won't keep them from interacting. The show "redefines the relationship between Jane and Lisbon in a real and adult way. That's a really strong element of the show," Baker says.
"The new world that Jane and Lisbon inhabit is a world of higher stakes and bigger strategies. They won't just be solving crime in California," Heller says. He says a revamped Mentalist could tell stories for some time.
"What the show really lives on is Baker's talent," Heller says. As long as Baker is enthusiastic and up for the challenge, the show can run as long as you like."
Simon Baker Breaks Down the End of Red John and The Mentalist's Future
Be careful what you wish for. The Mentalist's Patrick Jane finally got his revenge on the man who slaughtered his wife and daughter — the sardonic, William Blake spouting serial killer Red John. But now what? TV Guide Magazine had a chat with Simon Baker, who plays the crime-busting Jane, about where the show and his character will go from here. Will Red John's death really help Jane deal with his grief? Can he move on with his life and maybe even find love again?
TV Guide Magazine: This feels like the end of an era! Was the audience ready for closure on the Red John saga? Baker: The end of Red John is a moment the fans wanted to see, but for many different reasons. Some just want it to be over. They're, like, "Enough, already!" Some really want to see Patrick heal and get on with things. And some just like it a lot more when The Mentalist does crime-of-the-week. What's great is that we're able to make this choice for the right reasons — not out of desperation or some last-ditch effort to avoid cancellation. A lot of times you get that call from the network saying, "We're pulling the pin," and then it's a scramble to wrap things up. Here we can give the audience that has been with us for so long some real gratification and then move the show in a cool new direction. We're not letting go of that part of the franchise where Jane solves crimes. We'll just be doing it differently.
TV Guide Magazine: So no qualms about this? After all, the hunt for Red John has been the main focus of the series. It's what put the fire in Patrick's belly. Baker: You feel an incredible intensity when, in one fell swoop, you're killing the arch nemesis of your series and, in a way, the series itself. In order to reboot this show, we have to kill off its most important element — Patrick Jane's very reason for being — and that's risky. The adrenalin was strange. After we shot Red John's death, we all took a collective moment, had a glass of champagne and marked it, because the event was so huge.
TV Guide Magazine: His death came in such a low-key way — no spectacle, no sirens, no hovering helicopters, no CBI team. Just Jane and Red John. Talk about that choice. Baker: 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.
TV Guide Magazine: Before the script came in, did you think Jane had the stomach for this? Baker: 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.
TV Guide Magazine: Did Red John have a death wish? Did he realize he just couldn't beat Jane? Baker: No, I don't think so. It was more like delusions of grandeur. It was not enough for Red John to kill Jane's family. He desperately wanted a relationship with Jane — to the point where he exposed himself and put himself in jeopardy.
TV Guide Magazine:
What does this gruesome triumph do for Jane?
Often when we get what we want, we find out it's not what we wanted at all. Baker: "Protect me from what I want!" My wife has that saying on a little plaque in our kitchen. That's the catchphrase I took to [series creator] Bruno Heller and said, "This is what we have to do as the show moves forward. We have to deal with the comedown, the disappointment, the loss of focus." It's that meandering feeling you get after you've achieved the very thing that's driven you for years. Okay, you got what you wanted. What now?
TV Guide Magazine: You directed the next episode, where the show leaps ahead two years. What can you tell us about it? Baker: It's almost like a pilot for a new show. When we come back after Red John's death, Jane is somewhere in paradise. A large portion of the episode is in Spanish. Cho is now with the FBI. Rigsby and Van Pelt have their own little detective business. And Lisbon is in Washington state working as a chief of police in a podunk kind of town. The episode opens with her talking to grade-school kids about what the police do. I had so much fun with the episode. It was such a reprieve from all the tension this season.
TV Guide Magazine: Any chance of a Jane-Lisbon romance? A lot of fans are dying to see that happen! Baker: You will see that he really misses Lisbon and is a sad, floundering shadow of a man. He's afraid and just going around and around in circles. He's completely lost his mojo and he's asking himself, "Is this what you want to be? Is this the way you see the rest of your life?" He's offered a chance to go back to work for the F.B.I. and declines because he's trying to move on from that life. The episode has an interesting kind of noir-ish feel to it. Jane had been filled with this deep desire for revenge, which is generated out of self-loathing, right? Take that revenge out of the equation and he's just this guy who is empty. But the episode is also really romantic in a way, because you see how much Jane longs for companionship. You want to know something I've never talked about?
TV Guide Magazine: Hell, yeah! Baker: All those times we heard the voice of Red John? That was me.
TV Guide Magazine: Seriously? Baker: 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.
TV Guide Magazine: Wow. That's especially trippy considering there was a major theory going around that Jane was Red John. So in a way that turned out to be true! Baker: 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.
TV Guide Magazine: Love it! So you're feeling good about the future? Baker: I am! We're going to have some fun putting Jane into an entirely different work environment. He'll not only find his spark again — he'll have a whole lot of new people to rub the wrong way! I think we have a lot more miles to go. But you know what? We've had great times. I've invested so much of myself in this show and developed relationships with people I've genuinely come to love. It's been really, really fantastic — so much so that, if the thing finished tomorrow, I would walk away happy. I would walk away proud.
