The Mentalist Post Mortem: A Tragic Twist Dredges Up Jane's Dark Past — Plus: The Series Finale in Four Words

The following contains spoilers from this week’s episode of The Mentalist.

With just three episodes left to air, CBS’ The Mentalist this Wednesday night pulled the trigger on a catalytic final story arc for Patrick Jane, by killing off FBI Agent Michelle Vega. Though a new recruit to the team, Vega’s tragic death in the line of duty has sparked something in Jane, whose tie to law enforcement as of late has been tenuous.

TVLine spoke with showrunner Tom Szentgyorgyi, as well as Vega’s portrayer, Josie Loren, about uncorking this sad twist, why it has hit Jane so hard, and what fans can expect from the series finale (airing Feb. 18).

TVLINE | Josie, what did you know and when did you know it, regarding Vega’s fate?
JOSIE LOREN | Actually, the day before I started shooting the first episode, Tom called to let me know what was in store. They didn’t want me to be surprised. They wanted me to know going into it, and that I was to say nothing. It was a secret for a while.

TVLINE | Tom, once this was announced as the final season, did you know you’d want to kill someone off to activate Jane’s final journey?
TOM SZENTGYORGYI | Very much. And I called Josie because we wanted to be absolutely clear that when that news broke, it wasn’t a comment on her performance.
LOREN | [Laughs]
SZENTGYORGYI | We knew that we wanted in this last batch of episodes to sort of take the show back to the beginning. Jane’s character was born out of trauma, in effect. The person that we watched for seven years was shaped very much by violent death. And though we had captured Red John and put that part of the story behind us, we knew we wanted to go back to that world — and that would involve killing someone.
LOREN | And I could not be happier that I got to be that person!

TVLINE | Can you elaborate a bit on Jane’s reaction, his speech to Lisbon in that closing scene? He’s only known Vega a short time, after all.
SZENTGYORGYI | Exactly — and that was also deliberate. We decided that because Jane has already lost people who at that point were the most important people in the world to him, we didn’t want to revisit that, Job-like, by killing another good friend. What we wanted was someone who would bring to the fore both the risks of the work — how people The Mentalist Jane Quitscan die even when they’re brave and smart and careful, as Vega was — as well as the idea that beginning a relationship, recommitting himself to love and to life, was going to have risks. And given his history, he might be reluctant to undertake such risks. His love for Lisbon meant risking losing Lisbon, just as he lost his wife and daughter, so for us the death of Vega was a way to really bring that home. He cares for Vega, and one of the nice things in this last stretch of episodes is seeing how warm and real that relationship felt. But Lisbon is the love of his life, and the risk to her and the risk to him, the risk loving brings with it, is utmost in his mind now.

TVLINE | And with Jane saying, “I can’t do this anymore…,” have we seen him work his last case?
SZENTGYORGYI | No. We haven’t seen Jane work his last case. Yet.

TVLINE | Josie, can you clarify what all Vega was agreeing to with Wylie before she died? Were they on the same romantic page, or…?
LOREN | It’s funny you ask that because when we were shooting the scene, I was originally playing it very Vega-esque — she isn’t really demonstrative, she doesn’t flirt with him — because I wasn’t too clear on what exactly she was agreeing to, as you said. And then the director led me in the direction of, “No, you’re giving him an open door without being over the top about it, being as casual as possible.” Wylie is someone that she grew to really enjoy.Mentalist Vega Dies It’s nice because he is such a contrast to who she is, she almost needs people like Wylie in her life.

TVLINE | And now she’s gone and devastated him by dying.
LOREN | I know…. I feel bad.

TVLINE | As sad as it is to leave the show, at least it frees you up right in time for pilot season.
LOREN | Yeah, it’s one of those things where it was so bittersweet — I would have loved to have done the full 13 episodes, because the cast and crew is just awesome. I had the best time. But at the same time, it worked out really well in terms of being available for pilot season.

TVLINE | Tom, are we going to see more of Wylie’s reaction in these last few episodes?
SZENTGYORGYI | Very much. You’re going to see everyone’s reactions. We wanted to create what had been Jane’s situation at the start of the show, which was him struggling to deal with a death, and show the rest of the cast dealing with a similar thing. Some will deal with it well, some will deal with it not well. Wylie’s certainly one of the people feeling it most keenly, and who’s freshest to this experience.

TVLINE | For Cho, Mentalist Vega Dieswill this galvanize him in this new role of responsibility, or will it shake him a bit?
SZENTGYORGYI | I don’t want to give away too much, but you’re going to see some very specific responses.

TVLINE | Come finale night, Feb. 18, do those two episodes feed into each other, or are they just two episodes that happen to be airing on the same night?
SZENTGYORGYI | They definitely feed into each other. They’re two stories, but they are very much a pair. The penultimate episode is titled “Brown Shag Carpet,” and the last episode is called “White Orchids.”

TVLINE | Interesting. Because I was debating with someone if the last episode would be “Black Out” — as in the absence of all color — or “White Out,” as in the presence of all color.
SZENTGYORGYI | No, no…. But several people have noted that with “Brown Shag Carpet” we have come up with the ugliest title. And that’s mine, of course!

TVLINE | Can you give me three words to describe the series finale?
SZENTGYORGYI | Three words? How about four — “All you’ve hoped for.”

http://tvline.com/2015....e-quits

Who Died on The Mentalist? Victim and Show Boss Speak Out
[Warning: This article contains major spoilers about Wednesday's episode of The Mentalist. Read at your own risk!]

Will the death of a colleague cause Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) to give up crime-fighting for good?

On Wednesday's episode of The Mentalist, rookie FBI agent Michelle Vega (Josie Loren) was fatally wounded during a shootout, and her shocking death sent ripples of anger and doubt through the other members of the bureau. Namely, with only two episodes left before the series ends, it seems as though a heartbroken Jane is ready to walk away from police work entirely. But will Lisbon (Robin Tunney) join him?

"It's definitely a catalyst," executive producer Tom Szentgyorgyi tells TVGuide.com about Vega's death. "This is the crossroads. In a way, because we killed off Red John in Season 6, we've been able to look at the arc of the seventh season not just as a man seeking revenge for the death of his wife and daughter, but a man who's suffered a great trauma and he's fighting his way back to embracing life in its fullest. These last episodes are about that last step. This death is a catalyst for that last step. What step he takes I won't tell you - you'll have to watch."

Read our full Q&A with Szentgyorgyi and Loren to find out when the writing team decided to kill off Vega and why, and what it was like for Loren to film her first death scene.

TVGuide.com: Tom, when did you decide to kill off Vega's character?
Szentgyorgyi: It was something we'd planned from the very beginning. We knew coming into this [final] season that there were two things we wanted to do. We wanted to bring a character into the team who didn't know Jane, who was new to Jane and new to his ways, and would cast at least a skeptical eye on what he was doing, his methods. The second thing we wanted to do was ... to go back to the beginning. We were going to return to the emotional stakes and issues that had really launched Patrick Jane and launched the show ... a world of loss and death, and the struggle to deal with those things. So we put those two things together and decided that what we wanted to do was create a character for everyone to fall in love with, and then kill them, and use that to launch the sort of last run of episodes for Patrick Jane.

Josie, how did you find out Vega was going to die?
Loren: Tom called me the day before I was supposed to start shooting the first episode and he let me know exactly what was in store for my character. He also asked me to please keep it a secret. So, the cast didn't even know for a long, long time. It was something that was very much kept under wraps. But it was hard for me to keep it a secret, because I knew from the very beginning.

Were you disappointed when you heard the news?
Loren: I think the story line was great. As much as I would have loved to have done the full 13 episodes, because they're a wonderful cast and crew and it was a great experience, I love Vega's storyline and I love what it does for the show.

Did knowing the outcome inform your portrayal of Vega? Would you have done anything differently if you hadn't known she was going to be killed eventually?
Loren: It's funny. I never thought about that. But I don't think I would have done anything any differently. She's so strict and by the book, but she has so much heart and she has so much passion. And I would have had that in my character regardless if I knew she was going to pass or not.

What was the rest of the cast's reaction when they found out?
Szentgyorgyi: We kept it completely secret, and then when the script went out and people found out, a number of people came up to us on the writing staff and said, 'Do we have to do this?' Because, frankly, we had all fallen in love with Michelle Vega and with Josie's portrait of her. There was a real sense - which is sadly good, because we want to get that sense - that someone was being snatched from us. And it's deep. It's a really widespread sense of regret and sorrow.

It's been nice to see the contrast between Vega's and Jane's tactics this season - the veteran and the newbie.
Loren: It's kind of funny, because it's very true to real life. I walked onto a set where these people have been together for seven years, especially Simon and Tim [Kang] and Robin. So, that wasn't very much of a stretch for me. I was not an avid watcher of The Mentalistbefore I got on. Obviously once I was auditioning and testing, I watched episodes to brief me on the show and its tone and the characters. So, for me, it wasn't very difficult ... To fall into that in its seventh year, it was like playing catch-up and figuring out everyone's quirks and how everyone works and what makes them unique and special.

Was it weird for you to film the actual scene itself?
Loren: It's so hard to describe. We had such a long day that day. I think it was a 14-, 15-hour day, and it was the last thing that I shot, and they continued on after that. But all day, it was sad because it was my last day. I'm usually very outgoing and laughing and talking to the crew. ... I've never died on camera, but I would say it was something like, you live in that kind of zone all day, in that mentality. And I never expected also to be sad for Vega, for Michelle, this character who I grew to really love and admire. She was dying that day, and there would never be another Michelle Vega. There's a lot of sadness in that too. Shooting it, I actually never got off the ground. Once they placed me on the ground, I never got up once to set up the next shot or anything. I just laid there for, I think it was a little over an hour, on a very dirty floor, covered in blood, folks walking all around me. I just wanted to be in that kind of space.

Szentgyorgyi: There was a unique and really keen sense of loss that day. Josie did such a great job, beyond our expectations, of bringing Michelle Vega to life. We felt like we were all losing a friend, even as we watched her wash the blood off.

We've already seen a bit of Jane's reaction to Vega's death, but what impact will it have on the rest of the team?
Szentgyorgyi: Everyone had a very particular and affectionate relationship with her. So, it's a loss felt by everyone. We wanted the death to echo what had happened to Jane with his wife and daughter, but not be exactly the same - not be a loss that happened to Jane alone. We wanted everyone to be in Jane's shoes and just face the challenge that faces anyone when someone is taken from them. ... A death like that really is a thing that makes you reassess, and in an odd way it can be a sort of spur to move forward. Ironically but realistically, the death of someone close to you forces you to change, whether you want to or not. Sometimes it's not a change you want to undergo, but it does. And all the characters are going to be going through that in one way or another.

http://www.tvguide.com/news....a-death