Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
Patrick Jane works as a consultant with Teresa Lisbon’s California Bureau of Investigation team. His sharp readings help solve murders, but staged scenes and pressure tactics leave Lisbon to manage the fallout as well as the cases. The pilot first suggests a killing is Red John’s work, then Jane exposes it as a copycat. Jane stays close to the CBI because Red John murdered his wife and daughter after Jane challenged the killer on television.
Weekly cases include a vineyard, a locked safe room, a corporate retreat, a hypnotist’s scheme and a school for troubled boys, with Jane repeatedly turning suspects’ assumptions against them. The Red John trail sharpens when convicted killer Jared Renfrew offers information in exchange for Jane proving his innocence. Jane leaves the CBI to pursue that promise, putting Lisbon’s team at risk. Evidence also suggests Red John can reach into bureau computer systems, but the clues still give Jane no reliable identity for his enemy.
In the finale, Emma Plaskett is found murdered and her twin Maya is missing. A skywritten smile and a letter lead Jane toward Roy Tagliaferro, while the altered crime-scene details point to another perpetrator. Blind witness Rosalind Harker recalls Roy’s friend DuMar; Cho and Rigsby identify him as Sheriff Hardy. Hardy is the son of Red John’s former accomplice Orval Tanner and helped create the trap around Jane. The team finds Maya alive, but Hardy turns on them and raises a gun at Lisbon. Jane shoots him before he can fire. Red John escapes, leaving Jane without the reckoning he wanted.