Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
Jane’s hunt for Red John strains the CBI’s uneasy partnership with the FBI. Lorelei Martins, the killer’s accomplice, disappears from local custody into a federal prison. Jane arranges her escape with help from Visualize leader Bret Stiles and lets investigators believe she abducted him. On the run, Lorelei lets slip that Jane and Red John have shaken hands. Jane also shows her evidence linking Red John to her sister Miranda’s murder. She refuses to name him, pursues the truth herself and is later found murdered.
Jane returns to old cases and handshakes, trying to identify the person he once met while Red John keeps disrupting the investigation. The trail touches the Visualize movement when a smiley face appears at a former farm, and Lisbon’s pursuit of powerful businessman Tommy Volker puts her career and a protected witness in danger. The team also faces ordinary cases and changes: Cho joins the Rapid Action Task Force, while Rigsby and Van Pelt try to find their way back to each other after the agency’s rules about colleagues dating are relaxed.
In the finale, Jane rejects the local police’s copycat explanation for a murder and kidnapping that he believes Red John arranged as a challenge. As the case closes, he tells Lisbon he has reduced the suspects to seven: Bret Stiles, Gale Bertram, Ray Haffner, Reede Smith, Bob Kirkland, Thomas McAllister and Brett Partridge. A recording made before Lorelei’s death shows that Red John already knows Jane’s list and threatens to kill again. The identity remains unresolved at the season’s end.