A "Mentalist" prequel.

Starring Simon Baker
Xander Berkeley
Robin Tunney
Tim Kang
Owain Yeoman
Maxine Bahns
Kevin Rankin

Guest Starring
Michael Mosley as Dumar Tanner
Isabella Acres as Charlotte Anne Jane
Todd Stashwick as Jared Renfrew
With Alicia Witt as Rosalind Harker
and Gregory Itzin as Virgil Minelli

Special Guest Stars
Polly Walker as Alexa Schulz
Malcolm McDowell as Bret Stiles
Reed Diamond as Raymond Haffner
Kevin Corrigan as Bob Kirkland

1- "The Red Sky."- A young man named Thomas McCallister is distraught after losing his brother to suicide; a former acquaintance of his deceased father, Virgil Minelli, a cop with the California Bureau of Investigation, introduces him to a powerful man named Bret Stiles, whose Visualize cult gives him a new perception of death. McCallister discovers that Minelli led him to Visualize to find out that Martin Talbot and Allen Charney were former friends of his brother's who convinced him to kill himself after he found out about a murder committed by Bret Stiles. In retaliation, McCallister kills the men before trying to find out what terrible secret Stiles had. Patrick Jane meets his future wife Angela during an intermission of a carnival show they are appearing in together; they begin to plot how to leave that life. This episode is set in 1988.

2- "The Heartlands."- It is now 1998, and Thomas McAllister has become a sheriff in Napa Valley, upon Virgil Minelli's suggestion that law enforcement ties might strengthen the possibility of him digging up dirt on Stiles; meanwhile, he has recruited Visualize disciple Ray Haffner to report back on Stiles' activities, and encourages Haffner to become a cop as well. Both Minelli and Haffner are completely unaware that McAllister has developed a bloodlust for killing; Minelli merely wanted revenge for a family friend's death, and McAllister convinces Haffner that Bret Stiles is a bad man with secrets that need to be exposed. McAllister works a case where a young woman is suspected to have been murdered by her best friend over an infidelity. It turns out that the girl is murdered by her boss after she discovers he is embezzling money from the business she works for. Under the guise of Sheriff, he pays the innocent friend a house call to reveal the outcome of the case, inviting himself into her house. Orville Tanner has broken into the house via the back entrance and knocks her unconscious from behind. They drive to an abandoned gas station in the middle of a deserted town where they kill her. This is where Red John draws his first smiley face. Jane is unable to attend his two year old daughter's birthday party, as he is busy working a gig where he tells a distraught woman who believes she has caused her husband's death by sending him out for milk during a rainstorm, that her husband needed that pretense to go meet with his secret lover. This serves to alleviate her guilt but angers her, at which point Jane is contacted by her husband where he says to tell his wife that he just wanted to make sure that there was no woman in the world who could make him happy the way she did--- the woman buys it, and Jane leaves a richer, but spiritually deadened, man.

NB: It eventually becomes McAllister's main goal to recruit Visualize members to work for him by brainwashing them very much in the same way that Stiles has, allowing them to still answer to Stiles but to trust and confide in McAllister. The origins on how he does this will be revealed in the next episode.

3- "Red Revenge."- McAllister finally feels like he has enough evidence to confront Bret Stiles about a covered up murder he committed. A law enforcement contact tells him that Stiles went off the radar in July 1987 after the death of a shady businessman. McAllister ascertains that the businessman had helped Stiles to form powerful financial connections which allowed Visualize to become a powerful organization. The businessman found out that Stiles had a penchant for seducing young women into his cult in order to get them to sexually appease him, which he did not agree with. Thus, Stiles killed him to silence him. When McAllister comes face-to-face with Stiles, the cult leader offers McAllister the chance to become as powerful as he is. It is revealed that Stiles bugs every one of his followers, and that he knows about McAllister's murders. McAllister decides to hold off on his revenge for Stiles because he feels like he can be a useful pawn for him in the future and that he can teach him a few of his techniques for brainwashing people.

This episode is credited as follows:

Starring Simon Baker (credit only), Xander Berkeley, Maxine Bahns (credit only), Kevin Rankin (credit only). Special Guest Star Malcolm McDowell as Bret Stiles.

4- "Bloody Connection."- The murder two episodes ago of a girl who was suspected of having an affair with her friend's boyfriend inspires McAllister to slay a distant relative of hers so that police can eventually draw the connection between the two murders. Red John's showman personality is very much on display here; against his wife's advice, Patrick Jane is called in by a small California town's police chief to offer his opinion on this Red John killing. Angela's brother begs her to get away from Patrick and come back to the family business. Minelli is revealed to be a Visualize member who happens to be good friends with Ray Haffner; he pieces together that McAllister wanted Haffner's help to spy on Stiles, which leads him to a terse confrontation with Stiles. He blackmails him to reveal information about McAllister, which he does. He bluffs the cult leader saying he has conclusive evidence of a murder Stiles committed hidden in a locker that an unknown person will open and bring to light if anything is to happen to Minelli. Now two people know Red John's true identity.

5- "Red Mistake."- Red John kills Janet Peak but doesn't realize her husband Carter is home, leading to a sloppy murder of him which serves as his first big mistake as a serial killer. Minelli approaches Red John about his murders, but tells him that murdering him would be a very bad mistake. He tells him that because of his police connections, he was able to get a sample from the crime scene that incriminates McAllister as Red John and like he did with Stiles, placed it in an unknown locker whose location will be revealed the minute anything happens to Minelli. He has placed a chip in his body that will alert the person who Minelli has entrusted with the evidence the minute it is tampered with. Despite this leverage, Minelli is still in a quagmire as he cannot reveal Red John's identity without the truth of his involvement eventually being told. Both men are forced into this uneasy pact, but Red John decides to be adventurous and ask for his help in eluding authorities in exchange for half his paycheck as an incentive. After shaking on the deal, Red John asks what the damning evidence is; it's a piece of hair, but Red John realizes that he was also bleeding at the time and Carter must have that on his body too. This is a double-edged mistake that still has Red John indebted to Minelli no matter what.

Starring Simon Baker (credit only), Xander Berkeley, Maxine Bahns (credit only), Kevin Rankin (credit only). Special Guest Star Gregory Itzin as Virgil Minelli.

6- "Red Bull."- McAllister investigates a triple homicide involving a retired toreador from Mexico who finds himself embroiled in a bad drug deal; he manages to abduct and kill the toreador's girlfriend and with Minelli's help, implicates the hot-tempered boyfriend, sentencing him to first degree murder. Jane swindles an old couple out of a few hundred bucks by pretending to know what the fate of their missing grandchild is, but he feels no guilt. He comes home to news that Angela is pregnant.

7- "Loving Him is Red."- Three years have elapsed. It's now 2002. Angela starts seeing a psychologist behind Patrick's back to discuss her issues with her marriage and feeling like she's raising Charlotte all by herself. When Patrick finds out, he is livid. Red John has killed three more women since the events of last episode. Minelli calls Agent Teresa Lisbon into his office to ask about developments, even though he was personally involved in covering up the murders. A frustrated Lisbon asks her team to look into anything the cases have in common; it turns out all three women were cops scattered around California with drug problems, leading to speculation in the bullpen that perhaps Red John has shady connections to police, but deliberately not in one central location so as to cover his tracks.

Starring Simon Baker, Xander Berkeley (credit only), Robin Tunney, Tim Kang, Owain Yeoman, Maxine Bahns (credit only) and Kevin Rankin (credit only). Special Guest Star Gregory Itzin as Virgil Minelli.

8- "Red Target."- Jane makes his fatal mistake of going on national television pretending to know what drives the notorious serial killer Red John following his latest murder of a high school teacher in San Angelo County. Sheriff Hardy had let McAllister know that one of his colleagues was giving a speech in the teacher's class; McAllister introduces himself as a friend of that cop and flirts with the teacher before taking her back to his house and killing her when she refuses to join his cult. Jane comes home to find his wife and daughter dead; at the funeral, his brother-in-law publicly shames him into believing he caused their deaths before walking out of his life until the events of "Cackle-Bladder Blood."

9- "Red Is The Warmest Color."- Jane enters an insane asylum following the traumatic death of his family and meets Dr. Sophie Miller; Red John tracks down a neighbor of Jane's who he thinks saw him walk out of the house following the murder and discovers she didn't see anything. He feels an intimate connection to the woman upon discovering she's an avid hunter who killed her boyfriend in cold blood for cheating on her, hypnotizes her and brainwashes her into his cult.

Starring Simon Baker and Xander Berkeley. Special Guest Star Mila Kunis as April Howard.

10- "Red Hunt."- Red John videoconferences the CBI in on a conversation taking place in an identifiable but abandoned Sacramento location between him and April Howard right before killing her--- he merely used her as a pawn to taunt the CBI into stepping up their efforts at finding him. When Cho, Lisbon and Rigsby show up at the scene, Red John is nowhere to be found. Minelli gets an interesting phone call from a powerful politician who also happens to be a Visualize member regarding a conversation he overheard between Minelli and Bret Stiles regarding Red John.

Starring Simon Baker (credit only), Xander Berkeley, Robin Tunney, Tim Kang and Owain Yeoman. Special Guest Star Gregory Itzin as Virgil Minelli.

With Mila Kunis as April Howard.

11- "Red Dog."- Red John hides out at his girlfriend Rosalind's house while police magnify the search for him following April Howard's videotaped execution that caused a panic in the California community; Michael Kirkland stumbles into Virgil Minelli's office to report a missing wallet, but Minelli has other plans for him: knowing that his brother Robert is a prodigy of FBI bigwig Alexa Schulz, he coerces Kirkland into reporting covertly back to Minelli on both Schulz's and Red John's actions, threatening to kill Robert if he doesn't comply. Minelli is trying to both prevent Schulz from finding out too much about Red John and trying to minimize risk for himself should the truth come out by finding out more about Schulz to get on her good side.

Starring Simon Baker (credit only) and Xander Berkeley. With Alicia Witt as Rosalind Harker and Gregory Itzin as Virgil Minelli. Special Guest Stars Kevin Corrigan as Michael Kirkland and Polly Walker as Alexa Schulz.

12- "Red Eye."- Red John decides it's time for Haffner to find out about his true identity and assigns him to spy on Patrick; Red John also abducts Miranda Martins and kills her which lures her sister Lorelai to attempt to find Red John. Once she finds him and points a gun at him, he tells her about his sister's desire to transcend this life; Jane has been released from psychiatric care but is still deeply tormented about his family's murder. He remembers that his wife was scheduled the morning of her death to get on a flight to visit her friend in New York and goes to the airport to investigate. It turns out the flight was cancelled by its Captain John Rodriguez and all passengers were notified three hours before, giving Red John an exact window on when to strike.

Starring Simon Baker and Xander Berkeley. Special Guest Stars Emmanuele Chriqui as Lorelei Martins, Reed Diamond as Ray Haffner and Benjamin Bratt as John Rodriguez.

13- "A Bloody War."- Rodriguez is informed by Haffner that Jane is looking into the cancellation of Angela's flight; Jane phones local police to the airport to question Rodriguez but before they can a bloody firefight ensues. Rodriguez kills 5 cops in the shootout before being mortally wounded by an unknown sniper. Jane draws the conclusion that someone thinks Rodriguez knows too much.

Starring Simon Baker and Xander Berkeley. Special Guest Stars Reed Diamond as Ray Haffner and Benjamin Bratt as John Rodriguez.