CliqueClackThe Mentalist – Who is Carmen Lee? I think I know. …
Quite a few interesting Red John developments came about in “Black-Winged Red Bird,” and one of the most interesting was the odd mention of a “Carmen Lee.”
I can’t be the only person who thought it odd that, while Patrick was in the hospital with Lisbon, a nurse entered the room merely looking for someone named “Mrs. Carmen Lee,” and then exited the room. The look on Jane’s face told it all: there was something very odd about that encounter, and it wasn’t just an accident. I believe I know what it was: a clear hint from Red John.
I’ve gone ahead and done some digging around for you, in case you’re not as insane as I am and decided to spend a late night searching for clues about this. It is quite obvious and simple, though. …
The name “Carmen,” in Latin, means “poem.” At least Wikipedia says so. The surname “Lee” … also means “poem,” but in Gaelic. This nurse entered the hospital room right after Lisbon mentioned the “Tyger, Tyger” line by Partridge (and, earlier, by Red John), essentially saying “poem poem.” If that’s a coincidence, I am Red John!
It could be that the writers threw that moment in as a clue to the viewers — to analyze the William Blake poem — but it could have also been Red John’s doing, sending that nurse in either with fake paperwork or as one of his minions. If you do read up on the analysis of the poem, though, it’s quite telling while at the same time being rather vague. It’s a worthwhile read for sure.
The other sort of out-of-the-blue moment was during the scene with Patrick and Lisbon on a park bench. There’s a red-headed woman at the bench next to them, feeding pigeons. The camera at one point isolates on the pigeons being fed, at which point Jane spaces out for a moment. That’s one scene I’m having difficulty figuring out the meaning of. My first thought is that it was to symbolize how Patrick is being “fed” clues by Red John, and he just needed to see them more clearly. I also thought that it may have been to symbolize how Jane is doing that very thing to Red John, feeding him false information (e.g., that he knows less or more than he’s letting on).
Unrelated to those two items, a loose end that needs tying up is the fact that the trackers VanPelt attached to the cars of the Red John suspects had audio on them. I was reminded of this in the “previously on” segment, where VanPelt mentions this. What would we get if they listen to Partridge’s tracker? What about the others? If that portion of this season is not addressed, they’ll have some ‘splainin’ to do.
Lastly, the biggest clue — or possibly biggest red herring — was the reveal from the late Sophie that Red John (or at least who Patrick thinks is probably Red John) is a good whistler. The rest of her analysis could relate to almost anyone, but one thing is for sure: we’ll all be on the lookout for who’s the best whistler this season.
12 Comments on “The Mentalist – Who is Carmen Lee? I think I know. …”
There were pigeons in the abandoned house in which Partridge was killed. Perhaps the camera focusing on the pigeons that were being fed by the woman near where Jane and Lisben were sitting was a connection to the pigeons in the house that Partrige was killed in?
Good job!
Red John’s really having fun with Jane.
He gives many clues for being identified, as if he would Jane to find him as soon as possible.
So I don’t understand that Red John hopes about Jane.
Does he want Jane kill him or the opposite?
The sixth season is definitively full of promise.
Another possibility is that the reference is to the Blake poem “The Echoing Green”. The meanings of both Carmen and Lee can be garden or field, hence the echo. Read the poem, see what you think. Could indeed hint that RJ wants Jane to kill him or that he is dying anyway.
Also, lots of birds in this season, (and in this poem), what’s that all about?
That’s what Bruno Heller wants us to do analyze every single scene which is really cleaver .You can google it and you will see that there’re dozens of theories about a simple pigeons scene which is insane.
Carmen sounds like carmine — a shade of red.
it can not be Kirkland because Lorena martins told Jane that he wonders how they did not become friends when they shuck hand and Kirkland come into the sane when Jane was kidnap ¨ ¨ by martins Red john are all the suspect but one is the boss (RJ) they work for him but they don’t know him physically they only receive orders no one knows Rj and lives. i think the real RJ is the leader of visualiza.
Lizbon also said that every time she hears the song with the lyrics “cake out in the rain” she thinks of a woman on a park bench with pigeons or something like that. The song is MacArthur Park and if you read the lyrics there are scenes throughout the series highlighting different lines. Yellow dress – RJ’s mistress, chineese checkers in the park under the trees – the guy that Jane beats in one episode, etc.
Carmen LI, that is 51, by Catullus, after Sappho 31. “He seems to me equal to a god, he, if possible, [seems to] transcend gods, who, sitting opposite, again and again sees and hears you sweetly laughing…” – – whether the ‘he’ is Jane and the ‘you’ is Lisbon or v.v.
It’s Carmen Li and not Carmen Lee.
Not sure it matters much. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_(surname):
“The names may be alternately transcribed into English as “Lee” using the Wade–Giles system, and Lee is still the most common romanization in the former British colonies of Singapore and Hong Kong.”
Here is another theory, with a slightly tenuous link to Janes carney days, Carnivals have Gypies fortune tellers, Carmen is indeed a shade of red, as is Rose, so i thought of Gypsy Rose Lee and guess what, her 1st husband in 1944 was called William KIRKLAND, just saying.
Also, the opera Carmen was about a Gypsy, she was the main character and was was murdered by her jealous former lover, when the opera was first performed it was almost unheard of for a main character to be murdered during the performance, possibly a nod towards Partridge, who was one of the main protagonists in the plot.
maybe Carmen Lee is the woman in the Chapel trying to kill Jane with knife in the Chapel….maybe she is red john… haha