A/N: I had to put a lot of thought into my approach to this tag, had to do some research back to "Red Queen" and "Jolly Red Elf" in order to completely formulate how I felt about this episode. I was really shocked (as I'm sure most of you were) that he would be so open with Lisbon, and that, in turn, she was so accepting. I'm not sure how I feel about that aspect of the episode yet, so I didn't directly address Lisbon's reaction here, but I do try to explain Jane's motivations. You may not agree with my suggestion here, but I hope you enjoy reading it anyway.
Episode Tag: Redacted
RE·DACT [ri dákt]
To obscure or remove (text) from a document prior to publication or release
The perfect lie must contain some element of the truth in order for the mark to find it believable. Patrick Jane had learned this from the time he was The Boy Wonder until his fake psychic days, professing to know the motivations of a serial killer on live television. The perfect liar must seem sincere as he obfuscates, focusing on the reaction of his mark in order to adapt the lie to suit his purpose, which usually meant getting something from the mark. It could be money. It could be fame. It could be help getting the charges dropped against a thief whom you hired to break into your boss's house.
Jane hated lying to Lisbon, but if he thought of her as his mark, telling her only what was necessary to get her to free Donald Culpepper, he could more easily justify it in his mind. A half-truth was a perfect lie, and by that definition, he'd lied perfectly to Lisbon. But try as he might to tell himself that he'd lied to protect her, to protect himself, and to continue his pursuit of Red John, he was having much more difficulty lying to her than he ever had to others using his former personas.
So now, as the time approached for their appointed meeting, during which Lisbon expected him to reveal his ultimate plans to her, Jane was unusually nervous because he knew he would be lying to her again. It was Sunday night, and they had agreed that meeting in CBI Headquarters might not be the best place to have their "serious talk," so they had chosen an unlikely place for it—a city park. It was dark, but the moon was out, and Jane waited for Lisbon in a vine-covered gazebo amid a lovely rose garden.
He stood in the darkness, away from the reach of a nearby security light, and watched the parking lot. Her dark SUV pulled in, and her small frame hopped agilely from the high vehicle. As she began walking casually to the gazebo, she might have been taking a late stroll through the park, or meeting a lover for a romantic rendezvous. Jane tried not to dwell too much on the latter characterization.
"'She walks in beauty like the night…'" he began the famous lines of the poem when she was within earshot.
"Well aren't you the silver-tongued devil," she replied in a teasing tone.
The better to lie to you with, my dear.
But he would be lying to himself if he didn't acknowledge how lovely she looked in the moonlight, her chestnut hair now hanging loose from its earlier ponytail. She seemed much more relaxed now that the case they had been working was solved. And if he could see her face more clearly in the pale light, he knew her cheeks would be delicately flushed at his compliment.
She joined him on the gazebo and they both sat on the built-in benches. She looked around, noting that they seemed to be completely alone.
"This is a little paranoid, even for you, Jane."
"Maybe. But I wouldn't put it past LaRoche to bug the attic, or even your office. I think he is grown even more suspicious of late."
He barely made out her raised eyebrow. "Gee, it couldn't be because his consultant is acting more strangely than usual, and had, in fact, hired someone to break into his home."
That's my Lisbon-straight for the jugular.
"We covered my tracks completely, I think. No, it's more likely he is bugging us because he is hiding something, and wants to find out what we know."
"The list you mentioned?"
"Very likely."
"And Culpepper found nothing in LaRoche's house?"
"No."
"You took quite a risk, Jane. And now his creepy eyes will be more focused on me. You know he's noticed the odd coincidence that we knew Culpepper from a past case, not to mention the totally out of character punching I gave a suspect whom I had no reason to be talking to in the first place."
"I don't know, Lisbon," said Jane wryly, "I've been on the other end of that lethal right hook of yours."
"Well, you deserved it; Culpepper did not."
"The man's a thief and a blackmailer—" he protested.
"Let's get back to what you told me in the attic. You mentioned Hightower was framed? How do you know this?"
"She told me as she was taking me hostage. She said she knew no one would believe her because whoever had done the framing had done it so well there was no way she'd avoid the death penalty. The fingerprint evidence, as well as the evidence they planted in her home seemed irrefutable. She just wanted to get away so she could be with her kids. I knew you didn't want to believe she'd killed Johnson or the guy in the museum. Even while she was holding a gun to my head, I believed she was telling the truth too. Someone set her up, and it was someone on that list of suspects LaRoche has formulated."
The lie was perfect. No mention that the hostage situation had been all his idea. No mention that he had, in fact, helped Hightower escape. No mention that he actually already had the list, and that Culpepper had been looking for something else entirely when he'd hired him to search LaRoche's house. Just enough truth there, however, to allow her to believe him.
She mulled over his words a minute in silence. "You're right; I didn't want to believe Hightower could have set a man on fire. I didn't believe it, even with the evidence staring me right in the face. I couldn't have misjudged someone so thoroughly. I respected her, admired her, and I was even beginning to like her on a personal level. My years of training to read people couldn't have been that off, could it?"
"No," he said quietly. An unexpected wave of guilt washed over him. He was allowing her to misjudge him now, because she trusted him to tell the truth when she threatened to beat it out of him. She knew he lied on a regular basis, but she had no idea his lies regarding Red John were particularly…egregious.
"Explain to me how you knew the Johnson murder was done by a Red John conspirator?" Of course, she had remembered every little nuance of his urgent, persuasive argument in the attic.
He shrugged, realized she might not have seen it, then cleared his throat. Here goes nothing…
"He told me on his death bed."
She gasped. "You were with him when he died? Why didn't you tell me this?"
"I was protecting you, Lisbon," he hedged. "Like I said before."
"You're an idiot—like I said before. How many times do I have to tell you, you don't have to protect me. I'm a trained CBI agent, for God's sake. Quit keeping this shit from me. All these months—I could have been helping you figure this out, maybe even gotten access to LaRoche's suspect list myself."
"I couldn't ask you to do that, to risk your life or your career for me."
"Says the man who just coerced me into freeing your hired burglar," she scoffed.
"I didn't coerce you, Lisbon. You offered to help."
"You damn well did! If there's the possibility that LaRoche is working for Red John, we obviously can't trust him. And if he's not—well, you know how I feel about LaRoche, how I've resented how he's treated me as well as the rest of the team. If one of his other suspects on that list might have been working with Red John, we have the right to know, and I wasn't about to lose you to a jail cell before we've figured it out."
His sudden smile gleamed in the moonlight.
"Thanks, Lisbon. But if he isn't in cahoots with Red John," countered Jane. "LaRoche doesn't know the Johnson murder was even a Red John case. No one knows that connection except you and I and whoever the hell his mole is." And Hightower, he mentally added to that list. But he and Hightower had agreed that no one else would know the details of his plan, the true facts surrounding Johnson and his death and how Jane had helped her escape.
Lisbon sighed. "Haven't I proven you can trust me, Jane? I'm now complicit in your thief for hire scheme. I know your suspicions surrounding Johnson and I haven't run to LaRoche. You have to start telling me everything now. You owe me."
"Yes, Lisbon; you're right. I do owe you." I owe you my protection from certain truths that could kill you.
"You can start by attending those anger management classes with me."
"What?"
"You heard me."
"But Lisbon, I don't have any anger issues."
"You're kidding me, right?" She didn't have to remind him that one mention of Red John, and he practically simmered with rage.
"Alright, fine. The least I can do, I guess."
"Damn straight."
They sat in silence awhile, enjoying the light evening breeze and the scent of spring roses. Then, Lisbon began to recite:
"'I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow.'"
Lisbon couldn't see how Jane's eyes widened, or notice how his breath stopped or hear how his heart began to beat in double time.
"Where…where did you learn that?" he asked softly, hoping his voice didn't shake.
"Just a little verse my mother used to recite, when I got mad at my brothers and held my anger in until it exploded and I pummeled them. Why? You've heard it?"
He swallowed hard. "Yes. It's uh…William Blake. A Poison Tree."
"Huh," she said. "I never knew where it came from. I thought it might have been from The Bible; she knew a verse for everything. Anyway, I thought it might help you. Sharing your anger with someone might stop it from eating away at you so much. You have to know you don't have to hide from me, Jane. I'm on your side."
"Thank you," he said automatically, feeling numb.
She yawned and smiled, then reached over to touch his arm. "Thank you for being honest with me. I'm heading home; it's been a long weekend, and we still have to go in to work tomorrow."
She stood up to leave, and Jane rose as well. "Good night, Lisbon."
He could just make out her smile. "Good night, Jane. Don't stay out too late; parks after dark can be very dangerous."
As he watched her leave, a chill replaced the numbness, and he recognized how liars were the most suspicious people around, just like adulterers always suspect their wives are also cheating. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't even trust Lisbon—not really. If she knew everything, she would try to stop him; she had told him as much herself. His flash of suspicion at her inadvertent Blake quote further entrenched his belief that he was all alone in this. He would have to continue to tell her more perfect lies, to modify everything he said and did before offering her the redacted version of the truth. Jane would continue to water and sun his poisonous tree until either his foe or himself was dead from its fruit. Maybe, when that day came, he could allow himself to trust again.
THE END
A/N: Okay, as usual, I seem to have a totally different take on an episode than everyone else (according to blogs and message boards I've read). Jane already had LaRoche's list, and on that list there were surely the five that Jane mentions to Lisbon. I don't think it's a coincidence that LaRoche had already interviewed five suspects already (Jane, Cho, Rigsby, Van Pelt, and Hightower). And if LaRoche has no knowledge that Johnson was attached to Red John, he would consider the case to be closed, since Hightower had apparently kidnapped Jane and made her escape. Why would he then hide this list? What would be the point if they all knew it was Hightower? For LaRoche, the case is closed. And if LaRoche is with RJ, why would he need a list in the first place? He would know who the mole was, or he would be the mole himself, just as Jane suggested to Lisbon. No, I contend that Jane had sent Culpepper to retrieve something else that we don't know about yet.
Anyway, hope you liked my tag. I'd love to hear your opinion, both on my writing and on my theories. By the way, check out "A Poison Tree," by William Blake. It is a powerful little poem, and could be used to describe either Jane or Red John himself. Google it! Thanks for reading!