The Mentalist, season 5

Lorelei Martins is the season's contested asset - extracted from CBI custody by the FBI, disappeared into a prison transfer, sprung by Red John, and finally recovered by Jane in a con that burns every rule Lisbon has left. Her value is one sentence: she is astonished Jane and Red John did not become friends, 'given how alike you are' - and then, before dying for it, confirms the thing that matters: Jane has shaken Red John's hand. The monster is someone he has met.

That sentence reorganises the series. Jane rebuilds the case from the beginning - every handshake, every file - and the season's back half is list-making as warfare, while Red John demonstrates his reach: Jane's memory palace is burgled, an investigator's files burn, and a video message says, pleasantly, that he knows the list already.

Around the spine, the show gives the team its due - Cho with the gang unit, Rigsby and Van Pelt orbiting each other, Lisbon carrying Jane's secrets at cost to her own career.

It ends with Jane at a whiteboard, Lisbon beside him at last inside the tent, and seven names: Bertram, Haffner, McAllister, Smith, Stiles, Kirkland, Partridge. One of the seven is Red John. The killer's reply, off-screen but already moving, opens the final act.