Everyone loves a stern, reserved character that eventually evolves into someone more open and vulnerable, andTim Bradford (Eric Winter)inThe Rookieis no exception to this rule. Winter’s performance won hearts everywhere, especially next to his scene partnerMelissa O’Neil, who plays Lucy Chen, with their grumpy-sunshine dynamic constantly cracking us up. But before Winter was a strict training officer in the hit show,he briefly donned an FBI uniform as a guest star in CBS’s cop proceduralThe Mentalist. He was introduced as Special Agent Craig O’Laughlin and was the complete opposite of Bradford: friendly, flirty and crooked. Despite his brief appearances, O’Laughlin also became a turning point for the show, impacting its major storyline involving Red John and flipping the dynamics of the team completely.
Who Does ‘The Rookie’s Eric Winter Play in ‘The Mentalist’?
O’Laughlin joinedThe Mentalistin seasons 3 and 4 as a guest star, where he was first introduced to the team as Van Pelt’s (Amanda Righetti) boyfriend. Immediately, Winter’s performance is unlikethe one he is playing now as Bradford. O’Laughlin is easy to get along with, is charming in his scenes with Van Pelt and even tries to break the ice with her ex-flame and coworker Rigsby (Owain Yeoman). However, he also has slightly manipulative moments where he tries to sow the seeds of doubt in Van Pelt’s mind about her team and even had a more cowardly moment of not saving her during a fight (despite his FBI training), forcing Rigsby to step in. In his final episode, “Strawberries and Cream” in Season 4,we discover that he is a mole working for Red John, a revelation that completely shook up the show and firmly sets him far apart from the righteous and stickler-for-the-rules Bradford.
O’Laughlin Marked the Turning Point of ‘The Mentalist’s Red John Arc
The character only appeared in a handful of episodes inThe Mentalist, mainly on dates with Van Pelt where she would talk through a case or complain about someone at work — mostly Jane’s (Simon Baker) antics. However, the episode he was featured the most in, and the one that was most influential, was also his last. At this point,the team knew there was a mole feeding Red John information and an internal investigation led to a suspect list of four candidates, one of whom was O’Laughlin. Jane manages to get his hands on this list, sets up a trap with Lisbon (Robin Tunney), Cho (Tim Kang), Rigsby, and Van Pelt,and after a red herring, figures out the mole is O’Laughlin. However, O’Laughlin was in an isolated cabin with Van Pelt, Lisbon, and Hightower (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor), and killed the officers who were on guard,eventually shooting Lisbon before he was finally taken down.
Though Red John had been in the show since the pilot, and we had known about the mole for about a season now, this cabin confrontation completely ramped up the stakes of this storyline. Before this, we only saw the impact Red John had on Jane, with his guilt and obsession also radiating throughout the team, but it had never affected them so directly before. With Lisbon being shot and Van Pelt having her trust so thoroughly violated, the implications of Red John’s interest in Jane never felt so powerful — he was more than just a serial killer and Jane’s personal demon now. It also shines a new light on the mole investigation, turning itfrom a fun little whodunit plotto something more insidious, as we realize they were all so close to genuine peril during that time. If Red John hadn’t gotten on your nerves before,O’Laughlin’s role magnified his presence in the CBI, extending the danger to the rest of our beloved characters.
“She Broke Down His Walls”: The Rookie’s Eric Winter on How Lucy Makes Tim a Better Person This Season
Winter also reveals a NBA celebrity cameo that almost happened on the show.
O’Laughlin Changed the Team Dynamics in ‘The Mentalist’
O’Laughlin also had a lasting impact on the team’s dynamics inThe Mentalist, particularly in Van Pelt’s arc. This was not the first time Van Pelt’s romantic interest ended up being a villain, but O’Laughlin was a far more disarming character. Certainly,Winter’s performance allowed for such dramatic implications of O’Laughlin’s true traitorous nature, as he employs the sweetness and charm that we only now get fromBradford whenever he is with Lucy Chen. In contrast, Winter becomes more snake-like and merciless in his death scene, especially as he rips Van Pelt’s necklace off her neck, the one he had gifted her as a family heirloom — talk about being unnecessarily brutal.
As such, Van Pelt is deeply shaken by her (second) lapse in character judgment and ends up hallucinating O’Laughlin again in a later episode. She is navigating the woods by herself after losing a criminal she had in custody and all her confidence in her field work was ebbing out of her, aggravated by the hallucinatory O’Laughlin’s sneers. Though she manages to survive the ordeal,that is the point that shifts her more towards the resident tech role of the team. She always had an affinity for the computer-based aspects of the investigation, but now she has cultivated it even further, finally giving CBIthat cop procedural archetype.
On top of this, O’Laughlin is the last romance Van Pelt has before she re-kindles things with Rigsby. With an unpredictable and dangerous love life, this felt likethe final straw for Van Pelt that finally made her seek the stability and safety of Rigsby as a partner, someone who wouldn’t betray her and try to kill her. With two of the team members sparking another covert, forbidden office romance, it once again altered the dynamics of the team, though it was familiar territory from Season 2. All these butterfly effects stemmed from Winter’srole inThe Mentalist, shaking up the stakes of the show while setting in motion the in-team drama we shamelessly feast upon between cases.
The Mentalist
