Here’s a surprise even Jane didn’t see coming: The Mentalist is bringing back some familiar faces for Season 5.
William Forsythe, who stars on Fox’s new drama The Mob Doctor, will return to the CBS procedural as Rigsby’s father, TVLine has learned exclusively.
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The visit from Rigsby’s “badass, gangster, biker dad,” as executive producer Bruno Heller describes him, won’t be an entirely happy one.
“Rigsby’s had a very conflicted and difficult relationship with his dad, for obvious reasons,” explains Heller. “That comes to an epic head in Episode 4. That’s going to be a big episode for Rigsby and [actor] Owain Yeoman.”
Additionally, Samaire Armstrong (Dirty Sexy Money, The O.C.) will make her comeback in Episode 10 as prostitute-turned-CBI confidential informant Summer Edgecombe. She’ll place Tim Kang’s Cho in “a very difficult situation,” Heller says. Meanwhile, new Community professor Malcolm McDowell will make a “brief, but sensational” cameo as Brett Stiles, the leader of the Visualize Self-Realization Center church.
Also returning to the show are Gregory Itzin as Supervising Agent Virgil Minelli, Michael Gaston as Director of CBI Gale Bertram and Pruitt Taylor Vince as Special Agent/Supervising Agent J.J. LaRoche.
Finally, the hit drama — which celebrates its 100th episode in the upcoming season — is introducing someone very important to Jane: His daughter! The crime solver’s offspring, who was killed by Red John, will be played by newcomer Dove Cameron (Shameless) in Episode 2. Heller calls the hour “a big episode, a wonderful episode,” but for story reasons declines to say whether we’ll meet the girl in a dream, flashback or some other context. “That’s the whole nub of the episode,” he teases.
The Mentalist returns in its new timeslot Sunday, Sept. 30 at 10/9c.
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