Robin Tunney Bids Farewell to ‘The Mentalist’; Says Her Parents are Sad the Series Ended

"I think my parents are going to mourn the loss of the show the most," Robin Tunney who plays Teresa Lisbon on the long-running CBS TV series The Mentalist told Zap2it,adding: "As an actor, your parents worry about you when you choose to do this for a living. I've been in their living room, on TV once a week, and it's brought them so much joy, and all of their friends love the show. I've done a lot of independent movies beforehand, and my mom would call and be like, 'OK, who's in the movie? Never heard of him. Is it gonna be in a theater near my house?' This has been wonderful for them -- it's made my father very popular."

The Mentalist wrapped its seven-season run on Wednesday night, February 18, with a two-part special in which the serial killer Lazarus who was previously seen apparently blown to bits was later found to have survived. He lived on to haunt Jane and Lisbon's wedding day. But the team steps in and saves the day, allowing the two to finally tie the knot. In the very final scene, Jane gleaned that his glowing bride was pregnant. As Robin Tunney noted in her talk with Zap2it, that final twist "gives them a real future as a new door opens into a new life for them - and I think that that's exciting. It's very difficult to make a finale for a show that's run this long that you feel like wraps everything up in a definitive way and gives the fans a clear idea of who these people are going to be and what their lives will be like."

The actress concluded: "You want to give people a happy ending, and you want to see the girl get the guy and the guy get the girl and people sort of walk off into the sunset with all's right in the world. It's a populist show, and you want to give people what they want. Ultimately, I think that is what they wanted."