The Mentalist"Red-Handed "
Original Air Date: Nov 11, 2008.
Liz - TwoCents Reviewer
liz@thetwocentscorp.com
The truly amazing thing about this episode is that you realize Patrick Jane could probably be making his living as a professional gambler. Even without cheating, with his memory and his poker face, it would be a lucrative hobby. Or he could even be one of those people who catches cheaters at tables, or he could have the son-in-law's job of stopping the whales! (Man, if you hadn't seen the episode, that would be a really confusing sentence, wouldn't it?)
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[photo: Sonja Flemming/CBS]
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The Mentalist
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Original Air Date: November 11, 2008.
Liz - TwoCents Reviewer
liz@thetwocentscorp.com
The truly amazing thing about this episode is that you realize Patrick Jane could probably be making his living as a professional gambler. Even without cheating, with his memory and his poker face, it would be a lucrative hobby. Or he could even be one of those people who catches cheaters at tables, or he could have the son-in-law's job of stopping the whales! (Man, if you hadn't seen the episode, that would be a really confusing sentence, wouldn't it?)
The show tonight showed two different kinds of gamblers: those who could bluff, and those who could not. Patrick proved -- and has proven -- someone who can bluff. Maybe that's why the perpetual obnoxious smirk. No one will ever know the difference when he can't keep the smile off his face because he's tricking them. That aside, from the moment I knew that this episode was based around a casino, I knew it was going to be a gold mine -- of course, I had thought that figuratively, as I was sure Patrick Jane would be a whiz at the tables. I didn't figure that he would clear about $550,000 plus all from the hundred he borrowed from Lisbon and had promised to pay back triple.
I was not totally convinced that it was the son-in-law until the one-on-one card game with Patrick, hand in hand with the revelation that he bet his wife in a poker game. You bet your butt that a man who uses his wife as currency isn't going to have many scruples about taking a bat to his father-in-law's skull. It might say something about some of the men I know or even myself that I think nothing about being more concerned about a college football game than a murder in the family. Framing the manager of the casino who was having an affair with Meyer's wife was brilliant, but clumsy. The fact that he was so easy to push to the edge did not have any bearing on how easy it was for him to catch, either, I'm sure.
The fascination of this episode was undoubtedly the high stakes gambling. From Casino Royale and 21 to professional poker on ESPN2, we have an obsession with the glamour of gambling for thousands, even millions of dollars. This episode did a better job of deconstructing it than anything else I've seen, and that was mostly thanks to Cal. The "whale," as the big players are called, can be beaten and while he is, to all appearances affable, a slimeball who accepts another player's wife as payment on an I.O.U. The idea of organized crime syndicates running the gambling are also continually glamorized, but it was not to be seen in this episode. I kept waiting for the Goodfellas joke that sadly never came, but I'm glad they stuck to their guns. I would have hated for someone to get yanked a racketeering charge and then had hits put out on the entire team. (If that ever appears on the show, by the way, I want ten percent. You heard it here first, folks.)
The crime in this episode felt like it took a backseat to character development. That's fine with me once in awhile, I love character development. This episode built up the team members, both men and women. The scene in the bar was pure gold for this reason. The women are uncomfortable with keeping the jewelry, but heck if the men are going to give their gaudy watches back. Patrick's memory tricks were shown and explained, and it also put the phrase "memory palace" into our vocabulary. I might start using that phrase out of context just to confuse people.
The best part of the character development was that it focused on the team as a whole rather than just one or two people, and there was minimal, if any, UST to note. Okay, there was the whole buying jewelry thing, and Patrick did say the emeralds looked nice on Lisbon, but it wasn't forced, it wasn't out of character. It was kind of smarmy and Lisbon is still a hardass, so all is well in the world.
I think next week will make a much more interesting face off than Patrick and his supposed match of weeks past, where nobody knew the orchestrations of Peter and the Wolf. If Patrick is meeting another psychic, it's going to be like throwing baking soda into a vat of vinegar -- or maybe sodium into water. That's right. Some water is going to explode and there is going to be dramatic acting with a side of character torture. I love next week's forecast.
Okay, so I'm mixing my metaphors, but I think we can all agree that it's going to be awesome.
Do you like more character driven episodes, or ones where the crime is more at the center of the story? Did you get more of a sense of team this week than previous weeks? Would you like more non-work related interaction between the five of them?
I love The Mentalist. I didn't think I would, because I am also a huge Psych fan and it sounded like a rip off, but it's not! :P Last nights episode was wonderful, and I can't wait to learn more about the team.
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