Wednesday, February 11, 2009

The Mentalist - Recap & Review -Crimson Casanova

The Mentalist
Crimson Casanova

Original Air Date: Feb 10, 2009.

Liz - TwoCents Reviewer
liz@thetwocentscorp.com


What appears to be the murder of a cheating wife, Claire Walcott, turns out to be the unfortunate accidental death of a somewhat innocent bystander. I hate it when I accidentally murder the woman my intended victim is sleeping with, don't you?

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[photo: CBS.com]

2 comments:

  1. What appears to be the murder of a cheating wife, Claire Walcott, turns out to be the unfortunate accidental death of a somewhat innocent bystander. I hate it when I accidentally murder the woman my intended victim is sleeping with, don't you?

    Paul Frick was in the room with Claire Walcott when she was shot, and got shot in the arm himself. They find him, perhaps unsurprisingly, in bed with a woman and pull him out for questioning. CBI gets his contact list for questioning purposes -- said contact lists not only includes names and phone numbers and the like, but also a one to ten grading system. Grace wants to bring him in for being creepy, but unfortunately being a creepy douchebag is not a crime.

    Then again, it might be a good thing because we have not one but two douchebags to handle. Frick is a harmless one, but Claire's husband Keith is a whole new level of condescending jerk. Cho handles Keith Walcott with his usual deadpan snarker way. ("The best I can get with one phone call is a pizza.") Keith is not much of a help. He's really more of an annoyance, but he does give up one thing that could be of use. Claire had recently fired an assistant, Natalie, because she believed she had stolen some jewelry of hers and was pressing charges against her erstwhile employee.

    Jane and Lisbon visit Natalie in her home, and while she is recalcitrant at best, Jane works his mojo and discovers photos she does not want seen on her camera. To be fair, anyone could have been suspicious of the camera with the way she kept eyeing it, but then again, Natalie isn't accused of being subtle. She's taken in for questioning and confesses that the photos were for blackmail purposes. She thought that if she threatened to show Claire's husband the photos of her and Frick that she could get her to drop the theft charges. And add a blackmail charge. (No one ever accused her of being smart, either.) Anyway, she also mentions that Keith Walcott was very controlling, especially about money.

    Jane and Rigsby head back to the crime scene. They're there for maybe three minutes when Jane sees what he needs to see, and then they run into Frick in the hotel's restaurant. About three conversations start happening at once: the one where Frick is giving Rigsby mojo lessons, the one where Jane is asking seemingly innocuous questions, and the one that Jane is having with himself, really figuring out what's going on. It's almost tiring keeping up, but we have practice in this sort of thing, don't we? Yes we do.

    While Cho is questioning a seemingly endless line of women that Paul Frick has had romantic encounters with, Grace finds out some interesting information of a financial nature. Claire withdrew $200,000 from her account in a cashier's check to Paul Frick, and Keith had to know about it because he had been asked to be informed when there was large activity on the account. Jane and Rigsby go to ask Keith some questions, and it turns to a confrontation. If you were disappointed when Jane didn't get decked, you're not the only one. So Jane flicks him in the nose, and Keith calls his lawyer.

    Lisbon has a minor freak out at Jane because Walcott is pressing charges, but Jane is of course not worried, predicted they will be dropped once Walcott has made a proper show of being outraged, because otherwise he looks petty and small. In a way that can only be described as stunningly condescending, he says he withheld that he knew about the money because he knew it would make him a suspect and that would be "tedious." He also says his wife had become "irritating" and having proof of her infidelity was going to save him a lot of money in a divorce. Again, unfortunately, being a jerk is not a crime. They speak to Frick again, and this time Jane asks him about the waitress at the restaurant, Katie. He says she has nothing to do with this, that she's a good person -- further confirming Jane's supposition that he has feelings for her. With all of this, we move into the final phase of the case.

    Cho baits the murderer by striking up conversation with Katie, with Jane talking him through. Although I have to say that Cho does a pretty good job in phase one -- and you just know that they have been waiting to use the joke, "No business like Cho business," since the pilot. Cho and Katie leave, trying to make Frick jealous by walking by. Of course, this move is designed to catch the murderer -- not Frick, as it turns out, but the manager guy whose name I never caught, jealous because he was in love with Katie, who was still in love with Paul Frick. He accidentally killed Claire when he was trying to kill Frick.

    With that particular wrong righted, Jane settles into the bar for a drink. Frick settles onto the stool next to him, but it doesn't take long for Jane to nudge him in Katie's direction. All right, it's not so much a nudge as dousing him with the contents of his glass and then giving a firm, verbal shove. Jane is then, himself, approached by a woman who invites him to have a drink with her and her friend. He points to the wedding ring on his finger and tells her, as an answer, "I'm married." Break my heart a little more, Jane. I dare you.

    Woe! Angst! Sorry, I'm better now. So next week we are dealing with so called "country club cougars." Am I amused? Absolutely. I don't have much experience with that part of the species, fictional or otherwise, so this should be an experience.

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  2. I just have to say... with all the comparing of Psych and Mentalist... it was quite funny that on Psych, Shawn says "I have to get home and watch reruns of "the Mentalist" " (This was just the other week)

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