The Mentalist"Bloodshot"
Original Air Date: Mar 17, 2009.
Liz - Associate Staff Writer
liz@thetwocentscorp.com
So The Mentalist returned tonight after a month of hiatus with an episode that did more to confuse me than it did. Actually, we started out all right. Jane tattles on Grace snogging a guy at the coffee cart, which gets Rigsby's panties in a knot. There was a bomb threat delivered via text message to Patrick Jane's phone, and then there was actually a bomb with a man in a van, which actually explodes and blows Jane over. When he rises again, we are all being subjected to the old television gimmick of Blind For An Episode.
Raise you hand if you're confused, or at least a little perturbed.
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[photo: CBS]
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The Mentalist
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Original Air Date: March 17, 2009.
Liz - Associate Staff Writer
liz@thetwocentscorp.com
So The Mentalist returned tonight after a month of hiatus with an episode that did more to confuse me than it did. Actually, we started out all right. Jane tattles on Grace snogging a guy at the coffee cart, which gets Rigsby's panties in a knot. There was a bomb threat delivered via text message to Patrick Jane's phone, and then there was actually a bomb with a man in a van, which actually explodes and blows Jane over. When he rises again, we are all being subjected to the old television gimmick of Blind For An Episode.
Raise you hand if you're confused, or at least a little perturbed.
The man in the van was James Medina, loving husband and father of two. He was a stock broker, with no apparent enemies, although one guy, Terence Andrews, looks good for it. Rigsby and Lisbon go to visit him at his current job as a club bouncer. He is less than forthcoming with information, but it ends happily. That is to say, Lisbon tasers him and they haul him in for questioning. Go Lisbon.
Jane leaves the hospital -- or gets himself kicked out by insulting everyone, I'm not sure which -- and gets to CBI just in time for the questioning of Terence Andrews. He uses all his old tricks to determine whether the suspect is lying and gauge his temper and mood -- except this time he's wearing sunglasses that he pinched from Stevie Wonder.
Visiting the Medina household, he handles James's company watch, amongst other possessions. But he recognizes the feel of the engraving on the back of the watch. He can't remember specifics about the meeting, although he knows that he did a reading in his days as a swindler -- I mean, psychic -- for the wife of a man whose watch had a similar engraving. Using Grace's computer mojo and cross-referencing Jane's client list with a list of names of people from the company, they come to one name and we are treated to a flashback. At flashback's end, Patrick Jane faints dead away (although in quite a manly, dashing fashion, never fear). When we return from the commercial break he's refusing to be taken to the hospital, and Virgil, the CBI head, is agreeing with him. Since they can keep him safer there, at headquarters, and all, which doesn't make much sense to me. Although considering that in an earlier episode, Jane sprung that girl from being guarded at the hospital by stealing the guard's hat, I can see his point in being concerned
In the midst of all this, the Rigsby and Grace saga continues. There is actual plot relevance as well, which makes me kind of tickled. The guy she was kissing at the coffee cart is named Dan Holobeck, and he is a lawyer. In a style that befits a guy who is well meaning but ever so slightly outdated, he pulls Dan aside and delivers the "If You Hurt Her" schpiel. Dan retaliates by whaling the snot right out of Rigsby, handcuffing him, and leaving him bleeding on the bathroom floor. Disproportionate response much, Dan?
Turns out, it's not so much disproportionate as properly motivated. Shortly after Dan returns from knocking Rigsby around, Grace gets a phone call from Lisbon. She and Cho have been looking for their bombing suspect who appears to have a fixation on Patrick Jane by the name of Paul Kragen. He has a son who goes by the name of -- wait for it -- Dan Holobeck. Gasp! I know, you're as shocked as I... wasn't. Okay. Well, either way, now that we have that vital piece of information, we get the rest of it infodumped on us. He was using Grace for her security clearance to the building, and he was after Jane because after a reading with Patrick Jane where he told Dan's mother that his father was having an affair, she left him. They are leaving the building -- this is just a guess, but I think Dan plans to kill them -- and comedy ensues when Jane and Grace manage to get away from Dan. That's right, comedy ensues.
Comedy ensues in the form of a combined effort between Jane and Grace to drive away in Grace's car. Grace is handcuffed so she isn't in much of a position to do much steering, and Jane is... well. He's blind so he shouldn't be driving, but "shouldn't" has never managed to stop Jane. With her giving verbal driving instructions, Jane manages to break every traffic law possible in a parking lot and probably then some, and they never do make it away. The only reason that this hilarity does not turn to tragedy is because Lisbon is there to save their butts by gunning down Dan. Was it a cheap laugh, driving blind? Yes it was. Did it work? Absolutely.
(The cute part of the evening comes when Grace runs back into headquarters to find Rigsby getting medical attention, and there are hugs and an almost kiss. Aww. I'm a sucker for these sorts of things, you'll have to remain patient with me.)
And at the end of the episode, Jane's sight comes back. Huzzah. To be perfectly honest, this episode really lost me until it was almost over. Some good things happened within the frame of the story, but I have to ask: who in the writer room came up with the Blind For An Episode scenario, and are they still employed there? It just really turned me off. What are your Two Cents on the matter? On Rigsby and Grace? Is there going to be more action there or are we going to be stuck at another level of awkward. (Stupid custodian walking in at the wrong moment.)
See you next ep!
Yea, I thought blindness for an episode was silly. I did enjoy and laughed when in the parking lot, Jane patted down Grace ( to find her keys) and got a bit of a "feel".
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