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The Mentalist: Bloodshot

By fred | March 18, 2009

(S01E16) Something weird happened last night on CBS, something that hadn’t taken place in a long long time : a new episode of The Mentalist was on! For some reason the show has been off for weeks, but it was finally back last night, and for the occasion we didn’t get to see the usual episode playing the formula of the show, instead they did shake things up a bit.

Of course the show remains very much about Jane, he still is the star of the show and the reason people tune in, that didn’t change. In fact, while he might have not be as much a part of the investigation as usual, he was more than ever at the center of the episode. Because, this time, the episode wasn’t really about the investigation itself.

They did shake things up. How much? I don’t know, just enough to blow up a car (unfortunately not empty at the time), throw a few people in the air and turn Jane intro a blind man. Now of course Jane wasn’t going to stay in bed for the entire episode, because without him there isn’t much of a show. Instead, the episode focused less on the investigation and more on Jane’s past, as the case brought back some old memories…

It’s always interesting to see how he used to be, and the point of this I believe was to see how he used to deal with people back then, and how much he might have affected lives, even destroyed lives, before his own was taken away from him. (BTW I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who, when Jane got the text, immediately though of Red John, right?)

But I’m not sure if we’re to believe that Jane ever lied to people, or did anything to hurt them. The most interesting of the flashbacks wasn’t the one of this case, because on that one he only told the truth, yes the husband was cheating and he only confirmed what the wife suspected already. Maybe that was the trigger for the divorce and maybe the kid turned into a killer because he couldn’t play football with some celebrities’ kids, but the only thing this does mean – besides that Jane’s “trick” affected lives of others to extent he might not have always realized – was that Dan was a psychopath.

With the other woman however things were more interesting, because I’m not sure if Jane planned all along to be as harsh as he was, or if he actually got it wrong with the apology, and just got out of it the only way he could (people don’t change). Surely he didn’t plan on her committing suicide, but by the look on his face after wards he wasn’t neither happy about the way things down, nor was he careless about the consequences of his doings.

About our weekly case, it was pretty easy to see everything coming, since this is a TV show and there wasn’t any reason to focus on Van Pelt’s new boyfriend so much except for him being the bad guy, but as much as I loved to see Jane blind and a little mean on the side, and I liked the focus on Rigsby and Van Pelt (who I thought looked better than ever this week) and their almost kiss, the downside of this episode was that there was almost no case. Most of the investigation took place off camera, and we didn’t get to see it. So, Lisbon was not seen much, and Cho probably didn’t say more than three words.

When Jane was blind, I immediately thought that he would get his sight back before the end of the episode, but pretend to still be blind. I thought he’d wear the sunglasses and act as if he was not able to see yet, just to better see how people act around him and react to things he does, when they think he’s handicapped and can’t see their facial expressions. I even envisioned him faking an accident before revealing his miracle : I was blind but now I see.

Guess I was wrong on that one, instead they went for the silly blind man “driving” a car. In my opinion, that was a bad choice. Okay, I really didn’t like that last scene at all. For one, I can’t believe that there was absolutely no one else but them at CBI, not when Lisbon and the rest of the team were still investigating, which indicates it wasn’t the middle of the night.

I can’t believe that there can be gunshots in such a place and not one soul to react and rush to see what’s coming, not before Lisbon gets back at the most convenient time. I also didn’t like that Jane took the wheel, because to me Van Pelt should have. Because it seemed to me they had a much better choice with her behind the wheel, even if he had to be by her side and use it. At least she could see, and react to things much better/faster than he ever could.

That last scene felt to me too much of an attempt at humor in the middle of a crisis situation, and it didn’t work. But I won’t let that bother me too much, because it’s been too long and the episode was still pretty good overall.

What did everybody else think?

Posted in Reviews
Shows: The Mentalist