The Mentalist: Red-Handed
By fred | November 12, 2008
(S01E06) There were a couple of episodes of The Mentalist where the killers weren’t all that obvious from the start, and while you could still guess who it was before they caught the guy, it took a little while to get there. Because other suspects were also likely candidate, or even simply because you forgot to look for the killer, too busy enjoying Jane and his specials ways of reading people and getting information.
And that’s without a doubt the reason why, even if – just as last week – you could probably tell who the killer was as soon as you saw him on screen, it didn’t matter. It just doesn’t matter, because what makes this show so fun and entertaining isn’t to be constantly looking for the identity of the killer, what makes everything work is to witness Jane work his magic, and if you were to try to guess what trick he’ll use next, you might not find things so easy to guess…
The son in law wasn’t really hard to pinpoint as the killer, given his more than obvious lack of interest when told the news, plus it wasn’t really hard to see both that he was an addict, and how he was treating his wife. (Actually, one could even wonder why he wasn’t on the suspect list sooner…) But then again, the strength of this show is that this doesn’t spoil the fun at all, because while a cop show at heart, so of course we want to see them catch the bad guy in the end, what we’re really into is the investigation, the one from Jane.
Because we have almost two investigations going on : Jane on one side, and the rest of the team, cops, on the other side. And what’s really good is that while they’re using Jane and his information, they’re not depending on him to solve the case. Just like during the opening scene, of course Jane can look – and smell – the hand on the road, and just like that guess that it belonged to a 50-year-old guy, upper management at a casino near by. It’s fun, but they don’t need him to find that out, they can just use the fingerprints and get this name and address.
It’s really important, because it makes the rest of the team not be completely useless and just waiting for Jane to crack the case or show them why they’re wrong. Both ended up finding out who the killer was, they just have different ways of getting there. And meanwhile, we get to see them interact and that’s always a lot of fun. I love that after all this time some still try to doubt his abilities, although for 35 cents there wasn’t really any reason not to bet I guess.
I also liked that while we’ve seen her annoyed at times by Jane’s method, this time Lisbon actually looked amused by it. After he gave his little speech in the casino, when he asked her for money she had that little smile on her face, even more though a few minutes later when collecting his wins, which I just found great. Of course, in a pure TV-hero tradition, Jane isn’t about the money, he’s giving it all away for a greater good.
Sure, he clearly is able to get some any time he wants by simply walking into a casino, so that’s gotta help, but it was fun to see him buying everyone gifts, and it was just funny first to see the guys asking for their gifts, and that while both ladies eventually gave them back, no way the guys would do the same. I just actually surprised that, later on the episode, Lisbon didn’t made a comment about that, seeing they still had those ugly watches on.
I think it’s clear that Daniel, the killer, was not very smart. I mean popping up the chip he took from the victim was clearly an admittance that he was the killer, but I guess he just figured he was gonna win, he couldn’t possibly loose, and his addiction was stronger than anything else.
What I didn’t really understand was why did Jane, earlier at the casino, just admitted to be counting cards ? Because he knew it was considered cheating, everybody knows that, and while I get that he was already playing Daniel and trying to get some people noticing him & talking about him, so that later he could join their private table, why would he just admit to cheating ? Wouldn’t that have been repeated as well ? Shouldn’t people have refused to let him sit with them, knowing he was a cheater ?
It’s one thing not to be able to control your addiction, and while sitting at the poker table convinced you’ve got a wining hand, you cannot not pop up the chip that has “murderer” written on it, but it’s another to willingly agree and get a known cheater to sit at your table, no?
Anyways, another really good episode, during which we got to see everyone from the team being involved, we even found out a little more about Jane, about how he works and that he’s got sleeping troubles. And despite knowing who the killer was from the start, it was a really entertaining hour we got there, and that’s all that matters, really.
What did you think about this episode ? Did knowing who the killer was spoiled it for you, or did you not even care about that ? And what do you think about the show as a whole so far ?
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Shows: The Mentalist
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