(S01E12) The opening scenes grabbed me right away this week. The Mentalist is best when Jane is doing his divergent thing, and that's just what he does when the rest of the team goes into the flower shop to interview the missing boy's parents. He puts together the pink bike, the glance to the woods and the crows and finds the boy's body before the theme. Nice.

There were other parts of this episode that were throwbacks to the early days, when Jane was not only way ahead of the team, but also more over the top than some of the more recent episodes. Thank you, Bruno Heller!






I loved Cho's storyline tonight; it fit perfectly with the stoic Cho that he was terrified of the witch, and it brought us some great quotes. When Cho tells Lisbon that goats are a sign of Satan, she retorts, "So petting zoos are like the gateway to hell?" And how about:

• "'Kimball,' she says, 'You shall kneel before the Lord of beasts." -- Cho
• "That's scary." -- Rigsby
• "Yeah." -- Cho
• "If you're a 12-year-old girl at your first sleep-away camp." -- Rigsby

Now, that was pretty funny. Following it up, however, with Cho kneeling to capture a fleeing suspect while simultaneously a dry cleaner's truck drives by with a lion wearing a crown and you've just elevated the funny at the expense of our poor straight man. Nicely done.

This week's case was a good one, with Jane being way ahead of the team and setting up the suspect to reveal himself. I love it when Jane does this, simply because I know he is capable and he should do it every time. That's the magic of Jane.

And the setup is priceless. Jane tells the family that Tamzin is doing a reveal spell on the murder weapon, and they catch Michael Elkins, the dad, trying to ditch it. Better yet, Jane pretends he is God over the car's P.A., and God is very angry with Elkins. This is the Jane I watch The Mentalist for. And in true Jane form, he connects with the family at the end.

A few other gems worth mentioning:

• Van Pelt shows a little spunk with the football coach, since her dad is a coach.
• Jane's unabashed smile at meeting the spunky witch.
• Jane doing the pulse thing with Daniel Brown to get the truth that he was paid by The Elkins family to keep quiet about Cody's temper.

What did you think about this week's The Mentalist? One of the better ones, eh?