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June 19, 2013

The Mentalist: Carnelian Inc.

by Debra McDuffee, posted Mar 26th 2009 12:42AM

Simon Baker and Robin Tunney in The Mentalist
(S01E17) "This is a goat turd about six months old." -- Cho, about Jane's "fossilized worm"

Ah, a few things I love about The Mentalist showed up in tonight's episode: a quote from Cho, a setup from Jane, and Lisbon and Jane banter. Top that off with a couple of my favorite guest stars and you've got yourself a fun episode of The Mentalist.

Oh, and we can't forget Jane doing his Jane things: trying to get Rigsby and Van Pelt together in a car for three hours, monologuing about the beauty of the desert, teasing Lisbon and Faulk (the "Boom!" line) and smiling throughout everything.

I liked seeing Jaime Murray, Lila from Dexter, in a role that wasn't completely vile. It makes me have more respect for her as an actress, knowing she isn't the disgusting Lila in real life and that she can play a role very different from Lila successfully. I only wish she had a little more meat to her role.

The only problem with Patrick Fabian showing up as a guest star is that you are almost certain to know he's the killer. Just like Jeffrey Dean Morgan is a ringer to be dead at some point, Patrick Fabian's going to be the baddie. Maybe Veronica Mars has jaded me, but he has been known to play a scumbag more often than not.

How did you feel about the screen time between Lisbon and Jane this week? I like watching their relationship grow; the subtleties the writers grace us with are brilliant. I loved the mind reading exchange, and how Jane assumes Lisbon doesn't really mean no when she tells him not to go and bait the Carnelian folks, because she released Lee, even though she said she wasn't convinced of his innocence.

We then move from the mind reading to the trust issues, and the fact that Jane actually convinced Lisbon to do a trust fall with him shows his skill as a con man -- can you believe she fell for that? Literally? Still, it does reveal how strong their professional relationship really is.

Jane and I figured out whodunnit at the same time this week, although I suspected as soon as Patrick Fabian appeared onscreen. But really, they would have just had the bomb go off unless it was going to be a major plot point that it was somehow a "mistake." The way Jane set up Faulk, though, was his usual Jane cleverness, and I love it when Jane knows the killer ahead of time and traps him.

And Jane, in his usual way, wraps up everything with a little connection to the family. Or I suppose a big connection, seeing as he got Lee and his family 500K. Nice.

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George

Jane's car is a Citroen DS -- a classic, and not a pile of junk at all.

In Hollywood shorthand, owning a Citroen DS means you're a free thinker, old fashioned and fairly eccentric. Giles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer also owned a Citroen DS (at least until Spike crashed it).

March 26 2009 at 12:49 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Vickie

We had a storm and the station cut out in the last 10 minutes! We never saw the ending! :0(

March 26 2009 at 10:22 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
B

I think Jane's car is a Citroen.

March 26 2009 at 9:56 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Richard

You are right about the driving and using Jane's car. Does anyone know what Jane's car is? Year, etc. Lisbon remarked that it was a pile of junk.

March 26 2009 at 9:53 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Toby O\'B

It's this type of casting that's going to hurt Patrick Fabian's career in the long run. If he keeps getting cast as the bad guy, nobody'll hire him. Every so often an actor comes along who's in everything and then suddenly they just disappear because they were over-exposed. Getting type-cast as well, like Fabian, doesn't bode well.

Even though Fabian's character could have used somebody else's computer or Blackberry, whatever to send that text message - like he used the foreman's own bullets to kill Jaime Murray's character - I would have at least like to hear that the CBI was trying to trace the origin of the message.......

March 26 2009 at 6:56 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
rupert

biggest question of the episode though.. why were jane and lisbon going round in janes car and not a cbi car for the ENTIRE episode?

March 26 2009 at 6:41 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to rupert's comment
JFTA

Thank you! I was wondering the same thing! Along with, why they kept driving the 3 hours one-way instead of staying over somewhere.

March 26 2009 at 9:24 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
BC McKinney

There's a budget crisis, and Jane's having so much fun he probably doesn't even file for mileage reimbursement.

March 26 2009 at 3:00 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
bruce

THAT'S who she was, damn... it was driving me nuts. I knew she looked familiar, but I couldn't remember her name. Jaime Murray, Lila from Dexter. There we go... thank you. She is great (and incredibly beautiful, but not as hot as Julie Benz, though they both have wonderful voices).

Carnelian is a type of red stone and thus shade of red by the way, in case anyone was wondering if the "red" theme for the episode titles had gone by the wayside with this episode.

March 26 2009 at 5:51 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
StillBash

The best part for me was right at the beginning of the show - Grace's pouting was so darn cute ^^;

I love this show just for the characters, the actors and the banter. I saw the last episode of NCIS before that and they basically do the same thing there but on NCIS it all feels bland and uninteresting - childish even.

Here I just want to hug everybody on a scene-by-scene basis. They are all so gosh darn cute :-)

March 26 2009 at 5:39 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
BC McKinney

If you like Jaime Murray, do look up "Hustle", or "Hu$tle" as it was called in the USA; she's delightful, and you get Robert Vaughn as a bonus. Series 1-4 are finally available on Region 1 DVD.

March 26 2009 at 1:42 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply

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