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May 26, 2013

The Mentalist: Russet Potatoes

by Debra McDuffee, posted Apr 1st 2009 12:38AM

Simon Baker and Owain Yeoman as Jane and Rigsby in The Mentalist

(S01E18) This was a fun episode of The Mentalist, reminiscent of parts of the psychic episode, "Seeing Red," in that we got to see Jane in a comfort zone of his, something that he knows well. The difference is that Jane believes in hypnosis.

And we got to see Jane do his thing tonight ... his hypnosis thing anyway. He was clever enough to put the tracer in Rigsby's pocket, but my favorite episodes of The Mentalist are when Jane knows whodunnit ahead of time and sets them up. When Jane is a step -- or two -- ahead of everyone else, he shines.

Jane might not have known who the murderer was, but did you? I didn't get it right away, but as soon as they found out that Rigsby was in a trance, I had my suspicions. There were only so many people he talked to, and jealousy is always a good motive. As always, they had some good red herrings, with the charming Rick Teigler and good ol' Dr. Daniels himself.

The strength of this episode, though, was Jane working on Rigsby, trying to get him out of his trance. Jane was in tune with everything, looking for the trigger, letting Rigsby do what he needed to do. And then the dance between Rigsby, Jane and the murderer was masterful. Lindsay cries ocean, Jane cries shark. Jane's finely tuned observation skills help him find the trigger just in time, and the scene plays out.

Other things worth mentioning:
  • What did you think of the Rigsby / Van Pelt kiss? I like that they throw us a bone here and there without the tedium of having them actually get together.
  • Speaking of Van Pelt, what a spunky little thing! Her comeback to Dr. Daniel was priceless: "I've been working with Patrick Jane for nine months; you're going to have to up your game."
  • Lisbon's quote about the sign, Get What You Want From Whoever You Want, that it may be a scam, "not to mention bad grammar" ... nice.

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11 Comments

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jellybeans

DON'T LET THEM cancel the Mentalist. This is a really really really good show.

May 01 2009 at 12:29 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
CC

I enjoy the Mentalist...hope they don't take it off...tired of a lot of the garbage on TV and this one was refreshing...I also enjoy Castle and NCIS...I would like to see them all stay on

May 01 2009 at 12:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Joe

Robin Tunney plays Lisbon, not Van Pelt. Watch the show enough to know the names, then maybe I'll defer to your expertise on the acting chops of those involved.

April 11 2009 at 5:24 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
GeorgiaKP

Robin Tunney stinks as an actress, especially as the "Big Boss" Van Pelt.

April 07 2009 at 9:47 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
GeorgiaKP

Who can really tolerate watching Van Pelt? aka: Robin Tunney? She is a terriible actresses! There are so many with talent our there, it's unfortunate that they cast her in such a lead role. She has an under-weight problem, her clothes are skin-tight on a pathetically thin frame, she has a perpetual frown, and most important of all she's a very bad actress. The few lines that she does have are over-acted and never ring true. It's difficult to take her character seriously. (I certainly hope Jane doesn't). The show is great except for this phoney boss.

April 07 2009 at 9:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Brent Schmidt

Now I've never seen this show before, and loved the openeing but God did this show turned for the worse.... what was that line he had to say over and over and over again for what seemed like at least two-minutes of script? I pretty much wanted to throw my laptop into the television screen. So annoying.

April 01 2009 at 1:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Lisa

I can't say I called the murderer right away but the moment the sister interacted with the big kahuna, I knew she was smitten - always a good motive. I didn't see how Jane finally figured out the way to get Rigsby to snap out of it...what happened?

April 01 2009 at 8:31 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Lisa's comment
StillBash

I think she looked at Rigsby's shoulder - and because she was holding the gun she was torn between touching him with one hand, letting go of the gun and therefor not holding it steady anymore.

To be honest I don't get why she didn't just shoot Jane in the head. Big whoop. Jane said it - they all would have to die, she was going crazy and if I (!) had realized that I would've just told my two minions to shoot Lisbon and I would've shot Jane and then simply have my other minion Rigsby kill the two other mentalists/psychotherapists and would've blamed it all on those two.

But who cares. When Rigsby found out what he did that moment at the end was priceless and to me that's what the show is about :-)

April 01 2009 at 10:02 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Matthew Mac

Actually, she makes a grab for Rigsby when he's struggling with Jane and jerks back just short of his shoulder. Jane sees then reaches back and grabs it.

I just watched it on my DVR, so my memory's fresh. =)

I would think that if she just shot everybody, there would be evidence that tied her to the murders, whereas if everybody jumped, there would nothing to implicate her. I don't know though.

April 01 2009 at 5:01 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
StillBash

*snicker*

I called the sister the second I saw her. I know I know I'm totally full of myself but I loved this episode especially because of this :-)

April 01 2009 at 8:12 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Will

I actually thought I was pretty clever & had it figured out at about the 30 minute mark; I thought the killer was actually going to be the guy who dragged the body in, in the 1st scene. I thought he was only acting like he was hypnotized & that he was setting up-at least, to his thinking- a perfect murder. He could say he wasn't responsible because he was under the spell. That he had really mastered the skill & used it. But, it didn't quite work out that way. Still, an enjoyable episode.

April 01 2009 at 4:28 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply

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