TV News and Reviews

Tonight was what you would definitely call an explosive episode. Puns aside, “Bloodshot” was also one of the best episodes of The Mentalist thus far. We begin with Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) getting a text on his cell phone, warning of a bomb nearby. With Lisbon (Robin Tunney) keeping an eye on him, Jane heads into the parking lot, looking for the bomb. He finds a man inside of a van, handcuffed nexted to the explosive device. As you can see from the photo, there is no time to save him. Jane is closer to the explosion and gets hit pretty hard with the blast, giving him a concussion and blood vessel damage to his eyes.

This leaves Jane blind and the most vulnerable we’ve seen him this season. We also discover that Jane hates being vulnerable. After insulting and alienating the entire hospital staff, he takes his sunglasses, cane, and bad mood into work. This leads to some of the most intense Jane-ness we’ve seen as he stumbles around the office, depending on others in the squad to help him get to his favorite couch, or to make him tea. The squad does their best to react to his ornery nature, intense bravado, and inappropriate digging into their personal lives with the usual amount of amusement, chagrin, and irritation–but there’s also a note of indulgence and pity, for they know Jane fears that the condition may be permanent.

What Jane discovers is that his other senses are heightened, and he’s able to do his usual mentalist tricks by depending on smells and touch and the answers to his often blunt questions. He also knows his own squad well enough to identify when they’re upset with him, exchanging eyerolls, or grinning. There’s a wonderful moment between he and Lisbon when he makes her laugh, then touches her face so he can know what it feels like when she’s smiling. Lisbon lets him do it, and it’s a warm scene of friendship–and of course, there’s always just that tiniest hint of more between them.

*SPOILER ALERT* I also liked Jane’s interaction with Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti) in this. He teases Cho (Tim Kang) and Rigsby (Owain Yeoman), and spars with Lisbon, but his relationship with Van Pelt has always been unusual. He seems harder on her than the others, often jabbing at her verbally with questions of a bluntly personal nature–and yet he seems to have a certain fondness for her, of sincerely caring what happens to her. We see in this episode that he’s guessed at a bad experience in her past, something that keeps her from having good relationships with men (and prevents her from pursuing the attention she gets from Rigsby). As usual, Van Pelt resents the intrusion, and quickly pretends as if she hadn’t heard him. Jane lets it go, sensing he’s once again hit a nerve.

But what he says sinks in, particularly when Van Pelt finds Rigsby alive and okay after a brutal physical attack from the bomber. I was filled with excited anticipation as they…almost kissed. It was delicious, even in its unrequitedness. I’m hoping this won’t be another moment that Van Pelt sweeps under the rug. Considering the small smiles the two exchanged, I’m thinking things might be different now. *crosses fingers*

Other things of note in the episode: one, I love that Lisbon coolly dispatched an ornery suspect by sneakily zapping him with a taser before he knew what had happened. She’s small but skilled, and that I can buy from a TV cop. I’m also glad that she seems to have returned to her tough cop persona, rather than the suddenly overly feminine hairdo and makeup she appeared with mid-season. Van Pelt’s the girly-girl of the squad–they should let Lisbon be the tomboy she is.

And Patrick Jane was ridiculously charming in this episode–it’s miraculous how he can be both confrontational and inappropriate, yet all I want to do is hug him. The characters in the show react much the same way–even when they’ve been insulted, pushed, annoyed, and taunted by Jane, they still like him and take care of him. It’s because there’s something else there, an impish boyishness and good humor and genuine affection for the people around him. There’s also that vulnerability that showed even more in this episode, and the good intentions he so often has despite his sometimes antagonistic way of going about it.

This episode of The Mentalist also captured both the light and dark sides of Jane’s life. It was rather symbolic that when he was blinded, he saw his past life more clearly than he ever had before. His skills as a scam artist/psychic had made him a lot of money, but had also destroyed a lot of lives. It’s another burden Jane now carries with him.

Watch The Mentalist on CBS, Tuesday nights at 9/8c.

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Simon Baker as Patrick Jane and Robin Tunney as Teresa Lisbon, “Bloodshot”, The Mentalist screencaps, c2009 Warner Bros. Television, CBS.

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