Photo: CBS
The Mentalist
Redemption
Original Air Date: Sept 24, 2009.
Liz – Associate Staff Writer
liz@thetwocentscorp.com
I love coming in to a new season of television. Everyone has new haircuts, or they’ve done something new with their appearances, and they just all look shiny. But some things – like Jane – never change. In the cold open alone, he uses his amazing ESP to find a murder weapon, and his powers of observation thereof to pinpoint the murderer… who promptly causes $4,000 in damages trying to get away. I told you some things don’t change.
After Lisbon and Jane are reprimanded by Minelli, a new face enters the office. Agent Sam Bosco is introduced around, and it’s announced that his unit will be taking over the Red John case. If you didn’t see the ‘!’ over Jane’s head, you weren’t looking hard enough. Minelli says that Jane has been running way too hot since the events of last season’s finale, and Bosco adds that the case could benefit from some fresh eyes. Jane immediately makes moves to leave, beginning to pack his things. If he is not on the Red John case, then the CBI has nothing to offer him. He actually uses the words “personal revenge.” I suppose at least he’s being up front about it. But when they’re called out, he climbs into the car after them. One last case, he says, and then he’s out.
They arrive at a skeazy, ransacked motel room with the deceased Jane Doe and after Jane has a look around, he appraises that the Jane Doe is a law-abiding housewife who feels guilty about something she did… guilty enough to hide. Using his brilliant tricks, he tells Grace to cross reference disappearances in local newspapers with surnames found on a high school team and come up with Monica Dunninger. How does he do this? I wish I knew. As usual, Jane opens his mouth a bit too widely and offend Lisbon, and they drive off without him.
Luckily, he finds Cho is still around in the second car. Jane tells Cho he needs to find a house for sale in the area, and never really one to ask too many questions, Cho does like he’s asked. When they find a house Jane leaves a message on an envelope from Monica, with his phone number. When Cho asks him what that’s about, Jane cheerily calls it a surprise.
Later, Jane and Lisbon make up over strawberries and a hug (well, Jane hugged). They have to deliver the bad news to the Dunninger family, although it doesn’t look as though they’ve exactly brought their world crashing down. Monica’s son Ansel had cancer, although was recovering now, but Monica had not been dealing with it well, supposedly indulging in drugs and taking a lover named Brody Andrews, before finally absconding with a million dollars from the company that she worked for. And Jane begins planting seeds, asking if anyone knows who Miles Thorson is. Cho and Rigsby go after Brody Andrews, while Lisbon and Jane head back to Sacremento.
In Sacremento, Jane and Agent Bosco have a meeting concerning Jane’s wish to remain on the ‘in’ concerning the Red John case. This is a tense meeting, and Jane offers his own expertise. Bosco turns him down, although not in so many words. He dresses him down, even hitting him below the belt and throwing the fact that his wife was asking him to stop his faux psychic business at the time of her death. It’s pretty obvious we’re not supposed to like this guy, and I don’t.
Jane and Lisbon go into Monica’s workplace to check up on things. The boss, Rhonda, shows them around and introduces them to Greg Humphrey, Monica’s direct supervisor. While they’re there, they get a call from Grace that Casey Dunninger has been paying her family’s rent in cash for the last five months. Lisbon says to pick her up and bring her in if she doesn’t have a good reason. Casey reveals that her mother had been sending $5000 a month in cash, and that she had not been telling her dad. Meanwhile, Cho and Rigsby are talking to Brody Andrews, who really doesn’t have much to add to the whole scenario.
Lisbon likes Casey for nailing her mom, but Jane is obviously thinking otherwise. He invites Cho and Rigsby with him to go catch the murderer. So the boys go on a field trip to Miles Thorson’s house — the same house that Jane and Cho had stopped at earlier in the show. Jane says that since he has asked everyone about Miles Thorson and has them curious, the killer is going to be even more curious — perhaps curious enough to check it out in person when they see that Miles is right around the corner from where Monica was.
After a false alarm with a real estate agent and potential buyers, the killer does show up — Rhonda. At first she claims to only be curious, but quickly dissembles. Jane gives us the run down: she is the one who stole the money, and Monica agreed to take the fall for it for a price and the chance for her son to be enrolled in a prestigious cancer treatment program. While the Dunninger family is still weeping in the conference room, Jane is on the phone impersonating Agent Bosco in order to get his passcode changed. Like I said about some things never changing…
I’m excited for this season! We got a nifty title sequence that’s gorgeous as well as a new antagonist from within the CBI itself — hello, Bosco. Even though we don’t technically have a color in the episode title, I can’t help but notice that it starts r-e-d. I love that Cho, Rigsby, and Jane got to go together, it’s like the Three Stooges when they’re all working together. What did you think of the episode? What are you looking forward to? Give me your Two Cents!
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