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Friday 3 May 2013

The Mentalist 5.20 "Red Velvet Cupcakes" Review

                                            
Nice to see the show take a different approach to cases lately.  This time we have Cho (Tim Kang) and Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) at the CS with Lisbon (Robin Tunney) taking a backseat and Patrick )Simon Baker) locked up in his attic.  Cho examines the DB of a woman who was shot through the chest and then shot through the foot.  Rigsby calls Patrick but he can't come in, he's busy going over his board of RJ but we don't get anything more baout that this ep, as we take a break from the hunt for Red John. He asks Cho to describe the scene to him and then asks Rigsby to describe the bedroom, which is ordinary, quite sparse and no photos around. "I want to understand their relationship, bedroom says a lot."  A possible hint at the ending of the ep here too. Then sends Rigsby to the kitchen, ooh big mistake, Rigsby and kitchens! ha.  He opens the fridge and then spots cupcakes on the counter.  Red velvet cupcakes, hence the title.  Rigsby has a food fetish, ha.

The wife, Missy (Amy Motta) is thin and into exercise and her baking, whilst her husband Kip (Chris Marrs) is portly and has a personal trainer.  He's meant to be on a rafting trip, which Patrick doesn't think he'd go to.  Lisbon arrives to take Patrick out of his attic and onto the case.  He can hear her 'shuffling' footsteps, just like he did with Cho last ep and she tells him he can work on Red John later.  "I need you."  That got him up since he was reading at this point and not working on RJ as she thinks.  Patrick: "It's nice to be needed...anything for you Lisbon."  Oh let's hope they're not leading up to something romantic here.

Kip and Missy were on the radio show, "Prescription for Love" which Lisbon admits to knowing about. She listens to it on the car radio and Patrick knows she's a big fan.  Hey with all that cold reading Patrick does, how could she keep this hidden from him anyway and other things too.  Begging the question has he cold read her about her possible feelings for him?  The receptionist at the radio station thinks Lisbon and Patrick are a couple here for a show but she flashes her badge and says they're not.  Patrick whilst his hand is in the sweet jar says "ours is more of a platonic love.".  See his attitude was completely different here than his jump to help Lisbon co she needed him.

They listen on the radio show with the love Doctor, Buddy Hennings and his wife, Elizabeth (Molly Hagan) and Gary (Patrick Fischler) tells them Missy was liked.  Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti) and Rigsby are sent to stake out Monica (Samantha Esteban) who slashed Missy's tyres.  He talks about thinking of her when she was in California after the strop he threw about her having a boyfriend earlier on.  She says she thought of him too.  Monica arrives and Rigsby has to give chase, with throwing the drugs into the dumpster.  Rigsby asking Van Pelt if she's okay, of course she would be, she drove there.  Ahh that was Cho's scene, he's always in a chase scene!

Patrick goes on air and puts out a request for Kip's car sightings and offers a $10,000 reward, which is reduced to $20 and a chance to appear on the show as a host, with Gary throwing a fit over this.  Oh Patty first the TV and now radio.  He really got into that part didn't he.  You know singy voice and everything. Well he knows where he's got another career if he leaves CBI.  The appeal pays off as the phone lines light up and they find he's at some motel.  Patrick asking if the blonde he's with is fit, muscular.  They hear noises from the room, obvious what was going on there and Patrick takes a step back as Lisbon gets her gun out!  Funny I was just thinking he's going up against RJ, and the things he's capable of and yet he always takes a step back or runs away at the first sign of trouble on other cases.  Whereas with RJ he's kind of reckless and doesn't think baout putting his life on the line in this endless pursuit of his.  Well at least he didn't start it this time!

Kip admits he was having an affair and Missy found out about it but she was the only one.  Their marriage fell apart after not being able to have children and they went on the show.  Cho is disappointed in him and how he cheated, but then it's Cho and he's always judgemental, which is good at least he doesn't shy away from giving his opinion.  Patrick wants to see photos of Missy's closet and sends Cho and Rigsby back to look for her golden sandals, calling them "a sexy pair of shoes."  This he realizes after watching the webcast of Kip and Missy after walking in on a couple being prepped for the show.  He asks if there are any other angles on the camera.  Finally Missy puts her leg up and he sees the sandals.

Patrick also notices Buddy has a manicure and has ballet shoes and a giant foot in his office, thus he's got a foot fetish.  Notice when Patrick sneaked into the radio station, the sweet jar was now full.  Rigsby asks what sexy shoes look like and picks out a pair which Cho calls "beige and not sexy."  Rigsby tells him he spoke with Van Pelt.  The shoes are missing.  Leading Patrick to buy a pair of stilettos for Van Pelt.  Rigsby and Van Pelt go undercover, as Stace and Dwayne but not before Patrick dispenses with the previous couple, Shana (Briana Barran) by telling Michael (Ace Gibson) he should tell her he doesn't want to do the show, he carries her handbag and listens to everything she says.  Would like to have seen what happened with them, did they break up?

Van Pelt and Rigsby talk about their feelings for each other and are actually honest about them.  It wasn't just work that made her break it off with him but she was young and wasn't ready for a relationship, just like him.  She likes who she is no and who he is and calls him a man.  She also liked he's a father, after getting angry over his having  a baby with Sarah, someone he hardly knew.  Where is Ben anyway?  Yeah with his mother but haven't seen him in a while.  Patrick calls Rigsby and he leaves on pretence of work.  Lisbon doesn't think they should be listening to Van Pelt and Rigsby and their personal thoughts but Patrick calls her a "prude."  Hey she was fine with listening into to complete strangers.

Van Pelt stays and Buddy offers to call her a cab.  She leaves after kissing him on the cheek and breaks the heel off her shoe.  He nurses her sprained ankle and massages her foot.  As Rigsby gets jealous in the car.  Lisbon asks how he knew about the foot fetish, cos of the manicures he had, he watches women get pedicures and the ballet shoes in his office.  Rigsby calls that "gross."  Buddy gives Van Pelt the sandals to wear and his wife walks in with a gun.  Obviously it was her, cos him having a foot fetish means he wouldn't have shot Missy in the foot, twice!  She hated him having affairs and going after younger women.  Something she tells Van Pelt that Rigsby won't love her when she's older and will leave her.

Patrick asks Lisbon about her vices and she doesn't have any, mentioning her Catholic school upbringing.  It's okay for her to have a fetish.  Hers he puts down to turtlenecks and she walks off.  Van Pelt turns up at Rigsby's place in high heels and they kiss.  Well finally, let's hope they stay together this time.
Patty stuffing his pockets with sweets whilst having told Rigsby to put the cupcake back, we all know he'd go for a cupcake!

Patrick also mentioning the guilt about having an affair, shows he feel this guilt himself over Lorelei and how he did the same with her.  Also the other love 'specialist' he met was Erica Flynn in Every Rose Has It's Thorn and she escaped too.  He also developed an attraction towards her, so that guilty aspect could also be a reference to that episode.  Especially since it was really the first time he had been close to a woman since his wife was killed and well, Kristina Frye doesn't count. There was a similar scene with Patrick when he watched the videos that Erica had made of her clients.  Yet Erica was more into seducing men and having affairs with them for the sake of it.  Buddy has a fetish here which leads to his affairs.  Lisbon asking if he's brought something for her when he gives Van Pelt the shoes, hey they were for the case, he wasn't buying gifts for everyone this time round.  Also he quotes Sherlock Holmes, "the game is afoot... two feet."

Lots of red in this ep, red gerberas,  the red in the radio station, the red of the hallway in the motel.  Then there's the room they found Kip in, a jungle theme which he calls "classy."  Jungles bring to mind tigers and that tiger poem from seasons ago. A roundabout reference to RJ if you think about it.  Was Patrick's reference to turtlenecks a harkback to Walter Mashburn as you recall he was wearing a turtleneck and a red one at that in Red Hot, when Lisbon had a one night stand with him.  He seems to be getting her to open up and talk to him about the fetish business but she deems it inappropriate to do so.

Patrick schmoozing on the radio was good, so smooth and velvet like, red velvet, ha.  Adding that "yes the California Bureau of Investigation does exist."  Just incase viewers were in doubt after 5 years, ha.  Patrick was reading Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities.  One of my fave books.  Which has various undertones that could be relevant here, like it being "the best of times, it was the worst of times."  Though Patrick may be seen as a tragic Sidney Carton figure, who helps out his friends, makes his own sacrifice in the end by giving his whole life, after redeeming what he sees as his worthless life.  He's put himself in danger many times as far as RJ is concerned.  He doesn't get the women he's in love with, Lucie Manette (possibly an allusion to Lisbon).  Oh let's hope he's not going to put himself in danger in the season finale.

Patrick has helped out twice before by not actually being at the scene in 1.16 Blood Shot when he was blinded, he had to listen to the others describe the scene to him.  Then the bomb scene from Strawberries and Cream.

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