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Tuesday 29 October 2013

The Mentalist 6.1 "The Desert Rose" Review

                                               
The new season begins where season 5 left off with Lisbon (Robin Tunney) and Patrick (Simon Baker) watching the names of the seven suspects.  They have a discussion on the balcony of Patty's attic where he doesn't want Lisbon to tell anyone the names.  Back in her office Bertram (Michael Gaston) walks in with a case for Lisbon, she can either face the wrath here or be sent away from Sac PD which she opts for. Bertram also lets slip or casually drop that word is Patrick is onto Red John and is pretty close to catching him.  He wants to be in on the bust or as he puts it "be on the boat when that fish is caught."  Again it's either to throw us off his scent and cross him off our list of RJ suspects, or it's to put more suspicion onto him. Since they haven't let on to anyone about the suspects but Bertram walks in saying the news is out. How did he know, or does anyone know Patrick is close.   On the way Lisbon wants to let the others know, but again Patrick swears her to secrecy.  Of course that won't be the case since no one can tell Lisbon what to do.

They are called to the killing of the wife of a prominent baseball player, Cody Benbow (Mitch Ryan) and Patrick tells the sergeant (Andi Carnick) she's staring at him and he's working.  He takes some peanuts from the bowl, monkey nuts as we call them here.  Asking the Cody how much the valuables were wroth.  He can only estimate but he knows the exact number of his averages, vain much?  Patrick having nosed around in her closet before finds her clothes were hastily put back, yeah notice the shoes were arranged the wrong way, i.s. the left shoe was where the right one should have been.  He tells him he killed her cos she was leaving him and that he buried the jewellery in the garden.  Coming out of the house at gunpoint, Patrick tells them he put peanuts in the chamber so they can arrest him, but doesn't bet on him having another gun.  Funny the way Patty walked away sheepishly again as he often does after starting trouble!

They arrive at Bombay Beach, Salto Seas, California and find the skeleton of a man on the beach, or rather buried in the desert.  Brett Partridge (Jack Plotnick) is also there and Patty just looks at him.  The DB has been there about 18 months.  Lisbon is following up on the DB with his ring.  Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti) IDs him as Yardley and he was rich.  His car was found in California.  Partridge realizes something is wrong since Patrick not only treated him sullen but now he's staring.  Patrick sees a sign in the desert advertizing the Borrego Gap Diner.  Here he orders breakfast and the waitress, Sonya (Josie Davis) lets on she's psychic.  She knew he was sending her a vibe from beyond that he was out there.

So suspects, want suspects, here are 3 already.  She tells Heck (Marcus DeAnda) she knew something evil was out there.  Patty asks if she'll enjoy his eggs.  Lisbon tells him they need a plan.  She's scared cos she hasn't seen him like this before.  He wants pecan pie, he's serious and so she is.  They need help, so she calls Van Pelt, swears her to secrecy and wants to set up GPS on the suspects's phones.  Of course she's with Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) and she will tell him cos he'll know she's keeping something from him.  Lisbon thinks Red John's read Patrick's mind, but how?

Rigsby and Cho (Tim Kang) talk to the widow, Madison (Lauren Stamile) at her house and Rigsby is acting funny, so Cho knows he's keeping something from him.  His wife is relieved he's been found, pending DNA testing but calls him a womanizer and they were divorcing.  Cue her step-son and clearly they have a volatile relationship and she admits they slept together and he is after the money.  But she'll get the house and she can throw him out.  They tell him about his business partner, Arek (Guri Weinberg) in Mexicali and he owed Yardley money.

Lisbon and Patrick, still at the diner where Patrick shows Mac (Hugo Armstrong) the cook how to make loose scrambled eggs, by adding water.  Lisbon wants to drive there on her own and says she can handle herself (well she'll prove that wrong) but doesn't go cos she doesn't want to leave Patrick here alone.  So Cho and Rigsby go, bringing the three suspects back to the diner.  Van Pelt arrives and Patrick knows she's told her about the list.  Lisbon was doing her job and she's the boss, he's not her boss, the Red John case is hers and she can do whats she likes.  They're both angry but she drives off in a huff and heads back to keep an eye on the RJ suspects.  Who were really close to each other judging from their GPS signals.

Van Pelt tells Patrick she was doing her job and he should make it up.  He finds out Rigsby knows and he Cho he couldn't be the only member of the team not to know.  Patrick using his usual ruse to solve the crime tells Sonia to use the menu and her psychic skills to tell them what Yardley's communicating to her.  He tells her to point to a letter on the menu after closing her eyes and comes up with Luke 12:27.  Arek thinks it's from the Bible and Rigsby and Cho both know what it says, about seeds and flowers.  Thus the DB was here, kept in a freezer since it's a desert and the ice would have melted quickly.  Also the flowers around the DB, viz, lilies showed seeds were on the ice which melted and they grew.  This involved a gardener and Heck wears such a cap.

Sonya wasn't interested in Yardley until he flashed his money.  Then Heck saw them together and was jealous.  Mac helped and wanted the money too and he killed him with the baseball bat.  Yardley knew he was going to be killed and swallowed his ring so he could be IDed.  Patrick coming to the diner cos eh noticed the new flashy sign on the road.  Patty leaves messages for Lisbon who doesn't answer.  She gets an anonymous tip leading to a call out and notices that's where Partridge is.  Arriving at the house alone she finds his DB falling out of the closet.  He whispers "tyger, tyger" before dying.  Is he really dead?
Lisbon is kidnapped and Patrick is called by Red John who tells him she can't come to the phone.  That must have sent Patrick's heart racing.

Not much happened this episode, aside from the rest of the team finding out the suspect's names but they weren't given much reaction time to them.  Van Pelt writing down the names was silly and dangerous, couldn't she remember them since anyone could have gotten hold of the paper.  Not to mention Lisbon talking to her over the phone was also a bit reckless.  Seems Partridge being eliminated was too easy and RJ didn't really do himself any favours by killing him, he's just narrowing down the list for Patrick.  But he wasn't really a viable suspect for me, or my ultimate suspect either (as written in my Mentalist blog piece. http://mila255.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/the-mentalist-red-john-seven-suspects.html)  He does get the words "tyger, tyger" to say.  Perhaps RJ was drawing attention away from himself and causing them to conduct a further investigation into his death.

SO the opening scene shows the recording was made two months ago and Patrick is stumped.   He really doesn't know what to make of it especially since RJ can't really be a psychic, can he? Patrick really doesn't know what to do and Lisbon is right when she later tells him she hasn't seen him like this before, but he doesn't take her seriously or doesn't want to let on that he's really miffed.  He doesn't know which way to turn but he doesn't want to ask for help since it means danger for all those involved.  Then again it's what they do and they have been dealing with RJ for five years now so they know the dangers involved.

As for the baseball killer Patrick is rather short with the sergeant on the scene and the camera shows the painting on the wall behind of the wife and her husband.  Which has been likened to Patrick himself. Patrick even asks about the staring and if it's cos Patrick has two heads.  He even asks Cody this.  Patrick knows all about pride since he was the same way whilst he was on TV and was conning people.  Bertram made a surprising entrance since we don't see him in her office and he being the first suspect on the list.  Even saying at one point that he is duplicitous and calculating, but it comes with the job, "I am many things to many people."  Strange he says that cos it sounds like something would say, also Betram was also the one who mentioned the Tyger poem in Red Sky in the Morning.  Also here he made reference to Moby Dick here by that fish and boat line!

Lisbon being taken serves as a warning to Patrick, RJ can strike anytime, as we know, no one's safe and Patrick has lost his confidante.  Also painting that smiley face over her was creepy, up until now his Vics have not been painted, only the walls.  Maybe alluding to the fact Lisbon won't end up a victim.  But it appears Lisbon won't be killed, focusing on Kirkland or Haffner who both expressed an interest in Lisbon. Ohh Clever writing, Bruno Heller!  But what of the room door she opened, was the door to the bathroom and it appears she was abducted from behind the door of the bathroom, so how could anyone have sneaked up behind her?

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