REVIEW: The Mentalist – Episode 3.08 ‘Ball of Fire’

As I tend to do every week about this time, I must preface my review of the latest episode of The Mentalist with a confession. I watched the entire episode twice. During the second viewing, I watched the entire episode and paid attention to the plot, and everything. However that first viewing…not so much. I’m on a gradual descent from the high from my interview with “Agent Cho” (Tim “giving Baker a run for his money” Kang). So I’m descending, but I’m still pretty high in the clouds! The first viewing consisted of my sitting there waiting on scenes where Agent Cho was prominent. So, these are my confessions…make of them what you will. Now, lets discuss the episode as I interpreted during the second viewing!

“We Are A Family”

I expected to spend this entire episode biting my nails, worrying over the fate of our beloved Patrick Jane (Simon “sexy even while being tortured” Baker). Then I remembered that I had already seen the preview for next week’s episode, and Patrick Jane was not dead in that one. Scene after scene revealed something that has never been expressed so heavily on the show thus far. The prominent members of the CBI are not just co-workers who come together to solve crimes and make the streets a safer place for all of humanity (or at least, all of Sacramento). No, these guys are a family. And you can imagine that when a situation like the kidnapping of your great friend occurs, and you don’t know whether they’re alive or dead, a lot of stuff goes through your mind, including an assessment of what this great friend means to you. In the case of the CBI, they all realized that Jane is a part of their family. That’s really all this episode was about in hindsight, and it will be a memorable one for the rest of the series.

The episode began with the entire unit watching in awe as Rigsby went all “Minute To Win It” on us, and placed a wager with Cho that he could bounce a ping pong ball across a table and directly into a short drinking glass. In only 3 bounces. What stood out to me during this scene was the fact that we see our usual team members: Cho, Rigsby, and Van Pelt, but there is a lot of ribbing and extra noise during this scene that caused me to pan out a little and take in everyone else in the office. When Rigsby nailed the shot, there was a loud “Oooooh!!!” that was emitted by at least 2 dozen or so people. I actually said out loud to my husband, who was doing everything EXCEPT watching The Mentalist, “Who the heck are all of these people?” To push my point even further, one of these unknown team unit members walked up to Van Pelt and told her that she had a call from O’Loughlin (Eric Winter). I immediately suspect that the unknown team member is Red John. He just has that nefarious look about him. And somebody has to be Red John, may as well be him!

But as further proof of the family that this unit has become over the years, we witness the cutest conversation between Senior Agent Lisbon (Robin Tunney) and Jane. She reaches him on his cell as he is walking up to a produce stand. She points out that “she worries when she doesn’t know where he is”. So much can be interpreted from that one statement. I declare that it confirms her love for Jane and that she wants him NOW! Pontificate among yourselves. Before hanging up with him she asks him to bring her back a “Red Delicious”. I’m leaving that one alone. For the time being.

As Jane hangs up, he greets the produce stand owner in Spanish (Baker, I’m staying faithful to my husband, but you’re killing me). Then the gunshots ring, a hooded man with sunglasses accosts Jane, and unsuccessfully tries to force him into the trunk of a car. Jane temporarily escapes to a shed where he calls Lisbon for help, but the hooded man with sunglasses is hot on Jane’s trail and begins breaking the lock of the shed to enter. As Lisbon answers Jane’s call with a smile to tease him about purchasing her fruit, she hears the ramming of the shed door and Jane’s terrified voice on the other end. Her face goes to haunted and helpless immediately.

The team doesn’t waste a second. Lisbon quickly surmises that Jane’s kidnapper must be someone that Jane has helped put away over the years. I want to point out something I noticed. I think the writers/directors are toying with me (yes, just me personally) a little because I’m getting a seriously interesting vibe from Hightower lately. Here’s an example of what I mean. As the team sits and discusses the possibilities of Jane’s fate and who is responsible, someone throws out Red John as a possibility. Did you guys catch how the camera closed in on Hightower when Red John’s name was mentioned? Just me? Okay. I will save further theorizing on this for later episodes.

While Hightower and team are at the scene of the kidnapping/shooting, a few witnesses are in place. A blond girl named “Sherry” was one of them. I changed my mind from earlier and decided that she is Red John. Because her name is Sherry. And Sherry is a type of wine. Wine can be red. You’re welcome. “Sherry” tells the team that she arrived as the get away car was speeding off. She gives a description of the color of the license plate and mentioned that the car was traveling north. Very helpful witness! Except not really, because she made the whole thing up. More later.

Rigsby and O’Loughlin are eventually paired up to go on what ended up being a wild goose chase, thanks to “Sherry’s” statements. The refusal of Rigsby and O’Loughlin to acknowledge the elephant in the room (which happens to be a gorgeous one with perfect hair named Van Pelt) is making me a little tense. Man up! Say something! *sigh* Once they are notified that an abandoned car has been spotted, everyone realizes that “Sherry” gave statements that turned out to be inaccurate. Once they arrived at the scene of the car, they realize that it’s been torched. They realize that “Sherry” was also wrong about the license plates. I love O’Loughlin’s snarky “typical”, referring to inaccurate statements from witnesses. What this dude’s problem, anyway? He decides that he hasn’t annoyed me enough yet, and goes on to upstage Rigsby’s excellent sleuthing skills in which Rigsby discovered a fingerprint of the getaway car driver. O’Loughlin only has a few episodes left to try and get on my good side, so he needs to get to work on this quickly.

Ultimately, Jane is taken to the basement of a home by hooded guy with sunglasses, who has now become hood-less guy without sunglasses. Jane is handcuffed to a pole which stretches from floor to ceiling. As Jane begins working that Jane-magic and placing hood-less guy without sunglasses under hypnosis, Jane watches as three bullets pierce the guy’s chest and he drops to the floor. That made me jump out of my skin. This show has some jarring scenes this season; they get me EVERY week! Who descends the stairs with a gun pointing at Jane? Oh look, it’s “Sherry”. Except we learn that her real name is Rachel. In a nutshell, Jane had Rachel’s father put in jail. He eventually died in prison from an infection, and she vowed revenge against Jane. A doctor that was also imprisoned by Jane in the series premiere episode (played by Duane Barry) was the connection on how Rachel was able to find Jane. It was great to see the doctor again! I love all of the returning characters this season!

Rachel got a few sick jollies by torturing Jane with a cattle prod. However, Jane never relented. He told Rachel that her father was a thief and a murderer and that he did everything he could to catch him. Jane is just so sexy when he doesn’t care that he may be killed at any moment. Meanwhile, hood-less now dead guy without sunglasses continues to rot right in front of them. Rachel is bored with Jane and decides she hasn’t kidnapped enough people that day, so she leaves to go and lure Lisbon in. While she’s gone, Jane retrieves a knife from the pocket of the dead guy, and unsuccessfully tries to remove his handcuffs. Once Rachel brings Lisbon to the basement of doom, she handcuffs Lisbon and leaves to prep the entire house to be torched. Rachel is dousing gasoline on every square inch of the house, and hears Lisbon’s blood-curdling scream of “Help!!” Why Rachel runs to see what is happening is beyond me…you’re about to burn them alive, and you’re concerned about the screams of help from your soon-to-be victim? Whatever, girl.

She arrives to see what appears to be a dead Lisbon, with a maniacal-looking Jane standing over her holding a knife. Rachel actually looks panicked, grabs the cattle prod and begins to use it on Jane some more. Just go burn the house down, tough girl!! Why all of the extra drama? Lisbon tries to strangle Rachel with cuffs and yells for Jane to grab Rachel’s gun. That plan falls apart, and Rachel grabs her gun herself, points at Jane to shoot, and is pierced with 3 gunshots in the back by none of than Chief Agent Hightower! I wanted to jump up and applaud as if I were in a movie theater! Okay, I actually did applaud and I’m not even embarrassed about it. Great scene!

Back at CBI, O’Loughlin and Rigsby are in the breakroom at the same time. O’Loughlin tells Risgby that he’s great at what he does. I’m wanting Rigsby to tell him “Hell yeah I’m great at what I do, and I’ll take your woman back too, if I want”. But I’m not on the writing team. So he just says “Thanks”. Then Rigsby spies Van Pelt at her desk working away and sighs heavily. More of an indicator of that CBI family connection (and a little love in this case). Rigsby says to O’Loughlin in a cordial, yet firm tone, “Don’t hurt her”. O’Loughlin replies, “Or what?” Excuse me, or what? Rigsby responds with, “Or I’ll punch your four front teeth down your esophagus!” In my mind. What he actually said was, “Or you’ll have me to deal with..” So maybe I didn’t necessarily make that quote up, after all! And over on Jane’s couch, the nefarious looking CBI agent is back, and this time he is helping Jane to his couch, since Jane is still in pain from all of the cattle prodding. Seriously, will someone tell me who this guy is?? I’ll wait.

The show ends with Jane and Lisbon having a playful, sibling-like debate over whether or not this goes down in history as the first case the CBI solved WITHOUT Jane’s help! I love when Jane pointed out to Lisbon that she was kidnapped and stuffed in the same basement with him for a while there, so she probably shouldn’t get too excited. Those two are SO friggin’ cute together! And with that, we have another tremendous episode of The Mentalist. Every plot and sub-plot was one that had special meaning, and I can’t wait to see what we’re in store for next week! Actually, I can give you two things. Next week’s episode is entitled “Red Moon” and is directed by Simon Baker himself! Secondly, enjoy a preview of the episode below. Until next week!

Photo: Sonja Flemming/CBS

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