The Mentalist tells the story of Patrick Jane played by Simon Baker, a man specializing in studying the micro-expressions of people who became involved with trying to catch a serial killer named Red John. Red John killed his wife and daughter. Since then, Jane has been working with the stupidly named CBI, California Bureau of Investigations, a kind of state police.
Robin Tunney plays Agent Lisbon, who is in charge of the unit. Van Pelt is the new agent on the squad. Rigsby has a crush on her. The Mentalist is kind of like the TNT show Psych, but it’s not a comedy, it’s a drama. I’ve enjoyed this series because it’s light and interesting. I’ve kind of come to despise Criminal Minds.
Jane uses his semi-celebrity and his lack of protocol to solve cases quickly, cases in which the CBI wouldn’t be able to come up with answers without him. Each episode has the color red in its title. The Mentalist resembles the show Lie to Me, which premiered in 2009 on Fox. The Mentalist started on the 23rd of September 2008 on CBS.
Warning: Spoilers ahead.
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They’ve found a hand on the border of Nevada and California. The team is there. It’s a male right hand with the number 43 on it. Jane gleans that the man was rich. He had some tanlines. He’s upper management in the hotel or gaming business.
The hand belongs to James Quincy-Meier, who runs the Calida resort and casino. The hand was severed post-mortem. They interview the widow and his adult daughter, who’s going out with a fatty who works at the casino. He had a lucky $100K chip on a string on his neck. Rigsby says that a lot of people got their hands cut off in Reno and LV. The hits had to do with the mafia. It means that an individual got caught with his hand in the till.
They see Carl Trask, a serious gambler at the tables. He’s a “whale”. Jane goes to gamble instead of going through the boring files with casino security. Meier had the number 43 in his day planner. Jane is working his way through the tables. He always introduces himself as Patrick. He’s currently playing on table 43. He tells him that the dealer Alexandra is cheating. He tells the security man as much. Jane won $250K.
Alex was working with her cousin Moe. She was cheating to buy her mom a new liver. She doesn’t confess to killing Meier. Jane wonders why Meier didn’t tell Etienne, the casino security chief. Jane thinks that he’s in cahoots with Alex. Jane plans on playing him. Jane bought some expensive jewellery for Lisbon and Van Pelt. The boys got some expensive diamond encrusted watches. Later, the girls give back their diamonds, but the boys decide to keep their watches. Jane gives the rest of the money and the diamonds to an aid organization.
The widow Anne wants to clear up things about Etienne and her. She was told by Etienne that Alex might have known something and talked. She was having an affair with him. It has been going on for 2 years. They have a warrant for Etienne’s place. He was being blackmailed by Alex. She knew about the affair. They find Jim’s body in Etienne’s fridge in his garage. Meier died of BFT. Jane has asked Dan to set him up at a high-stakes game. Cho and Rigsby go through Meier’s office. They see a DVD of Carl Trask meeting a hooker. Cho recognizes her as Jessica Meier, Meier’s daughter. Jessica says that Dan is a pro gambler and he’s gambling away his life.
Jane and Dan take a lot of money from Trask. Dan gambles. He bets the chip that he took from Jim’s body. Jane wins everything thanks to a little cheating. Cho and Rigsby question Trask. Trask says that Dan is a degenerate gambler and lost a lot of money. Dan said that he would put up the sexual favours of his wife against $50K. Trask won it. Dan backed his word. When Dan walks out, he’s arrested. He confesses to killing Jim.
Jane tells Cho and Rigsby that he won $300K. He gave the money to Alex for her mom.
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