The Mentalist Season 2 Episode 18 - Aingavite Baa

The Mentalist Season 2 Episode 18 - Aingavite Baa

Non-spoiler information

Date watched: 6/14/2015

My rating: 5/10

The count of times I have seen this at time of this review: 1st

Likelihood that I will watch this episode again: Uncertain

I classify this as a cop drama with the super expert twist (similar to Monk, Psych, and Sherlock)

A somewhat familiar trope of mystery and cop shows: a amnesic victim that slowly develops the story with their memory. Also includes further development of Rigsby and Van Pelt's relationship, and the triangle relationship between new boss Hightower, Jane, and Lisbon.

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Spoiler information

This episode houses one of my biggest pet peeves of series television. That is, the commitment to a core group of characters. There are threats of characters leaving or changing, but this either falls through, or the character disappears forever (being written out of the show). The 800 pound gorilla in the room is contracted actors with the buy-in from the audience. This greatly limits the natural flow of story, and character development. Characters are not allowed to flow like they normally would in real life - of course, interesting plots and events occur at a much higher rate then they do in normal life as well, which is why we watch in the first place. Some series television have "done better" with this issue, in my opinion. The best example I have off the top of my head is Lost, which killed off (or wandered off story) several major characters over the course of the show.

The main plot of this episode is the discovery of an intended murder victim. This victim was thought to have been killed by the killer, but wasn't and is found wandering around with amnesia. This allows Jane to ply his trade of hypnotism and other mental tricks throughout the episode. I mentioned in my review of S2E17 that Jane is usually spot on with his observations (or if he isn't, it was planned as a ploy of some kind). There is a small incident where he accuses a man and then admits he was wrong; it is unclear if he was simply guessing (although guessing is brought up in another context about his techniques in this episode), or if it was a ploy to get more information.

I found the amnesia plot to be standard stuff, nothing spectacular. There were a few red herrings in the show, such as a marijuana farm and being shot at by one of the farmers. Also, as I discussed in S2E17, the murderer is a somewhat sympathetic person introduced earlier in the show. He is a cheerful souvenir salesman, who makes a profit on the Indian "relic" trade, and unconcerned as the things he sells aren't really a part of his heritage. There seems to be some material there, but probably not for a 40 minute episode where that is not really the main focus - it is rather that this peddler has been engaging in unseemly trade with a producer of toxic waste, and has been dumping it in reservation water for a lot of cash.

For some reason, the reveal of dumping waste for cash seemed a bit weak to me. Maybe it is because the murder did in fact commit premeditated murder, but then his character did not have any of the traits of someone that would do that - there is an apology scene that comes off as some kind of weak joke.

My first paragraph above talks about character movement, and it is addressed towards the relationship development of Rigsby and Van Pelt. First of all, we know that either they won't break up officially (which would mean that one would be written out of the series), or that they do officially, but unofficially they still have the secret flame, which will bring about many other plots in future stories. For me, this is where this relationship "jumped the shark"; in earlier episodes they dealt with this impossible tension, as the characters struggled with the attraction, gave in, confessed, and then fought each other with the fallout. Lisbon temporarily let them off the hook, be we were given the impression that the relationship was on the rocks because of things said. Then, last episode they quickly reconciled (I wrote about that as well). I liked how Rigsby was going to leave, but then Van Pelt comes in and says she can't have him leaving, as he will come to hate her for this. Well, maybe in a shallow relationship, but in a real relationship they would work out these issues. Of course, in almost all TV relationships, sexual intimacy is a given and marriage is rarely discussed, except as some great plot point to work towards.

So, overall, this episode left me rather luke-warm.