The Mentalist

The Mentalist

Episode 12: My Bloody Valentine

By: Carlos Uribe

The Mentalist is a show about Patrick Jane, a mentalist, who solves crimes.

Spoilers Ahoy!

This week's case involves the son of a mob boss. For the most part, it's largely up to Patrick Jane to solve the case by himself. This isn't because the rest of the team is incompetent but it's because their attention has been diverted. While driving a person of interest back to the CBI station, Grace Van Pelt gets a malfunctioning GPS device. When she tries to figure out the right path, the guy who collaborated with killing the mob boss' son shot at Van Pelt. This caused her to accidentally crash her car in the middle of a forrest, isolated with the person of interest with no cell phone service. The team spends the episode worried about Van Pelt and doing their best to save her. It's actually Rigsby, not Jane, who points people to the right path. The case itself wasn't terribly interesting and all of the characters were rather forgettable, except the for the person of interest that was stuck with Van Pelt. For the second week on a row, the case is in the background.

When Craig was revealed to be Red John's mole, it was a big surprise reveal. He was the person in love with Van Pelt. He was going to get married to her. He had a good reputation. There was nothing to point to him being the mole except by merely being the in the show. When he turned out to be the mole, Van Pelt's world must have turned upside down. She had to have shot him. The real question is whether he truly loved her. That's probably something that can be debated, especially since in the last scene it didn't seem like he did. He chose Red John over being with her and he did betray her. This episode hopes to makes you question that, by showing how complicated this choice might have been for Craig. When Van Pelt is in the forest trying to find some civilization, he also just happens to pops up as a figment of her imagination. He does this provide some closure to her.

This version of Craig, the version that Van Pelt got to know and eventually love, states that he did love Van Pelt. He truly would have been happy getting married to her. The problem is that he had a choice. He had to pick Van Pelt or he had to pick Red John. Just because he chose Red John doesn't mean that he doesn't love Van Pelt. It simply meant that his loyalty for Red John was bigger than his love for his fiance. It's possible that he never loved her, it's possible that Van Pelt never knew him. To get some closure, that's not what Grace needed to hear. What she needed to know was that the man did love her. The man that she trusted may have betrayed her, but he wasn't inherently evil. She didn't see it coming because she couldn't have. There was something off about him that she could have sensed, maybe even a part she secretly liked before she found out the truth. When she doesn't throw away a necklace that was returned to her from evidence lockup now that the investigation is done, it's to show that she has managed to come to terms with what has happened.

It's also noteworthy to note how this has changed Van Pelt. She used to be trusting, believing in the good that is in everyone. She trusted Craig and she saw his good side. The betrayal and having to kill him didn't just turn her emotional world upside down, but also how she saw the world. She didn't just start to see the good that people can do, but also the bad. When the person of interest she was dragging along in the forest tried to kill her, she managed to see it coming. Before the betrayal, she wouldn't have seen that coming. She would have trusted the person of interest. She would have only seen the good. This has managed to let her see the dark. It may have saved her life, but it also has some negative consequences. It's going to make it harder for her to trust anyone else ever again.

There was also a tiny sub-plot in the episode. That involved Rigsby. He spent most of the episode being worried about Van Pelt, to the point where he was almost ignoring his current girlfriend. Luckily, she understands that he's worried about a friend. There's a little more to it than that since Rigsby still has some unresolved feelings for Van Pelt, but she doesn't seem to notice that. When Van Pelt is safe and sound, he finally has time for his girlfriend. It turns out that this entire episode she has been trying to tell him she's pregnant. Rigsby is going to be a father, but it's not going to be with the person he truly loves.

Overall, this was a great episode. The case may not have been that interesting, but it was a great emotional journey for Grace Van Pelt. This show is often criticized by people who drop in and only watch one episode about how anyone who isn't Patrick Jane is instantly forgettable and are two-dimensional. I wonder if they chose to drop in on this episode if they would feel the same way. Or maybe, just like in a serial drama, in good procedurals you have to see every episode to see how a character slowly evolves.