take my hand and we're halfway there
Apr. 9th, 2015 08:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessThe Mentalist 7.8 The Whites of His Eyes
Legitimately good episode, I thought. If I were grading it it would be hovering between a B+ and an A-.
The opening, after the realisation that the estate agent was dead, felt like it was from another show, and I thought I’d be impressed if Jane could find a pro of a hitman. Then we had some classic Jane and Lisbon business, with her forcing him to play table footie and crowing at winning, which he could just about take because he knows what his metier is. And it included noticing details that showed that the pro hitman wasn’t all that in front of Agent Do I Really Care About Ypu? and lots of other showing off, although Jane was right to insist on the witness’s safety – couldn’t they have offered to let her testify by video? Were there any arrangements for after the trial?
Having a flashback early in the episode and meeting a killer was a change-up, and what a delightful killer that young man was. However, Jane’s appreciation of and assessment of his whole family was fun. I wished we could have had more interaction between them, but Jane had got what he needed, I suppose.
Lisbon nearly getting shot was less fun (Agent Who Got Shot, I Told You I Dind’t Care), and showed up how much the dynamic has changed between Jane and Lisbon even more than the end of that prison episode. See also Lisbon getting fake shot. Not pleasant to watch.
Wylie and Vega’s video game posturing was absurdly cute. So much easier for him to challenge her to play him than ask her on a date.
But Lisbon’s idea of a lullaby was the best – especially as I was tensing, because I didn’t think that her singing a lullaby was the best thing to comfort him. So, she is definitely staying overnight in that vehicle of his when he’s not sick...Note also Jane’s pjs and Lisbon not wearing that oversized shirt to bed.
And I thought that Lisbon would be the decoy for the witness, until we had Jane ask Vega if she was in position and we never saw her, and then I presumed Lisbon was going to be taking the witness down while Vega and co dealt with the hitman. But no. And I only really figured out what Jane had done and how it had upset Lisbon when she stood up to him about it. (I wonder if he’d got this far ahead when he started suggesting they leave the FBI, offering that up as a way of avoiding this very issue.) Okay, admitting what he did and that he’s going to be protective and that that’s a problem and agreeing to work on it is par for giving their relationship a shot. But it’s a big problem. (And totally IC. Well done, show, for giving them credible obstacles. It is possible to write a central established relationship between adults interestingly.)
Abbot’s gloating was mostly redundant (because of course they didn’t deny the sick criminal his dialysis) but Cho answering the line ‘you don’t know what a parent’s love is’ with a deadpan and factually accurate ‘No’ was classic.
To go back to Wylie and Vega’s cuteness (oh, fine, SOLD, let them be together and playing silly shootemups together when they’re grey and old), it’s nice that they’re finding more common ground. I did like the echo of Jane the game player when he was in Wylie’s van, directing everyone. Like the theme of protection, it was there but not thrust in our faces.
ETA: Updated Wishlist for what time is left to The Mentalist
1, Kissing in the lift. It’s not the CBI lift, but it’ll do
2, Jane being ready to take off the wedding ring – if the end involves Lisbon leaving the FBI with him, it has to be a two-way gesture street
3,The Lisbon family OR Jane’s carny past OR both
4, Van Pelt and Rigsby, maybe in a return to California
5, Any trope they’ve failed to do (they’ve been working the fake!relationship trope hard)
Legitimately good episode, I thought. If I were grading it it would be hovering between a B+ and an A-.
The opening, after the realisation that the estate agent was dead, felt like it was from another show, and I thought I’d be impressed if Jane could find a pro of a hitman. Then we had some classic Jane and Lisbon business, with her forcing him to play table footie and crowing at winning, which he could just about take because he knows what his metier is. And it included noticing details that showed that the pro hitman wasn’t all that in front of Agent Do I Really Care About Ypu? and lots of other showing off, although Jane was right to insist on the witness’s safety – couldn’t they have offered to let her testify by video? Were there any arrangements for after the trial?
Having a flashback early in the episode and meeting a killer was a change-up, and what a delightful killer that young man was. However, Jane’s appreciation of and assessment of his whole family was fun. I wished we could have had more interaction between them, but Jane had got what he needed, I suppose.
Lisbon nearly getting shot was less fun (Agent Who Got Shot, I Told You I Dind’t Care), and showed up how much the dynamic has changed between Jane and Lisbon even more than the end of that prison episode. See also Lisbon getting fake shot. Not pleasant to watch.
Wylie and Vega’s video game posturing was absurdly cute. So much easier for him to challenge her to play him than ask her on a date.
But Lisbon’s idea of a lullaby was the best – especially as I was tensing, because I didn’t think that her singing a lullaby was the best thing to comfort him. So, she is definitely staying overnight in that vehicle of his when he’s not sick...Note also Jane’s pjs and Lisbon not wearing that oversized shirt to bed.
And I thought that Lisbon would be the decoy for the witness, until we had Jane ask Vega if she was in position and we never saw her, and then I presumed Lisbon was going to be taking the witness down while Vega and co dealt with the hitman. But no. And I only really figured out what Jane had done and how it had upset Lisbon when she stood up to him about it. (I wonder if he’d got this far ahead when he started suggesting they leave the FBI, offering that up as a way of avoiding this very issue.) Okay, admitting what he did and that he’s going to be protective and that that’s a problem and agreeing to work on it is par for giving their relationship a shot. But it’s a big problem. (And totally IC. Well done, show, for giving them credible obstacles. It is possible to write a central established relationship between adults interestingly.)
Abbot’s gloating was mostly redundant (because of course they didn’t deny the sick criminal his dialysis) but Cho answering the line ‘you don’t know what a parent’s love is’ with a deadpan and factually accurate ‘No’ was classic.
To go back to Wylie and Vega’s cuteness (oh, fine, SOLD, let them be together and playing silly shootemups together when they’re grey and old), it’s nice that they’re finding more common ground. I did like the echo of Jane the game player when he was in Wylie’s van, directing everyone. Like the theme of protection, it was there but not thrust in our faces.
ETA: Updated Wishlist for what time is left to The Mentalist
1, Kissing in the lift. It’s not the CBI lift, but it’ll do
2, Jane being ready to take off the wedding ring – if the end involves Lisbon leaving the FBI with him, it has to be a two-way gesture street
3,
4, Van Pelt and Rigsby, maybe in a return to California
5, Any trope they’ve failed to do (they’ve been working the fake!relationship trope hard)
