This episode is definitely one of my favorites from the season. The crime was simple and small, and the writers actually found a way to tie the case in with the personal lives of our beloved characters. Really, I think this is the rarely-discovered trick of procedural cop shows. Larger mythology episodes are important, but even episodes that are not about Red John need to somehow connect to the characters that the show follows, thus giving us emotional stakes in the results.
This week, we had a murdered woman who had been getting relationship advice from a radio personality called Buddy Hennings. At first, her husband was the prime suspect, but Jane figured out that Buddy Hennings has a foot fetish which then leads him to assume he's the killer (the victim's shoes were missing). In order to try and trap the guy, Rigsby and Van Pelt go under cover as a couple on the radio show.
The crime itself was basic but interesting - there was a twist at the end wherein Jane had correctly deduced that Buddy was having an affair with the victim, but he didn't realize that it had been Buddy's wife who had done the actual murder. This meant that Van Pelt was actually placed in a really dangerous situation and Jane didn't have the answers.
The most compelling part of this week's story was actually the relationship between Van Pelt and Rigsby. I'm usually more than annoyed at how their relationship is portrayed on this show, so I was happy to see it dealt with for real. They aired out their issues and actually talked about their problems, and at the end of the episode they kissed! I was a bit confused about Van Pelt's new boyfriend, and I'm wondering if we'll get the fallout from that next episode. Regardless, I was happy to finally put this will they/won't they business to rest.
Some funny moments came when they were hashing out their complicated past on the radio show. I think my favorite was when Rigsby says that one of the obstacles to their relationship was when Grace "got engaged to a maniac." Buddy assumes that this is an exaggeration, but of course we know it's not! Then there was Rigsby's speech that he made to her: "You know how I feel about you. It's the same way I've always felt. It's
never changed. Since the first day I met you." Kudos to the actor, because he actually looked like he was about to cry.
Cho didn't have much to do in this episode, which was a shame. We had a brief bro-conversation between Rigsby and Cho which is always fun. Cho is hilarious with how little he cares about Rigsby's girl drama.
The episode didn't actually focus too much on Jane and Lisbon, either. There was one adorable moment between them, when Jane was holed up in his cave and Lisbon asked him to come out. At first he didn't really respond but then Lisbon says: "Jane, I need you." Slowly, Jane gets up and come to the door. "It's nice to be needed. Anything for you, Lisbon." Aww. This melted my heart.
Another cute Jane/Lisbon moment was when they went to the radio station and someone assumed they were there as a couple in need of council. Lisbon, rolling her eyes, says "Oh we're not a couple. Please." Jane's response: "What she means is ours is more of a platonic love."
I also like how much everyone trusts Jane. He comes up with a scheme wherein Van Pelt will have to be alone with a person he believes to be the murderer, and they all trust that his plan will work, even though he didn't have the right answer this time!
In all, this was a nice, simple episode that (hopefully) resolved the annoyingly drawn out tension between Rigsby and Van Pelt. I'm excited to watch the next episodes, which will hopefully be just as amazing as finales usually are for The Mentalist!
8.5/10
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