The Mentalist: White Lines (6x11)

Unfortunately, I wasn't a big fan of this episode. I was waiting and waiting for some good Jane/Lisbon interactions after the winter hiatus, and I didn't get them. It's not like that's the only thing that makes a good episode of The Mentalist, of course, but the case was transparent and boring, and nothing much happened that I was too fond of. There were a few things here or there that I enjoyed, but not much. Let's start with the plot.

Jane and Lisbon are working one of their first cases with the FBI, and it involves several DEA agents being killed. The hunt is on for some bad man who runs a drug cartel. Along the way, Jane meets a beautiful woman and goes out on a few dates with her. In a predictable turn of events, she ends up being the head of the evil drug lords. Jane lures her to a boat, where she almost kills him, but luckily Jane had the FBI listening on the phone and they swoop in and save him at the last minute.

So, as you can tell from that very short plot summary, this story was nothing too special. If this is an indicator of how the normal FBI cases are going to go, that's not a good sign. After the last few episodes, which have all been very exciting and different, this one was a rather dull reintroduction to the routine.

I thought the stuff with Jane and the girl was over the top, and yet still completely boring at the same time. There was one good moment, which was when she told him that she didn't have this guy killed, but that she actually killed him herself. That was a good moment because it showed that even if Jane was ahead of the game the whole time, he didn't have everything all figured out. At the same time, though, I was rather insulted by the idea that only girls could be criminal masterminds without the need for outward attention. That's rather stereotyped. Like, I mean it's sexist against guys, because it makes it seem liked they're all testosterone-fueled monsters. I thought that deduction on Jane's part was a bit troubling.

On the more positive side, I do like this Fischer character quite a bit now that we've spent more time with her. I think her and Lisbon could form an interesting friendship, and with her character and with Wylie's I see an interesting opportunity to reboot the show. That being said, I do miss Rigsby and Van Pelt quite a lot. At least we've still got Cho! I loved the moments with Cho and Lisbon, because without either of them saying it, you could tell that they were glad to be working together.

Sorry this is so short. If you've seen my recent Sherlock review you know I've been spending a lot of time on that... in any case, this episode wasn't actually worth much talking about, unfortunately. Hopefully next week is better!

5/10