The Mentalist: Black Helicopters (6x13)

I'm going to dive straight in. Sorry in advance... this is a really short one.

A U.S. attorney turns up dead in Mexico, despite there being no record of her crossing the border. Jane works primarily with Fischer on the case, very quickly discovering a secret tunnel that crosses the border. He ends up pretending to join a commune so as to get to the murderer. The murderer, it turns out, was an eco-terrorist years ago. An old lawyer who used to represent her before she skipped bail turns up in her life again, and recognizes her after all of these years. The crazy commune lady is forced to kill the lawyer to stay hidden. All is for naught, of course, since Jane's mind tricks allow him to find the murderer.

Meanwhile, Lisbon is still working on the conspiracy stuff with Rigsby and Van Pelt. They call in J.J. LaRoche to help them. Someone is stalking the former members of the CBI, and our team wants to find out who! Tragedy strikes, however, when J.J. and Rigsby track down a warehouse connected to the conspiracy, and J.J. unwittingly sets off a tripwire. He dies before Rigsby can do anything, his last thoughts of his dog.

While Jane is working the case, he keeps getting all of the FBI members things they secretly want - a magic wand, toy robots, etc. Everybody is pleased with Jane's gifts. Fischer, who was angry at Jane for abandoning her earlier when working on the case, is happy once she sees Jane's thoughtful gift. Lisbon has a smile for Fischer as well. She knows what it's like to be on the receiving end of one of Jane's generous and thoughtful moods.

So, what do I think? Well, at first I was inclined to dislike this episode, since it had so very little interaction between Jane and Lisbon. And let's be honest, that's my main reason for watching the show. However, I have to admit... there were a lot of wonderful things about this episode!

Besides the lack of Lisbon/Jane interactions, the only thing I took real issue with was how easy it was for Jane to catch the killer. His mind tricks are cool, sure, but I wish they didn't always work on the first try. Oh, and one other thing - I'm really tired of TV episodes that start with some wacky and crazy scene, like Jane showing up with the rest of the commune, and then we say "2 days earlier" or whatever, and it all gets explained. It's always obvious that we're going to find out how it all happens, so why try to put in this stupid shock factor at the beginning?

But now onto the good stuff.

Jane getting all those little gifts for people! It made me start to really enjoy Abbott and Fischer as characters, even more than I did before. Fischer's little story about wanting a magic wand when she was a kid was super sweet. (I'll admit to a bit of skepticism, though... I mean, I know Jane is good, but how in the hell is he that good? How could he possibly know that?). I'll give it a pass, though, because the look on Cho's face when he got the Mexican Jumping Beans was just too adorable.

Fischer! I was ready to dislike her because I saw her as a threat to Jane and Lisbon's relationship. But no! She's actually becoming interesting in her own right. She - justifiably - has some problems with Jane, but she's also learning about how his unorthodox methods are worth it most of the time.

I'm enjoying the fact that Rigsby and Van Pelt are still involved in the story, even if they're taking a backseat. This whole crazy CBI stalker thing is super interesting to me! I hope we can have more episodes soon that just focus on that. The case this week was okay, but I wanted more of the other stuff. I can't believe J.J. is dead! He was always a rather unpleasant character, but he had his moments. I wonder if we'll get to see Jane's reaction to the news?

Last but not least, Jane and Lisbon's moments. Like I said, there weren't that many of them. But what was there was just as delightful and adorable as it always is. I particularly loved it when Jane asked for a tank, and Lisbon snorted and said "Yeah, right," to which Jane replied that he was serious. Oh, you two. Just kiss already.

There you have it! Wow, I talked on longer than I expected to... funny how that happens. I liked this one quite a bit. I'm enjoying the new characters more than I thought I would.

8.5/10