The Mentalist: Grey Water (6x14)

Ahhh! Cliffhangers! Not even a bit okay. There were things about this episode that really impressed me, and others that annoyed me. Shall we get started?

Rigsby and Van Pelt are attacked in their home and nearly killed. They fly out to join the rest of their old team in the FBI. They are determined to catch this person, however they can. The FBI compiles a list of people that the CBI put in jail, and they narrow down their suspects by going with gut feelings, on Jane's suggestion. Most of their leads don't pan out, however, and by the end of the episode, they still don't know for sure who killed JJ and Ardiles, or who's targeting Rigsby and Van Pelt. The aforementioned cliffhanger comes when we see Van Pelt in bed at a hotel, and a dark figure hovers over her.

While all of this is going on, Jane and Fischer are working a case concerning oil fracking. A lot of people are making money off of this operation, but others are angry that their land is being used pretty much against their will. An anti-oil group is also involved. In the end, it turns out one of the victim's friends killed him, after the victim caught him stealing money from the oil company. While not the most interesting case in the world, it did have a few interesting details, such as the fact that the oil company's higher-ups were not all immoral and greedy. One of them was, and he got his comeuppance. Another high official was horrified by all the bribery that had been going on, and he fired the corrupt guy and vowed to try and make things better.

So, what were my problems?

Well, the main thing was this: the part of the episode involving Rigsby and Van Pelt was super interesting. The case with Jane and Fischer? Not so much. I mean, gosh, it wasn't horrible, but I was just annoyed that Jane didn't seem more concerned about his old friends. Shouldn't he have been helping with the bigger issue at hand? I feel as if the show is trying to force us to like these new characters. When Fischer takes Jane away from Rigsby and Van Pelt for almost the entire episode, I feel like it's hurting their cause.

Then there's this lead in the CBI-related case. It takes them to a guy on house arrest who ends up able to manipulate his ankle monitor so he can move around unobserved. However, the whole thing leads to a dead end when the suspect is found with his girlfriend. He was just trying to hide his affair from his wife. I really didn't mind this bit too much, but it took up a significant portion of screen time. I felt like it could have been dealt with quicker, in order to leave more time for some Cho and Rigsby bonding, or some such thing like that.

But hey, enough complaining. There were things about this episode that kicked some major ass.

First of all, the scene at the beginning when Rigsby and Van Pelt almost get killed. That was super intense. And hey, I have to give props to the show for having Rigsby hide in the cupboard with the baby while Van Pelt deals with the intruder. Just a nice little touch.

Also, even though there wasn't a lot of Cho and Rigbsy bromance, the stuff that was there was quite lovely. In particular, I liked the fact that Cho was willing to go along with Rigsby's hunches, even if they edged over the line of procedure. Also, it's cute that they went out to get drinks at the end. They apparently brought Jane along as well.

At the end of this day, this episode had a distinct lack of Jane and Lisbon interaction, so I hope they make up for that soon. Despite the absence of the best part of the show, I still enjoyed this one alright.

I heard that next Sunday is Rigsby and Van Pelt's last episode. That better not mean that Van Pelt gets killed by that intruder. I will never ever forgive this show if they do that right now. I'm very excited to see it, though!

7.5/10