The Mentalist: Byzantium (7x11)

Oh man. I can't believe next week is the end for this show. I'm probably going to cry. Let's just dive right in to the plot of this one, and see what's what.

Jane has been gone for about a week, and he won't answer any of Lisbon's calls. The FBI really need Jane on this case, though, as two teenagers were killed in their car and they can't figure out why. A young man shows up to the FBI claiming to be a psychic with information on the killer. Lisbon actually has Jane arrested for "failing to appear" and brought to the team. Jane talks to the psychic, trying to decide whether the guy is a fraud, or the killer himself.

Things get more complicated with this supposed psychic collapses, giving a message to Wylie from Vega as he doe so. Apparently, Vega says that she's okay, wherever she is. The psychic also says something about red clay. Wylie does some research, and the team finds five more bodies dug in craves in red clay. They haven't been able to find the killer, but they do find Gabriel, the psychic, dead from hanging.

Jane has been working on some stuff, telling Lisbon he needs time. By the end of the episode, he tells her that he's back, but things are still not settled between them.
 

Sorry for being so brief about the plot summary... I'll get into more details as I go over some pros and cons.

My main complaint is that I don't like the idea of having this whole "are psychics real?" thing explored again. Haven't we done that about a million times on this show? The answer is always a mysterious "we'll never know!" and I'm sick of it. I don't think it was really all that necessary for the story, either. There were enough other things going on here without adding in that little element.

Also, I still think that Vega's death was unnecessary, and it makes me angry that she had to die just so we could watch everybody else be angst-y about it.

But really, I did love this episode.

First of all, Cho and Wylie had some lovely moments of shared grief over Vega's loss. I think Cho is going to make a great boss, and I think this episode was showcasing some of the ways in which he's making that happen. Even though Wylie was clearly annoying him while they were out in the field, he never snapped at him, and instead offered to show him the ropes. He wasn't mad at Wylie for getting himself into trouble, but merely concerned. I'm proud of Cho and the way that he responded to Wylie's emotional needs.

There was a great scene between Cho and Abbott, too. Abbott suggested that Cho might want to talk to a therapist, and Cho didn't brush him off. He promised to think about it, and he said thank you to Abbott for the concern. This shows another way in which Cho is growing.

The actual case itself is pretty chilling. A serial killer is obviously not the most shocking thing to introduce to this show - the main thrust of The Mentalist for five and a half seasons was the Red John plot thread, after all. Here, we get a situation that's not nearly as personal to any of our principle characters, but it was still pretty gut-wrenching to watch those poor innocent kids get killed for no reason, and the tension got seriously worse when the other graves were discovered. Now that the psychic dude is dead, I'll be really curious to see if there's more to resolve in this case or not.

Obviously there was a lot of exploration into Jane and Lisbon's relationship here, and I really loved that. If I were Lisbon, I'm not sure I could be so calm and collected about Jane's behavior. But I guess Lisbon understood what Jane needed, and was willing to give him time and space. Jane goes a tiny bit off the rails in this episode, getting drunk and falling asleep in a random field, and refusing to talk to Lisbon about his issues. However, he does help them with the case, and he also finds a little house out in the middle of a field. It looks like he might be thinking about fixing it up for him and Lisbon?

One of the funniest moments of this episode was when Jane was arrested for failing to appear. Leave it to Lisbon to try something so snarky. Ultimately, it seems obvious that these two will work it out. How could they not? (Plus, of course, I've seen the promo pictures of their wedding...) Jane and Lisbon are going to be okay, but that doesn't mean I won't be crying like a baby next week when I have to say goodbye to this show and these wonderful character forever more!

7.5/10