The Mentalist 1X18: Russet Potatoes

I want it known that I initially remembered this episode title as Sack of Potatoes. I was very disappointed when I doubled checked to see that I was wrong. Lol.

Okay, so, this dude lugs a bag down the street to the police station while repeating a mantra to himself. Once he gets there, he's dragging it along the floor with obvious blood stains behind it. Lisbon (and some other cops as well) pull guns on him and demand him to give himself up. He's very confused, as he thinks he's bringing them a surprise of potatoes, but follows order nonetheless. However, Jane evaluates him and determines he's been hypnotized.

Cho gets him in an interrogation room and shows him pictures of the dead lady inside the sack he dragged all the way there. When asked what he sees, Carl (I know his name!) confusedly responds, potatoes.

Most of the team thinks he's the culprit, but Jane insists that you cannot be hypnotized into doing anything morally against your will. He 'proves' this, but hypnotizing Rigsby. He tells him to be in a place where he can have or do anything he's ever wanted to. And when he's set loose, his greatest desire is to kiss Grace. (Funnily I initially wrote 'kill' Grace. Good thing I sometimes edit these descriptions 🤣).

Anyway, the dead lady's sister shows up and explains that they both both at this Neuro Linguistic Programming center. This is basically hypnosis, so you know Jane is gonna be all over this; and Lisbon is gonna be skeptical. (On a personal note, I think a lot of pseudoscience is fascinating, and that includes NLP.) However, she claims that her dead sister was dating the boss (which he left out in his interview).

They go and chat with the boss guy, but it's actually his second in command that's more interesting. When Carl sees him, he asks what he'd like him to do next. At that point #2 sprints away leaving Lisbon to chase after him and cuff him (with someone else's cuff as her's are busy restraining Carl).

Once we get 2 in the room, he 'confesses' to killing the girl. He claims he asked her out, she rejected him meanly. Then he went to a bar and drank a ton. He blacked out. The next thing he remembers is coming to and finding himself standing over her dead body with a gun in his hands. So he must have done it, right?

But the sister is not sure sure. Based on her info, they bring the boss back in and question him about his relationship with the dead girl. He denies, and Rigsby smashes his face until a table until he tells the truth. At that point, Lisbon takes his gun and badge, but Jane realizes he's been hypnotized as well.

Jane takes him to a playground where he tries to snap him out of it. But, really, he was just slipping a tracker in his pocket. Once he leaves, agitated, he and Grace are ready to follow him.

Turns out, he heads to boss guys office where the sister is holding him at gun point. She's the person who's been hypnotizing everyone because she's upset that this dude fell for her sister and not her. Lame.

Either way, Jane shows up (you know, since he tracked him) and tries to talk him out of it. It doesn't work. Sister has a gun and reminds Jane of that. He calls out Lisbon who has her own gun. Then sister calls out guy who thought he killed the girl in the first place with his own gun. Eventually, Jane has Lisbon put down her gun.

Sister's new plan is to have Rigsby (who she's still got hypnotizes) toss Patrick off the side of a building. She's convinced him that he's just putting Jane into the ocean so he can have a nice swim. This goes back and forth for a bit until Jane notices sister's trigger for Rigsby. Once he sees it, he can copy it and draw him out of the trance. As soon as Rigsby is out, he immediately takes down sister. All is good and copasetic.

Back at the office, they tease Rigsby for kissing Grace (even though he doesn't yet know he's done it). They basically leave it for him to figure out. Jane claims he'll remember eventually, and 'casually' touches him as he leaves. This causes Rigsby to have, what I'd call, a look of realization. This isn't really a shipping show for me (at least not right now) but I would not be upset if the two of them got together.