The Mentalist 1X1: Pilot

Okay, so this was fun. Patrick (the only name I know so far) is like a Dr. House, Sherlock type of detective (assuming he's actually a detective- he might be some other kind of agent) solving crimes in ways that most people couldn't (and might potential be unethical, it would seem). It seems like he's the bane of the rest of the team's existence, but they put up with him because he's good at what he does and helps close cases.

We find out that he's got a bit of an interesting backstory. He used to be a TV psychic. And, at the time, the police were looking for a serial killer called Red John. They asked for Patrick's help and he said some pretty shitty things about him on air (although, to be fair, he's a serial killer, so 🤷‍♀️). However, when he gets home, he finds that his wife and child have been murdered by said serial killer.

In this episode, they catch a case that seems to have Red John's MO. Patrick shows up, but he's been suspended due to something he'd done an a previous case. But, since it's the Red John case, he manages to go over his boss's head and get himself back on the case. And he figures out pretty quickly that it's not Red John, but a copy cat.

He sets up this entirely insane series of events (but he knows exactly what he's doing, but from the outside, it does kind of look crazy), in order to catch the actual killer in the act. (A killer that no one else was remotely suspicious of). So, the next day, when he shows up at the office with case closing donuts, the rest of the crew isn't super happy with him. They think he played a lot of it for dramatic effect when he could have just told them what was going on.

But, maybe the saddest part of this episode (and keep in mind, the first case we see is a father who allegedly killed his daughter because she didn't want to sleep with him), is Patrick going home at the end of the day. He's still living in his giant ass TV psychic money house, but it devoid of all life and furniture. The only thing in it is a bare mattress on the floor underneath Red John's signature blood mark from when he killed Patrick's family. How the hell do you live like that? It seems like torture. I assume it's to motivate him to find the person who killed his family, but I feel like he's more likely to kill himself for having to exist like this.

I think this is gonna be another fun go. I'm excited!