The Mentalist 6.14 "Grey Water" Review

                                            
The gang back together again - but not for long!!  Oh put down that teacup Patty!

As the search for the killer of LaRoche and Ardiles continues, Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti) and Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) find themselves in Austin, after the killer tries to gun them down in their own home. Would've thought Rigsby would've noticed the cellar door was ajar, I mean you'd notice things like that in your own home wouldn't you!  The FBI is now on the case too as Lisbon (Robin Tunney) tells them cos whatever you want, the FBI gives you.  They narrow the suspects down to 12 cos Ardiles put them away, but that's a bit too obvious, why not someone they met or encountered outside of work.  Patrick (Simon Baker) tells them they're wasting their time going after 12 suspects when they should use their instincts to narrow them down.  As he proves a point to Cho.

Lisbon: What do you think we should do?
Jane: I think we should trust our instincts.
Cho: You mean take a wild guess.
Jane: 80% of the time, a detective's first guess is right.
Cho: You just made that up.
Jane: And you knew that because your instincts told you.

E

They all pick a suspect, Lisbon going for Haibach (William Mapother) Rigsby and Cho for Hutten (Paul Schulze). Patrick tells them they have 5 suspects now, he'll be on his couch if they need him.  Not for long since Fischer )Emily Swallow) uses him on a fracking case in Bradley, Texas. A man was killed and he was against fracking.  His farm had methane in the water and he was bringing a lawsuit against the oil company.  Patrick immediately reads the foreman at the ground as being the manager, Jason Kern (Colby French) since he's got creased jeans and shiny belt buckle.  He claims the anti-corporate protesters probably killed him and put the blame onto the company.  They're only a regional company and not a huge oil company as Patrick described them.  Well he was a bit smarmy so you know he was up to no good, even if he wasn't the killer.

They then speak with the man, David's widow, Molly (Milena Govich) and his friends.  Patrick would make a beeline for the kitchen as we know and talks to Molly.  She tells him to use bottled water since there's methane in their water.  She ignites it to show him afterwards.  One of his friends, Bryce (Judson Mills) has an outburst after an argument with one other friends, Emmett (Sean O'Bryan) who he claims sold their land for money and couldn't wait to do so.  He tells Fischer that David was beaten up to prevent him from testifying.  When Patrick and Fischer arrive at the corporation's HQ, they see graffiti outside and the boss, Samuel (Gary Grubbs) is in front of the computer watching a hacked video.  He recognizes the music everytime it comes up but he claims he's done nothing wrong.

Rigsby and Cho pay a visit to Hutten who is married now and he's glad to spend time with them since he's eager to leave the house.  But before they can take him in, the FBI arrives since he's helping them with catching bank robbers, that's why he was let out of prison early.  Agent Miller (Todd Williams) tells them he was monitored all the time and had a bracelet attached to his ankle.  Of course you know there are so many ways around this so that doesn't necessarily confer an alibi on him.  Haibach, Linda (Penny Peyser) sends his attorney to liaise with Abbott (Rockmond Dunbar) and Lisbon since he claims she spoke with his work and his colleagues.  Abbott tells him this won't happen again since he claims to have an alibi, but Haibach wants an apology from Lisbon.  Abbott isn't about to give up on him and tells her to get surveillance onto him.

Patrick asks Wylie (Jason Adler) if he can get all the info on a person from just the Internet and of course that's possible since he has a hunch, after paying another visit to David's house with his friend's present. None of them recognize the music, London Bridge is Falling Down, but Patty knows one of them is lying.   He also manages to find the hacker since he's using the library to hack from.  He claims David approached him for help and he found out that Kern has a little black book with all the names of the official he's bribed kept in his office safe.  Patrick of course finds this, but Kern refuses to give up the black book, denying its existence.  He also says something else was taken since the desk has been moved, but it was a heavy desk so David couldn't have moved it with his bad back.  This leads Patty to hatch another scheme to catch the killer by getting Abbot and another agent to siphon petrol from the Bryce's car; knew it was him since he was rather eager to point the finger.  Abbot and the agent drive up playing London Bridge and he's distracted when Patty hacks into the petrol pump and tells him he killed David.

He finally confesses it was over the money he stole from the company.  David wanted to give it back but he deserved it and wanted to keep it.  They fought and he hit his head with a rock.  Samuel comes in with the little black book and wants nothing more to do with Kern,whom he fires.

Rigsby has a hunch about Hutten since he hasn't been able to get a hold of him and they find he's made his phone mimic his ankle bracelet signal and is off floozing behind his wife's back.  So he has an alibi for San Jose too.  Rigsby wants to go out for a drink with the boys and Lisbon says she's tired and declines.  He calls Van Pelt to tell her and she falls asleep with the killer in their hotel room.  Again it was obvious and once more they're being really lax when they should have been more paranoid.  If the killer is after the entire team/CBI then of course he'll know where everyone is.  Thought Lisbon would have spent some more time with Van Pelt or that she'd be the one in danger, but it had to be Van Pelt cos they're leaving the show as we know.

Thought this was just a routine ep and I know I shouldn't say that cos I have enjoyed most of the eps but it just doesn't seem the same show.  Once again Lisbon and Patrick don't work together and instead of helping them out on this, aside from telling them to narrow down their list and go with their instincts, they could have saved time if Patrick did help out.  I mean won't he also be a target too.  Why don't they utilize him more and why doesn't Lisbon insist on using him more!  She did complain about him going off on his own for two years but now he's returned, it's like she wants him out of her hair!  Was good to see Cho and Rigsby reunited though even if that'll be short lived too, as Cho refuses to let him drive cos he's only a consultant and that's Cho's rule.  But I didn't like the way Patrick kind of acted so cold towards them, if Cho could hug them when they arrived then why couldn't Patty!  Come on he's known them so long and well he couldn't even put down his cup of tea.

There's so much that's changed in the dynamic of the show and characters and not for the better either. Really can't get into watching the show with Fischer playing so big a role, she's not very charismatic and can't charm the pants off Lisbon either!  Not that I'd want her to or anything! Ha. Even Patty's one liners have gone amiss lately! Why did Lisbon not pick Volker as a suspect straightaway after everything they went through and especially her, he does seem the type to exact revenge.  Even Van Pelt didn't get to shoot the killer dead in his tracks but managed to shoot O'Laughlin a bit far fetched, cos it would've ended that storyline quick smart.