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Feb
11

The Mentalist Season 3 Episode 14 Review & Watch: Blood for Blood

ReplyThe Mentalist, TV Series ReviewsFebruary 11th, 2011lawtech

I think it is safe to conclude that “Blood for Blood” is definitely an episode for Grace Van Pelt.

According to TV Fanatic, it seemed odd that she would walk the perimeter of the safe house when she was the only agent guarding the father and child. Shouldn’t there be another CBI members that stays inside? Things definitely didn’t look good for her when she couldn’t recall whether she locked the door.

And that’s when Agent LaRoche of Professional Standards turned up to investigate her. I’m beginning to like LaRoche. He’s just so ominous. He asked Van Pelt if she was feeling anxious. Anxious? Whenever he questions one of our CBI agents, I feel as though they are about to slowly roast over the seventh circle of Hell  His presence is truly intimidating.

What bothered me more was Greg’s input over dinner.  He was encouraging her to wear a wire and rat on her co-workers for LaRoche. His reasoning was that these were her colleagues, not her friends and one of them may be a murderer. I know he’s FBI, not CBI, but what happened to loyalty? These aren’t just colleagues, these are her partners. She puts her life in their hands every day.

Someone did murder Todd Johnson and that person should be caught. But those who are innocent would never trust Grace again if she went through with this plan. Greg’s behavior was peculiar enough to make me wonder if he had something to do with Todd’s death.

Meanwhile, I enjoyed Jane’s interaction with Trina. Maybe it’s because he lost his own daughter or perhaps it’s because he never talks down to kids, but I always like the way Jane handles children. He appears much more comfortable with them than with most adults.

Lisbon’s struggle over whether or not to arrest Trina was valid. Personally, I’m with Jane on this one  I think she’s been through enough, but as a law enforcement officer Lisbon took an oath to uphold the law. That said, I was still happy she let the poor girl go and I adored Jane’s gleeful expression when she did.

So what do you think of this Van Pelt centered episode?

You can also check The Mentalist Season 3 Reviews and Spoilers HERE.

  • Rinn

    I’ve been enjoying watching this series (long after it’s release, I realize) on Amazon Prime. However, as you note …

    “According to TV Fanatic, it seemed odd that she would walk the perimeter of the safe house when she was the only agent guarding the father and child”

    No kidding! It’s more than odd. It’s ludicrous. I hate it when lazy writers choose to set up subsequent drama with nothing more than sheer stupidity.

    Not only is Grace presumably the only agent guarding the pair on a night when the marshal she is there to relieve notes they’ve had some indication someone might “try something” that evening. When she hears a suspicious sound, without calling for backup, she leaves the pair under her protection to go outside and investigate. Security is only as good as its weakest link, so whether she locks the door or not, if she’s the only agent on site, alone in the dark, and carrying the key, that makes her one incredibly weak link indeed.

    Only after she’s been knocked unconscious and recovers does she even think to place a call for assistance, now that it’s far too late.

    The whole episode is predicated upon a series of utterly stupid things that would simply never happen with trained officers in a witness protection situation.

    For me, flaws like this one go far beyond the largely forgivable technical errors shows such as this one are apt to make from time to time. When the setup for the entire episode depends entirely on a series of impossibly stupid decisions (or in other words, on not merely shoddy, but unforgivably lazy writing), I tend to find any supposed “drama” that ensues too painfully ludicrous to bother watching. I think I’ll be giving the rest of episode 14 a skip at this point. I do hope the writers didn’t pull a whole lot more of this sort of nonsense in the later seasons.