“The Mentalist” – “Bloodsport” Episode

In the 1/6/11 “Bloodsport” episode of “The Mentalist” was one where an undercurrent involving Agent Rigsby continued to emerge. In fact, the mystery of the arson assertion for me began to overtake the primary episodic storyline. The reporter’s death, her father’s understandable grief and heart attack (broken heart), and the fight-fixing story line are pretty old. But we’ve come to like Rigsby and yet, maybe I missed something, but I did not know he had a criminal for a father. And the investigation is taking on a life of its own as storyline.

The character JJ LaRoche has been cast in a way that makes him easy to dislike (no offense to the actor either). Rigsby is an affable character, one that we’ve come to like. Maybe we do not “love” him, but I am willing to bet we like him better than LaRoche. At the same time, I found myself angry that the Rigsby storyline ended up pushing Agent Cho to lie to support Rigsby’s fake alibi. I began to spin the inevitable outcome of this thread. So is Rigsby dirty? Are we going to meet his father? His father can’t be Red John, or can he? Is there some connection between the dad and Red John … or to other characters? Is there a personal relationship between LaRoche and dad – he seems overzealous and his assertions far-reaching. Does he have a history with Rigsby or someone else in the CBI office? And why does this investigation seem to be excluding Agent Lisbon and most other members of the CBI staff – just now including Cho? How long is this storyline going to be running through the weekly episodes?

Ultimately I concluded that I just can not imagine Rigsby is genetically corrupt because of the sins of his father. And some relationship to other main characters appears to be a stretch for the storyline. The show is successful enough that I do not think they need to “jump the shark”, yet.

Patrick Jane’s role in the “Bloodsport” episode was more of comic relief. While sympathetic with the victim’s father, he ended up being more of a manipulator than mind reader/mentalist. Ultimately, the tired storyline played out and the culprits were identified and the scheme unfolded. Agent Cho was his typical stiff, unemotional interviewer and Teresa Lisbon got her man (or men, in this case).

Still, I wait to understand the Rigsby line … what was this episode about again?