- Title: The Mentalist – Il Tavolo Bianco
- wiki: link
Under the pretense of trying Jane (Simon Baker) for the murder of Red John, the FBI sets up a sting to investigate the members of a grand jury who recently let a mob boss (Jonathan LaPaglia) walk on murder charges. Jane’s trial gives the Mentalist an unique opportunity to observe each member of the panel, and even attempt to engage with the directly, although the prosecutor (Merle Dandridge), who isn’t clued in on the truth of the matter, is less than pleased with Jane’s trademark antics.
When Jane comes to the conclusion that the prosecutor, rather than any members of the grand jury, are responsible for the mobster’s acquittal of the murder of a college kid whose online gambling site was cutting into his profits the team’s focus changes as they delve back into the original case. Fischer (Emily Swallow) talks with the victim’s mother (Alison Martin), and Jane goads the mobster into putting a contract on the Mentalist after Jane publicly hits on the man’s fiance (Brianne Davis) and humiliates the mobster in his own club.
With the rest of the team on the sting and going over the evidence of the previous trial, Cho (Harry Groener) continues looking into the human trafficking ring and search for Daniela’s (Zuleyka Silver) missing sister and the other girls. Wiley (Joe Adler), who also makes an important discovery on Jane’s case, helps by tracking the blood type kits the traffickers were using on their victims which eventually leads Cho and Abbot to an abandoned clinic which someone has put back into production to harvest the girls’ organs. And till without an answer for Marcus Pike (Pedro Pascal) about going to D.C. with him, Lisbon (Robin Tunney) does finally get a response out of Jane (even if it does take most of the episode).
While underscoring the terms of the deal allowing Jane to work for the FBI (which hadn’t been brought up in several episodes) the opening of the episode is enjoyable, even if none of it is for real. Jane’s emotional plea to close the episode also works well in a brief bit of bravo-less honesty from the character. In-between I’m happy to see Wiley being further incorporated into the episodes and it appears as if this human trafficking storyline will continue far longer than I expected (perhaps through the season finale).
