- Title: The Mentalist – My Blue Heaven
- wiki: link
Two years after the events of last week’s episode where Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) caught-up with and killed Red John (Xander Berkeley), “My Blue Heaven” picks up with Jane on a small island with no extradition treaty living a simple life which is interrupted by the separate arrivals of both a beautiful woman and FBI Agent Abbot (Rockmond Dunbar) who each, in their own way, tempt the Mentalist to end his island isolation and return to the real world. We also glimpse in on the lives of various former members of the CBI who have moved on to other interests after Jane’s departure. Although the show will be continuing after this episode, it appears to be the last stop for Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti) and Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) with both actors leaving the show.
Kim Fischer (Emily Swallow) and Jane have good chemistry together during her short stay on the island, something worth building on as the season continues, although I’m surprised Jane never suspected that her motives might not be entirely pleasure-related. As to Abbot and his deal, the show finds a way to get Jane, Lisbon (Robin Tunney), and Cho (Harry Groener) all back to work for the FBI (pending the quibbling over the final agreement that starts to fall apart in the episode’s final scene) and allow Jane to leave his temporary home better than he found it by using Abbott’s presence to take down a local drug dealer (Juan Gabriel Pareja).
It’s unusual for a show to make such a huge change mid-season, but with the new digs at the FBI, new characters to be introduced, the FBI struggling with how the Mentalists works, and a possible love triangle between Jane, Lisbon, and Fischer, the show has opened itself up to several new storylines. I’m sad that Righetti and Yeoman are leaving, but the both characters’ arcs had largely been completed and the episode makes an effort to show both have moved on to a good life together.
