The Mentalist (TV Series) Bloodshot (2009) User Reviews

Blind Jane

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 1 December 2021]

The CBI receive a message informing that there is a hidden bomb somewhere and challenging Patrick Jane to find the bomb. When he deciphers the message, he finds a man handcuffed inside a van with the message "you are the next" marked on his forehead. However, it is too late to save the man, but the explosion temporarily blinds Patrick. Meanwhile Grace Van Pelt is dating the lawyer Dan Hollenbeck and Wayne Rigsby is jealous. While Lisbon and Cho are investigating the suspect of planting the bomb, Rigsby, Van Pelt and Patrick discover who he is.

"Bloodshot" is another great episode of "The Mentalist". This time, with Patrick Jane blind, the story has another dynamics since he does not participate of the investigation. The conclusion is very satisfactory, with Lisbon making the day. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Bloodshot"

Patrick is blinded and Grace gets a boyfriend

[Tweekums · 9/10 · 25 November 2017]

In the opening scenes Jane notices that Grace is with a man she appears to be close to as he walks into the CBI building. Soon afterwards he gets a phone call warning that there is a large bomb near the building. They evacuate and soon he finds a van in the car park which contains a bomb; also in the van is a man with 'You're Next' written on his forehead. With the timer indicating that the bomb will go off in a matter of seconds there is no time to save the man. Jane barely gets away from the explosion and the blast leaves him unable to see. He is assured that it is only temporary but he is a poor patient and soon leaves hospital. Jane is convinced that the killer will be targeting him next so the team work to find somebody connected to both Jane and the dead man. By the time the killer is identified Jane, Van Pelt and Rigsby are in real danger!

I found this to be a really good episode; the opening scenes were more shocking than usual as we see the bomb victim's terrified last moments. Having Jane blinded served to raise the tension as he is obviously more vulnerable; it also managed to provide some humour as he gets the others to help him with various things. The central mystery is good as it provides an excuse to look at some of Jane's past activities which clearly damaged lives. The side story involving Grace's new boyfriend and Rigsby's inevitable jealousy is solidly handled and ultimately proves to be more important to the story than one might have initially expected. There are more very tense moments towards the end as Rigsby is incapacitated and Jane and Van Pelt flee for their lives… with Jane trying to drive while blind! The cast does a fine job; Simon Baker is on great form as the blinded Jane and Amanda Righetti and Owain Yeoman stand out as Van Pelt and Rigsby. Overall a really solid episode.

*spoiler alert* - Episode with fantastic premise that stays short of its potential

[petra-quilitz · 9/10 · 2 May 2011]

I'm all for this episode with one of the best premises: the guy who sees all can't see. It stays true to formula with the usual amount of incredible happenings, but because of the good premise, it works better than the others, which for me explains the high ratings.

One thing hurts in this pot: The Blindness should have been psychological. (Not wanting to see any more when someone gets killed through him), not just caused by blood clots. Jane experiencing temporary blindness when under stress could have been a nice element to pick up and repeat when the chase for Red John increases in tension in the coming episodes and seasons. Great character building potential that is lost here.

Then there were two little weird things: -Rigsby observes Jane in length as Jane drinks Rigsby's tea. Why do that unless you mixed something into it. Just "picky Jane likes his tea a certain way" seemed a weak motive for the long stare -During Janes client session flashback 1, he empties both water glasses into the sand. Just anger or did he mix something in it? That remains unclear as well.

Then there was a moment where Jane was unusually dumb: In the client flashback 1 on the beach in Malibu he explains: Your mother forgives you" And the woman replies: "But I did everything for her". So Jane's bluff didn't work. The clever Jane would have come back with "She forgives you for not living your live but wasting it on her", instead of just looking dumb into the camera.

And something that really bothered me about the otherwise great collapse of Jane at the mid point: It raises the stakes, but there is no story reason. His earlier memory of being a jerk to one of his clients could have been a start point for a little flashback sequence of 3 or 4 '"Jane as arrogant mentalist" scenes (including his TV appearance leading to his wife's death), showing him making arrogant hand gestures etc. Then the last cut of him seeing his wife, the moment that drained all arrogance from him. That, and then him getting up and then collapsing. That would have been an exceptional emotional moment. What a wasted potential in this scene.

8.4? Seriously, people?

[ttapola · 5/10 · 17 December 2009]

At the time of writing, 93 people (excluding myself since it takes time for the vote to register) have rated this episode 8.4 out of 10. Well, it's not. *Really.* I'm a fan of "The Mentalist" and this episode is way overrated by a small bunch of hardcore fans who seem unable to rate it objectively (even though rating episodes is just as easy as with movies, an average IMDb user has yet to start regularly rate every episode of every series they watch like I do). I'm hoping that as time goes on, the rating goes down. Meanwhile, I'll just vent my frustration by pointing out some of the problems here.

First: The bomb. How convenient that Jane finds it *just* early enough to receive the "message" but too late to save the man next to it. A gorgeous explosion doesn't save this set-up from implausibility.

Second: Van Pelt's new interest Dan. What a player he must be! Though he is a raving lunatic, he manages to get Van Pelt interested in him. Jane's comment in the end that Van Pelt hails from a state known for its gullible women doesn't save this set-up from implausibility.

Third: Just playing time in the middle section to make the episode full-length, wasting such actors as Rick Worthy (Battlestar Galactica's Simon) and the seemingly ageless Tamlyn Tomita (where has she *not* guest starred?) in overlong scenes.

Four: Dan could have been waiting that the working hours end and maybe he conveniently sees that Lisbon and Cho also leave. But what a handy coincidence for both things to happen at the same time!

Five: When Van Pelt hangs up on Lisbon, Lisbon doesn't seem to realize that something is wrong, yet though we are shown the following events roughly in real time, which takes 5 minutes of screen time, she miraculously arrives just in time to save the day!

Six: The shootout between Dan and the guard locking the place up: maybe a minute later we see an unconcerned guy driving past Dan when leaving the parking lot. Is he deaf? Even more shooting follows, but the man's inclusion in the scene is just pointless, since he serves no purpose. I wonder if the writers had Dan leave both the guard and the man in the car alive on purpose, since his beef is *only* with Jane, or was it unintentionally logical when pretty much else is carelessly illogical?

Seven: The clichéd interrupted kiss. Sure, nobody walks in when Dan is beating the crap out of Rigsby, but when the poor man is about to receive some comfort for his pains, Overused Cliché #565 (made that up) naturally manifests. C'mon! This is the new millennium, can't writers everywhere just stop using that?

Bottom line: standard, middle-of-the-curve professionally executed but poorly written episode. We deserve better.

Why set BS to 11?

[WillTellU · 3/10 · 13 December 2019]

Can not believe the high rating. While I really like the show. This one has the things happen because the writer says so is normally bs. But this one also had so many things that make it a terrible episode.

1- They find the bomb just fast enough to see the guy die but "not save him". This could of done it by having only 5 seconds left and then theu start to run but no instead they had PLENTY of time to save him but someone a train police office does not know how to get into a van. Is not like she had a gun, and other objects that could brake a window. No she was an idiot that did not know what to do.

2- Lots of things happening because of writer said so (coincidence are too many to waste my time). Like him getting introduce to Jane when most people were out.

3- So this "bad guy" trained with the Navy Seals because he could fight and disable a train police officer.

4- So he can out-shoot a trained police officer that is assigned to guard the poilce station after getting kick hard enough to go down but he could not kill anyone in the gate away SUV after they stopped cause they crashed..

5- So the when does vehicles stop working after simple fender benders.

6- He gains sight once the writer needs it (at the end).

I liked the bs at the mentalist it is entertaining, but my limit in a scale from 1 to 10 is 10 as long as there is a great reason for the story, but the writer (or writers) dialed it to 11. It is insulting and annoying.

Below average episode

[jtnunley · 3/10 · 13 April 2022]

Monk did this episode's premise, but better. Overall a boring episode that goes nowhere, which is really the worst thing that a show like this can do. If you're rewatching, skip this one.

Confused by this weak episode

[CrimeDrama1 · 1/10 · 14 April 2022]

Let me get this straight, a killer is playing games with Patrick Jane but no one ever mentions Red John? Why not? Why wouldn't he be a suspect? The prime suspect? Oh, the "showrunners" decided to only include Red John in each season finale in the early seasons. It turns out that the killer in this episode has a motive very similar to that of Red John, Jane's past as a pseudo psychic but yet no one mentions his name.

I find it really strange that Jane didn't solve this case. He didn't have to look any further than himself. The episode description on DirecTV was misleading. It made me think that even though Jane lost his sight he still solves the case but he actually doesn't. At least one of the primary characters (agents) should have died in this episode. Why is Dan being careful inside police headquarters when his goal is to kill Jane? I don't believe his plan was to kidnap Van Pelt and Jane. He knew she was there. What was the plan, exactly? I don't buy the long pause Dan has as he points his gun at Van Pelt and Jane. The producers should have made sure the timing of Lisbon's shot was realistic. Also, Jane shoots Dan with Van Pelt and Jane in the immediate background? Not that she would miss but there have been plenty of documented shooting injuries and deaths resulting from bullets passing through one person into another. That probably goes against tactical training at every level so it's not believable.

If Van Pelt didn't look into Dan's background on her own then I guess she really is gullible but my take is the writers are making a law enforcement officer look stupid. I don't like it when crime drama writers do that. I hope this episode is an anomaly.