The Mentalist (TV Series) War of the Roses (2012) User Reviews

Erica Flynn Returns

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 10 January 2022]

When the body of the counselor Natalie Gibecki is found in an alley, Patrick Jane suspects that she was going to meet a lover. Out of the blue, Erica Flynn calls Patrick from the prison and tells that she can help him to solve the case since Natalie was her client and confident at her former matchmaking company. Wainwright agrees and she is released under CBI custody. Erica meets Patrick and tells that Natalie was dating a married man and worked also in an NGO directed by Greg Relin that built orphanages in Mexico. While working with Patrick, Erica tries to seduce him.

"War of the Roses" is an episode of "the Mentalist", where the great attraction is the gorgeous and sexy Morena Baccarin performing Erica Flynn. The conclusion recalls "Body Heat" (1981) but is not a surprise. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "War of the Roses"

Ridiculously Implausible

[Peaceful211 · 5/10 · 26 December 2020]

Just two episodes ago, Sarah told Wayne she's pregnant. Suddenly she's "28 weeks". Seven months pregnant that fast? What happened during all this time? The two attend a pregnancy class and Sarah she acts like a silly schoolgirl. She's supposed to be an accomplished attorney with a very tough side in a courtroom, but here she's tongue tied, unable to make yourself clear, and apologizes repeatedly. Yeah, okay. The parallel storyline of a convicted murderer being let out of prison to help with an investigation is so over-the-top and so unbelievable that it ruins the show. I love The Mentalist. I love all of the five main characters. You have to stretch your imagination with this show and suspend disbelief in a big way. But this episode is absurd and just embarrassing. I hope this is just a random glitch and not an indication of things to come.

One of the worst shows ever in this series

[skay_baltimore · 4/10 · 1 January 2021]

I agree with Peaceful211. This show has its share of events that push the limits of suspension of disbelief but this particular episode just goes off the rails. It was insultingly stupid and irredeemable. For the first time it felt like a silly soap opera (the story arc of Wayne and Sarah). And the arc of Jane and Erika was beyond absurd. Some shows don't seem to know how to maintain the high standards that allowed them to rise to the top. This is a glaring example.

"Abusing kids is against the law!!!"

[yavermbizi · 2/10 · 3 January 2022]

My overall rating of "The mentalist"'s Season 4: 4/10.

When it comes to pros of this episode, only the reappearance of the character of Erica Flynn comes to mind (OK, Patrick's final trick is cool if you think about how it's done, but the whole context is stupid and it likely wouldn't have worked in reality). "Every rose has its thorn" was a pretty cool episode, although the central question it posited (whether Jane's denial of his attraction to Erica was clouding his judgement) was a bit lame. I wouldn't say the series exactly needed Erica to return, or that there was anything with her character that was yet to be resolved. She certainly is very charismatic and seductive, so what the hey, but the series has been able to craft perfectly fine new charismatic characters (Lisbon's niece, Summer etc), there's no need to be digging through the attic for cool-but-not-particularly-standout characters from past episodes just yet. The fact that the aforementioned lame idea from "ERHIT" reappears, reformulated by Erica in the exact same words in a different context is... strange, bad writing, but hey, Erica could be saying almost anything and remain absolutely magnetic, bad writing has only so much power.

As for the cons: a huge plurality of the scenes in this episode seem very cringy, lame or illogical. Shout out to the character of Grace Van Pelt, who has been made really annoying this season, for delivering what I believe to be the worst line of Season 4, which makes the title of this review. It's so laughable, I don't know whether it was supposed to be satire of the self-righteous traumatised loose cannon cop archetype they've been shoehorning her in - any more and you'd have to rename her character Bosch! But the next scene has that chemistry between Patrick and Erica, and the latter whole demeanour has got to be worth a point above 1/10. "Oh, yes. That. Would you hate me if I told you I was lying?" Brilliant! That can't possibly have been written by the same person as the prior scene, could it?..