10/17/2009
TV: The Mentalist:: 1 comments: by Greg Guro
Jane and company encounter a violent motorcycle gang called the “Sinner Saints.” Despite a great chase scene, this is not a very good episode.
This episode exists in a vacuum. There is likely nothing in it that will matter in future episodes. As such, there is little in this episode that reflects past episodes.
The show begins with a well-dressed male body found in the woods. The man is still wearing an expensive looking motor-cycle wheel cufflink. His ear is wearing a telephone head-set. Jane (Simon Baker) puts the headset on, say’s “home” into it, and then hands the device to Lisbon (Robin Tunney).
The next scene shows the distraught family of the victim, Gordon Hodge (Tom Adams). Hodge’s son, Lucas (Jesse James) and wife Nina (The always excellent Julia Campbell) are consoling one another. It is learned that Gordon Hodge was an attorney, and his only clients were a biker gang (or, motorcycle club) named the “Sinner Saints.” Gordon kept confidentiality to an extreme, telling his family nothing of his work, and not having a secretary.
Eventually, Lisbon and Jane end up at a Biker Bar the “Sinner Saints” use as a sort of clubhouse. The bikers act tough, refusing to even show who their leader is, but Jane seeks him out as a man playing pool. Jane then plants a seed of mistrust, asking if there is an informant. This is a method Jane has used in the past, asking about something that is tantalizing, yet, doesn’t exist.
When Lisbon and Jane leave the Biker Bar, they come across a woman being dragged, screaming “murder!” Upon arriving back at the station, the CBI agents learn that the victim was involved in drugs, in particular meth and cocaine. It is also learned that a woman named Constance communicated several times with Gordon Hodge, including the night of the murder. Lisbon and agent Grace Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti) go to the Biker Bar again, but in the parking lot they see Constance leaving on a motorcycle. One of the better chase scenes ensues, with Righetti showing a never say die attitude as she races a motorbike with her SUV. Eventually Righetti cuts off Constance, and she is brought back to the station for questioning. There it is learned Constance was having an affair with Gordon Hodge. Later on, it is discovered that both Hodge’s wife and son knew about the affair, but both claim it to have been over.
Later, Kimball Cho (Tim Kang) and Wayne Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) enter Gordon Hodge’s office. They find that it has been ransacked. On a white interior door, someone has scrawled, in crimson, “Burn in Hell!” A security tape shows Felicia Guthrie (Molly Price), the same woman who was seen being dragged at the Biker Bar’s parking lot, breaking into the office. Guthrie was angry at Hodge, because he was an attorney for the bikers, and she believes his work set his brother’s murderer free.
Upon Jane’s advice, Guthrie is set free and surveillance is placed on her. She is an impulsive woman with anger problems, and is likely to make a mistake. While waiting outside her house in a vehicle, Cho and Rigsby notice multiple motorcycle lights headed towards them. The two officers get out of their car and take position in the center of the road outside Guthrie’s home, pointing their guns at the biker gang. The gang then leaves the premises.
Later there are multiple police outside Guthrie’s house. Jane walks near her trash bin, and tosses something inside. Moments later Rigsby checks it, and finds the missing motorcycle cufflink. It actually turns out to be the same cufflink found on the victim; Jane “borrowed” it from evidence control. There is then a scene at the station, where Hodge’s Lucas and Nina are told to wait to make a witness statement. The police have Guthrie handcuffed, and are taking her away for the murder. Lucas can’t allow this to happen, and confesses to the murder. He was student driving with his father, and he took away his cell phone. He heard Constance on the other line, and knew his father was still cheating on the family. In a fit of rage, he killed his father and left.
The episode ends with Jane tying up a loose end. He calls the leader of the biker gang, the one suspected of murder, to come over to the parking lot. There in the shadows he hands him an envelope then descends back into darkness. We then watch as other biker members confront their leader. He shows them the envelope, and it’s full of money. They accost him, and we see entering a car with Ms. Guthrie.
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Posted by Angela Wilson on 11/04/2009, 08:44 AM
They had the two officers stand in the middle of the street to confront the biker gang? That STILL makes me laugh. Seriously, if they were tough guys, they’d just run right over the cops without a thought.
Thanks for the review!