The Mentalist - Blood in, Blood out, S02E14

I was SO happy that we finally got a Cho-centric episode of The Mentalist. I so often feel like Kimball Cho (Tim Kang) is not used to full effect, but in this episode, not only did we get to enjoy his subtle and to-the-point attitude for the entire episode, we also got to see the violence that is, has been, and always will be a huge part of his personality.

We started on a happy note, finally meeting Elise (Sandrine Holt), Cho's girlfriend; what a perfect start to a revelation about the inner working of Kimball Cho. The happiness did not last, as, instead of taking the lovely woman to a restaurant where they had reservation, Cho went instead to find the corpse of a member of his former gang, a man whom he compared to a brother.

Now, it would not be The Mentalist if Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) did not start meddling. Insisting on going with Cho from the beginning, we knew that there would always be a witness to Cho's actions, preventing him from giving into his former "Iceman" days, at least, not too much.

Yet, much as I loved this episode, and loved Cho for every minute - I nearly died when Jane asked him what he did to make his former gang leader so angry, and Cho simply replied "I shot him," in his flat, straight-forward way - there were some major flaws.

In the scene where Cho and Elise were attacked, there was a fair amount of awkwardness of movement that neither showed us what was actually going on or gave us a clear picture of what we were intended to think was going on before we went into the commercial break.

And the last scene, with the big reveal and discovery of the murderer was also a little contrived. It started well, with Cho giving into his anger, but neither Jane nor Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) backed up the sentiment. When the impression was given that Cho had shot the man who refused to tell him what he wanted to know, suddenly the situation stopped escalating. The energy dropped to a point where they were all far too calm. The only thing that really redeemed this moment was when Cho punched out the murderer in the end.

Still, I want more episodes like this. More episodes where we actually get to see Cho at home. And more of Lisbon (Robin Tunney) too. Naturally, we get plenty of Jane. And with Rigsby and Grace (Amanda Righetti)'s relationship, we see a fair amount of them not fully invested in their CBI personae. But Cho and Lisbon let that mask slip far less frequently, and much as I love that part of their character, I want to know them a little better all the same.

What were your thoughts?