The Mentalist 4x03: Pretty Red Balloon

Original Air Date: 6 October 2011

Storyline: When the son of a former client from Jane's days as a psychic is kidnapped, Jane and the CBI team are asked to help find him. Meanwhile, Jane butts heads with his former client's new "spiritual advisor."Best Quote:

Lisbon: You heard her. You gave her hope.
Jane: I didn't give her hope. I sold her hope.
Lisbon: I think hope is worth it at any price.
Jane: What, are you running for office now?
Lisbon: Okay, you know what? (chuckles) Uh, you're a wicked charlatan and you're going to hell then.
Jane: That's more like it. I'll save you a seat by the fire.

Jane's Logic: Well, um... being held not far from home. Uh, the police shut down the roads immediately after Connor's abduction. The lake... there's always a body of water nearby, always. Trees, leaves, earth... there was, uh, white fir pollen found at, uh, at the bus stop, and where could you hide anyone in a forest? Hunting blind, hence the gunpowder, and I was watching Jonathan's face the whole time. I could see whenever my guesses landed.Review: I welcomed the step back from the Red John fiasco like I welcome a cup of hot chocolate on a rainy day. Incidentally, today is a rainy day. I also welcomed Kelli Williams in the role of Jane's ex-client and distressed mother. She's an excellent actress whom I've admired in both The Practice and Lie to Me and in the various guest roles I've seen her in.

The best episodes are those when Jane faces off someone who challenges him, and pair that with his psychic past coming to haunt him and the story suddenly becomes extremely entertaining. Beth Flint, a former client, asks him and the team to investigate the abduction of her son, thinking Jane is a psychic and he can sense where her son is. He almost gives up on the investigation because his past might get in the way, but when he finds out Beth had a new "spiritual adviser", he sticks around with the purpose of convincing her that there are no such things as psychics.
After the investigation initially leading to a serial killer who abducted young boys and then killed them 12 hours afterwards, Jane figures out that the real culprit had a desire to be the hero in Beth's eyes and stages an impressive performance by faking contact with the boy, showing Nate Glass, the psychic, how a reading is really done.
It was definitely fun to see Jane's old life coming back to haunt him again. I'm always amazed that there are people who actually believe in psychics (and it always cracks me up that Van Pelt insists her cousin Yolanda is the real deal). Patrick's hair in his con days always cracks me up, personally I'd never trust a person who wears that much hair product.
Kelli Williams was superb in this episode and portrayed the distressed mother perfectly. I've never understood her being so underrated, we're seeing a lot of so-called actresses who couldn't express emotion if their life depended on it and great ones are only getting TV gigs. 
Lisbon and Jane are definitely in a very comfortable relationship with one another. We still get to see her facial expressions reflecting frustration or just plain resignation at his actions, but it's great to see that she goes along with his stunts without questioning them anymore. But their banter is still the best thing about their relationship and I'm glad to see that was not given up on. The opening scene, with Lisbon trying to make Jane go to a budget protocols seminar (which sounds so boring, I'm surprised Patrick was the only one protesting it) and Van Pelt's amusement at their arguing was deliciously fun.
Speaking of Van Pelt, she did seem to enjoy killing Brady Walton, despite telling Rigsby she was just messing with him. Maybe it's her way of dealing with O'Laughlin's betrayal, but how far will she go with this?
Great episode and, as I said, I enjoyed Red John's absence a lot. I'm glad to see this show hasn't lost its touch and continues to give us good entertainment.The Mentalist 4x02: Little Red Book Back to Season 4