Okay, I've got to admit, despite mediocre reviews and echoing silence from my f-list, that I've begun liking The Mentalist. Quite a lot.

I remember watching the pilot and staring a bit helplessly at Simon Baker as Patrick Jane and wondering: What kind of leading man is this? Rather short in comparison, blond curls, a beatific smile, a suit with a vest underneath, an over-the-top oozing of charm, and a devil-may-care attitude hiding a surprising sweetness (or the other way around) - this man didn't exactly fit into the mold of the version of "handsome male" American tv is so fond of. But by the end of the pilot, I'd decided I liked Jane, and was intrigued enough to watch the following episodes. In fact, I started eagerly anticipating them.

Then, around came episode 1x08 "The Thin Red Line", and the smile on my face started to freeze in place. Now, after the final scene in which Jane deposited the orphaned baby girl into her grandparents' arms, I'm afraid I'm quite disgusted.

In order to help people unfamiliar with the show (and/or this particular episode) understand, here's a short recap:

Patrick Jane, a consultant for the California Bureau of Investigation, used to make a living as a self-proclaimed tv celebrity psychic until he insulted a serial killer during his tv show, and said serial killer ("Red John") took his revenge in the form of murdering Jane's wife and daughter. Now, Jane works with Agent Teresa Lisbon and her team, and helps the CBI solve cases by using his extraordinary skills of observation and insight into people's motivations. While Lisbon appreciates his usefulness, she is less than thrilled with his theatrics, narcissism and dangerous lack of boundaries.

In episode 1x08 "The Thin Red Line", Jane and the CBI team are called to a murder scene where Joe Purcell, the State's witness in a drug trial, and his girlfriend, later identified as Patrice Madigan, are found dead in a motel room. Jane, who discovers an empty baby bottle and a bag full of formula (not drugs), is the one to grab the dead girl's car keys, go outside and locate her car by using the remote. Inside, he discovers Patrice's baby daughter. During the course of the investigation, the team finds out that the murder was committed by the young officer who was the first responder, because the young man panicked when, intent on confronting the woman he suspected of being his father's mistress, her boyfriend immediately reached for a gun. Later, he learned that Patrice had, in fact, not been sleeping with Detective Dale Blakely, Sam Blakely's father, but instead had been his illegitimate daughter. Officer Sam Blakely is arrested, and his devastated parents find new hope when Jane brings them their granddaughter who'd otherwise have to go into foster care.

So far, so good.

What turned my stomach, however, was this idiotic turn at the end. During the episode, we learn that Sam Blakely felt quite a bit of resentment towards his father because of his strict upbringing, and thought that his father keeping silent about the existence of his illegitimate half-sister was a violation of the code of truth and honor he'd been held to during his entire adolescence.

Considering that Dale Blakely preferred to cover for his murderous son, even going so far as deny any knowledge of his daughter's identity (if not for Jane, who knows whether Patrice would even have been identified?), any third party would think - for good reason - that he was a horrendous father. Supposedly he had been in at least limited (secret) contact with her, and yet apparently he either didn't know about his granddaughter, didn't think Patrice's baby might be nearby, or otherwise had no scruples about the baby possibly dying of neglect, strapped into an abandoned car.
He was never shown shedding a single tear over her death, and apparently would have just kept silent about the murder without ever confronting or blaming his son for his actions.

That man - and the wife he'd apparently cheated on - are now supposed to be the couple best suited to raise their orphaned granddaughter, with Jane even going so far as telling them that he thinks "Kaylee doesn't rally suit her if you ask me. If you wanna change it, I'm sure no one's gonna make a fuss."

Yeah, sure, take away the only thing the little girl has left of her parents - her very name. I'm sure she'll grow up proper like a Blakely, in honor and truth, as a fourth generation policeman/-woman, with the truth about her parentage (and family history) all hushed up, and regularly accompanying grandpa and grandma to prison for the weekly visit to poor uncle Sam.

She'd be better off in foster care in my opinion.

So, this extra-load-of-sugar-on-top at the end of the episode that's supposed to make everything better? Doesn't. Patrick Jane' blinding smile notwithstanding.

Aside from that, there was an obvious plot hole in the episode. Supposedly Sam Blakely shadowed his half-sister, the suspected mistress, in the hopes she might lead him to his cheating father. Yet somehow he managed to miss that she'd taken along her baby. And believe you me, after watching several couples load their babies - and all their accoutrements - in a car, that is a major production. Baby, possibly a stroller, and a blanket, and emergency baby supplies like diapers, milk, bottles, etc., requires mom (or dad) make at least two trips to the car and/or stumble there loaded up like a pack mule, who'll then be occupied for several long minutes storing everything in the car.

Or else Sam Blakely - after he'd murdered Purcell and Madigan - knew the baby was outside all alone in the car, and yet didn't care.

In the motel room, he might be excused for overreacting when Purcell, all paranoid, pulled a gun on him, but Patrice just had the bad luck of standing a few feet to his side. A police officer who manages to shoot a gunman and an unarmed bystander at the same time, and blames it on "panic", is either a liar or a poster boy for insufficient training. My ass.

What a shitty episode.

You writers of The Mentalist, I'm underwhelmed. Continue in this vein, and I'll have to abandon the show before it even reaches it first season finale.

Morons.