The Mentalist – Season 1, Episode 17 – Carnelian Inc. – air date 8/27/09. In this episode Jane and the CBI team are investigating a written threat they have received when the director of Carnelian Inc. falls out of the sky at Jane’s feet during a sky diving exercise. (A little background here – Jane has dragged the team out into the middle of the desert to see what the threat in the letter they received was all about. At the specified time – nothing has happened. Then they hear a noise –the plane – and then the body crashes down into the earth.)

I have reviewed this episode before, but I thought that I would do so again, now that I have seen more episodes of the Mentalist. Important things come out when you see an episode a number of times – one of which is the relations between the characters. Here we see the tension between Jane and Lisbon, Regisby’s stoic nature, Cho’s sense of doing what is right, and Jane’s ability to make light of just about anything. A recurring theme in this episode is Jane bringing a picnic lunch to crime scenes!

The relations between the guest characters – those that make up the Carnelian Inc. company – is also interesting. They have a high powered, arrogant company owner, an each of them have an agenda of their own. At one point Jane does short character sketches of each of them – much to their chagrin and his amusement!

There is a second death (during a paint fighting exercise), with the victim being the owner’s girlfriend. Then a bomb is found under his bed – but it doesn’t go off. Then the owner of the ranch they are all staying at is thought to be the perpetrator of the crimes – as the second death involved a bullet that he won at a rodeo years ago.

And … the company owner is making a big deal out of apologizing to the public for the arrogance of the company, and promising to turn over a new leaf. He never gets a chance to do so – he is the one that murdered two of his own people!

To get a lighter sentence, Jane talks him into writing a check for $500,000 to a young man that he refused to pay an incentive bonus to when he took over the company the man was working at. This is extremely important, as the man eventually was fired for standing up for himself, losing the necessary health care he needed for a sick wife.

I love this show – every time I see a repeat of an episode, I appreciate Jane’s skill at finessing more and more!