The Mentalist - The Red Ponies TV Review
The show begins as the CBI team finds the horse jockey Bill Sutton that has just been murdered. As the team investigates they find a ring lying next to Sutton with a note that says "forgive me". As the CBI looks further into the note the discover that it was intended to be given to Dalinda who was Suttons most recent girlfriend. The two broke up because of Suttons terrible temper. Dalinda mentioned that Bills temper got him in trouble when he beat up a man after a traffic accident which took him out of horse racing for a few years.
Since Sutton's recent release, Cobb Holwell decided to give him another chance at being a winning horse jockey. The Holwell stable had been racing horses for many years and was recently in fierce competition with the Lockhart stable. Frank Lockhart who owned the Lockhart stable would do anything to win and even said that any jockey who raced\rode for Holwell could never ride for his team. Frank wanted to ensure that the racing community knew he was serious about winning, sending Ellis Barnes to scare Sutton out of racing for Cobb.
As the episode unfolds we find out with the help of Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) that there is more to the story than meets the eye. Sam Starks (Olesya Rulin) is introduced to Jane as Sutton's replacement for the upcoming horse race. As Jane befriends Starks he learns more about the horses in Holwell's stable. It turns out the horse that is supposed to run in the big race had a twin horse the Holwell said was the faster of the two horses but wasn't ready to run in a race yet. On a hunch Jane requests the assistance of agent Grace Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti), who is a skilled horse rider and asks her to ride the untamed horse.
As always Jane's hunch was correct and when it was time for the big race Jane tells Howell right before the start of the race that he switched the two horses and bet $10,000 on that horse to win. Confused and upset Howell gets furious with Jane because that was his strategy all along and he had already switched the two horses. Holwell knew that if he could get the odds of the first horse to be bad enough that he could switch the twin horses right before the race and make a ton of money after betting on it. This was just the evidence that Jane needed to accuse Holwell of the murder of Bill Sutton. Jane said that Holwell murdered Sutton because he was too honest to go along with this plan.
Of course Patrick Jane had another trick up his sleeve because he knew Holwell was going to do this, he never really switched the horses, he only said he did. Patrick Jane ended up winning his bet, although the CBI wouldn't let him keep his winnings. The Mentalist: The Red Ponies is yet another great episode to add to their successful three year run.
Fans of The Mentalist should head over to TVTalk.info to find out more about The Mentalist cast, episodes and much more. You can also check out this link if you want to learn more about Simon Baker who plays Patrick Jane.
