- Title: The Mentalist – Ruddy Cheeks
- wiki: link
The CBI is called in to investigate the murder of a wealthy car salesman diagnosed with terminal cancer whose body was dug up by a tiger after being buried in a shallow grave in an animal sanctuary. The real question for the team is why would someone kill a man with only months to live?
Interviewing the family turns up an estranged son (August Emerson) with a drug problem, a daughter (Haley Ramm) devastated by the loss of her father, and the girl’s step-mother (Rebecca McFarland) who the victim met in a cancer support group. Thanks to one of Jane’s unique investigation techniques (pretending to set the woman’s house of fire) they get the step-mother to prove she’s far less sick than she initially let on. In fact, she doesn’t even have cancer.
Further investigation leads Jane (Simon Baker) and Lisbon (Robin Tunney) to uncover the victim was taking part in an experimental cancer treatment run by a local doctor (Andy Milder) and nurse (Catheryn Brockett) as well as a herbalistic cure the victim had started at a temple run by an obvious con artist calling himself Brother Joseph (Richard Cox). One of the three suspects murdered the man to hide the unexpected side effects of the treatment the victim was receiving, but it’s not the one Jane initially suspects.
In the episode’s B-story Cho’s (Tim Kang) relationship to Summer (Samaire Armstrong) starts to interfere with his work and his addiction to pain medicine almost gets Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) killed. Despite being unable to admit his problem to others he’s still forced to take a hard look at himself and start to make a change.
The murder of the week works well, and it’s always nice to see Jane surprised now and again. We’ll have to see if this wraps up Cho’s story arc or if there’s still further fallout to come.
