The Mentalist – The Red Tattoo

• Title: The Mentalist – The Red Tattoo
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The CBI is called in to solve the murder of a prominent member of Visualize who was killed in his locked hotel room. The case also brings in the cult’s head of security, and one of Jane‘s (Simon Baker) remaining five Red John suspects, Ray Haffner (Reed Diamond) as an observer. As Lisbon (Robin Tunney) sits down with Visualize’s second-in-command Jason Cooper (Robert Picardo), Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) investigates a nearby car-jacking that looks to be tied to the murder, and Jane and Cho (Harry Groener) head to the dead gymnastic coach’s gym to talk with his students, their parents, and the dead man’s partner (Ray Abruzzo) who hated the victim’s connection to the cult.

Lisbon and Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti) talk to Haffner about his connection to the dead former gym employ found with the murder weapon but neither quite likes his answers. Both are also slightly weirded out by his warning and premonition that something bad would befall Jane in the near future (the same thing the former CBI agent told the Mentalist earlier that day). While not working on the case Risby also looks into the official story of Robert Kirkland (Kevin Corrigan) being shot while trying to avoid custody which also rings more than a little false to the CBI agents.

Jane eventually solves the unusual double-murder, but is too slow to prevent another. Earlier in the episode Cho was hit on by an attractive woman (Leverage‘s Beth Riesgraf) whom Jane immediately pegs as a private investigator hired to dig up dirt on the CBI. As Jane considers the situation he begins to realize the young woman wasn’t hired by Visualize but by Red John. Although the police don’t arrive soon enough to prevent the young woman’s murder, she doesn’t die before giving Jane one more valuable piece of information to possibly narrow his suspect pool even further.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Riesgraf in the episode but sad to see a potential new love interest for Cho (she certain fits his type) exit so quickly. Armed with what he thinks is the final piece of the puzzle, Jane is set to confront the remaining suspects. However, Haffner’s warning seems to suggest that the Mentalist might have been played and it may be possible that Jane is not be as close to identifying the serial killer who murdered his wife and daughter as he thinks.