- Title: The Mentalist – Violets
- wiki: link
When Jane (Simon Baker) decides to loan the unit out to help another FBI agent (Pedro Pascal) catch a gang of murdering art thieves every member finds a role to play in an elaborate con involving misdirection, stolen art, Cho punching a suspect in a crowded bar, and a marching band. The team only knows a small fraction of the overall plan to entrap the leader of the crew (Charles Mesure), which is revealed to them as it is to the audience, by first using Abbot (Rockmond Dunbar), Fischer (Emily Swallow), Cho, and Lisbon (Robin Tunney) to bait one of his subordinates (Sean McGowan) and offer the crew a job too good to pass up.
Even Wiley (Joe Adler) gets into things, first as the over-enthused eyes and ears of the operation letting each actor know when to take the stage and later as a taxi driver who delivers their suspect to his hideout which includes more than enough evidence to put him away for the rest of his natural life.
Of all the post-Red John episodes “Violets” is by far the most entertaining as even Abbot and Fisher get into the act blindly following Jane’s lead as he pulls the puppet strings to steer their mark into incriminating himself not only in armed robbery and kidnapping but leading the FBI straight to evidence that will put him away for murder. Jane’s stunts are often the most entertaining pieces of episodes, and this entire episode is built around one allowing the Mentalist to get in some proper gloating before the end. The episode also introduces a possible new love interest for Lisbon, shaking up the status quo a little more following Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti) and Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) leaving for good.
