The Mentalist – ReCap – Season 1, Episode 8 – The Thin Red Line – aired 7/23/09. Jane and the CBI team are called to investigate the murder of a State’s witness in a drug trial. The victim is found in a motel room, with a second body, that of a young woman (Patrice Madigan), at his side. A very young policeman is the first person on the scene.

A nice sub-plot to this episode is that the local police and the CBI must work together. The local police are working with the premise that the drug dealer that the victim was going to testify against (Rick Carass) did the shooting. One of the two local policemen is a very arrogant, aggressive man who is very easy to dislike! The other one is the father of the young policeman that answered the call.

Jane seems to think that the girl (Patrice) may have actually been the intended victim, as she was only there to deliver some food, and she had left her baby in her car. This pits him directly against Mr. Arrogant Policeman!

Using the address found on a magazine in the female victims car, Jane pays a visit. Her roommate is home, and tells Jane that the Patrice did not work, but that she always had money. She went on to describe a man that came to see the Patrice, and the car that he drove. When asked why she did not offer to take care of the child the night before, she stated that she had been drinking, and the Patrice did not feel that her child would be safe with her. She said that Patrice was a very good mother.

Both teams act on information about the whereabouts of Rick Carass’ hideout. Jane, in the background, places a cement block in front of a gate so that it will not open. Carass runs into the gate hard enough to be knocked back onto the ground. At the end of the interrogation Jane and Teresa come to the conclusion that Carass did not do the killing.

Mr. Arrogant Policeman (Detective Presiado) is also called in for questioning. There is the thought that he might have been Patrice’s boyfriend/benefactor. However, he was sleeping on his partner’s couch on the night of the shooting. Jan grabs Presiado’s wrist several times during the interrogation. Presiado’s pulse indicated that there was something “not quite right” about his story/

The next person to be visited in the wife of Presiado’s partner, Detective Blakely. She confirms that Presiado did stay there overnight, and did not leave. Her son is present, and resents being asked to leave the room during the interrogation. Blakely’s wife defends her husband’s partner, saying that she does not believe that he was having an affair with Patrice. When Jane asks her if Presiado could be covering for someone else, she becomes quite agitated. When her husband comes home, she begins yelling at him.

In the end, it is determined that her husband was not having an affair with Patrice. In fact, Patrice was his daughter, something he only found out about four years before, when her mother was dying. Blakely’s wife had been suspicious, and had asked her son if his father was having an affair. The son found out about Patrice, but still thought she was having an affair with his father. He trailed her to the motel, and pounded on the door. He expected to see his father, but who he saw was the state’s witness. The witness thought he was going to kill him, so he drew his gun. In the ensuing melee, both the state’s witness and the girl were killed. Blakley’s son did not know what to do, so he closed the door and left. Because he was the closest patrol car, he was called to investigate the shooting.

The final scene shows Jane bringing the baby to the Blakely’s house, for them to raise. I did find this a bit strange, as it was presented as a “solution” to the difficulty that the husband and wife were having with their son in jail. Why on earth would she want to raise the child of the child of one of her husband’s affairs?