The Mentalist – ReCap – Season 1, Episode 13 – Paint It Red – air date 8/13/09. In this episode Jane recovers a $50 million stolen painting, and gives some sage advice about parenting. All the while dealing with a Russian mobster and a self-made “man of industry” that isn’t too connected to reality.

The show begins with the finding of a dead body – by two people who should never have been in the room in the first place, and one of whom deliberately turned off the security cameras! (Yes, he lost his job over this.) So we have one dead body (son-in-law of the paintings owner), and one missing painting.

Jane nicely points out that the body has been dragged – and that the reason the body was dragged is so that it would not be found in the room where it was killed – which is really a room the two people who found the body would not have had a reason to be in, under any circumstances.

We move on to Jane speaking with the dead man’s wife (the daughter of the paintings owner) – a very unassuming young lady (who knew a ponytail could look so chic!), who tells Jane that her husband worked “special projects” for her father – in other words, anything her father wanted him to, in order to “prove himself”.

Then there is the woman who is in charge of purchasing artwork for the self-made man. I loved this character – very “self important”, as one would think someone in this position would be. However, she did throw out a hint as to who would be in a position to be interested enough in the painting to steal – a Russian mobster who just happens to be in town.

Jane checks into the dead man’s past, which includes six months prison time served in Canada for a theft conviction. He also finds out about $20,000 worth of checks written out to a company no one knows anything about. Jane and Van Pelt go to the area that the check was from, and find an artist studio that matches the name on the check. Going in as customers, they end up having a shotgun drawn on them, only to find out that the artist does ‘duplicate paintings” – not exactly forgeries, because he is doing the paintings for the people that legally own them. He did two copies o the painting that was stolen.

At this point, Jane (behind Lisbon’s back) goes with Cho and Rigsby to visit the Russian mobster. He cons his way in to actually see the painting, and gives the signal to Cho and Rigsby, who then pull the fire alarm. Of course, Jane does a switch and comes out with the real painting!

Segue to the office of the painting’s owner, who is happy to see the painting, and could care less if the person who shot his son-in-law is arrested. Jane takes him to task for not respecting his daughter’s feelings, and tosses the painting into the fire in the fireplace. Everyone reacts except the woman that recommended that the painting’s owner purchase it. This, it would seem, is because she knows that the painting in front of them is a forgery. She has the real painting in her possession, and she is the person who killed the son-in-law.

I did like the ending, where the father thanks Jane for taking him to task about his relationship with his daughter. I love this show, and have a hard time waiting for the next episode!