The Mentalist 4X7: Blinking Red Light
Added 2025-10-15 18:00:10 +0000 UTCThe team finds the body of 19-year old Michelle Carp in a park with her throat slit neatly, hands and feet carefully tied by wire, and pebbles from the crime scene on her eyes. The method fits four other murders with all victims being teenaged girls dumped in random locations.
Jane urges Lisbon to use her instincts, and she chooses to focus on suspect Richard Haibach, a photographer reported for loitering outside high schools.
Dubbed as the San Joaquin Killer (SJK), Jane watches Karen Cross (Missi Pyle) interview Special Agent Wainwright and a blogger James Panzer (David Paymer), who has devoted his life to capturing the SJK. SJK's first victim, Molly Maier, lived in Panzer's neighborhood; he is hoping his exhaustive research will identify the killer.
Meanwhile, Lisbon and the others break Haibach's alibi and find his darkroom full of suggestive photos of scantily clad teenagers. None of Haibach's photos match any of the dead girls. The photography is not illegal, and Haibach is released.
Jane meets with Panzer and asks him to take him to meet Molly’s parents. In Molly's room, Jane finds a DVD of her dancing to Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World”.
Jane looks around Panzer's office and finds an iPod with “What a Wonderful World” on it. The two disagree over SJK's character and motive, with Panzer insisting SJK is to be feared when Jane thinks it is cry for attention.
Later, a sixth SJK victim is found. Based on Molly's DVD and his reading of Panzer, Jane announces to Lisbon and Wainwright that Panzer is the killer and promises to catch him by morning before Agent Susan Darcy (Catherine Dent) of the FBI takes over.
Jane asks Lisbon to pin the murders on someone else (Haibach) to take away from Panzer what he wants most - credit and awe.
Jane, as an expert on serial killer Red John, agrees to appear with Panzer on Cross' TV show. Jane manipulates Panzer into disparaging Red John compared to SJK.
Later, Panzer is found dead, with all the hallmarks of a Red John murder.
