The Mentalist 2X14: Blood In, Blood Out

I'm so torn about how I feel. I LOVE that we got a Cho episode. And I love the backstory we got, and I love what we learned about Cho's life currently. But, I didn't love the Jane plan as much as I usually do. Plus, I don't like this guy as the murderer. However, I think Cho being Cho makes this episode a net positive. Let's do more Cho stuff, please.

Okay, so, Cho is about to leave for the day to have dinner with his girlfriend. She's familiar enough to know everyone's name in the department, but not have met them. Unfortunately, before they can leave, Cho gets called down to Oakland to identify the body of a dead gangbanger (Is this an offensive term? It feels like it should be for some reason). He agrees, and he and Patrick drive down (yes, I looked at a map to see where Oakland was from Sacramento) to meet the police.

Turns out the dead guy used to be BFFS with Cho. And he called Cho three times the night before he was killed. However, Cho didn't answer any of his calls. He tells the police that he's a member of the Pretty Boy Gang (this is 100% not right, but it's close enough) and that's probably all there is to it. Cho, who usually quiet, is even more standoffish than usual.

Back at the office, the dead guy's grandma shows up to talk to Cho. She begs him to find his killer, but Cho claims it was probably gang related, but she's adamant that he left the gang. He apologizes to her, but tells her to let the Oakland PD figure it out. However, as Patrick tells him, they are not going to put any effort into solving the murder of a gang member. Somehow, Patrick convinces him to at least find out if he was still in the gang or not.

So he and Jane had back to his old stomping grounds and talks to some current members of PBG. They are not thrilled to see Cho, as he left the life. However, Jon Jon tells him that after he got out of prison, dead guy got out too, for like a month. But then he called looking for KS (the leader) and started doing deals with him outside the gang. Jon Jon is not happy about that.

Afterwards, Cho is back at home with his girlfriend. They start making out on the couch, and some dudes burst in in masks. Cho and his girlfriend get roughed up a bit and pinned to the ground. They masked guys threaten them with guns and tell Cho to stay out of PBG business. His girlfriend heads to the hospital and Cho and Jane head out to find KS.

Cho breaks into his house and finds him playing video games with some guys. He pulls him into the kitchen at gun point and starts questioning him about dead guy and breaking into his house. He swears he didn't break into Cho's house, but does tell him that dead guy came t him wanting to buy a bunch of coke. Cho decides to take KS to the station, but as she's walking out with him, we find Jane being held at gunpoint by everyone else in the house. They eventually make a trade, KS for Jane. And the CBI boys head out.

While this is all happening, Grace and Rigsby are dealing with the dead guy's bosses. Turned out, he was trying to get out of the life and got a job as a maintenance guy. His immediately boss seemed cool (spoiler: he wasn't), but the boss of the whole building is an asshole (and he's totally guilty too).

This is a little convoluted, but let me see if I can make it make sense. Cool boss was apparently blackmailing dead guy to steal for him. But, dead guy also sold the coke to the asshole boss. So, Jane, Cho, and Rigsby walk in on him doing a bunch of coke. Cho tries to finger him for the murder of dead guy, but he swears he didn't do it. They put on this show where Cho drags him out of the building (making sure cool boss can see) and locks Rigsby and Jane in the room.

They get cool boss to let them out, and then get him to use his keycard for the elevator to the roof, insuring he comes with us. Before they get outside, Cho dumps fake blood all over asshole boss and fires off two rounds. Once they get out there, Cho claims he did because he wouldn't confess. Cool boss, not wanting to 'die' the way of asshole boss, confesses. Dead guy wanted to stop stealing and turn his life around, but cool boss thought he'd rat him out, so he killed him. He also confesses to breaking into Cho's house and assaulting them.

Back at the station, asshole boss is pissed off (did I mention he wasn't actually in on this plan?). His lawyer threatens to sue, but Lisbon counters with all the shit we have on him, so he agrees to make a deal with the DA.

Oh, and at the end, Cho goes back to talk to dead guy's grandma and tells her he found the guy that killed him. He apologized for not believing her at first. He was upset with himself that he didn't pick up with he called Cho for help and figured if it was just a gang related killing, he wouldn't have to feel guilty about it. It's a very sweet, and not Cho moment (at least up until this point).