This week's Insider's Blog , about episode 6x16 "Violets" is written by Jordan Harper, Writer of the episode. When I was assigned to write episode 616 of The Mentalist, I started with one very simple idea. I had just finished writing “The Great Red Dragon,” which was our show at its darkest, so for this one I wanted to do an episode where our characters had fun and Robin Tunney wore a pretty dress. In fact, in the episode she wears two pretty dresses, and a lot of the other characters get new clothes as well, so I more than reached my goal. (our costume designer Amanda Friedland deserves a special shout-out for this episode). That simple idea quickly grew into the idea of a long con, art heists and Jane and Lisbon going undercover as a couple. I quickly knew I would have to break the conventions of a normal Mentalist episode, where the identity of the killer is a mystery until the end. Instead, we meet the bad guys very quickly in order to give Jane and the team