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Little Red Book is the second episode of Season 4 of The Mentalist.

Summary[]

Lisbon is under suspension and the rest of the team has been reassigned. Jane is reinstated as a CBI consultant and has to work with a new team, but he works to get his former team reinstated.

Recap[]

The entire team is reassigned and Bertram admits that he needs Jane because of his record. Even so, Jane got off easy. The rest of the team was either cooling their heals on suspension or on odious tasks like door security. Jane just got reassigned to another team.

Jane uses his skills to dismantle Haffnerโ€™s team and replace it with his own, starting with making sure they all didnโ€™t like, or trust, him. Offering his opinion on the murder victim, Marcus Kuzmenko, he mocks them all, saying โ€œThis manโ€™s dead. Iโ€™m all but certain of it.โ€ Shortly after that, he openly mocks Haffner himself by lifting weights at the gym Kuzmenko worked at while Haffner โ€œtook the leadโ€ on questioning. When Jane finally steps in, he only wants to know how many of the clients Kuzmenko was sleeping with. When the owner refuses to answer, he finds one of them himself, making her fall off the treadmill by asking if the victim was a โ€œgentle loverโ€ or a โ€œbruteโ€.

Back at the office, Haffner decides he needs help with Jane and recruits Cho to spy for him. Meanwhile Jane is already plotting against him. He lays the groundwork for pitting two of his new team members against each other and tells Wayne Rigsby, whoโ€™s been stuck on security to arrange a meeting with the team to recruit them to the plan of saving Lisbonโ€™s job, since apparently suspension really means fired at the CBI and Cho comes back. A short while later, the trouble heโ€™s set brewing is brought to a head when one of the team, a short guy with an obvious Napoleon complex, finds a pair of tacky disco lifts on his desk and assumes that his big, burly teammate left them as a joke. Heโ€™s hauled off for starting a brawl, leaving room for Grace, fresh from a counseling session, to fill the opening.

The actual murder case is secondary to the story. It seems that one of the victims coworkers was seen lurking around his house the night before the murder. They bring Villanueva in for questioning. He says that he confronted the victim about some money problems, but that it was all worked out. According to him, Kuzmenko had just come into some money recently and it was all good. Jane tells Haffner he wants to go back to the victimโ€™s house and look around for evidence. Haffner plays perfectly into Janeโ€™s hands by sending another teammate with him. One whoโ€™s easily hypnotized by Jane while theyโ€™re there.

Jane decides itโ€™s time to spring the trap and put this case to bed at the same time. He sends Van Pelt and Rigsby to the house to beat Haffner to Kuzmenkoโ€™s book of high-profile lovers, having convinced Haffner that itโ€™s probably some politicianโ€™s wife thatโ€™s gotten him in this level of trouble. Cho then goes and tells Haffner of the plan, which makes you wonder even more whatโ€™s going on with him. After the heads up, Haffner meets them at the door with the book in hand and berates Jane for his efforts to beat him to the killer. While his shadow was hypnotized, Jane planted that book to make Haffner look bad in the end. Meanwhile, he gets Lisbon to help him take down the real killer by meeting him at the gym with some of that โ€œglowy spray stuffโ€. Heโ€™s got it all figured out, but heโ€™s not telling anyone else. He calls the gym to let them know theyโ€™re coming and, as planned, the killer panics and hides the murder weapon. Jane says the right things, drops the key words and behold, the gym owner looks guilty and, indeed, a bloody hand weight is found in the trunk of her car. She was afraid that the new gym Kuzmenko was planning to open would put her out of business, and, sheโ€™d also thought she meant more to him. Typical woman scorned and case closed, with Haffner looking like an ass for running off after false leads. Bertram, of course, is mad at Jane for being a problem, but Jane makes it clear that unless Lisbon is brought back, he plans to continue being a problem. Bertram has no choice but to reinstate the whole team.

In amongst these activities, there is a little more activity on the Red John matter. Lisbon arranges with J.J. LaRoche, whoโ€™s apparently leaving major crimes and actually a decent guy, to see Sally Carter. It turns out sheโ€™s committed suicide by sharpened spoon and has left a long note about how lost she was now that her God, Red John, was dead. Jane, still not satisfied that Carter was Red John, in turn brings Rosalind Harker, the blind woman known to have lived with Red John, to identify Carterโ€™s body. She feels his face and says no, he wasnโ€™t Red John.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Recurring Cast[]

Guest Cast[]

Trivia[]

Season 4 Episodes
Scarlet Ribbons  ยท Little Red Book  ยท Pretty Red Balloon  ยท Ring Around the Rosie  ยท Blood and Sand  ยท Where in the World is Carmine O'Brien? ยท Blinking Red Light ยท Pink Tops ยท The Redshirt ยท Fugue In Red ยท Always Bet On Red ยท My Bloody Valentine ยท Red Is The New Black ยท At First Blush ยท War Of The Roses ยท His Thoughts Were Red Thoughts ยท Cheap Burgundy ยท Ruddy Cheeks ยท Pink Champagne on Ice ยท Something's Rotten in Redmund ยท Ruby Slippers ยท So Long, and Thanks for All the Red Snapper ยท Red Rover, Red Rover ยท The Crimson Hat