Red Bulls is the seventh episode of season two of The Mentalist.
Plot[]
Lisbon and Bosco's teams are forced to work together to find a kidnapped girl before her abductors get impatient.
Recap[]
On a dark street, a bum pushes a shopping cart of bags around. Two cars pull up, and the bum abandons the cart. He's an undercover cop, and says that there are lights inside, and three entry points to the building, which Bosco's team believes houses a kidnapped teenage girl and her kidnapper. They take their positions at the entrances, break the door in, and storm the building. Inside is Lisbon’s team, examining an old, desiccated corpse. After a tense moment of confusion, everyone puts their guns down.
Back at the office, Minelli orders that Lisbon and Bosco's teams work together, since they're on related cases, and he doesn't want the close call with friendly fire happening again. Lisbon says that they were at the house checking up on a corpse, though at the time all they knew was that it was a young male, dead 3-5 years. As they're talking, Jane comes in with the coroner's file, which says the boy was Colin Haymer, kidnap victim 3 years ago, in his early 20s. From what it looks like, he may have been killed by the same people that kidnapped Mia Westlake, the girl that Bosco's unit is trying to find.
They go to the Westlake mansion, where Verona Westlake, Mia's sister, and her husband Duncan are tearfully saying how sorry they are for her kidnapping. Jane looks around, and finds a child who has been running freely, and Verona calls the nanny and scolds her.
Jane talks with them in another room, and mentions that Duncan's patting an area of his coat an awful lot, and guesses it's drugs. He also tells Verona that whether Mia dies or doesn't die today means less than knowing whether or not she helped out in her time of need, and that if she didn't, the guilt would eat her up.
Outside, Bosco says he wants Jane reined in more by Lisbon. But when Duncan comes out and threatens to have Bosco as a traffic cop if he doesn't take Jane off the case (Duncan knows Jane knows he has drugs, but hasn't told anyone yet), Bosco takes offense and insists that Jane stay on the team. Inside, they get a ransom video through an e-mail, that demands exactly 3.75 million dollars by 6:00.
Back at the office, Lisbon briefly talks to Lewis Earland, the cop who was on Colin Haymer's case some years ago. He said that he never found evidence, but had a hunch that Diane Zeranski, Colin's girlfriend, had something to do with the kidnapping. Van Pelt then comes in and says the tattoos on the kidnappers’ arms in the video match the Crazy Hills gang.
Bosco takes Jane as "backup" to talk to the Crazy Hills gang. One of the members pokes Jane, and Bosco handcuffs him for "assaulting an officer". Jane sees through the ruse and the fact that Bosco wants HIM (with no gun no less) as backup, and infers that the man is a plant. He's right, and the man says that though people would be talking about the kidnapping before they even did it, there hasn't been any talk about the kidnapping in the gang, which means the real kidnappers were showing the tattoos in the video to throw them off the case. Bosco gives the plant a punch to assuage suspicion from the watching gang-members before putting him in the car.
Van Pelt, Rigsby, and Marlin Hicks go out to ask some people in an apartment about the Crazy Hills gang. However, Van Pelt is the only one wearing a Kevlar vest, and tries to get Rigsby to wear one, since they are going after drug dealers. Rigsby brushes it off, much to Grace's annoyance. At the apartment, as they question the tenants, Rigsby and Hicks argue, especially how Hicks keeps calling Rigsby "Bert", like "Bert and Ernie". A woman walks down the hall carrying some groceries, but tells Van Pelt that she doesn't know anything about the kidnapping. A minute later, Van Pelt thinks of another thing to ask the woman, and goes to the door. As she opens the door, the woman shoots Grace three times in the chest and torso with a pistol, then climbs out the window and begins running. Hicks gives chase. Rigsby checks Grace and finds that she's alright for the moment, and charges out the window, hitting the dumpster, then runs nearly twice as fast as Hicks. They corner the girl in a dark locker room, and split up to search the area. The girl is hidden behind some lockers, but watches them both through the locker mirrors. Right as she's about to ambush Hicks, who is turned away from her, Rigsby comes up behind her and shoots her twice in the back, and she falls over dead. The coroner finds that she's Diane Zeranski, Colin's old girlfriend.
Lisbon convinces Bosco to at least listen to Jane's plan, but he disagrees with it. Nonetheless, he still decides to go along with it. Bosco and Jane take the case of money into the living room with Verona, and act like they're fighting. While Bosco is insisting that they put a tracker with the money, Jane slips a small camera onto the mantle. He then tells Verona that one of the kidnappers is in the house right now, and says it's the lawyer. Verona charges the hapless lawyer, sparking a full-blown catfight, distracting everyone. Jane and Bosco go into a side room, where Cho is on a laptop looking through the laptop. They see the nanny come and take out the tracker. Holding off for the moment, they let her go upstairs and make a cell phone call to the kidnappers, then go into the nursery and arrest her. Jane says he had a hunch she was connected before, since the kid was running around the house freely, meaning she's either a terrible nanny or is just there to get information. Putting the cell phone number into the computer, they find that it's a land line for a house in Oakland. Teams of police surround the house, as Jane hides behind a tree to watch. Hicks throws a flash-bang in, and they assault the house. A moment later, Mia walk out with the kidnappers in cuffs behind her. Mia and Verona run together and hug.
Back at headquarters, Bosco shares a glass of tequila with Lisbon to help mend bridges with any friction the teams endured during the case. He also says it was good working with her again. He then goes to Jane, and allows him at least to see a summary of the Red John case since he took over. When Jane says he needs to see a full, unabridged copy, Bosco tells him that he's a jerk and walks away.
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Simon Baker as Patrick Jane
- Robin Tunney as Teresa Lisbon
- Tim Kang as Kimball Cho
- Owain Yeoman as Wayne Rigsby
- Amanda Righetti as Grace Van Pelt
Recurring Cast[]
- Terry Kinney as Sam Bosco
- Gregory Itzin as Virgil Minelli
- Dominic Hoffman as Marlon Hicks
- Shauna Bloom as Rebecca Anderson
- Jesse Burch as Mark Dyson
- Andres Perez-Molina as Nick Martinez
- James Start as Rohn
Guest Cast[]
- Rey Gallegos as Raoul
- Seana Kofoed as Mrs. Kent
- Art LaFleur as Det. Louis Earlen
- Meredith Monroe as Verona Westlake
- Marissa Skell as Mia Westlake
- Vincent Ventresca as Duncan Weaver
- Margot Rose as Belinda Sandborne
- Louisa Abernathy as Middle-Aged Woman