Redacted is the twentieth episode of Season 3 of The Mentalist.
Summary[]
While the CBI investigates a murder of an electronics store owner, Jane tries to hide the secret that he hired a robber who unsuccessfully broke into LaRoche's home.
Recap[]
This episode starts with a break-in at J.J. LaRoche's house. This is clearly not a random hit, though. The guy is getting into the safe, and starts pulling things off the bookshelf. When the burglar overstays his welcome, LaRoche makes his appearance, carrying his very miniature yappy dog in one arm and his gun in the other. He makes a run for it, but the cops are there and catch him. Once he’s in custody, though, we catch Jane's conspicuous car speeding off in the background.
Meanwhile, at Sterling Electronics, an electronics repair shop, the establishment’s owner Ted Fisher has been found dead. Rigsby and Cho talk to the homeless guy outside to see if he saw anything, while Grace and Lisbon look around inside. Jane shows up late with some excuse about checking escape routes, and declares the murderer was looking for something that he didn’t find — as is indicated by the fact that the whole room is torn apart.
Back at the headquarters, LaRoche informs Lisbon about the break-in at his house, and meanwhile, Jane sneaks down to the holding cells to see the burglar. The burglar is someone they know from the previous year — Donny Culpepper (A Price Above Rubies). Jane hired Donny to steal something from LaRoche's house, but Donny threatens Jane that if he doesn’t get him out of there, free and clear, then he is going to sing like a canary come court time on Monday.
Lisbon and Rigsby meet Ted’s girlfriend, Heather, at the apartment they both shared. She goes to unlock the door, but finds it ajar and when Lisbon nudges the door open, the apartment is found in chaos; it, too, has been burgled for something. No one is there anymore, but a neighbor sticks her head in to comment.
There are other various clues that come in; they check on Heather’s alibi, Sacramento PD is covering the repair shop, and a black car is following Lisbon and Rigsby. Heather’s record is clean, and a threatening message in an accented voice is recovered off of Fisher’s phone. Heather also has claimed that Ted was in the Peace Corps for eight years before buying the shop, but the Peace Corps has no record of him. Meanwhile, Jane has been working on Culpepper’s guard, named O’Donnell, and being of little practical use on the actual case.
The car that had been following Lisbon and Risgby was ticketed two blocks from the repair shop, so they go down to check it out. At first it seems clear, but in the back room there are two intruders who are pointing their guns at one another — the homeless man from the beginning, and the nosy neighbor. Turns out they are interested in Fisher’s murder for a number of reasons. The homeless man’s name is Cole Ruger, and he worked with Ted overseas in Iraq in a private security firm. Ted called him for help with some trouble he was having, but wouldn’t give details over the phone. The neighbor, a woman named Vivian Griswold, works for a private firm who does corporate espionage because Fisher was a person of interest in a theft from a client two years ago. Her job was to watch him. Jane says they’re both professional liars, and "can't read them".
With the help of someone down in Forensics, they learn the accent of the angry man on the phone was Iraqi, and just to make things more interesting LaRoche has had a phone call from the state department concerning this case. Jane is around long enough to tell them he doesn’t have any “dazzling insights,” and before Lisbon can co-opt him into visiting the girlfriend (who has just called in a prowler around the apartment), he has disappeared. Again visiting Culpepper’s guard, this time to gift him with a camp stool that doesn’t seem to be quite stable, and stealing the guard's ID card.
Down in evidence, Fisher’s phone was ringing every half hour from the same number that left the threatening message. The team lets Jane answer, telling him to keep him on the line at least two minutes so that the call can be traced. Jane threatens the guy on the other end that if he doesn’t meet them at the shop in an hour, what they want will be gone forever.
They catch the guy who threatened Fisher and tried to break in to the apartment when Heather was there, a young Iraqi man named Omar Hassan. His father was killed after working with Fisher and his company, and Fisher broke a promise to Hassan the elder, to look after his family should he die. The family was led to believe they could come to the U.S. and their hard earned two million dollars would be waiting for them.
Jane announces the team should round up Cole Ruger, Vivian Griswold, Omar, and Heather at the repair shop so they can all find the two million. Lisbon is skeptical, and after several failed "When have I ever ______," Jane convinces her that he’s for real and involved. Grace, Rigsby, and Cho are in charge of rounding them up. They find Cole sitting in a delivery truck in the parking lot, and with Jane’s help they unearth Griswold and bring her in with a large sign that says, "Come down and meet in the repair shop."
Meanwhile, Jane has been causing mischief. He’s shaken the soda that O’Donnell gets delivered on his break, so that it will spray when he opens it, and it causes him to lose his balance. When he leaves to clean himself up, Jane smuggles in a uniform along with the ID he swiped off of O’Donnell, and is prepared to whisk Donny off to Mexico. Except Donny won’t go. Donny wants to be able to go free and clear and legally, or he starts talking.
At the repair shop, Forensics empties the shop of everything but a few pieces of furniture and a large floor rug. Omar, Cole, and Vivian all leave, disappointed that the money has not been found. Only Heather sticks around, and when Jane reveals that the two million dollars is all tied up in the carpet — the beautiful, hand knotted, silk carpet — she tries to keep him from calling it in and instead offers to split profits from selling it. She then rants while waving a gun around, and Cho intervenes just in time to cart her off.
In the end, the only problem left is Jane’s problem with Culpepper. He eventually confides in Lisbon about why he hired Culpepper. LaRoche has the shortlist of suspects for the Todd Johnson murder¸ which included Hightower. Jane knows it wasn’t Hightower, but one of those four other people is Red John’s mole in the CBI — and if it’s not one of those four, then it is LaRoche himself, so Jane says.
Lisbon agrees to take care of it. At first Jane is skeptical but she goes off, with him trotting at her heels. It takes mere seconds, but it very effective. Lisbon punches Culpepper, and the case is thereby dismissed. LaRoche is not happy she gets one week suspension and has to attend anger management classes but Jane is grateful.
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[]
Guest Cast[]
- Devon Sorvari as Heather Blue
- Charles Malik Whitfield as Cole Ruger
- Wesam Keesh as Omar Hassan
- Kerry O'Malley as Vivian Griswold
- Michael Maize as Officer Gary O'Donnell
- Jan M. Janssen as Ted Fischer
- Mark Chaet as Shyster Lawyer
- Guy Killum as Policeman
Trivia[]
- There seems to be a production error originating a plot hole beginning this episode until the season's finale Strawberries and Cream, concerning J.J. LaRoche's suspect list regarding the murder of Todd Johnson: In a previous episode Jolly Red Elf, Jane is given such list by Virgil Minelli, but, beginning this episode, Jane tries to obtain the same list.