Recap — The Mentalist 2.18 “Aingavite Baa”

The Mentalist episode “Aingavite Baa” begins with the new boss, Special Agent Hightower, asking for volunteers to collect some intel. Rigsby and Van Pelt volunteer, but she assigns Cho and Van Pelt. As the two agents cruise a neighborhood picking up trash bags for evidence, Van Pelt gets neurotic over Hightower’s decision to keep her and Rigsby apart. As Cho and Van Pelt get ready to leave the neighborhood, a woman stumbles into the beams of their headlights, looking disoriented and bloody. When they rush to assist her, she dazedly asks if they can help her find her shoe.

Jane arrives with the ambulance, and gets the details from Van Pelt while the mystery woman is treated. She has amnesia, caused by a head wound from a bullet. Van Pelt guesses that since she only had one shoe on, she hadn’t been able to get far, so the crime must have happened nearby. Jane concurs.

Jane approaches the mystery woman on the gurney, holding her hand and using some soothing meditative techniques to help “draw out” her pain. When she’s more relaxed, Jane asks her simple questions, hoping to tap into what memories still remain. She remembers being in a room that was cold and dark. With prompting she recalls added details: she was lying down, the floor had dirt and straw, and smelled like horses.

Lisbon arrives, and the team heads to the closest set of stables nearby. They wander around in the dark building with flashlights, until Jane cheerfully announces there’s a light switch. The team is horrified when a flip of the switch illuminates three dead bodies in one of the horse stalls.

At the hospital, a doctor informs the CBI team that their Jane Doe was only grazed by the bullet, but it was enough to knock her unconscious. The team guesses the killer must have just assumed she was dead when he put her in the stall with the others. The mystery woman should get her memory back, but the doctor isn’t sure how long that will take.

Back at CBI headquarters, Hightower calls Lisbon, Rigsby, and Van Pelt into her office. She tells them that she doesn’t always like the rules, but she has to follow them. Rigsby and Van Pelt have one day to decide if they want to break up their personal relationship, or break up their work partnership. After the two leave, Hightower lets Lisbon know she’ll be writing her up for not handling the issue earlier.

Jane can see the three are upset when they return to their own workspace, but none of them want to discuss it. Lisbon asks for an update, and learns that two of the three victims have been identified as Janine and Mitchell Langham. Neighbors claim the couple was last seen going for a hike 100 miles away. This older couple was shot from close range, but the young male victim and the amnesiac mystery woman were both shot from far away. Jane suggests that the Langhams were collateral damage: the two people shot from far away were the targets, and the Langhams may have stumbled onto the crime scene at the wrong moment.

Fingerprints identify the third victim as Leonard Railton, who lived on a nearby Native American reservation and had a criminal record of minor offenses. Lisbon takes Jane along to meet with Railton’s only emergency contact–his parole officer. On their way to the elevators, Jane tells Lisbon she needs to let go of some of her hostility towards Hightower or she’s going to explode everywhere. Lisbon snaps that she hopes he’s next to her when she does. Turns out this is exactly what Jane is afraid of.

Rigsby and Van Pelt share a quick moment, and Van Pelt is panicking about what they will do. Rigsby does his best to calm her, telling her they’ll get some wine and discuss it calmly that evening.

Jane and Lisbon visit the parole officer, Dolores Brinton. She tells them that she had high hopes for Railton turning his life around. Since he had Native American blood, she got him accepted onto the reservation. She thought the small community would be a good support system for him. Dolores tells Lisbon and Jane that Railton had a girlfriend, Derrien Hopwood. They show her a photo of the amnesia victim, but she says that it’s not her.

Meanwhile, Cho and Rigsby are checking out the “Morningstar Trail” that the Langhams supposedly hiked. A ranger at the nearby Wildwood Station tells them it’s not a widely used trail. When he gets called away on an “animal control issue”, he reluctantly gives Cho and Rigsby directions of how to get on the trail. It’s not long before the two are arguing over where the fork in the road was, and if they’re still on the right trail.

Van Pelt visits their Jane Doe in the hospital, bringing photos of the three victims to see if they jog her memory. Unfortunately she can’t remember anything, and she’s feeling frustrated and alone. She’s grateful when Van Pelt offers to stay with her awhile and keep her company.

Railton’s parole officer accompanies Lisbon and Jane to the reservation, to help smooth relations. When Lisbon asks the tribal leader, Joseph Silverwing, about Railton, she gets short answers and no new information. Not impressed with Dolores’ liaison abilities, Jane wanders inside the nearest building, where some boys are playing pool. He challenges their best player to a competition on who can sink a ball first. He offers $50 if they win, and asks for information on Railton if he wins. The boys eagerly agree.

Just before the boy is going to take his three shots, Jane whispers to him that the girl in the blue sweater that he’s interested in will never go for him: “She likes the tall guy.” So rattled by this information, the boy badly misses on all three tries. Jane then steps in and makes his shot successfully. The boys sit down and offer what they know about Railton. They say that about 6 months ago, he suddenly came into big money. He was going into the woods often, and “everybody knows what goes on in the woods.”

Cut to Rigsby and Cho in the woods, where they discover a well-established pot farm. Just as they realize that pot farms mean “bad guys with guns”, they get shot at. They dive for cover and exchange fire. The mystery gunman flees when they close in, leaving his weapon behind.

Jane and Lisbon next visit Railton’s girlfriend, Derrien. She tells them that he was a good man, but she figured he was into something bad when he started showing up with more money than he could earn at his souvenir shop job. When Jane guesses that Railton took to Derrien’s infant son, she agrees. She says that all of the toys in the room were from him. She also says that when her baby developed a mysterious rash, he bought her thousands of dollars worth of formula and instructed her to throw away the powdered version she had. The baby’s rash disappeared.

The next stop is at Railton’s job at the souvenir shop. The owner, Markham Willis, tells the same story as everyone else about Railton–he was a good guy, with no problems. Jane wanders around the store and puts on an elaborate Native American headdress. Conscious of the disrespect, Lisbon chides Jane, but Willis seems amused. When Jane tells him he doesn’t seem self-conscious about selling his culture, Willis tells him that the headdress belongs to another tribe, and anyway, it’s what the tourists want. Jane buys some postcards, and a small flute-like instrument that he later plays while on his “thinking couch”.

Jane then visits the amnesia victim at the hospital. He shows her the postcards, trying to jog her memory about the scenic places she may have been to. Nothing works. Then Jane holds up a particular card and begins to dreamily describe the place, telling her he’ll just “say the word” and she’ll remember that she’s been there, in the trees, by the lake… She stares at the picture and we realize that Jane is hypnotizing her.

Back at CBI headquarters, Rigsby and Van Pelt grab a moment alone in one of the interview rooms. It gets hot and heavy, and then Rigsby tells Van Pelt he’s made his decision. He loves her more than the job, and he’s got a major crimes job he can land that’s only an hour and a half away. Van Pelt is worried it’s just the adrenaline talking, after his shootout with pot growers, but he’s adamant that he’s sincere. Things get even hotter after that, and Lisbon gives them an exasperated look when they come out of the room readjusting their clothes.

When they discover that the forest ranger that Cho and Rigsby originally talked to had an extra $2000/month deposited in his bank account, Lisbon takes Cho along to have a chat with him. Ranger Tisdale tries to play dumb about the pot farm in the woods, but when he sees they aren’t buying it, he tries to run away. Cho is impressed when Lisbon tackles Tisdale and wrestles him into handcuffs. Lisbon is pumped about it herself.

Back at headquarters, Cho interviews Tisdale while Hightower, Lisbon, and Jane watch. Tisdale says he was paid to keep tourists away from the pot farm, and let the farmers know if any cops started poking around. He’s too scared to give up any names, however. As Cho sweats him out, Hightower compliments Lisbon on Cho’s interviewing style. Jane interrupts the interrogation, then, to ask Tisdale why there was only one gunman when this was supposedly a big operation. Tisdale guesses that they might be short of money, because the pot plants have been dying off for some unknown reason.

Hightower calls Jane out of the interview room and into her office. She is dismissive of his “guesswork” and wants absolute facts. Jane tells her guesswork is what he does. He then tries it on her, suggesting that she’s married, but not happily — perhaps a trial separation. “I guess I should have put up some photos,” Hightower says. She then points out there was a bit of hostility in his demonstration of his guesswork. She guesses he’s not happy with her being in charge, and her treatment of Lisbon. “I have to work closely with her,” Jane explains. Hightower suggests a bargain–let her do her job her way, and then judge her based on the results. In turn, she would let Jane do what he wanted–“to a point”–and she would judge by his results. Jane agrees…”to a point”.

Jane then tells Van Pelt to take their amnesia victim to the reservation’s memorial service for Railton. Van Pelt is wary of doing this secretly, but she goes along with Jane’s plan. When they arrive at the memorial, Railton’s parole officer looks the most upset. Jane lets those gathered know that he’s just trying to help this woman regain her memory. He says that Silverwing recognizes her, but with a little mentalist trick, learns that the tribal leader doesn’t actually know her. He then tells Silverwing to “say the word” and they’ll leave. It’s the same verbal cue he gave Jane Doe earlier, and she suddenly exclaims “I see it! I see it!”

Lisbon bursts in on the memorial then, just in time to hear Jane Doe describe the lake where the “bad thing happened” and reveal that there was something left on shore. Lisbon confronts him about his antics, and Jane is upset that Van Pelt let Lisbon know where they were. He then tells Lisbon that Jane Doe’s revelations were “post-hypnotic suggestion”, used to draw the killer out by making him paranoid about what he left behind. When Lisbon says that Jane has no idea where the murder took place, Jane says he knows it has to be the lake because of the problems with the water. Derrien’s baby’s formula was bad because it was mixed with water, and the pot plants were dying because of the water.

Jane and Lisbon catch up with Cho, who followed the person who left the memorial and headed to the lake. It’s Willis, the souvenir shop owner. He has a shotgun shell on him, which he tries to claim that he just discovered in an attempt to help the police. Jane guesses that they’ve been dumping some sort of toxic waste in the lake, and that Railton found out about it, so Willis killed him. Willis denies it, until Jane tries to get him to drink a cup of the lake water.

Back at CBI headquarters interrogation, Willis expresses his frustration with the tribal leaders, who never wanted to do anything to earn the reservation any money. When he got approached by someone needing a place to dump toxic waste, he enlisted Railton’s help, thinking that his criminal record predisposed him to taking the money and keeping his mouth shut. When Derrien’s baby got the rash, however, Railton changed his mind and wanted them to stop. When Willis overheard Railton setting up a meeting with someone at the lake, he followed them. We see a flashback of Railton with our Jane Doe. She’s taking pictures. Willis shoots them both. When he’s picking up the bodies, the Langhams stumble upon him, so he quickly shoots them, too.

“I’m sorry,” Willis says, looking remorseful. Jane sarcastically tells him as long as he’s sorry, they’ll just let him go. “Just kidding,” Jane says, leaving the interrogation room.

Back at the hospital, Van Pelt brings Jane Doe’s driver’s license to her. Turns out she’s Camille Dillon, an Internet journalist. Van Pelt lets her know that they’ve notified her family, and that her mother is coming to be with her. Camille starts to remember Railton and the toxic waste problem. “I remember him asking for my help,” she says, relieved that it’s starting to come back. Van Pelt is visibly pleased that she’s been able to help this woman regain her identity.

Van Pelt returns to headquarters to meet up with Rigsby. She tearfully tells him that she thinks she loves the job more than him, and that she can’t let him transfer out. “I don’t want that responsibility,” she insists against Rigsby’s protests, “you’ll hate me for it.”

Meanwhile, Lisbon and Jane are getting Hightower up to speed on the case. She tells them that Silverwing called to complain about Jane’s crashing of the memorial. When they try to explain, Hightower cuts them off. She notes that they’ve solved a triple murder and helped a fourth victim. “To hell with him; you got the job done,” she says. Lisbon is pleasantly surprised, and Jane is happy that tensions seem to be easing.

Jane and Lisbon head for the elevator. The doors open and Lisbon gets in, joining Van Pelt, who is still crying. Lisbon isn’t sure what to do, but Jane backs off, claiming to have left something behind. He flees the scene while the elevator doors close on Lisbon and a distraught Van Pelt.

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