The Mentalist Season 4 Episode 20 “Something Rotten in Redmund” Recap
In this episode, Jane and the CBI Team are called to investigate the murder of Jack McTerny, an English teacher whose body was found on the baseball field right outside the school. Jack was a popular and well respected teacher, but if that was the case then, why would anyone would want to hurt him? That is just one question in a long series including why would anyone want to leave such a malicious letter in McTerny’s briefcase if he was so loved by all. Furthermore, when information turns up that sheds possible light onto a not so clean-cut McTerny including finding a bag of pills in McTerny’s possession, it is up Jane and the team to separate fact from fiction.
The episode begins with Jane reading the “letter” that Cho found in McTerny’s briefcase at the school’s grief session in front of the whole student body. As Jane begins to ready, he scans through the crowd looking for any signs of a “tell” and when he sees a flicker of emotion on a girl’s face he knows he has got her right where he wants her. He continues to read the letter, focusing on the young girl as if reading to her and puts some much emotion into his reading that girl runs out of the session leaving Lisbon to the chase and Jane all to please with himself with the results.
After Lisbon, catches up with the girl Jane and Lisbon question her about the note. She says that McTerny was always trying to empower the girls at the school, but when she saw him talking to a hooker and then leaving with her, she knew that everything that he had said had been a lie. So she left the note anonymously just to warn McTerny that someone knows the real truth about him. Lisbon takes down all the info about where the girl saw McTerny and the hooker talking, including getting a copy of the photo there girl took to help identify who McTerny was talking to.
While Lisbon continues her canvas of the school, Jane takes notice of the theatre room and a student practicing his fencing skills. Jane gets the student, Jeremiah to fence with him as a way to distract the teen while Jane starts his line of questioning, but when it becomes rather obvious that Jeremiah has no inside scoop he asks where he can find the “bad kids.” Jeremiah has no idea, so Jane aimlessly walks around looking in the usually hiding spots- the bathrooms and the basement, but they all flee through the window leaving Jane only to catch a glimpse of their shoes. The odd thing is that when Jane turns around to leave the basement, Principal Snyder is standing right behind him. This is particularly strange since Jane never told anyone where he was going. When Jane finally escapes Synder’s line of eyesight, he finds the so called “bad kids” whom inform Jane that McTerny was a “square” and was a goodie two-shoes which was odd since he was friends with the school’s counselor Mr. Loveland who is quite the alcoholic.
Meanwhile, Rigsby and Cho are looking for the hooker that McTerny was seen talking to. However, Rigsby is a little distracted by his phone call with Sarah who is due to give birth any minute. Cho and Rigsby are able to find their mysterious girl whose name is Lindy Hayes a former student of McTerny from two years ago. Apparently, Lindy was having some troubles at home with her stepfather and McTerny was trying to help, but she ended up running away and decided to turn tricks to survive. She says that McTerny had a lot of projects –people like her he was trying to help. She also says that McTerny wasn’t into any drugs and the pills they found on him could not have been his. Rigsby and Cho go and talk to another project of McTerny, a student named Martin who was having some troubles at school with bullying. Cho and Rigsby go to Martin’s house where they talk to a very suspicious acting Martin. While talking to Martin, Rigsby smells something burning which cause Martin to flee into the basement, where Rigsby and Cho find Martin trying to dismantle his Ecstasy lab.
Martin states that the pills came from him and that McTerney confiscated them on the night they met. McTerny was trying to help Martin with his bullying problem, but Martin did not want the offered help from his teacher. He thought that if he could become the cool drug supplier then the kids would leave him alone. At that moment, Rigsby receives a call from Sarah saying that she is in labor. Risgby rushes out the door leaving Cho and the others to handle the case. Back at the school Jane talks to Loveland about his drinking problem. Loveland says that he used to be sober, but fell off the wagon and came to McTerny for guidance and help, but when he requested time off from the principal and was denied he knew that McTerny was the one who told the principal. Jane implies that maybe someone overheard him and McTerny talking, but Loveland adamantly states that no one heard he made sure of that especially since it was in the bathroom.
After his talk with Loveland, Jane goes to the auditorium where he goes to get some paint. There he sees the drama class rehearsing and Jane decides to gives some helpful advice to the young thespians. The drama teacher of course is please with Jane and his love of the arts. Jane then notices some leaves on the teacher outfit and points it out. He leaves taking some paint with him to the boys’ bathroom where he proceeds to write on the walls “Snyder sucks.”
Jane is called into the principal’s office as well as Lisbon so that Principal Snyder can inform Lisbon of Jane’s act of vandalism. Lisbon tells Jane to apologize, but Jane just apologizes for the graffiti, but not the meaning behind the words. Jane then proceeds to question Snyder how he knew it was him who wrote the message, when no one witnessed the act. Snyder says it was a student who told him, but Jane says it was due to the illegal hidden cameras he has in all the bathrooms. Snyder starts to object, but when Jane opens up the cupboard and reveals the monitors with the different camera feeds, Snyder goes very quiet. Lisbon requests all video footage and Snyder hopes to keeps the illegal videos quiet, but Lisbon says no dice. When Jane goes over the videos the night of McTerny’s he notices one of the kids from the drama group, Billy in the school and notices something about his clothes that cause him to have an “Ah ha!” Due to this new piece of information he takes Lisbon back to the school and is ready to solve the case.
Parents, teachers and students are all gathered in the theatre for the drama club’s performance, but right before the show Jane runs into his friend Jeremiah. Jane gets Jeremiah to pass out leaving Jane the only one to take over Jeremiah’s role and leaving everything to go according to Jane’s plan. Jane along with Billy act out the play, but midway through Jane starts talking about McTerny’s death, he accuses Billy and the Drama Teacher of murdering McTerny in front of the whole audience. Everyone is shocked and none more so than the Drama Teacher who takes off running from the stage, but luckily Lisbon is in the audience waiting and ready to strike. As she takes both Billy and the teacher into custody, Jane mentions the illegal video cameras that Principal had installed before leaving the stage and bidding adieu to the audience.
In the end, the teacher reveals the reason for the murder. McTerny caught her and Billy in a questionable position and he was threatening to tell the principal. She had Billy stop him and beg him not to say anything and while they were talking she took a bat and hit McTerny in the head. She just didn’t want to end the relationship. She asks “how can something be wrong, when it is so real?” After the two are booked, the team receives a text messages from Rigsby informing them of his son’s birth. Everyone is cooing and aweing over the baby pictures Rigsby is sending. Jane and Cho make some comments about the baby looking a little like Churchill, but he ultimately agrees with Lisbon that the baby is beautiful, but his face soon morphs from happiness to sadness as he exits the room with a somber face remembering all he has lost and leaving Lisbon behind to watch him succumb to his memories and misery.
Originally posted on Affairs Magazine
