photo: cbs
The Mentalist
Blood Brothers
Original Air Date: May 12, 2009.
Liz – Associate Staff Writer
liz@thetwocentscorp.com
Justin Prentiss is dead in the woods, but never fear, CBI is on the case. Jane is loving the great outdoors, and while local police chief Brody is less than charmed, she will soon see how things roll when the CBI comes into town. Jane grabs basic forensic information off the body, and even though both the police chief and Justin’s principal at Brightarch, Mr. McClane, are doubtful, he not only manages to insult them both but proves himself totally right when he finds where Justin had been buried alive and dug himself out.
Brightarch is a wilderness high school for troubled teens, where they can learn wilderness skills, team building, etc. Jane asks McClane, quite cheekily, what the pitch is. McClane takes umbrage at the suggestion that this is some kind of sell to be made, but soon enough, we get back to talking about Justin. Justin had only been at Brightarch for three months, and had been on punishment for truancy at the time of his death. From the way Justin’s parents talk about the reason they sent him to Brightarch (being uncommunicative, shouting and threatening his parents but never physically violent towards him), I think he was being a normal teen and they overreacted, but whatever. Cho and Rigsby are checking out the tent where Justin slept, and find a map that is slightly more sophisticated than something you might expect, leading deep into the woods.
Jane was instructed that under the law he can’t talk to the kids without one of the Brightarch teachers present, but since Jane has never been really concerned with what the law says, he diverts the teacher to talk to the kids about Justin. He fought a lot, and they bring up old Zachariah, and the Z Crew. Beyond that, mum is the word. Jane may have been making a little more headway, but like the mom who opens the door just as your date is giving you a good night French kiss, Lisbon stops the party by returning and pulling him away.
On Lisbon’s instructions, Cho and Rigsby follow the map to the skull and crossbones in the middle of the woods, which marks a cabin. They’re all “CBI!” and knocking, but when they turn to leave the front door, they find the owner aiming a big gun at them. Yikes. Luckily, Chief Brody isn’t far behind and chastises Winston like you might a disobedient puppy. Turns out the kids like to torment the crazy old man in the woods. He’s done everything he can including planting poison oak to keep them away. He’s seen them, but they always wear masks to do it. So while Winston is a few fries short of a Happy Meal, they don’t think he’s the murderer.
Jane and Lisbon return to talk to the kids again, and using his sense of theatrics, Jane draws them all in and looks for a telltale sign, and he gets it — Orrin is scratching the poison oak rash on his leg. Then, to complete the trick, Jane reads his thoughts: “Gosh, I hope he can’t read my thoughts because then he’ll know I was up in the woods with Justin Prentiss throwing paint bombs at the crazy old man’s door the night he died.” Snap.
Orrin tells the camp legend of Zachariah, a logger who was pinned by a fallen tree and left to die by his co-workers. Zachariah then chopped off his own arm to get out of it, and then chopped up all the other loggers in the camp who left him for dead. The logging camp was, of course, on the location where Brightarch now is. He also spills some important details about Z Crew — like you only know the person who asked you to join. A boy named Brian asked Orrin. After Rigsby chases after Brian (I have no idea where Brian thought he was going, it’s not like he could leave) and tackles him into water. They question Brian, and he guesses that it has something to do with Cassie, a girl at the school who Justin liked, and who nobody can find anywhere. McClane immediately becomes shifty, sending up red flags and whistles and neon signs for anyone out there with the least bit of discernment. And indeed, Jane catches McClane trying to sneak Cassie out of camp, because he is tapping that. Ew.
So while they’re slapping McClane with statutory rape and Cassie is claiming that Zachariah, the zombie lumberjack, told her to do it, Jane is drawing up a cunning plan. As he does. He attends the Sacred Fire ceremony or something like that at Brightarch, and readies his ghost story mojo. He adds to the Zachariah legend that when evil is done in the woods, anyone who yells his name three times and marks the ground with a Z without confessing will be pulled down into his lair with him for all eternity. Nobody is totally willing to test the story, although a kid named Elliot takes the chance to call his name, and after two more follow suit, he is the one willing to mark the ground with a Z. And then… A HAND REACHES UP FROM THE GROUND AND GRABS HIM! OH NO! Jane goads him to confess so that Zachariah will let him go, at which point Elliot confesses to the murder of Justin Prentiss. Then Rigsby stands up, brushes himself off, and Elliot is under arrest.
Elliot has been at Brightarch for two years, abandoned by his parents because he was “too smart” for them. Indeed, he has proven too clever by half, engineering the entire Cassie and McClane thing to keep the principal in line with blackmail. Justin found out that Elliot was behind it, and when Elliot threatened him to keep quiet, he laughed at him. And Elliot doesn’t like to be laughed at. So the proportional response was obviously to kill him.
There’s some angst at the end, unless my angstmeter’s off (which it rarely is) although Jane tells his parents that Justin saved a young girl in trouble, and that they should be proud. Yes, Prentisses, concentrate on that rather than the fact that you couldn’t cope with your teenaged son getting a little surly.
To end on an up note, finale next week! See you then!
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