The Mentalist: Red Brick and Ivy (Episode 110)

Laying down the law
I’d like to dedicate this recap to whoever invented the AutoSave feature on Microsoft Word.  It’s nice to know that, if your computer MOTHERFUCKING CRASHES FOR NO APPARENT REASON before you manage to save your recap, it will still be there when you finally get the piece of shit working again.  No offence Veronica (what I named my computer), but I sort of hate you right now.

We open at the Stutzer Institute, part of Leyland University.  A speaker speaks in front of a large group of people, and the slide in back of him informs us that this is the Annual Neuroscience Symposium.  Sounds riveting.  He goes on about how the main speaker, Alex Nelson, is basically the second coming of Christ while a suspicious-looking blonde woman listens in the back of the auditorium.  Alex comes up to the stage when he’s called, takes a sip of Poland Springs, and promptly drops dead.  So I’m guessing that wasn’t product placement.  The suspicious blonde woman exits suspiciously.

Cut over to CBI headquarters, where Rigsby gets a call for Jane from someone named Sophie Miller.  Initially Jane refuses to talk to her, but then he changes his mind and answers the phone.  After the call he goes into Lisbon’s office and asks if they can take a case in which someone is murdered on a state university campus. She says yes and he asks for a favor and next thing you know we’re watching the suspicious blonde woman get interrogated by the local police.  She’s Sophie Miller, and up close it’s apparent that her hair is about two shades too light for her skin tone.   Sophie, put the peroxide down and back away slowly.  The police inform her that they found hydrogen cyanide in Alex’s water bottle, but she assures then that she had nothing to do with the poisoning.  They also reveal that she had an argument with Alex right before the event and that they were divorced two years before.  More interestingly, she was arrested for assaulting him twice and they both had restraining orders against the other.  Even so, Sophie insists that they got past their personal problems in order to work together.  Once she realizes that the police are pretty much convinced that she did it, she refuses to talk until her lawyer is present.  Lisbon and Jane watch from outside of the room, and Jane assures Lisbon that Sophie is innocent.  How does he know?  “Because she told me,” he says simply.  “And she wouldn’t lie to me.”  Oh, I see some back-story on the horizon!

Per usual, the local police are not happy about the CBI’s interference.  They’re also a bit suspicious, since they know Sophie called the CBI headquarters earlier.  More important, we learn that the CBI headquarters is actually called the Department of Justice, or the DOJ.  Hey, thanks for not mentioning that until the tenth episode, show!  Really helpful!  Anyway, just as Lisbon is telling one of the cops that he is, in fact, her bitch, another cop arrives with one of a number of posters that were put up around Leyland’s campus.  It reads “PETA The Animal Equality League has seen justice served.  The blood of innocent animals was on Nelson’s hands and he has paid the price for his crimes.”  It also says that the AEL wants the animal testing at the Stutzer Institute to stop or they’ll come after Stutzer next.  Well that’s not suspicious at all.  Lisbon now stands with the chancellor of the university, Chancellor Stern (who was the introduction speaker we saw earlier), and Bossman, who STILL DOESN’T HAVE A GODDAMN NAME.  Chancellor Stern gushes about what a brilliant neuroscientist Stutzer is and how the Institute is “the linchpin of the university.”  He wants this investigation over and done with, and Bossman is too busy kissing his ass to offer any objections.  As soon as Chancellor Stern leaves, though, he yells at Lisbon for making them take this case.  This guy's is an all-around winner.

A bit later, Jane thanks Lisbon for not telling Bossman that he insisted they take the case.  Lisbon’s pissed that she got in trouble and demands that Jane tell her about his past with Sophie.  Looking very uncomfortable, Jane tells her that Sophie was his psychiatrist.  Lisbon is shocked, since Jane always says that he hates psychiatrists, and can’t really believe that Sophie managed to keep Jane in the room.  “It was a locked room,” Jane admits.  Oh, that is some juicy back-story right there.  Lisbon is still shocked, since the hospital stay wasn’t on Jane’s record.  Apparently he went to great lengths to make sure that no one would ever find out about it.  “I know there’s nothing shameful about having a breakdown,” he says, “but I’ve got to confess, I am ashamed of it.”  Aw, poor Jane.  Lisbon thanks him for telling her and Van Pelt interrupts before things can get any more awkward than they already are.

Lisbon follows Van Pelt to the main office, where the younger woman briefs her on the AEL.  Apparently these guys are batshit crazy, and have firebombed slaughterhouses and animal testing facilities.  Just so you know, AEL, by firebombing animal testing facilities you’re actually killing all of the animals you’re trying to save.  Good job.  Cho also chimes in and says that there was no security at the symposium, so anyone could have poisoned Alex Nelson.  Take a good look at these guys, because this is one of the few times in the episode that you’ll see them.

Jane and Lisbon go over to the Stutzer Institute.  Keri Sheehan, Stutzer’s teaching assistant, shows them inside.  She’s a blonde with some serious root problems, and she tearfully proclaims that Alex was “a good, good man.”  Which means the two of them were doing it daily, nightly, and ever so rightly.  They go into Stutzer’s office and the man immediately says how terrible Alex’s murder was.  It’s pretty obvious that he’s more upset about losing a researcher than he is about Alex actually dying, but whatever.  After he’s assured that the CBI agents won’t tell anyone else about his research, he explains that his team is working on “curing evil.”  He claims that they found a section of the brain that controls moral decision making, and that they can manipulate it to make people good or evil.  I am not making this shit up.  This is actually on the show, and I have some problems with it.  First of all, LAMESAUCE.  Second, this is the shadiest thing I have ever heard of in my life.  They want to take away people’s ability to make choices of their own free will?  And that’s not even a practical way of doing it, since you’d have to manipulate the brains of EVERY SINGLE PERSON ON EARTH.  Who the fuck funded this project?  Jane is having just as much trouble with the concept as I am, so Stutzer goes into a speech about the soul and asks Jane if he knows what his soul is made of.  “Frogs and snails and puppy dog tails?” Jane responds.  I love this man.  Stutzer dismisses the joke, going on to explain that they have been testing on animals because they’re “not allowed” to test on human, and he says that like it’s the most ridiculous thing he’s ever heard.  He takes them into the next room and introduces them to a chimp named Suzie.  She’s the sweetest thing, playing with Jane and offering him a banana, and Stutzer explains that she used to be a devil monkey.  She’s only one of many animals they’ve tested on, so being threatened by “animal people” is the norm for Stutzer and Co.  He even has a small pistol in his desk just in case he needs to defend himself.  That doesn’t seem like a very moral thing to do, Stutzie.

Speaking of moral decision making, Stutzer leads Jane and Lisbon into another room in which they are actually testing humans.  A man is hooked up to a freaky looking machine while a computerized voice poses “moral dilemmas” and asks him to choose one of two solutions to the problem.  For example, he must decide whether to save a briefcase full of money or a homeless man from a fire.  I hate to get repetitive, but LAMESAUCE.

As Lisbon and Jane leave the Institute, trashing Stutzer all the way, Sophie approaches them.  Lisbon leaves the two alone so they can have a heart to heart.  Sophie thanks Jane for helping to get her off the hook, but he gives the AEL credit for that one.  He starts asking her questions about her relationship with Alex, and she asks why he’s suddenly interrogating her.  Jane insists that Sophie saved his life and that he “would do anything to repay that debt,” but he doesn’t understand why she needed his help if she’s innocent.  “Maybe I just wanted to see you,” she says, and walks away.  We immediately get a flashback to Jane in the mental hospital.  He’s sitting on a hospital bed and generally looking like he just found his wife and child’s bodies.  Sophie approaches him, sporting much darker hair, and tells him that she’s here to help.

Over at the DOJ, Rigsby, Cho and Van Pelt are watching footage of a van that is somehow relevant to the case.  There’s a sticker on it for Northwest Oregon State College, so Van Pelt does a little research and finds out that an alumnus from the school sold his fan to a Sacramento company.  This company has a no apparent business dealings, no employees, and is based in a warehouse.  It looks like this is the base of the AEL, so they enter it with some help from the SWAT team.  They wander around the warehouse until they find an overweight man with roughly a shitload of cats.  The man puts his hand up in the air and the cats meow.

So, you know all those stories about crazy cat ladies?  All of those crazy cat ladies put together don’t have anything on this guy.  He is, as my heterosexual life partner would say, vats and vats of crazy.  He insists that he killed Alex, that he plans to kills Stutzer, and then asks to leave so he can make sure his cats don’t pee on his keyboard.  Because that’s perfectly reasonable.  He also says that he’s chairman of the AEL’s “supreme council” before telling Cho that the “real rulers of this planet are insects.”  The team is forced to dismiss him as a suspect on account of the crazy, leaving them right back at square one.

When they get the call about the AEL guy, Lisbon and Jane decide to have a chat with Alex’s widow, Emily  They find her in her home, which is very modern art to the point of not even looking like a home.  She’s trying to make arrangements for the funeral flowers, but can’t make any decisions.  Lisbon sits down with her while Jane wanders, and he finds a picture of the now blonde Emily as a brunette.  Emily mentions that Alex had been stressed out about work, and that shortly before he died he had a shouting match on the phone with someone he called Rosie.  Emily has no idea who this is, but she’s sure that her husband wasn’t cheating on her.  Jane gets down on his knees and tells her to go someplace far away when the funeral is over, and to fight her weakness for control freaks.  Emily agrees, which Lisbon makes fun of the second the leave the house.  “‘Don’t listen to control freaks.’ ‘Whatever you say, sir,’” she teases.  I love it when even Robin Tunney can’t suppress Lisbon’s personality.  Jane suggests the visit Keri Sheehan, since she was also a bottle blonde.  Which means they were having an affair.  Called it!

The duo comes across a bit of a problem when they to Keri’s house in that Keri is dead.  It looks like a suicide, since there’s a bottle of cyanide near her and a short suicide note reading “Forgive me.”  When the rest of the team arrives to investigate, Van Pelt finds a ripped up picture of Kerri and Alex, confirming that they were lovers.  Chancellor Stern arrives and wants to pin the murder on Keri, but Lisbon is having none of that.  The team goes back to the DOJ to discuss the case, and Lisbon says that she thinks Keri’s death was a staged suicide; the note was too short and she had enough pills to kill herself without the pain of cyanide.  Jane just wants the case to be over, since suspicion is now back on Sophie.  He agrees to talk with her anyway.  Lisbon notes that he’s “very combative,” and he admits that he’s not happy about the possibility that Sophie lied to him and he believed her, or “the ultimate sin.”

Over at the Institute, the computerized voice is asking a woman if she would push a 60-year-old man out of a lifeboat if it would save ten small children.  She says no, which is apparently the morally correct answer.  I…think I’d push the guy out of the boat.  Sophie explains that they can make people inclined towards good or inclined towards evil, and Jane says that he wants to give it a spin.  He doesn’t get the chance, though, because he and Lisbon take Sophie into another room for questioning.  Sophie says that she knew Keri was having an affair with a married man because the girl told her, but she didn’t know it was with Alex.  She once again denies having any lingering feelings for Alex and says that they weren’t still having sex.  When Lisbon mentions Suzie the chimp (who’s in hearing distance) goes nuts, and Sophie claims that she doesn’t know a Rosie.  Jane immediately asks Lisbon to leave the room, and she complies.

Once he’s alone with Sophie, Jane has another flashback to his time at the mental institution.  Sophie is speaking soothingly to him, telling him that he is not powerless.  Interestingly, the Red John smiley face has been painted on the wall.   The flashback ends, and Jane asks Sophie to tell him the truth.  He asks if the chimp in the room is really Rosie, and she confirms.  Turns out the morality engine doesn’t really work, and they had to switch Suzie for Rosie because Suzie never got gentler.  The entire institute is based on a lie.  Alex was going to confess everything at the symposium, which was why he and Sophie were arguing beforehand.  Jane realizes that Sophie called him because she thought she could manipulate him into getting her off the hook.  Amazingly, he doesn’t care about the fraud.  “If you had anything to do with those murders,” he tells her, “now is the time to walk away.  Walk away, and get on a plane to Brazil.”  Oh, wow.  I love it when Jane doesn’t give a shit about the law.  We get another flashback, this time with Jane is his usual suit and standing with Sophie in a very intimate position.  He leaves and she tells him to be well.  The flashback ends and Sophie still insists that she didn’t kill anyone.  Jane and I are inclined to believe her.

Over at the DOJ, Bossman is having a snit into his phone.  He says that something is a crazy idea, and we see that it’s Jane he’s talking to.  Jane pretends that Bossman approved of his plan so they can put it into action.  A moment later Sophie runs up to Stutzer on a park bench, telling him that she somehow got the morality engine to work.  She takes him to see the test subject, and it’s none other than Jane.  She fiddles with the thing to make him good and then again to make him evil.  Stutzer is thrilled, and he calls Chancellor Stern in to see the results.  They’re all over the moon until Jane walks out still calibrated for evil.  He locks them all in Stutzer's office and takes out the pistol Stutzer showed us earlier.  Tell him who killed Alex and Keri, he orders Stutzer, or he’ll kill Sophie.  Stutzer says he doesn’t know, so Jane fires the gun and Sophie drops, blood appearing on her shirt.  Jane then turns the gun on Chancellor Stern, and when Stutzer still says he doesn’t know who the murderer the Chancellor confesses.  He says that, without the Stutzer Institute, the university would collapse, so he couldn’t allow Alex to ruin everything.  He gives the exact location of a bottle of cyanide in his basement, and Jane ends the ruse and lets Lisbon in to arrest the Chancellor.  Sophie gets up off of the floor, having faked her own demise.  “Inadmissible!” Chancellor Stern declares, addressing the obvious flaw in this plan.  “I said what I had to say to save myself from this lunatic with a gun!”  He’s right, but he also gave the evidence needed to prosecute him, and apparently the prosecutors are used to dealing with the ramifications of Jane’s unconventional methods.  Once Chancellor Stern is led away, Stutzer expresses his disappointment that the morality engine still doesn’t work.  I really think he’d rather the engine work and Sophie be dead than the other way around.

Later, Jane and Sophie sit on a parch bench.  He tells her not to call him the next time an ex-lover turns up dead, and she agrees that they’re even.  She also says that she’ll probably go back to being a clinical psychiatrist now that her career as a scientist is down the drain.  Jane gives her a quick kiss, half on the cheek and half on the mouth, before telling her to be well and getting into Lisbon’s car.  Lisbon teases him about kissing a girl before offering to let Jane drive to cheer him up.  He’s impressed by her offer, since she hates the way he drives, and just as he agrees she rescinds the offer.  The friendship, it is adorable.