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Blood for Blood is the fourteenth episode of Season 3 of The Mentalist.

Summary[]

Van Pelt's actions are called into question when a witness is murdered while she is assigned to his protection.

Recap[]

Grace Van Pelt is commissioned to protect Justin DeGeorge and his daughter Trina at home, who would be the key witness in the trials against Adrian Essex, a drug lord who has been a client of DeGeorge as an investment adviser. When she arrives for her night shift, DeGeorge and his lawyer are practicing the witness report. The policeman Marshall Gorman and the lawyer leave. As Van Pelt goes out for her inspection walk, she hears something suspicious and tries to find the source but gets clocked and is unconscious for a while. When she awakens, Van Pelt hears gunshots and runs back into the house, finding the door opened and DeGeorge shot dead in the living room. His daughter is missing.

While examining the crime scene, Jane finds a sketchbook with a plan of the property that belongs to Trina. Lisbon and Jane find her in a treehouse in the garden where she felt safe and hid. Van Pelt is asked some questions after her wound treatment concerning the door because there is no evidence of a forced entry and the only way to get in is a key that hangs around her neck. But she cannot remember. Jane finds something on the table in the living room: a matchbook with the inscription "Reno Wrangler Bar & Grill" - a clue because Justin has many other collected matchbooks located in a glass container.

Rigsby and Cho drive to Essex' property where they ask him some questions regarding last night. But he pretends that he cannot remember and the two agents want to carry him to the CBI headquarter but as they leave, his electronic tag starts peeping. Then he says that he has an alibi after all.

Trina is brought to the hospital where her aunt Jodie tries to protect her from the case since her father is dead now and her mother already died a year ago (suicide). The girl is unable to remember anything - amnesia - but she seems to have observed something. Jane asks whether he is allowed to hypnotize Trina so she can remember but her aunt still blocks the way through to Trina. Nevertheless, Jane finds a way to get to her and asks Trina some questions on whether she can remember the night. They are interrupted by Jodie, the nurse and Lisbon. When Trina asks where her father is because he hasn't come to see her yet, Jane tells her that he is dead.

Meanwhile, Van Pelt feels guilty because she wasn't able to protect the key witness. Rigsby tries to calm her down but leaves when Craig O'Laughlin comes and assures her that she is a good cop. Then, LaRoche comes to ask her some questions concerning the incident last night and the murder case of Todd Johnson. He demands an accident report and a urine sample for their meeting in the afternoon.

Rigsby and Cho go to ask Eugene Boden some questions, one of Essex' friends, but they find him during a drug deal where Essex takes part, too. But he is able to escape.

In the CBI headquarters, Van Pelt is situated in a talk with LaRoche who persuades her of a guilty conscience because of the door she cannot remember to have closed. Then, he offers her a chance to prove that she is indeed a good cop by being a mole in her division to find out who killed Todd Johnson. He gives her some time to think about it.

Eugene Boden is taken to a questioning where Cho and Lisbon tell him how everything worked for Essex to get out of his house without anybody finding out. The same signal was placed inside of a mobile so Essex was able to get out without anybody knowing it. The only thing they all forgot was the observation camera of the neighbor. Boden wants to leave but Cho and Lisbon persuade him by telling him that because of selling drugs he can get 20 years into prison. He doesn't want to say anything.

Jane talks to Jodie in front of the hospital because he is not allowed to go inside anymore. He gives her some facts about herself - once in the military, now a nurse, tough and she hates DeGeorge because he hit Trina's mother (Jodie's sister), Molly, causing her to fight for Trina's custody after Molly died in Reno. Jodie thinks that violence is a solution for everything but she is self-controlled. She wants to quit smoking but it's too hard. Jane hypnotizes Jodie so that she can stop it for Trina.

In the evening Van Pelt and O'Laughlin go out to a café where he orders a chocolate cake for her to make her feel better.

Meanwhile, Rigsby finds out that DeGeorge was attacked by Jodie some years ago. They also are all trying to find Essex who escaped to one of his properties somewhere. Jane, Cho and Marshal Gorman bet on whether Jane can find out in one minute where Essex is on the basis of a list with all his properties. Jane asks Boden, who still doesn't want to say anything but reacts when his finger points on a place called Eagle Drive. Later, Essex is caught there and brought to the CBI headquarters where he calls a lawyer and says that he was with his girlfriend during the murder.

The next morning, Jane and Lisbon drive to Jodie's house. They want Trina to take part in an identification parade. Jodie refuses at first but Trina tells her that it was her dad who died, so they finally drive to the CBI. But Trina cannot recognize any of the five men standing there. Jane persuades Trina to trust him and to find the murderer. He and Lisbon pretend that Trina can remember by telling Jodie that he hypnotized her while she was signing some paperwork.

Trina is brought somewhere else so she can be protected - in a motel where she is supposed to be. The one who reveals himself by trying to kill Trina is Marshall Gorman. Lisbon and Van Pelt appear and ascribe DeGeorge's murder to him, who was supposed to be assassinated for Essex. As he tries to attack Lisbon, Van Pelt kills him with four shots to the chest.

Later, Van Pelt goes to LaRoche to tell him that Gorman had a key to the house, deducing that she had indeed locked the door and that she is a good cop. Then, Van Pelt tells him that she doesn't want to be a mole in her division because she doesn't want other people to hear the private conversations between her colleagues, her friends. LaRoche tries to change her mind by telling her that someone in the CBI killed a man, that this person may be someone whom she trusts. But Van Pelt refuses. O'Laughlin tells Van Pelt that he is proud of her and they go out.

Essex is interrogated again where Lisbon and Jane tell him that Trina wasn't hypnotized; it was only an excuse to find the killer, who was Gorman. He had the same drugs at home as Essex and they found his statements of account. Whenever Essex needed someone to be killed, he hired Gorman and remitted him a lot of money, a total of five times. Essex asks how they found out that Gorman was the killer. Jane answers that Gorman came from Boston like Essex. They even grew up together on the same street. They knew each other for a very long time. With this information, many more murder cases are closed.

Van Pelt later tells Rigsby that O'Laughlin proposed to her and that they are engaged now.

Jane and Lisbon go to Jodie's house after she called them; she is in desperation because Trina is behaving erratically. Trina confesses that she was the one who killed her dad, which Jane already figured out. Trina wanted to light a candle when she found the matchbook her dad got in Reno, where her mother died. But it was written in papers that her dad has never been to Reno before. DeGeorge revealed that Molly wanted to go away with Trina and leave him alone. He hit Trina, threatened her with a gun and ordered her not to tell anyone. For a moment, DeGeorge was distracted and Trina knocked the gun away. She took it and shot him - self-defense.

Jodie comforts Trina while Lisbon and Jane go to talk privately. Lisbon is upset Jane didn't tell her this sooner. She wants to follow procedure and book Trina into a juvenile hall but Jane tries to persuade her not to. He points out that Trina would be further traumatized by being sent to juvie or foster care during the trial, even if she's acquitted. Jane tells her that Trina confessed because she is a good person.

Lisbon is conflicted but still drives Trina to the juvenile hall. She stops in front of the front desk and hesitates. Trina assures Lisbon that she is okay with this. Lisbon is moved and takes her back home. Jane happily tells the officer at the front desk that he just witnessed a beautiful thing.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Recurring Cast[]

Guest Cast[]

Trivia[]

Season 3 Episodes
Red Sky At Night  · Cackle-bladder Blood  · The Blood On His Hands  · Red Carpet Treatment  · The Red Ponies  · Pink Chanel Suit · Red Hot · Ball of Fire · Red Moon · Jolly Red Elf · Bloodsport · Bloodhounds · Red Alert · Blood for Blood · Red Gold · Red Queen · Bloodstream · The Red Mile · Every Rose Has Its Thorn · Redacted · Like a Redheaded Stepchild · Rhapsody in Red · Strawberries and Cream
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