The Mentalist Wiki
Register
Advertisement

Bloodstream is the seventeenth episode of Season 3 of The Mentalist.

Summary[]

LaRoche demotes Agent Teresa Lisbon and puts Cho in charge of the team as they investigate the murder of a doctor.

Recap[]

Doctor Micah Newton was brained to death at a golfing range not far from his hospital, with just one hit to the head. LaRoche shows on the scene to badger Lisbon about whether she knows anything about Hightower’s whereabouts. She’s annoyed since she’s trying to work and declares the minute someone is appointed to take over Hightower’s job she’s going to get him banned. As it turns out, LaRoche was that very morning assigned to take over Hightower’s position. He subsequently puts Cho in charge of the team.

Lisbon takes it with all grace. When they sit down to go over details there is a little awkwardness - especially when she reaches for the coroner's report when it's offered - it doesn't go over so badly. Newton was survived by a husband and the radiation tag on his ID badge showed him to be way above the safe limit.

Jane and Lisbon head to the hospital and speak with Newton's assistant Francine. He was the head of the transplant program at the hospital and was very much a people person, it seems. In his office is a photo of him and his husband on their wedding day, as well as several transplant patients. The night before, he was giving a talk to first year medical students. When Jane examines a photograph on the wall, he notices that another doctor takes center stage in a photo of the transplant staff. His name Dr. Quick.

Cho and Rigsby go to talk to the husband at his place of business. He'd last seen Newton the morning before he was killed and said that he was going to go to the driving range before returning home to get rid of some stress, Then he has a threatening letter Newton had received not long ago, from the husband of a transplant patient who was in line for a kidney but kept getting pushed down the list. When the husband is brought in to answer for his threatening letter, he provides a pretty solid alibi of holding his wife's hair over the toilet while she threw up blood.

Back at the hospital, Lisbon and Jane sit in on a departmental meeting, where Dr. Quick has taken over Dr. Newton's resposibilities and sends someone known only as Patient Siberia to the top of the list. He's unimpressed once Jane begins to talk. Lisbon happily adds that she will give him her boss's phone number to complain. So while Dr. Quick isn't interested in cooperating with the police, his assistant Dr. Watson plays ball, giving Quick's alibi for the previous night.

Jane and Lisbon split up - supposedly he's going to the cafeteria, but she's not asking because she doesn't have to. So what Jane aactually does is go to lure Dr. Watson away from Patient Siberia with a page and goes to investigate for himself. A bodyguard throws him against the wall and holds him at gunpoint. Patient Siberia is easily deduced as a Russian crime lord who came to the West looking for a new kidey and pretty soon, Jane is saved by Lisbon and Dr. Quick who's now tossing them out. They take the bodyguard with them.

He's a recalcitrant witness, but Lisbon eventually gets him to talk and he hasn't left his boss's side. The CBI continues to look into the radiation badge issue - especially when it was scanned in radiology during his talk to the med student. Meanwhile, at the hospital Jane is making friends wih the nurses and Byron's wife Enid is in unendurable pain but has to wait lest she OD. Jane advises trying to scream - it will elicit better results in the drugs department. So she screams.

Later, Rigsby and Jane follow Dr. Watson into a sketchy neighborhood and into an equally sketchy building. Rigsby goes in (Jane claims he will wait in the car, but it's a lie and he appears) and finds Watson, doctoring a heroin addict. He injects her with a substance that strips the system of opiates. He has an alibi for the night before - moonlighting at a mobile clinic. He didn't share immediately because it's a violation of his contract with the hospital.

Following the clues of the radiation badge it leads to Dr. Newton's assistant Francine. They corner her at the bus station with a case of cesium 137 and she is arrested. She gives up her buyer quickly and LaRoche congratulates Lisbon personally. He also reinstates her as head of the investigation with the explanation "Maybe I was messing with you."

At the hospital, Jane is called to OR 8 which makes sense as he's signed Patient Siberia "Cut at your own risk." He announces they've all been given drugged coffee (except for the pregnant nurse who shouldn't be drinking coffee anyway) and someone will shortly be going into detox. Dr. Gidry, the anesthesiologist, has quickly run away and is found in the bathroom by Lisbon. Jane of course has put nothing in the coffee but used the lie to draw out the real killer.

By the time they get her into custody where she's going into real withdrawal and lets her story out to Cho. Dr. Newton had found evidence of her siphoning drugs off of the patients and not only fired her, but was going to turn her in to police and cooperate with investigation. So she followed him to the driving range to plead for her job but he refused. She took a golf club to his temple.

Now that Dr. Quick's been fired for accepting an MRI machine in exchange for Patient Siberia's kidney and Lisbon is back in charge, everything seems right with the world once more. The last scene is Byron and Jane, who has apparently advocated for Enid to get back up at the top of the transplant list. As a Thank You, he gives Jane his St. Sebastian medal, telling him "He helps people in pain.", Jane starts to refuse but finally accepts it.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Recurring Cast[]

Guest Cast[]

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
Advertisement