Black Helicopters is the thirteenth episode of the sixth season of The Mentalist.
Summary[]
Jane’s investigation leads him to join a separatist commune after a U.S. attorney is found dead in Mexico, even though there’s no record of her crossing the border. Also, Rigsby and Van Pelt convince JJ LaRoche to help them discover who is stalking former CBI members.
Recap[]
It shows a community farm in Texas, where people are doing their everyday work. A man with a canteen begins to take a sip from it; he sees something in the distance and confirms what he sees. It is three police vehicles. He begins to run at full speed to go and ring a bell to have everyone get indoors as fast as possible and to get the men armed with guns. Abbott and the FBI introduce themselves to the town people; Abbott wants to know who is in charge. A truck comes driving from the distance and in front of the FBI, and a man gets out of the truck, who turns out to be Patrick.
Cutting back to two days before the previous incident, Cho is with Kim in Mexico; Patrick is already at the scene of the crime. Patrick asks them both about their flight, they reply that it was fine. Patrick then asks where Lisbon is and it turns out that she is still dealing with Ardiles's murder. Patrick introduces the two of them to Commander Delgado; they then make their way to the body of the person who’s been killed, Edith Firlock. They look at the body and they believe the cartel could have had something to do with it. Patrick then shows them that the female worked hard to look good and to be groomed, but why is she dressed up like a hippie? He believes it is a costume of some sort. Patrick and Delgado go for lunch.
Teresa talks to Elsie. Elsie tells Lisbon about how Edith and her lived with each other for a while. Teresa asks if there was anyone in Edith’s life that could have wanted to do something to her. Lisbon says that Elsie was the last person who saw her, and asks her what time it was. Elsie says that she left home and ran into Edith, who said that she would come back home later; she never showed up.
Patrick gives lunch to Kim and Cho, along with some for himself. Patrick says that the woman is in costume trying to be a hippie, if they could solve that, then they could find the killer. Patrick gives Cho some Mexican jumping beans, which Cho loved as a child. Kim asks how Patrick knew about that, he mentions that he knows what everyone secretly wants. She asks about what she secretly wants and Patrick says he will give it to her as a little surprise gift. Patrick wants to take another look at the body, while Kim is going to go and update Abbott on the case.
Teresa and Abbott are talking about their recent case; Abbott tells her she’s got files to look through and leaves. Patrick says that the locals knew about the body and that the best way to hide their involvement is to blame the cartel. However, this was not done. He is looking around the crime scene to see why it would be convenient to dump the body here and finds an old door that looks suspicious. Patrick decides to go take a look inside. Delgado calls out for him, to see where he has gone. Delgado looks in the room but he can’t find Patrick.
Abbott asks Wylie what has he got now; he tells him that nothing has shown up. Patrick calls Kim and says that he has found out how Edith got to Mexico and that she needs to trace his phone. Kim and Cho end up at a small town, seemin to have passed the border already. Kim tries calling Patrick again while Cho spots a truck coming towards them and inside of it is a man in a cowboy hat who tells them it is private property. They say they’re FBI and that he should lower his weapon. When drawing her gun previously, Kim dropped her phone on the ground and it is on speaker phone. Patrick tells them that whatever happens next, they should not shoot. Patrick then appears near them from an underground passageway and says that it leads to Mexico.
Cho interrogates Mr. Phelps, the man with the cowboy hat before, about why there’s a tunnel in his property. It turns out that there was a lot of blood near the entrace and Cho says it is a matter of time before they find his DNA on the woman. The man admits that he found the woman in his field dead and he decided to move her. Cho asks about her car, but it seems that she didn’t have a car. Patrick and Kim do not believe that Phelps killed the woman. When Patrick takes a package out, Kim takes and opens it up, thinking that it is her secret thing she’s always wanted. She opens it to see a Tamagotchi and stares at it in confusion. However, Wylie recognises it and exclaims excitedly. It turns out that Patrick brought it for Wylie.
Teresa shows Patrick pictures of a farmer's market that Edith saw on the internet and went to the location. Patrick decides to drive down there and asks Lisbon to join him. Lisbon declines, saying that she is still working on Ardiles's case. Patrick tells Teresa that LaRoche owes him a favour and that he can help them with this case.
Patrick and Kim arrives at the market. Kim hands Patrick the photos of the victim to show the people. Patrick says it’s lunch time and that there’s too many people, so he wants to sleep instead. Kim decides to go solo for now, showing images of the woman to locals, she asks one woman and she says she knows nothing. Kim goes around asking several people and it seems that no one knows who the woman is. Kim meets a man named Clancy who is selling home-made peanut butter and she asks about the woman. It seems that Clancy did see her, but once Kim is found to be a cop by an old woman, everything goes downhill; the locals start to get irritated with her.
Grace and Wayne speak to LaRoche about their problem that Lisbon told him on the phone. LaRoche says he doesn’t want extra stress, Grace then mentions the debt that he has with Patrick and then it would be repaid if LaRoche helps. LaRoche changes his mind. Wayne offers to help out, but LaRoche doesn’t want it because he wants to be drama free. Kim gets back to the R.V. to talk to Patrick; he sees that she’s having a hard time. Patrick tells Kim that it was impossible for Edith to have a peanut butter sample because she was allergic to peanut butter. Patrick goes over to buy some peanut butter from Clancy, Patrick talks to the people at the stand and then when he is about to walk away, a man named Alex tells him to come with them to their place. Patrick says that he’ll take Alex up on his offer. Abbott calls Kim and it turns out that he’s found a vehicle that could be connected to the case. She tells Abbott that she'll go and check it out with Jane but sees that he is driving away, ditching her behind.
Patrick is with Alex at the small town. He asks Alex about how he got to where he is; it turns out that the land was given to Alex after the owner of the land who took Alex when Alex had nowhere to go, passed away. Alex now offers the land (and community) to other people needing a place to go, as a way of giving to others in the same way that he was shown generosity before. Alex tells Patrick that he shouldn't always be on the road, and that he should stay the night. Patrick calls Teresa and tells her that he’s in the compound; he feels that the killer of Edith is at the compound. Patrick says he has got a plan and asks Teresa for a black helicopter and a tank with all seriousness.
Kim talks to Abbott about Patrick leaving her behind. Abbott says that Patrick is making an effort to fit in, and shows Kim a toy figurine of Voltron that Patrick got for him. However, Kim is not impressed and reiterates her statement. Abbott says it is not cool that Patrick left her, asking if he had a reason for it. She says that she does not know because he won’t answer his phone. At this moment, Teresa comes in saying that she just got off the phone with Jane, and that he is asking for a black helicopter and a tank.
Patrick is helping the people to fix a fence. He sees a helicopter in the sky and says that it’s circling the area. Patrick tells them about how this starts, Alex looks a bit pissed off about it because he believes they’re good people. Alex says they need to prepare themselves because of that black helicopter. They hear the bell ringing and someone reports that a convoy of police vans. All the people get guns and they march out to meet the visitors. Patrick gets out of the truck with Alex and says they should all relax. Cho tells Alex they have a permit to search the farm for evidence of Edith’s death, they ask for permission to look around Alex’s farm. Abbott says they have the power to save lives if they can work together; they give Alex an hour to persuade his people.
Patrick tells Alex that he wants to speak to them; he goes up to them and tells them that he’s a part of the FBI. Patrick says that he knows that someone there killed Edith, he then tells them about how she drove down to catch up with someone from her past. Patrick asks everyone who are under the age of 45 to go to the back of barn. Patrick says that one of those old friends was on the run and is using the farm as a hideout. Patrick then mentions the killer owns their own gun, he asks who owns a fire arm. Patrick is looking at the people in front of him, he’s trying to find the killer by just talking about what they’re thinking standing in line. Alex, who has been visibly distressed during Patrick's interregation process, is suddenly defended by Marcia. She tells Patrick to stop, and proceeds to pull a gun on everyone around her. Jane has caught the murderer.
Abbott is now talking to Marcia, whose name is actually Rachel. Turns out that she was a part of a bombing, he tells her that 27 years must have been a long time to be on the run. Rachel says that Edith found her due to a picture on a travelling blog, and that Edith wanted to help her out with turning herself in, but Rachel had no plans of turning herself in. Rachel ended up shooting and killing Edith and returning to the market. Abbott walks away.
Wayne gets a call, he picks it up and it’s LaRoche; he has the warrant and that it’s at the warehouse district. Wayne wants to help, but LaRoche says that he doesn’t want to. Grace is tracking LaRoche at the same time, now Wayne knows where he’s heading and is going to his location.
Patrick apologizes to Kim for leaving her out there, he gives her gift. Kim opens it up and finds a butterfly wand; it was something she always wanted as a little girl. Kim tells Teresa how it was something she always wanted, but she couldn’t get it because her mother thought the princess stuff was all dumb. When Lisbon leaves, Kim, assuming nobody can see her, proceeds to play with her new wand. Unbeknowst to her, Jane can see Kim using his gift for her, and smiles.
Wayne arrives at the location and is looking around; LaRoche finds him and tells him he needs to stay outside because he wants to search the place alone. LaRoche enters the warehouse and Wayne is standing outside. LaRoche walks in looking around, he calls for Wayne because of how creepy the place is and he doesn’t want to search alone. They’re both looking around with flash lights when they hear a man talking. Investigating, LaRoche activates a booby trap and ends up getting shot. Wayne runs up to him and tells LaRoche to stay with him. LaRoche mumbles about his dog and dies shortly after.
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Simon Baker as Patrick Jane
- Robin Tunney as Teresa Lisbon
- Tim Kang as Kimball Cho
- Owain Yeoman as Wayne Rigsby
- Amanda Righetti as Grace Van Pelt
- Rockmond Dunbar as Dennis Abbott
- Emily Swallow as Kim Fischer
Recurring Cast[]
- Joe Adler as Jason Wylie
- Pruitt Taylor Vince as J.J. LaRoche
- Shannon McClung as Agent Collins
- Lisbeth Kingsley as FBI Special Agent Childs
Guest Cast[]
- Taylor Nichols as Alex Mildray
- Kevin Daniels as Clancy Tatum
- Cindy Pickett as Rachel (Marcia)
- Karl Makinen as Christon Phelps
- Karen Malina White as Elsie Graham
- Benito Martinez as Commander Delgado
- Kathleen M. Darcy as Edith Firlock
- Jaime Alvarez as Juarez PD Officer
- Kale Clauson as Young Man
- Nicole Day as Young Woman
Deleted Scenes[]
- Lisbon video calls Rigsby and Van Pelt about the murder of Oscar Ardiles and hears their baby Maddie crying.
| Season 6 Episodes |
| The Desert Rose · Black-Winged Redbird · Wedding in Red · Red Listed · The Red Tattoo · Fire and Brimstone · The Great Red Dragon · Red John · My Blue Heaven · Green Thumb · White Lines · Golden Hammer · Black Helicopters · Grey Water · White as the Driven Snow · Violets · Silver Wings of Time · Forest Green · Brown Eyed Girls · Il Tavolo Bianco · Black Hearts · Blue Bird |