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So Long, and Thanks for All the Red Snapper is the twenty-second episode of Season 4 of The Mentalist.

Summary[]

The investigation into the murder of a surfer gets Lisbon back in touch with an old flame, while Summer makes a fateful decision that could affect her relationship with Cho.

Recap[]

In this episode, Jane and Lisbon investigate the murder of Jay Banner, a San Martinez local surfer and part-time marine scavenger, whose body was found buried in the sand on the beach. Jane and Lisbon, needing more information, decide to talk to Jay’s employer Greg, who just happens to be Lisbon’s ex-fiancé.

Greg’s wife, Greta seems to know a bit about Lisbon, as she appears to know about the infamous “Teresa Lisbon” and her former relationship with her husband and seems to be none too thrilled to be meeting her. Greg makes a few comments indicating that it was Teresa who ended their relationship and Teresa, not wanting to go down that road, again steers the conversation back to the investigation at hand. Greg and Greta inform Lisbon that Jay quit about a week ago and states that Jay seemed to have something weighing on his mind for a couple of weeks. Jane also notices Greg’s lack of sympathy for Jay and calls him on it. Greg states that he didn’t like the way Jay treated women, by using them one minute and throwing them away for the next. The line of questioning gets interrupted by Greg and Greta’s children.

Meanwhile, Cho and Van Pelt head over to Jay’s house and encounter the landlord, Lance, and the roommate, Jeter. Jeter states that he was with Jay the morning of his death, as he and Jay went surfing. He recalls a boat coming into the harbor, which was odd especially at that hour seeing there, was a heavy marine layer. Lance also says that Jay was about to move out and was planning to live on his boat, which is currently missing.

While searching Jay’s room, Cho finds a large quantity of cocaine with a lightning bolt logo on the packages. Cho contacts Summer for information on the logo and she identifies that the drug dealer for that particular logo goes by the name of Tookie and is a local player in the drug market in the city. Cho asks Summer to find out anything about Jay, but to stay away from Tookie. Summer ignoring Cho’s plea decides to talk Tookie anyway, but learns nothing of value. She thanks Tookie for his time, but before she leaves she steals some of his cocaine. A little while later, Cho arrives at Summer’s apartment and he notices that something is off when Summer refuses to come out of the bathroom. He busts down the door and finds a badly beaten Summer.

Summer claims it was mugging, but he is knows that she is lying to him and that she went to Tookie. He leaves her alone for the time being and decides to go after Tookie. He beats Tookie up pretty badly, but Tookie unfortunately spills the beans about Summer’s drug theft which Cho knew nothing about. Cho tells Tookie to stay away from Summer and heads back to his girlfriend’s apartment. She and Cho get into a heated argument after he confronts her about the drugs. She relents underneath his questioning and explains that she was bored and wanted to try something fun. Cho, angered by Summer’s carelessness, destroys the leftover drugs, much to Summer’s objection. Cho accidently pushes Summer when she tries to stop him from destroying the drugs, which shocks them both.

Back at San Martinez, Jane is chatting with the locals and comes across some interesting information about a sunken ship named the Freemont. According to the local retirees, the Freemont was a vessel with close to $60 million dollars’ worth of gold in its hull when it sank off the coast of San Martinez. The gold was never recovered except for a piece that one of the retirees carries around. Jane thanks his newfound friends, while stealing the only gold coin to have ever been recovered and meets up with Lisbon to search for Jay’s missing boat. Jane informs Lisbon about his theories that Jay was looking for the missing treasure and that the treasure was possibly the reason Jay was killed, but he isn’t certain. He does however, help Lisbon find the missing boat, which so happens to be in the local Police Impound, but as they approach the boat they hear movement from inside and Lisbon calls for whoever to come on out with their hands up, which happens to be Greg.

Lisbon takes Greg back to the station to question him and why did it seem like he was removing prints from the boat. Greg deflects all inquiries which only presents him a negative light. Lisbon tries to reach out to him telling him that she knows he wasn’t involved with the murder, but Greg snaps at her snidely saying that she used to know him, but not anymore. Rigsby updates Lisbon with new evidence, that some of the equipment on the boat was used for marine scavenging, but of added interest is the fact the equipment had to be operated by two people.

With this new information, Lisbon hurries down to Greg’s business to ask Greta if she knew anything about the equipment on Jay’s boat and if he could have possibly stolen it from their business, and more importantly if Jay could have had a partner. Greta says that all the equipment from Jay’s boat isn’t theirs and that she knew nothing of a partner and adamantly states that her husband could never have been involved. This is when Lisbon starts to put two and two together: Greta was the person on the boat that morning and she was having an affair with Jay, that is why Greg was on the boat at the impound lot - he was trying to wipe his wife’s fingerprints. Greta confirms Lisbon's theories, that she was having an affair and broke up with Jay the morning of his death, but she didn’t kill him. Lisbon believes her.

Lisbon meets Jane at Jay’s house, where Jane has the roommates and the gardener together with the local police searching the house for the missing gold. Jane explains that Jay along with his mysterious partner found the gold from the Freemont Ship and stashed it somewhere around the house before the partner double-crossed him and killed him. Furthermore, Jane states that what the mysterious partner didn’t know was that Jay had time to move the gold a second time before he died because he was planning his own double-cross.

With none of the gold recovered by the cops, except for a single piece (that Jane planted to corroborate his fictional story) the police and all participating members leave the house as Jane expected. Jane informs Lisbon that if his theory is correct, Jay’s mysterious partner will return some time after dark to check if the gold was really removed from its original hiding spot, which he does much to Jane’s glee. The mysterious partner happens to be Lance Gladstone, the landlord. Lance explains that he was the one to find the ship, but needed a partner so he chose Jay, believing he could trust him. He states that he witnessed Jay talking to Greta on the beach and after she left he went to discuss about dividing up the gold. Jay wanted half, but Lance thought he should be the one to have the greater portion since it was his idea. The two proceeded to get into a scuffle and Lance, overwhelmed by his rage, bashed Jay’s head in with a hammer. Lance explains he didn’t mean for it to happen, but it just did.

Lisbon releases Greg and the two reconcile leaving on good terms with a fresh new start. As for Cho and Summer, the same cannot be said. At a train station, the couple say their goodbyes to each other as the pair believe it would be good for Summer to leave the city and stay with her sister for awhile, to ensure that no one affiliated with Tookie comes looking for her to recover the drugs that she stole from Tookie. Summer believes that this won't be the last time they will see each other, but Cho doesn't share Summer's opinion. Summer gives Cho one last kiss before she departs on her train, leaving Cho to sorrowfully look for the last time.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Recurring Cast[]

Guest Cast[]

Trivia[]

  • The title is a reference to So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, the fourth book in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams. The writer chose the title because this was her final episode on The Mentalist.
    • In the finale of season 5, "Red John's Rules", another reference follows with a comment by Jane, "And what if dolphins were actually aliens from another galaxy? That would be kind of cool."
Season 4 Episodes
Scarlet Ribbons  · Little Red Book  · Pretty Red Balloon  · Ring Around the Rosie  · Blood and Sand  · Where in the World is Carmine O'Brien? · Blinking Red Light · Pink Tops · The Redshirt · Fugue In Red · Always Bet On Red · My Bloody Valentine · Red Is The New Black · At First Blush · War Of The Roses · His Thoughts Were Red Thoughts · Cheap Burgundy · Ruddy Cheeks · Pink Champagne on Ice · Something's Rotten in Redmund · Ruby Slippers · So Long, and Thanks for All the Red Snapper · Red Rover, Red Rover · The Crimson Hat
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