The death of a young botanist leads the team into the lucrative world of medical marijuana, while Cho’s work with the rapid response team brings him back into contact with Summer, on THE MENTALIST, Sunday, Dec. 9 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Samaire Armstrong returns as Summer, Cho’s former CI and girlfriend. Monique Gabriela Curnen (“Lie to Me”) returns as Agent Tamsin Wade, a CBI agent in the Gang Division. The Mentalist opens with Jane (Simon Baker) running to a movie theater. Bret Stiles (Malcom McDowell) is inside. Stiles tells Jane that what he’s asking is impossible. He owes Jane, and that’s why he’s not going to help him break Lorelei (Emmanuelle Chiriqui) out of prison. Jane tells him he’s glad they’re on the same page about Stiles owing him a favor and that he’s not planning on getting caught.
It’s morning. Jane pulls into an empty lot. He parks in a no parking area and breaks the driver side window. At the prison, Lorelei is working when she gets pulled out by a guard. She is left in the yard, with no explanation. There’s a lot of bustle and then a truck pulls out. Lorelei is gone.
The truck stops a bit down the road, leaving Lorelei at the side of the road. She’s no longer wearing her prison uniform. She’s walking down the road when a car pulls up. She looks in, and is chagrined to find Jane at the wheel. She gets in, but she’s not happy.
Lisbon (Robin Tunney) calls Jane, and leaves a message. She’s annoyed. Kirkland (Kevin Corrigan) is there and on the phone. He tells her that Lorelei has escaped from prison and that Jane interviewed prison drivers. He wants to know where Jane is. Lisbon goes out to ask Rigsby (Owain Yeoman), Cho (Tim Kang) and Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti) if they’ve seen Jane, but no one has. Then a report comes in about Jane’s car. They go to check it out and find evidence that Jane doesn’t have Lorelei. She has him.
Jane asks Lorelei where he should take her. She tells him that she is not going to turn on Red John. She asks him to drive her to the beach. The next morning, Jane wakes to find Lorelei gone, but just as he’s beginning to really panic, he spots her walking into the ocean, nude.
When she comes out, Jane spots a police car coming up the beach. He tells her to hide. She goes behind a rock as the car pulls up. A park ranger (Ron Perkins) gets out and questions Jane about the campfire. Jane acts all nervous and squirelly. The ranger asks if he’s alone, and Lorelei speaks up, saying she can’t come out because she’s naked. He tells her that’s not allowed on public beaches. She apologizes and he leaves.
Lisbon and Kirkland go to see Lorelei’s mother Dana (Gigi Rice). She’s not very forthcoming. Lisbon wants to know what happened to Lorelei that she would work with Red John. Dana gestures to her beautiful home and says she doesn’t know. That she gave her everything. She just doesn’t know. The ranger calls the CBI about Jane as soon as he hears about the kidnapping. He tells them that he knew something was up from how nervous Jane was. Kirkland tells him that Lorelei was probably holding a gun on them the entire time. The ranger agrees and is really grateful for Jane’s cool head.
Dana comes to the office. She tells Lisbon that she used to be an addict. She had two daughters. When Lorelei was 5 and Miranda was 2, she sold Miranda to a wealthy, childless couple. Lorelei never forgave her. The couple comes in. They bought Miranda because they were new immigrants and would not have been allowed to adopt for some years. It doesn’t really make sense, but then, neither does the fact that Jane was able to break Lorelei out of a federal prison. Miranda was very unhappy, and when they sent her to a therapist, she started to remember Lorelei. They got the girls together and the sisters were happy. Lisbon asks to speak to Miranda. She was raped and murdered several years ago. The case remains unsolved.
Jane stops to buy a hat and sunglasses for himself and a dress and hair dye for Lorelei. When they stop at a motel, he asks for a room without a television so that Lorelei won’t find out about the kidnapping story. When she complains about the warm beer, he leaves to get ice and takes the opportunity to call Lisbon. He tells her about Miranda, but she already knows. She says that Miranda scratched a name before she died, “Roy.” Jane asks her to fax it to the motel.
Meanwhile, Lorelei heard the news on the radio. So she’s lying in wait when he returns to the room. She beats the crap out him. She’s furious because she was starting to trust him. Jane tells her that he’s protecting himself, but he’s protecting her too. He tells her that Red John killed her sister. She doesn’t believe him. He shows her the crime scene photo. Roy is an alias that Red John uses. She refuses to believe him, but she takes him with her to her sister’s cabin.
Back at the office, the team is trying to figure out where Lorelei would have gone from the motel. Van Pelt found the cabin. They head there.
At the cabin, Jane tells Lorelei that the police will be on the way if this was Miranda’s cabin. He tells her to leave. He’ll cover for her. He tells her to find out the truth about her sister and come back to him. She leaves and he belts himself into the passenger seat of the car. He uses a branch to crash into a tree. When the team arrives, he sends them on a wild goose chase.
Lisbon talks to Jane. She suspects that he engineered everything. She doesn’t know for sure. Jane tells her that Lorelei told him that he was exactly the same as Red John. She’s shocked that they didn’t immediately become best friends upon meeting. They look at each other. He knows Red John.