The Mentalist – Recap - Season 1, Episode 5 – Redwood. In this episode, Jane and the CBI team investigate the case of two missing women – Kara Palmer and Nicole Gilbert. They were last seen at Nicole’s engagement party, which took place at a tavern named Sullivan’s. Kara’s car has been found abandoned, and the team is at the site, along with the local sheriff, one of his deputies, and a search dog. Given the scent, the dog will not move from the car. Jane asks if anyone has checked under the car. It turns out they have not! Under the car they find Kara, who has been beaten and stabbed to death.

This is not a city scene – the community is a small logging community, and the car is found abandoned on a country road. Nicole is out in the woods somewhere – and they don’t know if she is alive or dead. What Jane does notice in the car is a bloody MP3 player – plugged in – and a purse filled with Earth Pure cosmetics.

Jane goes to speak with Kara’s family. They speak well of Nicole, who has been friends with their daughter since grade school. (Did I mention that Kara is the classic “good girl” and Nicole is the classic “bad girl”?) However, Kara did not approve of Nicole’s fiancé.

Jane then interviews the search team – as he is convinced that Nicole is either dead or being held captive somewhere, and that the person who did it is on the search team. He gets no results.

Nicole is then found in a psychotic state, covered in blood and holding a bloody knife in her hand (which may be the murder weapon). At the hospital, after Nicole has been seen by a physician (who advises them not to shock her by telling her that Kara is dead), Jane blurts out that Kara is dead. Nicole gets very upset, and insists that she still can remember nothing about that night.

Jane leaves the hospital (after having the sheriff place a guard on her room), and then comes back to talk to Nicole a second time. Her fiancé shows up, screaming that he wants to see her, and is subdued and taken away by the sheriff’s deputies. Nicole is very upset by what happens – but doesn’t understand why.

Meanwhile, the CBI team has brought a suspect in for interrogation. He was in the video of the party at the bar – and he is wearing a cap with the Earth Pure logo. It turns out he drives the truck that delivers the cosmetics. He gives the team a whole new view of Kara – he has been giving her cosmetics, hoping that she will eventually sleep with him. Jane does not believe that he is involved, and insists that the team let him go (which they have to do, for lack of evidence to hold him for anything).

Jane then gets scolded for listening to the music on Kara’s MP3 player, which is evidence and needs to stay locked up. Placing the player back in lock up, Jane then goes to the hospital and sneaks Nicole out. He drives her down the country road that Kara’s car was found abandoned on. He plays the music from the MP3 player – the music that was on when Kara and Nicole ere driving down the road. This triggers Nicole’s memory. Kara had told Nicole that she had been seeing Nicole’s fiancé. Nicole made her pull over so that she could throw up. A truck pulled up, and the driver came over and hit Nicole. Kara came to her defense, and the driver killed her.

Nicole remembers being placed in a truck, and being driven down a bumpy road. She woke up in an old shed, and could not open the door. Jane hypnotizes her into opening the door, and the man who kidnapped her burst through and tried to rape her. She also remembers that he smelled like pineapple.

Lisbon is with Kyle, searching for the cabin that Nicole was taken to. Jane calls her with the description that Nicole has given him, and she recognizes (from the general description and by the mention of the scent of pineapple) that Kyle is Kara’s killer and Nicole’s abductor. Kyle trys to kill her, but she gets away. As he runs out after her he finds her there with a gun – as well as Rigsby, who has arrived as backup.

At the end, Kara’s father and Nicole thank Jane for solving Kara’s murder. We are somehow left with the sense that Nicole will turn her life around.