The Mentalist – ReCap – Season 1, Episode 9 – Flame Red – air date 7/30/09. In this episode Jane and the CBI team investigate murder by arson. The solving of this crime exposes a much older crime, a given vengeance (and the masks that we wear) a whole new name.
One of the first things that Jane notes when they visit the crime scene – and the widow – is that the Police Chief (Trey Piller) and the victim (Richard Garcia) served in the same National Guard unit. He also talks to the victim’s daughter – and finds out that the daughter and her mother are not on good terms. There is an incident involving a developmentally disabled young man (Tommy Olds) that her mother, where the daughter yells at the mother to stop lying and just call the young man developmentally disabled.
Before leaving the house, Jane and Lisbon meet Ben Machado, a local real estate person. From the daughter, Jane learns that her father used to have his military mementoes housed in a glass case, but that he put them away, and she does not know why. Part of the reason that the daughter, Maddy, is bitter towards her mother is that she suspects that she had an affair.
Rigsby and Van Pelt visit Mitchell Reese, the man that Richard Garcia was supposed to meet on the night that he was killed. They find him working on a car, and note sever burns on both arms, that have healed. Reese also mentions that two men from the same National Guard unit died by fire – the recent victim, Rich Garcia, and a man who died three years ago, Dave Martin.
Just then the CBI team gets a call to another fire – at the home of Police Chief Trey Piller. Rigsby hears screaming, and races into the house to carry Piller out, sustaining burns to one arm himself. It is determined that the two fires have the same MO, and theat the same accelerant was used.
Jane goes to Alden’s Grove to see where Dave Martin was killed. (Alden’s Grove is a land site that the four National Guardsmen – Trey Piller, Ben Machado, Rich Garcia and Dave Martin - bought together.) He finds Tommy Olds in residence, placed there to watch over the property. Jane finds that Tommy was close to Dave, who was an irritable, reclusive man who was also an alcoholic. Jane finds a fenced in area where Tommy is growing plants. It appears to be an aquifer, a source of underground water – and worth a great deal of money.
Cho and Van Pelt visit Machado at home. He opens fire on them, thinking that they are there to harm him. After they cuff him, they find six containers of Ethyl Ether in his barn – the accelerant that was used to cause the two recent fires. After interrogating Machado, the CBI team lets him go, using him as bait to draw the real killer in.
Cho and Rigsby stake out Machado’s house, to protect him from the killer. Rigsby starts talking about Reese being a viable suspect – positing that he may be Dave Martin (the man who died in the fire three years ago). They find out that his scars are from when motor that he was working on exploded, and that is hair is real (Dave Martin was bald), so they go back to Machado’s house. They get there just in time. Jane, in disguise, lures Machado into his barn, pours accelerant over him, and claims to be Dave Martin. Machado is finally afraid enough to admit that he and the other two men set fire to Martin, as he did not want to share the aquifer rights (and money) with them. Suddenly someone outside the barn starts splashing accelerant on it, and starts the barn on fire. Jane manages to get out, with Machado, who they are able to arrest, as Jane has taped his confession.
Jane then goes to visit Tommy again. When they bring Tommy in for questioning, Jane brings out the book “Moby Dick” that he noticed on his first visit to Tommy’s trailer. It is amazing to watch as the developmentally challenged Tommy disappears, and a totally normal person appears. There are not two personalities – just the one. It seems that Tommy was arrested for stealing a car, and was let off when he convinced the court that he was developmentally challenged. He continued to live that way because it suited his purposes. He is the one that murdered Rich Garcia, and tried to murder Trey Piller. (And yes, Piller did have an affair with Garcia’s wife, because Garcia shut her out when he returned from war.)
In the final scene, Jane tells Maddy that revenge is a poison, and that it is for fools and mad men. (This is important to note, because Jane still carries thoughts of revenge re Red John, who killed his wife and daughter.)