The Mentalist 2X9: A Price Above Rubies

This definitely wan't my favorite episode of the season, but Jane's ploy to get Tom to incriminate himself almost made up for it. It was so good.

So CBI is at an event to fundraise money for them (I think). Lisbon and Cho approach the woman whose hosting the event and are thanking her. They are waiting for Jane to be the entertainment for the evening. He comes on stage, planning to do magic, but basically just makes everyone feel guilty for not donating, so they all do. However, while this is happening, we also see someone breaking into a vault and stealing a bunch of diamonds. He's confronted by someone who was shot.

The woman hosting the event then gets a call about the robbery and it turns out it was her husband (boyfriend? fiancé?) who was shot. We all rush over to the vault and Jane starts in on the nephews and how they must be upset that their aunt was with this guy. They both claim the opposite. They really like him and he's been good for their aunt.

Grace, via traffic cams, finds a car near the scene of the crime whose owner has a giant ass rap sheet, so we figure that's a good place to start. Grace and Rigsby track him to a motel. The desk clerk says he was recently visited by a guy in a cowboy hat driving a large truck, but that's all he knows. So, they head to the room, only to find him dead in a closet with a bullet hole in his head; a gun sitting on his lap.

Then they find, thanks to Jane hypnotizing the desk clerk, the cowboy hat guy and bring him in. Turns out, the dead guy owed cowboy hat, like, 200k. He was also his ex brother-in-law. Jane has decided it's not him and lets him go (against Lisbon's wishes, but what's new about that).

Jane figures out that one of the nephew's was in rehab with the dead guy. So, they head over to the rehab. While Lisbon distracts the doctor, Jane breaks into his office and finds out it was George. So, then they head over to talk to the nephews about it and George claims he didn't say anything because he didn't want to embarrass his aunt.

Back at the jewelry store, they get a package which appears to be a ransom note. It claims they have their aunt and if they don't deliver the diamonds, she'll die. We set up a tracing thing and eventually, the kidnapper calls. George answers and tries to keep them on the line long enough to trace the call. We do. But then he says, he doesn't have the diamonds (I assume because they've been stolen, right?). At that, we hear a gunshot over the phone. George and Rigsby run out, leaving Tom sitting there.

Shortly after, the phone rings again and Tom picks it up. The 'kidnapper' tries to negotiate and Tom offers to pay him off. He doesn't deny when Mr. Kidnapper talks about all the bad shit he did. Did you figure it out? The kidnapper is Jane with a voice changer. Once we have all this on record, we can arrest Tom. Bye, Tom. Case closed. Where's the pizza?