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Recap / The Mentalist S 1 E 4 Ladies In Red

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Directed by Chris Long

Written by Gary Glasberg & Ken Woodruff (uncredited)

A wealthy banker is found dead inside a secret vault in his house, and the team delves into his secret life to find out who killed him.


  • Black Widow: Turns out Jason Sands' torture and eventual murder was all orchestrated by Jennifer. Jane doubted her since the first time he saw her at the funeral.
    "No wife should glow at her husband's funeral."
  • Chekhov's Gun: Julie's troll dolls, her chandelier and the "Peter and the Wolf" play.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: Jason Sands' fate.
  • The Cutie: Julie Sands.
  • Damsel in Distress: Julie gets kidnapped by Bennett in the climax of the episode.
  • Disappeared Dad: Jason to Julie, thanks to his wife.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: Jennifer couldn't stand her own daughter preferring Adrianna over her.
  • Jealous Parent: Julie preferred her potential future stepmother over her own biological mother, which drove Jennifer mad.
  • Judgment of Solomon: While the test isn't quite "cut the child in half", Jane essentially sets one of these up between Adrianna (the mistress) and Jennifer (the wife and mother) in order to test their priorities and see which one is most likely to have murdered Jason. Essentially, his daughter Julie is apparently kidnapped and a ransom of $10 million in diamonds (Jason's nest-egg) is demanded, and once the dust settles Jane manages to arrange things so that the two women will have to face a choice between either making sure Julie is okay or finding the diamonds. Adrianna chooses Julie, and Jennifer chooses the diamonds.
  • The Mistress: Adrianna to Jason.
  • Morality Pet: Julie is this to both Adrianna and Jennifer. To some extent, with Jane, who pretended not to know her troll's name to make her happy.
  • Princess Phase: Julie Sands is in hers.
  • Sensual Slavs: Adrianna.
  • Theme Naming: All the Sands' given names start with "J".
  • Villainesses Want Heroes: Jennifer really did fall for Jane, who refused her advances due to their different moral grounds.
  • Woman Scorned: Her husband cheating on her with "a dirty whore" and the fact her daughter preferred Adrianna to her pushed Jennifer to torture and eventually kill her husband to get the diamonds he was planning to use to run away with Adrianna and Julie.

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