The Mentalist

Excuse me.

What kind of tree is this?

Couldn't say.

Smells good.

So you're not a local?

Born 5 miles down the road.

Just don't give a crap about trees.

Thank you.

Name's Justin Prentiss.

Student at a private school operation

A couple miles from here.

They realized he was missing around 6:00 this morning,

Activated the electronic monitoring device

On his ankle, found him and called us at 8:00.

- Do they have an estimated time of death yet? - Coroner puts time of death

Somewhere between 10:00 and 1:00 last night.

I wanted to take him down the mountain

Soon as forensics were done, but as per your request,

We didn't touch him. - Oh, we won't be here long.

- You can have him as soon as we're done. - What's with the ankle bracelet?

Good question. Mr. Maclean?

This is the principal of the school... Asher Maclean.

These people are from the CBI. They want to know why

your student has an electronic monitoring device on him.

Justin had some truancy issues recently, hence the device.

What kind of school is this, exactly? Bright Arch is a wilderness program for troubled youth.

Like a summer camp? - No, we're an accredited high school.

Students stay at Bright Arch for a year, on average.

We provide structure and discipline

Through close interaction with nature

Plus a regular high school curriculum, of course.

Uh, she doesn't like you, and you don't like her.

Why is that?

No comment.

Chief Brody?

Why don't you like him? - What has that got to do with anything?

I'm just curious. - Think you might show a little more respect.

Respect for... - There is a dead child here.

Yes. Yes, he's dead.

He doesn't care how I talk to you.

I've never worked with the CBI before.

Do all your units come with a clown? - We get the job done.

Well, how about getting it done now?

So we can take this kid out of here. How would that be?

Yeah. We'll do that.

Yep, you can take him. We've got the basic facts.

Oh, is that right? That quick, huh? - Uh, yeah.

- You want to enlighten us? - Oh, forensics probably told you a lot of it already,

I would guess.

Uh, his knuckles and his knees sugest

that he was overpowered in a hand-to-hand struggle.

The blow to the head was the coup de grâce.

But the ground around him is relatively undisturbed,

Which means that the struggle

would have taken place elsewhere... uphill, presumably.

Injured animals tend to move downhill, of course.

Do you have any actual facts?

Well, it's an actual fact that you dislike Mr. Maclean here

because he's a tree-hugging, liberal wacko.

He's probably running some kind of a cult,

and he dislikes you because you're a small-minded,

provincial hayseed... not that you are, necessarily.

That's just what he thinks. - Facts pertaining to this poor boy.

There was no moon last night, so it was very dark.

Justin wouldn't have been able to move very far,

injured as he was.

He had a lot of dirt in his hair,

a lot of dirt in his ears

and deep up under his nails.

So somewhere close by,

somewhere very close by,

there's a spot where someone, uh...

where someone buried him alive.

Oh, my god.

All right, all right, all right!

Settle down, folks.

Take your seats.

Let's go.

I know the last couple of days have been rough.

Losing Justin hurts.

But his death cannot become your crutch

for a negative attitude.

You can learn and grow from this experience.

Bryan.

Sir, do we still get to do the sacred fire ceremony

On friday? - I think there's all the more reason do it now.

We need healing. All right, listen, kids,

The strangers you see here are detectives

that will be investigating the situation with Justin.

They are here to find out what happened to him,

and I want all of you to answer any questions they have

as best you can.

Yes, yes, yes, people?

Yes, yes, yes!

Is it true that he was buried alive?

Orrin. - Oh, yeah, that is true.

Who did it? - That's enough, Elliot.

Let's all get back to our classes quickly.

We're wasting daylight!

You guys go and talk to the counselors.

We'll press the principal, see what he knows.

We'll talk to the kids last. - Okay.

Mr. Maclean, I wanted to... - Agent Lisbon, excuse me. Orrin.

We speak only when recognized as part of the discussion.

Okay? Get out of here.

I'm sorry about that. Well, welcome to Bright Arch.

Shall we, uh, convene in my office?

Yes, yes, yes.

Honey, just try to calm down a little bit, okay?

- We'll find everything out. Calm down. - You son of a bitch. What happened?

- What happened? What did you do? - Mr. Prentiss... David, let's be calm now.

Step back, sir. Now.

It's okay.

This man was supposed to look after my son.

It's his responsibility to keep his students safe,

and he didn't!

He didn't! - David!

Mr. Prentiss, let's go and talk. This way.

This way now.

How did you learn about Bright Arch?

One of David's colleagues

has a child who had gone way offtrack.

And they saw very positive results from the program.

Justin was misbehaving?

He changed a lot over the last year.

Suddenly he was always locked in his room, dour,

uncommunicative, violent on occasion.

Therapy didn't work.

What kind of violence did he engage in?

He often shouted at me and would threaten his father.

Just shouting?

No physical abuse, no criminal behavior?

No.

Please find out who did this.

Please.

Kids love to feed off the drama of things like this.

I hope it can be resolved quickly.

You know, you look like Burt Reynolds in this shot.

How long has Bright Arch been running?

Almost ten years now.

And that was all of the students?

Yes, we like to keep a low counselor/student ratio

so that everyone gets the focused,

individual attention that they need.

Right. What's the pitch?

I don't follow.

The pitch... the gimmick, the hook.

- How do you sell this place to prospective parents? - Oh, we really don't have to sell it.

They come by word of mouth.

This is a simple, natural healing community

where your, uh, troubled and underachieving

sons and daughters are encouraged to get in touch

with their inner resources. - Encouraged how?

By a code of honor and discipline,

by learning wilderness skills and teamwork

through an up-close experience with mother nature.

That's a good pitch. It's a good program.

Yes, Cassie? - Um, I got your tea.

Oh. Thank you.

One of our, uh, our great success stories.

Arrived here about nine months ago angry and withdrawn.

She's blossomed wonderfully. - Tell me about Justin.

Why was he wearing an electronic monitoring device?

- I looked around. I didn't see anyone else wearing one. - Justin had only been with us three months.

He was still in the rebellious phase.

Day before yesterday, he left campus without permission

for several hours.

He refused to tell us where he had been and with whom.

His punishment was eight hours in the reflection room

and the electronic monitoring device for, uh, two weeks.

Confinement and dog collars.

Yeah, that'll certainly, uh, encourage the discovery

of inner resources, I guess.

- But do the kids' parents know that's part of the deal? - It's in the brochure. Page three.

So you must get a lot of problem kids.

How do you handle the psychos...

The ones that just won't knuckle under no matter what?

We don't take 'em in the first place.

- I went thoroughly every acceptance. - So no name jumped into your head when you heard about the murder?

No. - You ever heard of z krew?

No. What's that?

I'd like to talk to Justin's friends.

Of course. He was in missy Jenkins' teaching pod. - Great.

Bear in mind that I or one of my staff members

need to be present before you talk with any of our students.

Is that right? - It's the law.

Really?

- Ohh. I hate the woods. - Would you rather be playing desk jockey with Van Pelt right now?

Who sends their kids to a place like this?

It's not cheap, either.

Eh, a little deprivation and discipline

Is good for the soul. - Yeah, but this is like a juvie prison camp.

No, this is like spring break in Cancun compared to juvie.

Wait. You were in juvenile hall? Seriously?

Yeah. You didn't read my file?

No. Why, did you read mine?

Of course.

What have we got?

Look at this.

Interesting, huh?