Plot summary
A medic, Lucy, from an Army post is found dead with her throat slit and the only witness to the crime is a PTSD patient, Pete ( Jesse Luken ), who suffers from short-term memory impairment and is unable to testify. The CBI find that Lucy was a stickler for procedure and rules and had been covering for a younger soldier, Rose, who had filed a sexual harassment complaint against Lieutenant Lewis but he has an alibi. The team find a soldier, Martines, who was seeing Lucy as part of his recovery programme and he tells them that he had a minor argument with Lucy when she thought he had forgotten to take his medication but she had assured him she would check again.
Jane plants a memory in Pete's psyche that Lucy gave him a key and shows it to all the suspects luring the real killer, Dr. Bowman (Jim Holmes) into a trap. Lucy had discovered a problem while checking Martines' prescription and the doctor knew she would discover that he had been selling drugs under the table to earn extra cash. Cho convinces Sergeant Hawkins ( Eddie McClintock ) to take a stand and pursue action on the sexual harassment complaint against Lt. Lewis. Jane helps Pete with his memory problems helping him build his memory palace.
Credits
Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, The Mentalist season 5. HTML formatting and reference markers removed.