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Red Letter is the twenty-second episode of Season 2 of The Mentalist

Summary[]

Romantic sparks begin to fly when Patrick Jane and supposed psychic Kristina Frye cross paths again during the CBI investigation into the murder of a charismatic head of a non-profit organization that fights human trafficking.

Recap[]

A woman and a man are waiting for Hector Brava to show up at the 2010 Global Human Rights conference. The moment he appears, the woman goes to meet him. The room is full of reporters who ask him what he's going to say in his speech. He is the leader of a foundation that works to stop human trafficking. Brava states he is going to expose someone, which makes people press for more answers. Suddenly he receives a text that tells him to meet someone in the back hallway. He rushes off. When the woman who was waiting for him goes to see what is taking him so long, she finds him dead in the hallway near the staff entrance. Someone has bludgeoned his head with a fire extinguisher.

When the team get there, they immediately rule out robbery because he had his credit cards and cash still on him. Jane points out that there was actually something stolen; his speech notes have gone missing. When the team begins to investigate, they come across Kristina Frye (the psychic from Seeing Red). Jane is just as antagonistic as he was when he met her, but she takes it all in stride. Lisbon leads the sheriff away so that Jane and Kristina can catch up.

After investigating, they find that there was a lot of secrecy surrounding Brava's speech. Brava’s wife, Ilsa, knew nothing of the its content (he did this to protect her), and says that the CBI should talk to Russel Bigelow who did research for Brava. Kristina reassures Ilsa with the memory of cherry blossoms on her and Hector's wedding day. Jane suggests that Ilsa is happy her husband is dead since she’s very stoic and the widow throws her tea saucer at him, just barely missing his head.

Cho and Rigsby bring in Bigelow and get a confession. Brava had found out the large anti-trafficking coalition they partnered with was actually a front for trafficking, using Brava to destroy their competition. He gives them the name Christopher Lynch. They visit Lynch, and he gives them another name: Tariq Sharif, whom Lynch last saw arguing with Brava. They find out that the financial records Lynch sends them are clean. They do discover, however, that after Cho and Rigsby left Lynch made one call to a disposable phone but the signal ended at a cell tower in the middle of nowhere.

When Lisbon and Jane catch up to Sharif at the hotel bar, he is already visiting with Kristina Frye. Lisbon insists he take off his sunglasses and he has a shiner. Sharif got it when Hector punched him, after declaring his affection for Ilsa. Sharif claims that when he went to talk to Brava, there was a young woman he presumed was a prostitute leaving his suite.

Cho and Rigsby track the only structure within half a mile of the cell tower, a ramshackle building surrounded by fencing and barbed wire. They discover a group of women who were hidden in the back of a truck. Lynch is arrested for human trafficking and several other felonies. Hightower and Jane are in the back room watching the interview when she comments that Jane seems to like Kristina. He makes her aware that he's unsure about that. Hightower asks if he’s ever considered dating again but he deflects and leaves as quickly as possible.

Kristina follows him to the elevator and goes with him to see Ilsa. Ilsa denies that there could have been a woman with Hector, commenting that, “It’s disgusting.” After an uncomfortable goodbye with Kristina, Jane goes back to the bar and has Lisbon meet him there. He is sitting with an escort and when Lisbon arrives he pretends that they are a couple soliciting one of the ladies in the bar for sex. The woman indicates that they have to speak to the bartender about hiring her. When the bartender comes over, Lisbon flashes her badge and they press the bartender to see if he recognizes Tariq. He doesn’t, but he points out Bigelow in the background of the photograph and says he's gotten a woman before.

They bring in Bigelow again, and in addition to handling Brava’s correspondence and the like, he also procured prostitutes for him, like Claret. Claret and Brava had a standing appointment on Thursdays at his Oakland townhouse where they find a card advertising “Call Carmen.” When they research, they find out that Carmen's name is actually Sally Alvarez. Jane makes an offhand comment that there might be two Carmens: Sally Alvarez, who was only going by the name Carmen Reyes and one whose name is actually Carmen Reyes. They find two addresses for Carmen Reyes and decide to split up to check them both.

Cho and Rigsby pursued the lead for one Carmen, while Jane chooses to go with Van Pelt for the other Carmen Reyes. Kristina catches up with Jane and Van Pelt. Van Pelt states that they're looking for a woman who is going by the name Carmen Reyes, but her real name is Sally Alvarez. Kristina stops and tells them that she was just in contact with Sally Alvarez and she's passed over to the other side. Cho and Rigsby arrive at their location and find Sally Alvarez dead. Cho calls Van Pelt to tell them the news. Van Pelt is excited about that because moments before Kristina Frye told them she had communicated with Sally Alvarez and that she has passed on. Van Pelt is amazed since Kristina predicted it.

However, Jane grabs the phone from her and tells Cho that "gullible Grace has buried the lead." They found another Carmen Reyes and she's the real one. Jane points out that there were actually two different Carmen's, just as he had hypothesized earlier. There was one real Carmen and one fake, the one that Sally Alvarez pretended to be.

Carmen Reyes reveals herself to be Brava’s daughter from an affair twenty years previous. A year ago, her mother was diagnosed with cancer. It progressed quickly and she died within a month. However, before she died, she told Carmen that Hector was her father. Carmen tried to contact him so that she could meet him, but he never responded. She saw somewhere that he was delivering a speech there, so she went to see him. The night before he died, she went to his suite to confront him, but Brava yelled that he'd already met his daughter. Carmen states that he turned pale and shook all over, then threw her out of his room, locking it behind her and she left. Van Pelt asks her if she sent the text to Hector, telling him to meet her in the back hallway. Carman says she doesn't own a phone.

The team comes to the conclusion that Sally had actually been posing as the real Carmen, but they don't know why she did it.

Jane has a plan. He discusses having Kristina talk to Brava. They make plans to gather everyone who has something to do with his death. Jane pulls Kristina away and tells her she needs to do the "usual shtick" but then add about how Hector is out for vengeance, so he can take it from there. Kristina states that she can't lie because it would be abusing her gift. Kristina walks away huffily while Jane stands there.

Everyone gets together and Kristina "gets in contact" with Brava. After she verifies he's there, she begins to explain how Hector thinks vengeance will come on the murder who is present in the room. She comments that Hector says the murderers blood will spill before the rising sun. Jane jumps in and begins to go along with it saying he senses Brava, but the image is hazy. After a few seconds, Jane describes the scene where the murder takes place. He slams his hands down and Bigelow falls from his chair. Jane stands up and tells Bigelow he knows it was him who killed Hector.

Bigelow intercepted Carmen’s original letter to Brava, and set up the scam with Sally Alvarez to convince Brava that he slept with his own daughter and then they would blackmail him for it, splitting the money. When the real Carmen showed up, Bigelow panicked, killing Brava and Sally to cover his tracks.

Kristina is ready to leave, and Lisbon points out that her predictions didn’t totally come true — no blood was spilled. At that moment, Carmen rushes Bigelow and punches him. Jane protests. They begin to part outside, but Jane asks her out for tea. She tells him she has to take a rain check — but says he should call her.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Recurring Cast[]

Guest Cast[]

Trivia[]

  • The murderer of the episode, Russell Bigelow, is likely to be based on Bertrand Russell
  • This episode should not be confused with the season 5 episode with a similar title: "Red Letter Day"
  • Melissa Fumero would appear in other TV show with same theme: Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Season 2 Episodes
Redemption  · The Scarlet Letter  · Red Badge  · Red Menace  · Red Scare  · Black Gold and Red Blood  · Red Bulls  · His Red Right Hand  · A Price Above Rubies  · Throwing Fire  · Rose-Colored Glasses  · Bleeding Heart  · Redline  · Blood In, Blood Out  · Red Herring  · Code Red  · The Red Box  · Aingavite Baa  · Blood Money  · Red All Over  · 18-5-4  · Red Letter  · Red Sky in the Morning
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