'The Mentalist': As long as we got each other...

The Mentalist opens at the Temple of Harmony, a new-age psychic type place. A blonde woman storms out as the psychic begs her to come back. As she walks downt he street, the blonde woman is hit pretty viciously by a car. Of course, she stepped right in front of it and just stood there like a big ninny, so my sympathy wanes.

Our intrepid team shows up, as Lisbon informs us the victim is Rosemary Tenant, the widow of Macon Tenant, a corporate bigwig who was friends with the governor. A few days ago she filed a missing person's report on her son Travis who has been gone for a week. He's diappeared before, though, and got a DUI at 14, so they don't think it's anything serious. Christina Frye joins them, saying she's Rosemary's spiritual advisor. They were trying to contact Macon, who was warning Rosemary. FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE! MWHAHAHA! Patrick laughs us into commercials.

At the station, Lisbon questions Christina. She was getting about $3000/week from Rosemary, saying Rosemary was a troubled soul after Macon's death. Her relationship with her children Claire and Travis was suffering because of it. Christina invokes her doctor/patient privilege (as a licensed therapist) and won't tell them any more. Christina turns her views on Patrick, saying he acts assured and arrogant but he inside he is troubled with deep guilt and self-loathing due to a recent trauma. She then turns to Lisbon and says, "You have your work cut out for you." I am reminded of the scene between Ally Walker and Julian McMahon on Profiler when he asks her for a theory and she says, "You want a theory? You have Chinese food in your refrigerator. You like your women in heels, your scotch straight, and yourself... definitely on top. But it's just a theory." That was a good show. Moving on...

They visit the victim's house. Jeremy Hale, the victim's live-in boyfriend and portrait photographer, answers the door. He has lived there 6 months and was at a gallery opening at the time of the murder. Patrick notices a family photos all over the living room, as Jeremy says Travis has gone pretty wild since his father's death. LIsbon points out that Rosemary put him in her will a couple months ago, but that two days before her death she made a new appointment with her estate-planning lawyer. Oooh, suspicious.

Patrick calls to the team from Jeremy's studio, where he has state-of-the-art equipment and a full dark room. Patrick says that the room has old poster tape on the wall and dents from a ball hitting it. He says it was Travis's room before it was Jeremy's and wonders if he took it as soon as Travis left or if Travis left because Jeremy took it.

At the station, Clara Tenant shows up and it's Chrissy Seaver! She wonders if anybody has found her brother yet and faux-cries over her mom dying in the gutter. I think Clara did it. She's not really crying. She tells them how her mom could be suckered in by any harebrained scheme and Travis didnt' like it. She also says Jeremy is a scary, dangerous man. There's a weird thing where Patrick touches her hands and she withdraws them after a minute or so. He also asks her to put Travis's number into his phone.

Patrick calls Travis and offers him peace of mind, giving him subliminal hints to meet him at the carousel from one of the family photographs. Once there, Cho, Rigsby and Patrick flank Travis. At the station, he cries about not being able to get any help in facing Jeremy. They wonder if he killed Rosemary because she was giving away money and shacking up with Jeremy. He cries about wanting to help her, not kill her. Behind the two-way mirror, Clara wants to see her brother. They let her into the interrogation room and the siblings hug.

The next day, the team finds out that Christina Frye was just added to Rosemary's will. She then conveniently calls them and says she's picking up on something that may help them. Van Pelt and Patrick head over to check it out. At the house, Patrick notices a portrait of Christina in the foyer. Christina then says she read about how Red John killed his family and that she's sorry he had to give up his gift. She also says the car used to run Rosemary down is now resting on concrete and water is rushing inside. That's the vision she saw. Van Pelt thinks reservoir and sure enough, they haul the car out of a reservoir outside of town.

The vehicle is registered to Travis but Jeremy would've had plenty of access too. So would Clara, right? It's CLARA! Patrick tells Lisbon that Christina needs to be arrested because she cannot have supernatural powers so that means she's involved somehow. Lisbon nails it by accusing Patrick of not liking someone being as good as he is about observing and guessing but Van Pelt offers that Christina might actually be in touch with something beyond his understanding. He replies, "Uh, that would be golf and musical theatre of the 30s and 40s." HAHAHA! In the back of the car, Cho finds high-grade coated nylon glove, like what is used in a photo lab. DUN DUN DUN!

Merchant Home. Clara and Travis say that they had words with Jeremy and he left, but some of their mom's jewelry is missing. The team says that Travis's car was the murder weapon and that his alibi is shakey (he says he was at a party), but they do put an APB out on Jeremy. In the photo lab, they find a portrait of a raven-haired woman with a hole punched in her face. Patrick thinks Rosemary put her heel through the woman's portrait. Travis says the woman is Connie, his mom's bridge partner's daughter.

Connie's house. Loud music blares and Connie answers the door in a bra, buttoning a shirt and wearing one of Rosemary's necklaces. Jeremy is there, shaking a can of whipped cream. Heh heh. At the station, they accuse him of running away. Jeremy says Clara is insane and that he loved Rosemary. Lisbon asks if he knows Christina Frye and he says no, but a portrait of Christina done by him is in her house. He lawyers up.

Rigsby reports that Christina has been left in multiple wills in the last 10 years. Lisbon wonders if Jeremy had a business relationship with Christina and they head off to talk to her. Christina confesses to having slept with Jeremy twice. Patrick wonders if Christina spoke with Rosemary yet and Christina says Rosemary is very taken with Patrick. Deeply misguided and tragic, but taken with him nonetheless. Patrick asks for the CDs of the sessions with Rosemary.

Merchant House. Interestingly, Travis asks, "Find out who did it yet?" and Clara asks, "Find anything?" Hmm. Patrick then asks them to ask Christina to conduct a seance to contact Rosemary at the will reading. Oooh, fake seance! AWESOME! Patrick says he's going to expose Christina as a fraud because he suspects she's involved in Rosemary's death.

Van Pelt is very much opposed to the fake seance, fearful it could be very wrong. Van Pelt then spits that it's really important to Patrick that Christina be a fraud because if she's not a fraud then everything he disproves and mocks will be turned upside down. She says what if his family is looking down on him at the seance and wants to talk to him but can't because he doesn't believe. He quietly says, "That would be very sad" and Van Pelt realizes she kind-of crossed the line there, so she apologizes and leaves. Nice scene little scene by Amanda Righetti and Simon Baker.

Will reading. Everyone is instructed to hold hands and Christina starts her mojo about how important belief is and concentrating on the candle on the table. The candle flickers. Rosemary's voice whispers and the kids look scared. Rosemary says, "Clara... why, Clara?" and Clara bolts from the room. Upstairs, Patrick tells Clara that her scheme isn't going to work. He also slyly hits connect on his cell phone so that they can broadcast the "Why, Clara, why?" again. She breaks down crying and confesses to killing her mother because her mother was going to disinherit Travis. She tried to talk to her on the phone but her mother wouldn't pick up, so she got mad and ran her down. Man, Ashley Johnson is quite the little criminal on these procedurals. A murderous prostitute on CSI and now a mom-killing girl on The Mentalist.

She wonders how he knew and he says she expressed great remorse that her mother died in the gutter, which was quite a word to use if she wasn't actually at the crime scene. Clara storms that her mother was supposed to protect them and she didn't, so Clara had to protect Travis. At her exclamation that "parents are supposed to protect their kids," Patrick looks sad. Out in the bullpen, Clara and Travis cry and hug as she is taken away in cuffs.

Christina shows up to speak with Patrick. She asks him not to interrupt and then says that she talked to his wife. Christina says that he's always had a question about that night's events and that his wife wants to tell him that his daughter never woke up and that she wasn't scared, not for a second. As Christina leaves, Patrick cries. Aww. Sniffle.

Also, I'm very glad that episode didn't end with Christina being killed by Nina Myers.

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