Elise Vogelson

**Elise Vogelson** (Mariette Hartley) is the true main villainess of "Red Lacquer Nail Polish," episode 5.15 of *The Mentalist* (airdate March 3, 2013).

## Introduction

Elise was introduced as the episode's victim, with her burning corpse having been found in the living room of her mansion in Bodega Bay by one of its guards—Reggie Brooks. She was also established as "Sacramento's tragic heiress" due to several tragedies that occurred in her life. To elaborate, she was orphaned when she was 12, lost her first husband when she was 18, and was divorced five times prior to her 40th birthday.

Her corpse was burnt to ashes, with Patrick Jane quickly deducing Elise was murdered upon finding the remains of a glass once filled with scotch in her fireplace. He explained that it indicated her killer was drinking and relaxing with her, only for them to try to get rid of the glass after her demise. As for the method of murder, Sterno (which consists of ethyl alcohol and methanol) was poured onto Elise while she was unconscious, after which they lit a match and set her on fire.

## Events/Backstory

When Patrick and CBI Agent Teresa Libson interviewed Elise's nephew Curtis Wiley and his wife Alex, the male latter mentioned her "[devotion] to charity and helping [American] veterans" before asserting she remained "a strong woman" until around two years before the episode's events. Curtis recounted his late aunt's unwillingness to leave her mansion and "[becoming] paranoid" to the point she believed her servants were among the people "out to get her." It prompted her to fire those servants; as for fond childhood memories, he recounted sailing with her aboard a sailboat called the *Songbird*. Alex added that a 28-year-old woman named Cayce Robbins was Elise's sailing companion.

Patrick and Teresa's first conversation with Cayce saw them learning of Elise's wish to have her ashes scattered in the Pacific Ocean "out of sight of land" and that she was taking pills which were prescribed to her by Dr. Lance Reinhardt—her personal physician. Lance himself clarified his late patient was beginning to suffer from the early symptoms of dementia. Afterwards, he voiced his disapproval of her "going out to sea" and alluded to Elise's work at the Vogelson Soldiers' Home, which was a charity run by Chaplin Johnny Griffin.

The pair then had a discussion with Johnny, who described Elise's generosity with her time and her money—an example of it being when she had the building's heating unit replaced last year after it stopped working. He also touched on a budding friendship between Elise and Lissie Calhoun (a Women's Army Corps nurse who served in the Vietnam War and had issues with anger along with impulse control). However, when Johnny was asked if Patrick and Teresa could talk to her, he said he could tell Lissie to contact them since she wasn't present, after which he divulged Elise had been in charge of the Vogelson Foundation—the source of the money funding the Vogelson Soldiers' Home. He then passed on Elise's warning to him about Curtis' obsession with "[crushing] her and [taking] everything that was hers."

It transpired he wanted more of the Vogelson inheritance and a seat on the Vogelson Foundation's board; more recently, Curtis claimed there were signs of managerial incompetence in the form of accounting irregularities. Patrick and Teresa's inquiry into the matter resulted in him venting about his belief people took advantage of how his aunt "[wasn't] in her right mind," including Cayce (who got the *Songbird* from Elise). Subsequently, the two again talked to Cayce herself—who had been called about Elise's will being declared invalid, which meant Johnny couldn't replace her on the aforementioned board. She also blamed Elise's declining mental state on Lance's pills, citing that "there was more than just [the bottle of pills she gave them earlier]." As it turned out, Lance once faced a charge of negligent homicide in Monaco for fatally overprescribing a pain medication to a patient, only for the charge to eventually be dropped.

Johnny made it known to CBI Agent Kimball Cho that he had suspected Curtis and Lance were plotting against Elise. The chaplain recalled seeing the two men approach her while she was talking with Lissie, with the ensuing conversation "[getting] very heated." Regarding Lissie, her landlord explained that she never returned from visiting a friend. Meanwhile, as CBI Agent Wayne Rigsby arrested Lance during his attempt to destroy the prescriptions he wrote for Elise with a paper shredder, Patrick and Teresa noticed that a lace doily and the Vogelson Medal disappeared from Elise's mansion following her murder.

## Reveal

While being interrogated by Wayne, Lance initiated Elise's villainous reveal when he let slip that she blackmailed him into writing the prescriptions under the threat of exposing his past if he refused. Describing her as "cruel and vindictive," the latter also professed that Elise asked him to meet her outside the Volgelson Soldiers' Home, with Curtis' presence being a coincidence. Concerning her will, he voided it because he believed his patient wasn't in her right mind.

Lissie was tracked down to a room in Las Vegas that she rented with her credit card; concurrently, Kimball found out about what seemed to be a lawsuit against Curtis that Elise was going to win. Getting a warrant to search Curtis' home along with the California Impressionist Gallery—which Curtis and Alex owned—it was there that Kimball found the doily, which had traces of the Sterno poured onto Elise and was also used to wrap up the missing medal. In the wake of the discovery, Curtis was arrested and found himself on the receiving end of accusations made by Wayne that were heavily based on Johnny's suspicions.

In an even bigger twist, Kimball reported what the judge presiding over the lawsuit told him: there was widespread malfeasance with how Elise ran the Vogelson Foundation. After recklessly spending all of the money she inherited, she started embezzling from the Vogelson Soldiers' Home a few months before her demise. The revelation shocked Teresa, and it gave rise to her putting a plan in motion with Patrick's assistance so that the truth would finally be unearthed.

## Arrest

That night, Patrick seemingly offered to help Cayce scatter Elise's ashes per her wish. Instead of doing that, he lit up a marine flare he grabbed from the *Songbird*'s emergency kit. Patrick narrowly managed to throw it into the lower deck during a brief scuffle that ended with Cayce accidentally being pushed overboard into Bodega Harbor. He then heard coughing and pulled someone out of their hiding place, revealing an alive Elise with a small suitcase full of the money she stole from the Vogelson Soldiers' Home. When Teresa boarded the *Songbird*, the villainess demanded to know their identities and why they were "on [her] boat." Patrick replied with his name, and Teresa officially announced Elise's arrest before handcuffing her.

Kimball learned from a tearful Cayce that Elise claimed her relatives were "trying to get [her] put away in a home," prompting the female former's mistaken efforts to protect her. Upon hearing the former's deduction that Elise would have murdered her after they escaped, Cayce redeemed herself by promising to be honest while testifying against her. In another room, Teresa interrogated Elise—who proclaimed the money her grandfather made was "[hers] by right." She further proclaimed Curtis had been a "nosey little brat" since childhood and that it would have been "unendurable" to be criticized by her nephew had he been on the Vogelson Foundation's board (in her mind).

Elise concocted a twisted scheme to silence Curtis, and it started with her blackmailing Lance into prescribing her several barbiturates. Next, she invited Lissie (a "tortured soul" in her view) to her mansion under the guise of relaxing with her, with the former giving the latter a glass of scotch laced with the barbiturates. Afterwards, Elise poured Sterno onto the unconscious Lissie and set her on fire with a lit match—deeming the murder "an unfortunate necessity" that doubled as "an act of mercy."

She then threw Lissie's glass into her fireplace, wrapped the Vogelson Medal in the lace doily, and planted it in the California Impressionist Gallery—finding it all "rather fun" and calling the place a "tacky little shop." As for Cayce, the cold-blooded schemer used her "naive and foolish" ally's belief she was "the mother she never had" to manipulate her into not only hiding her aboard the *Songbird*, but also renting the room in Las Vegas using Lissie's credit card. With her reveal cemented, Elise was ultimately imprisoned offscreen.