Eliza Green

Eliza Green is the main villainess from "Red Herring," the 15th episode of The Mentalist 's second season.

She was played by Robin Weigert.

Eliza Green is the head chef at Jeffery Barge's restaurant, but she had dreamed of opening a restaurant of her own. Her dreams were shattered due to her inability to acquire a liquor license, but when she learned that Jeffery sabotaged the license, Eliza plotted a murderous revenge.

Eliza learned about Jeffrey's deed when he called her to apologize for what he did. He had used his affair with fellow chef Julia St. Germain to sabotage Eliza's liquor license to get her to stay with him, and after receiving the call, Eliza visited Jeffery at his home and stated that she had forgiven him. In actuality, the evil Eliza planned to kill Jeffery, and she mixed up castor beans with ricin and poisoned Jeffrey's bottle of gin. She also set her vengeful sights on Julia; lacing Julia's spice with the same poison. Jeffrey succumbed to the poison in the beginning of the episode, while Julia suffered the same fate while being interviewed by Jane.

Eliza was revealed as the murderess during a memorial toast to Julia and Jeffery, which included a soup course. Jane stated that he used Julia's favorite spice on the soup, which caused a distressed Eliza to warn the rest of the staff that they had to go to the hospital or they would die. It turned out that Jane had actually switched the spices, and Eliza's distress implicated her. Eliza confessed to the murders at CBI, while telling Jane that while she was cooking, her hands went numb. Without realizing it, Eliza had cut flesh off her hands, but she didn't care because she would one day have her own restaurant and not do the dirty work. Eliza also stated that her dreams were dashed when she couldn't get her liquor license, and she could never forgive Jeffrey for causing that to happen. Eliza was arrested for both murders.