I posted the following on the Mentalist FB page as an adieu to the show we all love. Let them know how frustrated we are:
https://www.facebook.com/TheMentalist/posts/10153086135824861?comment_id=10153086310219861

Dear mister Heller,

There are so many ways you could have chosen to finish out the show, instead of the regrettable path you chose. Let's consider a few of your options:

#1. Have the remainder of season 6 and season 7 focus on Jane decoding coded list on the USB and hunting down the remaining BA members. As he caught each one, you could have them reveal (in a flashback) a small piece of the work they did for Red John, thus tying up the loose ends and clues you dropped throughout the series.

#2. The "psychic" Gabriel said Jane will only receive closure through the number "3". Jane has killed 2 Red Johns so far. What if you made the 3rd one the real Red John? RJ could either kill Lisbon on their wedding night (allusion to Frankenstein - we all know how you love your references), and Jane could kill him in the finale. Or you could just end the series with a red smiley face and leave us to imagine how Jane would pursue him. Or you could continue the story on another network in the rumored season 8 (more money for you!)

#3. Have Jane and Lisbon get their happy ever after. Then as we fade to black, it cuts to a scene of Red John keeping Jane in a comatose state in a small room (like Kristina Frye). Everything after the bomb in Jane's house was a fiction that Red John implanted in Jane's mind to give him peace. Have you seen Repo Man? Like that.

#4. Have Jane realize that he was Red John all along - that he's had a split personality disorder. He woke up in the field with no memory of how he got there, and we find Gabriel dead? Maybe Jane did it.

This is not my day job; I find it difficult to believe that a highly paid team of writers couldn't come up with something like this.

For future reference, it might be a good idea to listen to your actors. Simon Baker knows Patrick Jane is a tragic character - the man has been playing him for how many years now? You could also have handed the reins over to Baker before the fiasco of seasons 6 and 7.

#2, #3, or #4 are still possible. Of course, we all know they'll never materialize - you have to cater to the contigent of insipid "OMG JANE AND LISBON WEDDING" fans, of which there seem to be an abundance on this page.

It's just a crying shame the way a once-brilliant show has been mangled.