How can we not be disappointed, when the writing in here have been at such a level of creativity. I don't know how many writers the show has, but in here, there's hundreds of people sharing theories, combinding them into epic and plausible conclusions to this Red John hunt.

There's been talks about phobias, height of people matching descriptions, first handshakes, faking deaths, twin brothers... 

How do we not get disappointed? We set the bar too high!

Some ups and downs for this episode.
McCallister played a perfect Red John until the pigeon trick.
How did he know RJ feared pigeons? He must have known it was McCallister, because he eliminated heights earlier. 
 
Who the hell was the woman that came into the church?
RJ crying, people screaming help when seeing an injured man, RJ fearing death.....Didn't make sense to me. 

So many questions. 

Guess I'm hoping that some of it is revealed. 

Really liked how they played Rock, paper scissor when they first met, and especially enjoyed the when Patrick strangled him. The satisfaction, or rather the weight lifted from his shoulders, the relief, really showed. 

Thanks for a great reading on this site. People who created this should do it for every show that has an unwritten conclusion. People become so creative!

go pidgey!
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/7114/4xad.jpg

Easy there people, this is not the end of the show yet, how can you be so sure we are not going to get our long awaited answers on the next few episodes?

Have you seen the next episode's promo? Look it up on youtube or something. Doesn't it seem a bit too happy and calm for you? What good is that for a show to spend a whole episode on Jane living his new life with a random woman we don't even know or care about? Don't be fooled, I doubt that's going to be how this show will play itself out for the rest of the season.

I've seen people complaining that the great Red John can't be defeated by a pigeon, but that's his phobia! We knew RJ had some kind of phobia and Jane somehow figured it out and used it against him. Patrick had figured out how the bomb trick worked so he must have known the real RJ would be either Mcallister, Haffner or Stiles.

If there is one tiny thing Im going to complain about was the promo. They didn't need to straight out show Mcallister in the promo, that pretty much gave it all up.

I don't think that McAllister was Red John.

Not only would that be a terrible semi-ending and leave viewers hopeless of the next half of the season, but would also savagely dilute the whole purpose and meaning behind the series.
The preview of the next episode, My Blue Heaven, seems relatively similar to the time when Jane was with Lorelei Martins; he's in spirit, happy, but this isn't right.

Although this episode did disappoint everyone, I believe that the real Red John episode will be the last episode (or second to last). The writer has developed such a complicated and intense series and won't be ruining it by killing the whole point of the show halfway through the show's final season.

I don't think that the murder of the gym spy from a few episodes ago was Red John himself. It did lead to the discovery of the Blake Association which was progress, but the tattoo on Partridge's arm indicates another level of the pyramid; a sort of hierarchy. I don't think that Partridge was Red John, but merely a closer pawn than what Bertram was (three dots on arm).

My Assumptions:

There are many paths from here, but I think that the first three are in the next episode. With all possibilities, we are given the insight that Jane has found a lover and has moved to the California Coast Line (My Guess is Santa Cruz) due to episode 9's trailer in which Jane is seen walking the beach with a Red haired woman.

Possibility # 1 would be that Jane finds out that the woman is just another spawn of Red John, in which the season would immediately spark again and all of us viewers would be greatly pleased due to the restoration in the show's purpose. I don't think that the character of Red John would care if Jane were to kill him, the closest thing I can think of as far as resistance would be the death of them both (which would be the last episode logically).

Possibility # 2 would be that the next half of the season would be concentrated on assisting Jane's CBI team from the fury of the Civil Court. This would be a fan's nightmare and would probably end up being a Dexter-style ending to what was an amazing show.

Possibility # 3 comes straight from the trailer in which Jane is proposed re-entrance into the CBI and relief from the past charges that were placed on him. This seems to me like the most viable option and will lead to Possibility # 1. Red John enjoyed playing games with Jane from the beginning, it's the whole idea of the series. If Jane doesn't solve murders, Red John is left hopeless and bored (which was mentioned in an episode in a previous season). 

I'm not sure, all three are quite a stretch but I definitely think that the writer has a bigger plan for the series, one that would not disappoint fans. Agree with me? Click plausible! Don't? That's fine too.

I was disappointed after watching the episode, as it was suggested we all would be, but my disappointment was due to the episode itself, I am ok with McAllister being RJ even if he has had lack of screen time until this season compared to some of the other suspects, he's a decent actor and is creepy enough, wasn't my pick, but kudos to those that chose him, just how his demise came about, a very weak ending to RJ indeed. I'm sure during the remaining episodes we will find more answers to some our list of endless questions, but I think there will still be many questions left when the Mentalist is over....just hope not too many!

This episode, and the entire Red John storyline, could have been saved with this shot at the end:

We are looking over a man's shoulder at the TV, which is showing a news story about the death of Bertram and Red John. 

The man picks up a cup of tea, and in that thin, high voice says:

"The game is over, Patrick... and I won!"

So I watched the leaked episode. I just watched today's episode... unless I clicked on a bogus link and somehow I'm grossly mistaken... they're one and the same, in which case:

Bruno Heller

You created a show with great potential with the Red John story-arc. A show with a formulaic, predictive, unrealistic elements such as:

repetitive beginning to every episode
repetitive ending/solution to every episode
unrealistic character selection for the CBI team
piss poor acting from the whole CBI team
shitty ass dialogues

BUT, somehow, among all that glorious shit you call screenwriting, you found the light and made AWESOME red-john episodes with great dialogues, storytelling, acting and suspenseful elements.
I came to withstand the shitty monster-of-the-week episodes just to get to the good stuff, the red-john cream of the crop goodies.

The series progressed, we got that marvelous episode where RJ rescues Jane and eventually got to Timothy Carter. It was getting better... and then came whatever it is you call what we got after that... filled with a higher dosage of monster-of-the-week episodes that thus became monsters-of-the-whole-week episodes... further displacing the RJ story-arch.

The fifth season was a bit of a saver... reintroducing elements of RJ, injecting one or two great episodes... getting us back on track on the RJ arc... and then... right when you say S6 is going to wrap it all up...

You give us this ... 'thing' I can't even bring myself to call an episode.

Red John, throughout these 6 seasons, proved he was:

1.- Cunning
2.- Brilliant - very intelligent (for those of you who are not)
3.- Secretive
4.- Stealthy
5.- Curious & Manipulative
6.- VERY Charismatic
7.- Out of the ordinary
8.- Successful, both in terms of resources and in getting away with whatever he did

NOW let's compare that with the 'RJ' joke we get in this last episode:

1.- Mediocre, naive and less than thorough
2.- Idiotic, foolish, clumsy
3.- As secretive as a fart in an elevator
4.- As stealthy as a fighter jet flying at low altitude over any highly populated metropolis
5.- Less than willing to probe Patrick, his thoughts, his fears... not even remotely interested
6.- Uninteresting personality, gestures, demeanour, thought pattern
7.- Generic, run of the mill villain-persona, nothing to remember, nothing unique
8.- A failure, a scam, a wimp completely detached from his previous actions and self

So, I can't help but wonder. Are you mentally retarded Mr. Heller? Have you become ill? Is a raw cucumber stuck up your ass? Did you eat too much pigeon feed?