First of all, let me say that I am a part of the mast majority here, who feels badly betrayed by Heller. But for all of the wailing and tears (justified though it all may be), I think that one thing has been missed that might help those of us who find ourselves wondering, "Why?"
Let's call this "The Theory of the Fall of the Red John Legend"
For me, the story of Red John started to go haywire, way back in Season 1, when Heller decided to only develop the RJ plotline/mythos once every 4 or 5 weeks. This was a mistake. It caused many viewers to forget about RJ, and simply view the Mentalist as a "fun" show, where the great Patrick Jane uses his mind games to solve the crime, often by rubbing people the wrong way. They also enjoyed watching the stoic Cho grow more and more tired of the nerdish Rigsby, while Rigsby struggled to win the favor of the lovely Van Pelt. And to complete the ensemble there was Lisbon, the CBI "denmother" struggling to keep the happy family together, reign Jane in when necessary, and hopefully solve the crime, along the way. In short, the Mentalist was about the fun of watching this dysfunctional team work together, aided by the incredible Jane, helping to stop the bad guys week after week. This became the show's appeal. Viewers by and large tuned in to The Mentalist to have fun.
On the flip side was the dark story of Red John, who murdered Jane's family, and took from Jane all reasons for living, save one: revenge. To that end, Jane willingly gives of his time and talent to the CBI, in order to be in the prime position to keep tabs on Red John, in hopes of finding him and killing him. He doesn't really care about eating or sleeping or even looking after his appearance. Nothing matters, except tracking Red John, which Jane makes no bones about. He steps on toes, lies, breaks the law, and obsesses over every clue he comes across, that leads him closer to RJ. It's what drives him and what has changed him forever.
Now, the only way this dichotomy can play successfully is to keep a balance of both aspects of The Mentalist by blending the crime of the week with a gradual development of the dark backstory. Here is where Heller failed. As you know, often 4 or 5 weeks would go by with absolutely no mention of RJ. Then, after WEEKS of lighhearted crime-solving fun, Heller would inject another Red John story or clue, which often felt jarring and almost intrusive to those who were getting settled into the lightheartedness that The Mentalist was largely known for, and the reason for which the majority of viewers would tune in, each week. As a result, more and more people began to resent the "intrusion" of this Red John "stuff" and would take to the websites and blogs and start bitching about it, as the seasons wore on.
Now, alongside this lot, another group of people started to emerge: US. Those of us who were intrigued by Red John, and wanted to know more. We watched, week after week, hoping to get another piece of the puzzle. We got that twinge of excitement when the smiley face would appear and that grim music would start to play. Every clue caught our attention and we made notes. They were so specific and it all seemed to be part of a predetermined master plan, which intrigued the hell out of us! Sure we enjoyed the weekly crime, and how Jane would use his abilities to surprise and impress us all. But for us, it was about the CHASE. We wanted our Sherlock to meet his Moriarty, and we were hoping to solve the BIG mystery right before that meeting took place. We watched as DETECTIVES, not just viewers. We were the GEEKS, if you will. We were the die hard fans. But sadly, we were in the minority.
So, with more and more people complaining whenever Red John would enter the picture, in Season 3, Heller decided to let Red John go and he gave us Stawberries and Cream, as a compromise between the two categories of viewers. For the casual viewers, it came as a "crime-of-the-week" episode. For the RJ fans, it came in the form of an exciting reveal of an RJ disciple and then RJ HIMSELF (or so we thought). Although we didn't get the answers to all of our questions, we got what was arguably the best episode the series ever produced, and the reveal of RJ had us on the edge of our seats, courtesy of the outstandingly chilling portrayal by Bradley Whitford. Because everything was SO RIGHT, we didn't spend much time lamenting the loose ends left behind. Somehow, we just trusted Heller, on the back of such a satisfying finale, which produced huge ratings for the show. And that was the last high point The Mentalist would experience...
Unfortunately, based on the high ratings, CBS convinced Heller to make Timothy Carter a red herring and continue the RJ storyline. While us RJ fans were excited to know that it wasn't over (this meant all of our questions hadn't been ignored), the majority of Mentalist viewers were sorely disappointed to know that the hunt for RJ was still on, and that's when the complaints really started to escalate. Tv.com and imdb.com were riddled with disgruntled viewers, bitching and moaning and threatening to stop watching the show. But meanwhile, more and more RJ fans were starting to emerge, resulting in sites like this one, praising Heller for weaving such a fascinating backstory, replete with biblical overtones, dark occultic themes, and brilliant dialogue. So Heller pressed on with what I believe was still his vision for the show.
But throughout this entire journey, Heller never rectified his main mistake of keeping the two aspects of the Mentalist so separate. Weeks would go by with nary a mention of RJ, and then suddenly 2 or 3 eps would be dedicated to it, thus effectively keeping one segment of the viewing audience FRUSTRATED, always. Fans started tuning out, and the pressure was on Heller to fix the problem, once and for all, AND QUICK. Welcome to Season 6...
As we know by now, the solution was to wrap up the RJ storyline in time for sweeps week, regardless of how it was done. I don't care what Heller claims. We all know that this was rushed, perfunctory, and anticlimactic. The pace of the story started feeling forced, and the introduction of so many new elements per episode, while exciting, was worrisome. How was Heller going to wrap all of this up into a cohesive finished storyline by Thanksgiving? I don't know about you, but I was really becoming concerned about that, by episode 5 and 6. I was beginning to have my doubts, as I suspect many of you were, as well. Something told me that this was not going to end well. Sadly, this was indeed the case, as most of us will admit.
I truly think that Heller basically threw up his hands and surrendered to CBS and all the whiners, abandoned whatever plans he had for the RJ storyline, and gave us the nonsense we all had to sit through, last Sunday. I do believe that at the beginning of the series, Heller had a story all laid out. But because of his inability to tell it in the right way and at the right pace, it just evaporated, leaving us feeling empty and frustrated by all the unanswered questions, unexplained clues, and horrible RJ reveal.
In the end, Heller simply gave up, IMO. He'll never admit to it, but I believe the evolution of his comments and statements over the years, bears this out, when you read between the lines. Plus, just watching that finale episode, I know in my gut that this is NOT even remotely close to what Heller had in mind, when he created the show. I don't even think this is what he had in mind in Season 5. He may have chosen the PERSON by that point, but this wrap-up was the result of pressure and personal frustration with it all. This was not well-crafted and is a complete departure from EVERY SINGLE OTHER MENTALIST EPISODE, IMO.
So, while I still want to strangle Heller for that last episode, I really want to strangle him for setting the RJ storyline up for failure from the start, by not integrating it more seamlessly with the overall show, thus fragmenting not only the viewing audience, but THE MENTALIST, itself.
