I'm not only disappointed. I am ANGRY at the fact that they explained nothing at all. There are a lot of points they missed out on.

- Red Barn... what is his connection with Visualize and Bret Stiles?
- Kristina Frye... how did she become 'mute' and 'vegetable-like'
- How did he bang someone as hot as Lorelei...
- What was the point of bringing up Michael Kirkland?
- How did this careful and manipulative Red John get scared like a bitch by a pigeon?
- How does the pigeon fit into this mystery? We only knew of Sheriff McAllister's fear of pigeons the episode where he rescues Patrick.

I have more questions, but these are some they should have answered.

As someone had mentioned, there could be two Red Johns, the first one had committed the Visualize Barn murders. The second one kills Jane's family.

I believe Brett Partridge is still alive somewhere, since he did help Sheriff McAllister to fake DNA results. And that Brett Partridge is the real 'Second' Red John. 

Even though my hope of that being true is fading, I just really HOPE that the preceding episodes or maybe even the season finale will explain things.

So Red John fans are peed off by the episode. Then Jisbon fans are peed off by the promo. I suspect a rabbit is hiding, lodged in Mr Heller's hat until Sunday night.

For those who claim that Heller did a great job with this episode, hear me out:


PHOBIA by wiki: usually defined as a persistent fear of an object or situation in which the sufferer commits to great lengths in avoiding, typically disproportional to the actual danger posed, often being recognized as irrational. In the event the phobia cannot be avoided entirely, the sufferer will endure the situation or object with marked distress and significant interference in social or occupational activities.

In a broader sense, if you have a phobia for a specific object (like an animal) you can't bear being anywhere near it let alone drawing a clown face in someone's face in a ceremonial way by taking your time and talking to someone on the phone, plus changing your voice. You can't even be there in the first place. The ones who have a phobia for cockroaches for example; just imagine yourself surrounded by those black little creatures with their antennas vibrating and some even walking on you, yet you are doing something important which requires your full attention to detail. There are 2 red johns here. One is doing just fine with the presence of pigeons and the other one freaks the hell out when confronted with one only. if anyone tries to tell me that it was dark in that place and he couldn't tell if they were actually pigeons or ravens and maybe that's why he didn't freak out, I will kick his ass. This is a HUGE discrepancy for starters.

Secondly, you set up 2 bombings as one concussional and one lethal. Everyone knocks out but so called red John doesn't. Those naive audience who buy this shit can also dare to say "He is not superman after all" when it comes to Jane killing him and RJ acting like a bitch. Well, he can very well stay fine in an explosion after which physically much stronger dudes like Bertram and Smith can not. Plus, how do you imagine that RJ detonated the bombs? Just revealed them and turned a switch so that someone can see it and shout "No! Wait!"? Or he just pushed a button of some kinda remote unit in his hand and someone seeing it yelled like that? Option one, RJ would be the first to knock out even before he touches down. Option two, he would have equally vulnerable as the others who fainted. Some can say that he jumped to the far side while he was pushing the button so he was at a distance where he wouldn't be affected like the others. In that case, Jane would know who RJ was and wouldn't be surprised when he revealed himself in the church. Another discrepancy here.

Do you know what the whole episode reminded me? There are such dreams... There is actually an ordered flow of events in it, but since it's a dream, not everything makes total sense. Some small weird stuff happens to make you realize that it is a dream. All the other elements are just like the life itself but those little things, they just name it. Like a decent and dollish lady van Pelt (aside from her darker side) banging her head on the car's window, Rigsby and VanPelt arguing nonsense in the car afterwards, FBI parking, the way Bertram dies, Abbot persistently asking for a paper map, and a few more I forgot now. It's like Jane seeing a dream (including scenes from South America too, and the call he receives is actually Lisbon calling his name to wake him up) and will wake up in the hospital starting over again and we will see a much different episode

So, as much as I hope to have another ending, a shaking and shocking episode, a more complicated back-story and obviously much better processing, the evidence provided by interviews after the episode show the actual contrary. I'm done writing. I will go home and start watching Dexter and Lost again and will be thankful for their makers for at least not being this cheap. I will watch the episode with the polar bear twice by the way. He deserves it! Thanks to all for the great sharing here. 

There is a TV show called Profiler. It aired between 1996 and 2000.

In short:
Samantha = Patrick Jane
Jack of all trades = Red John
The VCTF Team = The CBI Team

Jack murders Samantha's husband.
Samantha joins the VCTF as a consultant and together they hunt down Jack for a couple of seasons.
At some point they catch a fake Jack.
They hunt for him some more. They compile a list of possible suspects.
They discover Jack's real identity is Ed Post, the sheriff of a small town nearby.
They try to catch him with an elaborate ruse and ultimately Samantha shoots and kills him in the cemetery where her husband is buried.

:(

the only way they can redeem themselves is to show us the real red john in season finale, with real one-on-one 30 minutes long like conversation that all fans deserve and where everything will be unveiled. (with no promos, pictures, articles before the episode of course)

but in the episode before the finale, somewhere at the end of it, here's what must happen: patrick discovers a big shiny red john smiley face up on the wall and a dead body (dead body of a character played by bruno heller himself) and he feels dread and knows, knows that the real red john is still out there.
AND, as a bonus, we get to see a flashback of red john mutilating over and over, and laughing while he does it, bruno heller's character.
that would be a good start i think.