We all got outsmarted by Bruno Heller again. If your ego isn't too bruised, read on. We never saw the real Red John ending. Read this theory and you'll understand if your intellect is up to par. It might help to rewatch episode 8 (agony, I know!).


http://www.whoisredjohn.com/See-a-theory-Red-John/16568

Our consolation prize; 6 Years worth of Red John clues are saved.

Wouldn't it be funny if BH still hadn't decided who RJ was, and instead was using the theories on this board, and others like it, to plan the ending?

Choosing the best bits of fan-fiction, to craft the ending that would thrill us the most?

I doubt it, my sinking feeling is that TM has sold-out, cut and shut the case disappointingly and moved-on.

But I would LOVE a twist, a real 'whoooah, how, what, who...really? Oh my...it all makes sense' ending.

Red John has qualified as one of the greatest TV villains of all time.  So, why would the story of such an epic character -- end mid-stream -- just like that, poof, and then be treated like they never happened? 

It doesn't make a bit of sense, so of course most of us are going to feel resignation and disappointment!   It would be NORMAL to feel this way because we've been set up and led to believe otherwise FOR FIVE YEARS.

So don't ask me to go against my better mind and believe that that's all there is to the Red John story -- and that he's dead when there is no real evidence to support it besides the fact that Jane was long overdue to strangle SOMEONE for the pain of losing his family. 

Deep down, we know better.  And, I can't wait to read these posts when the RJ storyline returns.

Red John IS alive and he is Ray Haffner.

It's going to be so cool to see the writers tie all the clues together and reveal them to us in brilliant Mentalist illustration of connect the dots and flashbacks!

There are so many clues that show this to be true. AND also the fact that Reed Diamond was the perfect person to play Ray Haffner/Red John.

This is long but I just want to get it out here...
so whoever has some time on their hands & can't get enough mentalist discussions.............read on....... ;-P

He=Ray Haffner a.k.a. Red John

He  is simmering with emotion
He is the perfect serial killer persona
Charming
Seductive
Over confident
His face can look angry and attractive at the same time
Says "there are other ways to keep a woman quiet"
He obviously does not respect women very much
He tries to lead people in the opposite direction of clues
He was at Elliston farm
He has a "messed up childhood" (not many people with messed up childhoods are serial killers but I most serial killers have messed up childhoods)
He is a member of Visualize
Acts like Lisbon can have her way with him but he always in control whether he lets on that he is or not...
He loves to stoke at the fire between him and Patrick Jane
He is a master manipulator
He has connections in FBI, CBI and surveillance...
He is attractive and I could see women and men falling under his spell
He could be perceived as a victim who was blameless in all of this or as the seeting mastermind playing everyone with mind games and setting them up all along biding his time...
He and Patrick could be brothers. They are both good looking, blue eyes, light hair, confident, close in age, charismatic, quirky, intelligent...
He has a "thing" for Lisbon
He has a love hate relationship with Patrick
He touches Patrick and Cho on the shoulder when he talks with them. This sets up rapport with people and tries to make them feel at ease and feel a connection with them.

He stands in front of the board at CBI and says, "Teresa you're missing out on something big here" a subtle, playful, teasing clue for her.
He says to her, You don't think i'm red john do you? You do, don't you? and acts all hurt and indignant. Again, another game for him. He loves being this close and they don't know for sure if it's him or not. He loves working with them sometimes knowing he's RJ.

Ray didn't have a tattoo which makes him more likely to be Red John. RJ would never tattoo himself to be part of an organization. He's too arrogant for that.

They show Ray being cocky but seemingly normal and at times insecure (he's faking that) and then you see him working out with the weights and he looks off his rocker as if he's very angry and full of rage as he works out. Probably to get out his seething rage with the weights so he can appear "normal" and just full of himself.

He comes to the show in season 4 right after the "fake RJ" was killed at end of season 3.
He says to Jane, "there's a comeuppance heading your way"


He says to Lisbon when she's in the hospital, We'll have a time."
He sits right on Lisbon's bed in the hospital. they are friendly but they're not "that" close and he kind of invades her personal space. And he sniffs at this one point as they are talking as if he's angry but trying to hide it. sounds funny, but if you watch it closely it really does seem as if he's seething underneath.
And he's taunting her subtly mentioning Red John, and how scary it must have been etc..."that's scary stuff...." he says with an underlying emotion not quite explainable...

Just like he did when they met for coffee and he brought up Red John to here there too...again he's taunting her, bringing it up in her face and he can see she is attracted to him many times she smiles at him and looks him up and down and she's kinda shy with him like they almost flirt with each other & she is attracted to him & et she's not sure about him because something is "off" about him.

She also orders him to "Sit" Sit down Ray. and he humors her and sits down. But we all know that he does not let women order him around. He only obliges her to keep up the façade that he will do what she asks. Even though he gives her attitude with his comments such as when when she says, it's not important. and he says, "it is if you want my help."

Then the vision she has when she sees the smiley faces and dead co-workers in the CBI office and Ray is alive with blood at him and even takes a swing at her with his right arm! And he says, I'm sorry about this. He looks calm yet crazed. That is how I picture red john. an eerie calm about him with seething anger underneath. And that for me, is how Ray Haffner comes across.

Lisbon asks Ray to meet with Patrick and he says he will do so if they stop saying he's RJ. But he's had more than 24 hours to set up a way to get out of Jane's house the next evening. He tells Lisbon where Stiles is but i'm sure he also told Stiles that he told Lisbon and I'm sure they came up with a plan!!! NO WAY they just went in there unprepared with no way out. I'm pretty sure they came up a plan and we haven't seen it unfold because we've only seen Jane's hallucinations since that point forward.

The whole hallucination of the end where his daughter and wife were there as he "killed MacAllister" the guy and the kid at the park, the older couple walking hand in hand...all a hallucination...maybe Haffner and stiles even came behind jane as he had the other 3 at gunpint and could have injected him with a drug...and caused the bombing d misdirection so they could escape.

Stiles said in the "fire and brimstone"episode that he was ascending but would return. maybe Stiles and Ray worked it out so Stiles sacrificed himself because he knew he was dying but Haffner escaped.

Stiles knows Ray is RJ and I'm sure it has to do with Visualize and their rituals....since Ray has been there since around 21 years of age dealing with a hard childhood going down a bad path (as he told Lisbon). that could also be to get empathy from Lisbon too.

I remember the way he was looking back at the photos on the board when Lisbon asked him about visualize and if he was a member, and how he kept looking back at the board for a few longer seconds and then turned back to talk with her and how he acted embarrassed and defensive about it. all part of a way to react to feel sympathy for him and not suspicion or fear.

He and Patrick shook hands when they met AND he put his hand on Patrick's shoulder and she said when they met they could've been life long friends. Which could mean that they were brothers separated at birth or when they were young. or could be half brothers. Maybe Patrick was hypnotized to forget Ray was his brother, but Ray was not hypnotized and he remembers & he resents Patrick because he had a family & Ray wasn't able to have one. Patrick could have been the favored child. So he loves yet hates Patrick.

Also, Ray worked with Jane and when Jane got him kicked out of his job, it even more reignited the fact that Jane didn't want him around and was competing with him and for the attentions/affections of Teresa.

Ray said, I would have worked with you Jane if you had given me the chance. I think this is an important statement he made to Patrick. It even makes Patrick seem like the bad guy and Ray seem like the good guy. Not that I didn't want Lisbon to come back, but Patrick really had it out for Ray for no other reason than he want Teresa back. and he made Ray look like a fool to get that accomplished. So Patrick has an arrogant streak in him sometimes too. That could be a similarity between Ray and Patrick.

Ray and Patrick both like to play mind games with people.

They are also both emotional.

They are both competitive.

They both have a compulsive need to be right and like to be the best.

They both want to be the smartest person in the room.

Maybe Ray doesn't even "really" like Lisbon...maybe he only keeps her alive because he knows Patrick couldn't really be motivated to continue on with the hunt for him if Lisbon was gone because Patrick couldn't handle losing her, so RJ lets her live so Patrick can keep chasing him...or maybe it's both he likes her but also he needs to keep her alive so Patrick will keep chasing him...

I think it signifies how they both have a dark side but one pursued their dark side and the other one didn't pursue the dark side as a killer but more as a con man who cheated people.
Ray is into prestige and power and being the smartest and well-dressed, making good money, winning people over, being in the know (having Cho spy for him) and I think he likes  how he is getting one over on Patrick and Lisbon and the team but the fact that they underestimated him.

I am sure MacAllister is just another pawn of Red John who lied and said he was RJ to send Patrick off track and make him commit a murder so he is one step closer to being like RJ. and they RJ will reveal to him later (revenge is a dish best served cold) that he once again did not kill the real red john. This will give RJ even more power over Patrick and upset him that he killed another person who was not RJ.

Maybe part of the Tyger Tyger is the fact that there is a tiger and a lamb in each of us to different degrees. RJ knows that Patrick thinks he is better than him and RJ has caused Patrick to kill 2 people who were not Red John. The more he gets Patrick to commit these violent acts the more he could become like RJ and be less like the Lamb and more like the Tyger. (both are in Blakes' poems).

It's all about power and control to RJ. He would NEVER ask for mercy, beg for his life, call 911 (i'd laugh if it wasn't so absurd) and most of all he would not say (blink) that he's sorry for killing Patrick's wife and daughter because He Is NOT sorry.

The birds eating out of the hand are how RJ has them eating out of the palm of HIS hand. Following the clues HE wants them to follow. But it has all been misdirection. The devil is crafty and a master of disguise and the devil is never sorry. Patrick himself said that RJ would never say he was sorry.  Red John would not go out like this.

BH said we'd be disappointed in who red john was...yeah for the fake rj reveal in episode 8 yes we were disappointed. but.........when the REAL Red John reveal takes place we will not be disappointed.

I don't think BH would go out like this. He's too good for that. He knows his fans are too smart for that. He wouldn't screw us over like that. I mean that would be like finding out there's no santa claus again. why do that to adults when we already had enough of that kinda stuff done to us as children!

I believe these last episodes have all been a Hallucination of Patrick Jane. Guess we'll find out, not soon enough....but soon.

Happy Holidays everyone! ;-D

The real mystery here has nothing to do with Red John.

What I simply cannot understand is how a great show, in its sixth successful season, can switch from being engaging and compelling to barely-watchable bilge in the course of a two episodes.

The Mentalist has gone from being clever and enagaing to poor man's Criminal Minds knock-off. When Lisbon said "let's see how much trouble we can cause" with an amused glint in her eye I actually groaned with shame.

Shame for having been suckered into actually thinking about a TV show between episodes for six years. Shame for racing home from work some nights to catch it. And shame for wasting so much money on the box-sets.

It seems that Heller & co. had no idea, no plan, for how the Red John story arc would be resolved. They just continued to drop clever and brain-teasing clues and insights which, one assumed, would later be revealed as part of a satisfying greater truth. Now it seems that all of the clues, hints and evidence were meaningless and that there was no plan at all for the resolution of the RJ story-line.

McAllister makes no more sense as the revealed Red John than would anybody else on the list - indeed, he possibly makes the least sense. If they had picked a random member of the public to play RJ it could be no worse.

Also, the silly plot-line that steered the show towards the unveiling of Red John is reminiscent of the sort of thing school-children might come up with. Tyger-Tyger, The Blake Society, Blue Dots, pidgeons, etc.

Awful.

And, one final question, how come episode eight, the most important episode of all time, was so shabbily made, badly scripted and unimaginatively photographed?

Perhaps they have been told that this will be the last season and the recent episodes have reflected some sort of feud with the studio (or something)?

Whether it has been decided that season six is the end oif the road or not, I cannot see the show continuing as it is now. Dreadful.