Well, the US might not air till Sunday but Canada aired the episode Thursday night and I was not disappointed.  It's titled "Nothing But Blue Skies" but they went out of their way to over-include the color red when filming and at the very beginning of the episode the music seemed reminiscent of the RJ drum beat.  I'm not saying the RJ is likely to come back because the whole episode was full of call backs to classic episodes but this episode would set it up nicely if that were the case.
The titles of the episodes this season go through the entire color pallet except the color red and what do you know but the season finale is the only episode that's been left untitled.  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Mentalist_episodes#Season_7_.282014.E2.80.9315.29
In previous theories, I've theorized that RJ's secondary colors are orange and yellow.  Orange is the tiger's color and the color of fire/explosions.  Yellow is the color of the flowers RJ left Jane after killing Bosco.  (Jane's colors are blues and Lisbon's are green).  Episode 3 is orange, episodes 4 and 7 are yellow, episode 11 is purple which is a mix of blue and red, 12 is brown which could be dried blood, and 13 could be red.  If I were to insert a hunt for RJ into the titles this is how it would look:

7x01: "Nothing But Blue Skies"        -everything seems fine but remember the RJ smiley in the sky
7x02: "The Graybar Hotel"               -gray prison bars = stripes = tiger      
7x03: "Orange Blossom Ice Cream" -orange for tiger tiger or RJ
7x04: "A Hint of Yellow"                     -a hint of RJ
7x05: "The Silver Briefcase"              -silver is the color of Mashburn's car
7x06: "Green Light"                            -Lisbon and the audience come on board to Jane's plan
7x07: "Little Yellow House"                -RJ's house
7x08: "The Whites of His Eyes"         -Jane gets too close and RJ finds out at end of episode
7x09: "Copper Bullet"                          - RJ's move and Jane realizes RJ is on to him at end
7x10: "Nothing Gold Can Stay"          -everything goes to hell
7x11: "Byzantium"                              -long awaited meeting of RJ and Jane, mix blue and red
7x12: "Brown Shag Carpet"               -dried blood -  Vanpelt and Rigsby murdered, the child lives
7x13  ?                                                -Jane catches RJ, Jane & Lisbon raise the child

And yes, I'm stilling theorizing under the idea that RJ is Walter Mashburn.  We saw him shake hands with Jane, has a mild dirt phobia, his episodes are full of the color red, is the only suspect that even comes close to having a similar personality to Jane's, lost his wife to Yuri, childhood issues that resulted in reform school, extensive experience with explosions, continually baits Jane, has the funds to be RJ, has talked to Jane about Jane's issues, only suspect that was carefully developed into a three-dimensional character, one of his episodes was written by Jordan Harper who is writing episodes 2, 5, and 11 - which are the two episodes with silver/gray and byzantium which is closest to red.

If I'm right, then RJ tried to use Jane to expose the tiger tiger group in the S2 finale with the words "tiger, tiger."  S3 was Jane accidentally antagonizing the tiger tiger group in his search for RJ and RJ deciding to give Jane closure because he wanted to get to know him as Mashburn or because he was insulted by the mess Jane made with tiger tiger.  S4 was Jane reaching out to RJ with an offer of friendship and then RJ getting pissed when it was a con.  S5 was Lorelei's and it brought the game to dangerous levels with tiger tiger and Jane knowing he'd met RJ and making the list in the notebook of his suspects and RJ countering by sending Jane a list of tiger tiger suspects.  S6 Jane takes out tiger tiger and fakes the explosion and deaths of the people in the house.  Jane made a plan with McAllister, Stiles, and Haffner(Stile's Visualize puppy inside law enforcement) to take out tiger tiger and to throw RJ off track.  McAllister and Stiles will return to help Jane.  McAllister will give the names of all the tiger tiger members and Stiles will return to his cult.

One last stupid theory to hope for . . . but the season looks promising regardless of any ludicrous theories I might write out.

Lets say Red John is dead. Lets say he was Macalister.
I know it pains me too...
The show never mentioned Visualize after ep 8.
They are saving it for this year.
Lisbon even hinted at his return if you remember that..

Visualize had tons of cops on the payroll.
Visualize is CONNECTED WITH THE BA.
Thats how Styles knew where Freye was.
Thats how Styles always knew Red John stuff.
This is how Styles knew the Fbi was coming down on him.
And that is why Styles faked his death to evade them.
Styles might be Janes dad and used Macalister to torture Jane.
Or maybe Styles is just a high up Ba member.

good to see a little discussion back at this site.  good thing they are bringing it back in November.  I don't think the site would have survived if they had waited until after the holidays.


in my opinion, what really made this show great, and it was a GREAT show at one point, was thet elements of misdirection and surprise.  no matter what heller or baker or anybody else says, it was always about PJ vs. RJ and what kept us so glued was the fact that we never knew the next time we would see a red smiley.  yes, we could guess that season finales would probably involve RJ, but we weren't sure how or when.  and we were always pleasantly surprised a time or two during midseason.

but in season 6, they began advertising RJ.  there was no surprise factor.  just a whole bunch of BA and RJ crammed down our throats and so convoluted and sloppy that it was all just a big ruined mess.

so, you take a hero who bases all of his powers on the art of misdirection; and you take a villian who uses mindgames and the element of surprise; and you are left with a season that clearly doesnt add up.  the only logical reasoning for the actions of both the hero and the villian from last season, is that it was the ultimate chess match from both sides, and both wanted the other to think that it was over and that they had won......

so despite the preview that showed on my tv last night while i was watching football, and almost caused me to spew my dinner in chunks all over my living room at the site of the 2 lovebirds watching fireworks,  this season could be set up to be an epic finale to a great good vs. evil battle.  wouldn't it be great if the fireworks display ended with a giant explosion in the shape of a red smiley!!!!



p.s.

i am not delirious.  i understand that a series finale with a RJ return is a pipe dream.  but that's the point of this site.  so if all you want to do is piont out the fact that the RJ is over, please just go away.  go back to your mom's basement and play batman arkham origins on your overclocked pc.  dust off the dorito crumbs from your undershirt and maybe google a little bit about personal hygiene.

The point is, i still think there is a chance for REDemption.  i believe they intended for timothy carter to be RJ, but then back tracked to save the show.  I believe they intended for McAssface to be RJ...but have left it unexplained enought to back track again if needed.  So unintentional or not, there is room for a great ending.