It's been very tricky navigating this site, over the past 2 days.  Everybody's talking about the leaked episode, which is totally understandable.  But I personally want to wait till Sunday, to see the truth for myself.  That's why it bums me out to keep reading spoilers, when I'm just looking for more theories to enjoy, as we enter the final countdown till Sunday.

Having said that, I went ahead and downloaded the leaked episode, which I plan to watch AFTER Sunday's episode.  I'm very interested to see if they turn out to be one and the same.

But for what it's worth, it's actually no big deal to shoot a few extraneous scenes with spurious dialogue, in the course of shooting a tv episode.  Heck, back in the 80's and 90's, adult movies used to shoot two versions:  one for cable which was more toned down, and one directly for video, which was more explicit.  Even today's movies often shoot more than one ending to test on audiences, before choosing the one that will be the OFFICIAL ending.

Given the phenomenal success of The Mentalist (its more recent ratings notwithstanding), I think it's personally plausible that CBS would allot Heller an extra amount of money to put together a dummy episode to fool all the piraters out there, so that when the REAL episode airs, it will be a brilliant promotional maneuver that will be the talk of the industry and The Mentalist will be back on top.

Heller always makes sure that Jane is one step ahead, and has produced some pretty brilliant episodes that showcase his genius to great effect.  It doesn't seem altogether far-fetched to think that he would deliberately concoct this ruse, knowing the HUGE amount of viewers who download, then go onto Facebook and Twitter and share their views about what they watched.

But being the clever guy he is, he wouldn't make it too obvious by just putting this episode out there, willy nilly, and then leaving it.  It would have to look like a mistake or a "leak" and then promptly be removed from sites, blogs, and filehosts, right away, in order to truly be received as a legitimate sneak preview of Sunday's episode.

Considering how silly your descriptions of the episode have been, it seems like a colossal stretch to accept that this is what Heller has been planning for us fans, as the finale to a saga we've been following for 6 years.  While I don't discount the possibility, it seems unlikely.  However, the idea that this is a decoy to frustrate illegal downloaders and use their viral reaction to propel this upcoming episode to legendary status, seems very "Jane" to me.

Even if it still turns out to be McAllister, I'll be okay if the story is wrapped up well, and the faceoff between Jane and RJ winds up being a true battle of wits and hand to hand combat, as well.  However, if what y'all are describing winds up being the ACTUAL episode, then I agree that Heller should be burned at the stake.  We'll all know, soon enough!

There are a few other possibilities as well: 

1. The leaked episode is a fake, just to mislead us. Maybe Sunday will give us a different ending altogether. Different ending, mind you, not a different episode.

2. The leaked episode is the real deal, and if so, then maybe McAllister is NOT Red John! He may be another Timothy Carter, pretending to be RJ! The reason I think so is because this is just the 8th episode of the season. If RJ dies what happens in the rest of the episodes? Mentalist without Red John? :(

And also, the way the sheriff was killed was stupid! I don't think Heller will kill his creation of six years in such a manner. I hope not.

If the second point is true, we might see a 'resurrection' of Red John in the 9th episode or maybe later on. Maybe that is what forces Jane to get back into law enforcement. (I read thats what happens in 'My Blue Heaven'. I'm not sure.)

Whatever happens, I don't want the Red John saga to end this way.

Your views are welcome :)

the leaked episode look like charlie chalpin episode, if it's really the episode that we will watch sunday i think Bruno Heller for the next episode should switch the mentalist to a comedy show tv.

Good god...when Patrick said "You are Red John" and heared footsteps from the church entrance i was soooo excited to see Mashburn or Partridge show up and prove to Patrick again that he is always a step ahead.

And wtf? RJ calling 911? even Bob Kirkland faced his death like a hero.

It's really sad when you feel you are watching the greatest show ever and a serial killer with great mind then you have this mixed feelings :-( . 

What a poor writing from the man who created RJ!!.

I believe that the season 3 finale was WAY better than this one.

I find it funny how everyone's either bitching about the reveal, or is in denial—trying to convince yourselves that this episode is a fake, and that this story deserves a better ending. Fine, it wasn't the climactic, jaw-dropping, gut-wrenching reveal that we all expected. However, you forget two important things about this episode.

Firstly, this episode was always going to be about Patrick. Nothing more, nothing less. It was about him finally getting his wish, finding justice. You're supposed to look at it from Patrick's point of view, not a third person viewer demanding for answers. He didn't want answers, he didn't want to give Red John the satisfaction and appreciation that Red John so desperately craves for and has fed on for so long. If you expected all the answers to be revealed in this episode then you're just impatiently unreasonable and stupid. There's still more than half a season to go, and I'm sure answers will come. And also, Xander Berkeley is a great actor, and he did justice to the Red John character, in my opinion. I don't understand how everyone's bitching about the acting.

Secondly, you forget that Heller himself did warn us about how our own ideas and theories of how Red John should be; how we've built up this almost untouchable immortal personality in our heads was going to ultimately leave us feeling disappointed and cheated on. But in all honesty, if you take a moment to reflect on the last 5 years, was this cruel? Should we feel led on for the past 5 years? Can we curse the producers and accuse them of having a knee-jerk reaction of a decision to choose McAllister as Red John? I wouldn't. I believe that Heller did know whom he wanted as Red John from the beginning, and that they probably did stick to the general plot from the get go. But clearly, as with any TV show, there are going to be instances of uncertainty from the producers part, depending on external factors such as whether the show is going to continue for another season each year, whether the actors playing some of these characters were going to be available at given times in the script, as well trying to please a wider audience to have the necessary views for the show to continue. I believe that it was 'cause of the fans' whining in the first place—about how the Red John saga was dragging along for too long.. yadda yadda—that the creators had to rush with the plot and reveal this season. You only have yourselves to blame, really.

All I have to say is, instead of whining about it, how about we try and be thankful for what we got, for once. Heller and co. have done an amazing job at keeping all of us entertained and guessing for the past 5 years, with all in all, a brilliant set of characters, a brilliant storyline and a brilliant production. I'm just grateful to have been part of the journey.

https://twitter.com/jimmygadd/status/404056166956691457

https://twitter.com/jimmygadd/status/404056542283976704

I think we are in the unfortunate situation that what has been revealed is not that Thomas McAllister is Red John, but that Bruno Heller is not as clever as we thought he was.

I suspect he has fallen into a hole where by he's taken this story too far, and he doesn't know how to clean it up. He's created a tangle of clues, subterfuge, and tricks that he doesn't know how to untangle. The result, for people like us who go over every scene, every trick, every angle, is disappointment.

Episode 6x8 is the biggest let down of the entire series. It isn't so much the choice of who is Red John, it's the execution of the episode. The actor who plays McAllister either wasn't up to the task, or wasn't given enough to work with from the writer. Bradley Whitford (season 3 finale) did a much better job of playing "Red John", and was much more convincing.

Unfortunately we've been hoist by our own petard; we've analysed too much, and expected too much.