Three out of four theories posted on this website were far better than what the producers of The Mentalist managed to write for these two past seasons.

I've read some incredible theories that would have been the perfect ending to this series.
But nooo, the whole Red John extravaganza turned out to be nothing but crap. I am sorry that we wasted our time coming up with these ideas, all these connections between the suspects and Red John.

With this Red John plot, the show adopted a different angle for the current police tv series, it's a shame that it had to end (and in a horrible manner) in season 6. I can't see the point of the season 6 after Red John plot and season 7. At least we expected for something Red John related to be revealed in the final episode, maybe some deeper connection between Lazarus and RJ.

All this time, our minds were awfully tricked into coming up with all these theories, we tended to pay attention to some details that maybe even the producers missed. It's stupid not to have a main antagonist for a whole season. I felt like watching a combination between NCIS and some soap opera show. No plot, no nothing.
But I guess this happens when our expectations were great. Nothing.

Anyhow, thank you for these past years where every single one of the posts came up with an original idea. It's amazing to see all these people being involved in such a manner in this tv show.
I will miss the discussions about the RJ episodes and all the theories. And especially the moment when the RJ episode was leaked, the way everyone hoped it wasn't the real one (myself included).

We had a good run for 6 and a half seasons. Those moments will be remembered!

Sincerely,
A simple fan.

Holy fuck...please kill me.

Corrections:
've loved this showed and followed The Mentalist since the very first episode. It's been my favorite television show for many years. I loved all the literary allusions and clues as much as any of you, but Bruno Heller and the other producers killed the plot.
Mentalist Producer Szentgyorgyi told Deadline, "We started plotting out a conclusion to the Red John story about a third of the way through season six. 
http://deadline.com/2015/02/the-mentalist-series-finale-original-ending-jane-lisbon-cho-future-spino....
So that's it. All the clues were pointless. In my mind Brett Partridge was the real Red John. Grace and Rigsby should have been killed by RJ and Patrick Jane never should have had a happy ending.
I'd like to thank the creator of this fansite and Stoopkid for never giving up on crazy theories.

Red John says " The game is over and i won"

I say: The game is over and we lost.

Well, so that was just garbage. I'm sure I wasn't alone in throwing up in my mouth for pretty much the entire second hour.

I didn't come on this site before watching the finale - didn't want to get spoiled if RJ really did come back...ha. But now that I see that picture someone posted, of the wedding invitation with "Lazarus" RSVP'ing, it's obvious Bruno was just jacking us around. He made it seem like this was a big deal, and guess what? Lazarus had absolutely nothing to do with anything.

Every single horrible thing we feared (yeah I'm talking about the "3" clue) pretty much materialized. Was yelling at the TV "just shoot me" but still held out to the very end with a glimmer of hope...of seeing a red smiley. Nope. It's like when the rough cut of 6x8 was leaked, and we were like, nah it can't be this bad. Then as we're watching the live episode, we keep waiting for the twist, and only at the end do we realize the leaked episode was real, and yes, it really was that bad.

Today's finale was like reliving that all over again. I can't even deal with this right now. I think back to what that writer Tom said about the finale: "everything you ever hoped for." I barfed again.

Good acting all around though. Such a shame they didn't have good showrunners.