Hey everyone

Yesterday I had a huge rant after seeing the long awaited reveal. I felt disappointed because like many others on the site I felt like no closure was given in terms of many clues and observations we made over the past 5 season.

However, last night after rewatching the episode, I realized that even though they picked someone who may not be anyone's first choice to be Red John, the ending of this saga was truly poetic. 

Jane's expression when the sheriff walked in was one of relief that his search has come to an end. He knew that this is the man he had been looking for for 10 years. Nothing else mattered.

Everyone, including me, was angry that Jane declined the opportunity to get answers from Red John.  But if you think about it, Jane is there with a plan, he wants to throw this man off of his game, this man expected Jane to want answers but Jane had to throw him off of his train of thought so that he can't see the pigeon trick coming nor the gun that Jane hid in the church in the previous episode (it is not shown but obviously that is how he planned it).

Then we have to see Patrick chasing this man, and see Red John have these escape opportunities like the school bus right there but not be able to get away. Jane finally has him where he wants him, in his sights, wounded and just beyond the reach of an escape.

Finally Jane catches him and in my opinion, when McAllister pleads for mercy, it's an ode to Bruno saying that we will be disappointed in the end, he will be just a man, not an amazing monster with god-like features, but he is a man who is like most men afraid of death.  He wanted to bring this man who fans saw as a powerful leader of many, who can have men killed, evidence covered up, people freed from prison to be seen as the everyday man he actually was.  In 10 minutes he brought a man who claims to have the life of thousands at his hands, down to a everyday guy begging for his life. This is Bruno's design and I salute him for sticking to his guns.

Jane kills Red John by strangling him, it's intimate and he wants to feel this man's life slip away. He wants to feel the man who took his family struggle for his life.

I read last night a blog by Bruno Heller talking about the idea with the final sequence where Jane runs away. He runs past all these extras and it is said that the Director placed them there to show Jane running from everything Red Jonh took from him , we see a lady and her daughter, an old man and his wife holding hands and then a father playing with his daughter. 

Rewatching the episode and taking  into account that they can't be expected to provide answers for 5 and a half years worth of mystery and conclude the story in 42 minutes, and also when you take in to account the absolute brilliance in the poetry and feeling you get from this episode you appreciate it as an ending.

And even though most of us would like to have seen someone else be Red John, I can say that I finally made peace with the Red John we were given.

Thanks

PS. Now that we know whoisredjohn, let's turn the site into "www.whokilledbriangriffin.com"

I'm not sure if this has already been mentioned, but I know that a number of people have commented on the whole smuggled pigeon not being discovered when Jane was frisked and not believing it to be remotely plausible. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that it actually wasn't a completely ridiculous outcome. I've watched the leaked episode, and watched the real one again looking out for it, and the pigeon was on the inside of his jacket on the same side of the suit as the gun. In terms of Jane being frisked, Cordero or whatever his name was, was looking for signs of weapons- most probably, knives and guns. And so, when he found the gun in Jane's pocket, he probably noted that it was bulky when he patted him down, but also probably dismissed it as just the gun and not thought to check inside the jacket once he'd found the hard object. It's been done in movies before- the whole gun being kept on the outside of a coat as a prop while another weapon was concealed underneath it, and so it was less likely to be discovered. 

In this case, said weapon was a pigeon, and while it didn't seem to make a noise or anything, Jane possibly had a trick up his sleeve for shutting it up- or it was too busy stuffing its face with breadcrumbs. Or that could be another plot hole. I have to say, if they'd done this episode completely right, as in perhaps had Jane talking it out with Red John about previous clues and how he'd figured it out accompanied by flashbacks, and maybe a bit more confession from Red John about anything, really, I would have thought the pigeon thing was actually a nice quirk, quite fitting with those previously seen in the show. However, problem is that in the absence of any other twists/satisfying explanations, the pigeon thing seems completely ridiculous and out of place, what with it being the main twist and apparently the hero of the episode. One theory summed it up quite nicely: 

http://www.whoisredjohn.com/See-a-theory-Red-John/14016

Anyway, I think the other most disappointing thing was the fact that the show has demonstrated the ability in the past to explain convoluted plots, and the fact that the Red John saga was not really dealt with all that well seemed to indicate that the writers really didn't have much of a plot about the character, and instead of avoiding becoming like "that show with the polar bears" they managed to achieve just that. Especially with the fact that BH came out and said that he would leave the concept of whether RJ was/wasn't a psychic for the audience to decide because he didn't want to offend anyone.

Um, no. You designed this character, you should know everything about him, he either has superhuman powers or he doesn't. If he doesn't, explain how he found the list- it's not one of those little mysteries that in years to come fans will look back affectionately and say, "We never did learn how he figured out the list"- you want to introduce the concept that he's potentially psychic, you either go the whole way on that track of thought, or abandon it altogether by introducing an alternative explanation. 

So, this episode was very disappointing. I liked who they picked for RJ, but hated the fact that there so much potential for something big in that showdown, and instead of using all their time to build tension/explain things, they instead kept ruining the tension and wasting time by cutting away to the we've-seen-it-before-on-every-procedural-crime-show-ever investigation/out to get the team crusade against the key characters by another law enforcement agency. 

I'm glad the episode is only rated 6.4 on Imdb, and hope that the rating continues to fall. 

Baker additionally reveals that he voiced Red John in previous seasons before Heller had decided who would be cast as the serial killer. "In the season 2 finale, when Jane was captured and Red John did that 'Tyger, Tyger' thing with the mask on? That was me. I played both characters in that scene," the Emmy-nominated actor shares.


Read more: http://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/00066105.html#ixzz2ljE5jsS0

At first I was pretty dissappointed, but after rewatching it and thinking about it, I believe it was a good ending. I am sure the loose ends will be tied up in future episodes.

The patheticness of Red John as he died at the hands of Jane is a beautiful example of how sad some "evil" people are. Egotistical, and wimpy when confronted while they aren't in control.

If this really isn't the end, I'll be surprised.

Ok. so I have only one problem with the red john episode. The fact that Patrick jane did not know who red john really is. PJ is The Mentalist and got out-mentalisted by RJ.

If PJ does not want to know about how RJ got the list, we should not too.

PJ wouldnt want his CBI crew to be a direct accomplice to murder or even put them in harms way hence he did not involve them when going to the cemetary.

PJ has been planning his kill for 10 years and you could see that he truly and unregrettably meant killing RJ while he was doing it. He is free finally and doesnt care about any unanswered questions. He can now move on.

Once again PJ is the mentalist and that is why i continued to watch this show every week and will continue to watch it for as long as its on. I watch it to experience PJ's cleverness and cold reading and humour when he solves crimes week on week.

Finally, I will end on the same not I started: a rant about why did PJ not know who RJ is (or why did he seem surprised it was not Bertram).

Thank You.

I like that PJ didn't care about RJ's reasoning or genius; he was able to witness him beg, apologize, suffer, and then die by his own hands. I also completely agree that after all the anticipation and clue hunting, this was anticlimactic in that we didn't get a lot of answers. As an optimist, and as someone who is thankful for the great tv BH has provided us in the past, I wonder, perhaps he purposefully intended for us nerds to have fun answering these questions? After all, if he had answered everything in that episode, would we have anything to talk about in this forum? ...

On another note...we know that BH has compared RJ to Professor Moriarty. I think it's interesting that McAllister is the only one suspect who is also referred to by his title, "sheriff", rather than his first name. Neat! 

Is Hitler's reaction to Red John video available anywhere?