For those of us who fancy Haffner as Red John: some extra thoughts about his first appearance (S04E02).

After Jane met his new partner with a firm handshake and a shouldertab, he went to Lisbon's house and asks her what she knows about Ray Haffner. She says that he's hard and by the book, but also that he was in the FBI before and well known for resolving high profile cases by wiretapping and surveliance. Two points where RJ scores well. Even 'by the book' could be interesting if we translate it to 'principal', which we also believe RJ to be. But keep the wiretapping in mind!

Still vague. Further on in the same episode it gets more interesting.

When Lisbon is home alone and thinking about Jane, who told her Timothy Carter wasn't Red John after all, she calls JJ LaRoche because she wants to talk to miss Carter, who is in prison.

Next scene: Van Pelt, just back on board, wants to talk to her new boss, Haffner, about money linked to the murder of a gymcoach. Although she's just doing her job, Ray isn't interested at all and claimes he has no time for this. He looks hasty and worried.

When lisbon arrives at miss Carters' cell (together with LaRoche), the lady is dead. A staged suicide with a fake letter in which she acknowledges her killed husband as Red John. Jane arrives a litte later and he can obviously see it's corrupted.

How could Red John be one step ahead? Because he wiretaps LaRoche's office. Who's good at it and was in a troubled hurry right after Lisbons made the call to LaRoche? Right, Haffner (who might know Smith well since he was FBI before).


So, it's maybe not a coïncidence that just after the fake RJ was shot by Jane, the real RJ appears on stage AND tries to work together with Jane. He felt finally safe to reach out to his old friend in person - untill Lisbon tries to dig up the whole Carter affair again. So he acted fast as light and wrote a fake letter to fortify the story that RJ is dead.