Bruno Heller should be ashamed of himself. For years now, people have watched this show, gathered evidence and tried to figure out the identity of the character that loomed over the entire series. Heller, of course, browsed these and other pages and saw the time and effort fans put in resolving this mystery. Now we know that he didn't decide the identity of Red John until recently. This shows us that the clues that have been scattered around the show since the beginning were all completely random and irrelevant. Not a one managed to bring Patrick in RJ's vicinity, it was all surpluss. Now, I didn't follow this show religiously at all, I only watched the RJ themed episodes and not even all of them, but even I am pissed off at this ending. It is embarrassing and downright wrong. I can't imagine how true fans must be feeling, those who have devoted hours and hours into thinking theories up, then more hours elaborating and discussing details such as tea cups. Heller knew the approach fans took to this show and he still didn't offer them anything real, no vindication whatsoever. When he saw the proportions of his RJ story arc, he had an obligation to definitively choose RJ's identity and stick with it. He had that duty towards his loyal fans. Shameful.
Also, I reject the notion that Red John had to be a disappointment. This is a cheap cop out. Season 3 finale was brilliant and it offered a masterful RJ. Both the casting and Whitford's performance were impeccable. THAT was a Red John. Everything was done properly. This was pathetic and I absolutely reject the idea that it had to be a let down. It's a let down when your writing staff is poor and without a clear direction. It's inevitably poor when you dig yourself in too deep. Whitford was RJ for me, Berkeley was just unlucky to be cast in this odd joke of an episode.
The episode was butchered first with the dull and empty conversation between Jane and John ("I'm supposed to die, am I? It doesn't seem fair. - It is fair. It's over and I won." - the episode is filled to the brim with such gripping dialogue), and later on minutes of what could have been great head-to-head between two adversaries were wasted on scenes of running around. I think it speaks volumes that I was actually most impressed with scenes involving the FBI, ffs. If Heller weren't a hack, this would have been unexplicable.
Not only is it not enough that Red John turned out to be a weakling who begs and crawls without showing any heart whatsoever, the disappointment grows with the fact that Jane didn't really catch John. The ending tells us that, had RJ not decided to face Jane personally, he would never have been revealed. So essentially RJ brought forth his own demise and for all of Jane's mentalism and the sea of clues we came across during these 5+ seasons, it all counted for nothing as we needed RJ to break character and do something incredibly reckless and stupid. This doesn't require a leap of faith, it's insulting instead.
And now people still won't let go and they think the episode was fake despite being officially aired. This is what such a shocking ending does to fans. It was so poor that people are actually in denial.
To conclude, nothing worked in the episode and I wasn't even remotely pleased with Berkeley's RJ. He just doesn't fit at all. It's got to the point for me where ANY other character would have been a better choice. I would have preferred Grace as RJ to this.
I will echo the thoughts of some on here and say that, in the future, I will avoid anything that has Bruno Heller connected with it. I will watch the next episode to see if they'll explain anything, just one detail RJ-related, and then I'm done with the mentalist and especially with Heller.
