Hi Mentalist fans. First time poster here. My condolences to everyone who felt cheated on the Red John episode which I also found extremely disappointing. Just throwing this out there guys...Anyone else miss the Ray Haffner/Bret Stiles/Visualize storyline? I sure do. Maybe some of you can relate to this? I feel like they had this really intriguing storyline going with the Haffner & Stiles characters and the actors who play the characters were doing an awesome job with their roles. They were at least for me, some of the most compelling characters. And now all of a sudden....Poof! They are gone? What was it all for? If it was for nothing, what a waste of great actors and cool storylines that had a lot of potential.

And if you weren't going to make Haffner Red John (just sharing my thoughts ;) but for me he made the best RJ) then at least Heller could have not killed him off and at least kept him as a character. Haffner (the great Reed Diamond) really intensified each episode and i felt he always had something dark brewing under the surface...this made it more interesting for me to watch and wonder about. Also with all the conflict he had with Lisbon, Jane, etc...he got under peoples skin and yet they seemed strangely intrigued by him. I miss those characters & feel those intricately weaved storylines that had so many moments of brilliance...just disappeared. 

I had a lot of ideas on connections between characters such as...maybe Haffner and Jane met a long time ago when they were kids, or maybe they were brothers who never knew about each other and then red john found out jane was his brother and was jealous of him so he's got a complex about him. but I won't get into all my observations or questions...

I did want to get some feedback about this from some of you rj experts though...did anyone else....how when the PI was killed in her apartment but no red john smiley face was in her apartment?? So it doesn't seem it could be rj who killed her.
Plus how could she know he had 3 dots (the ones she made were vertical, tiger tygers were horizontal) when we could see he had a dark blue suit jacket on?) they were not short sleeves. just an observation.
Why was Lisbon not phased at all when she found out Haffner was "dead?" She told him to go there, he "dies" and she doesn't even blink...
Also, when Jane kills the sheriff, he blinks that he was sorry he killed Jane's family. Anyone else NOT buying this? I think it would have been a clue to Jane that the sheriff was not rj. because the rj they portrayed on this show would never be sorry. would never call 911 for help or beg for his life. it's a cop-out for the writers to just say, oh we're showing he was just human after all. that is one of the biggest lies of all-time. doesn't fit. doesn't satisfy. doesn't work. and people wonder why we are crushed by this lame ending? I wonder why they wonder.

I had a lot more ideas like i'm sure we all do, so instead of making this as long as war & peace, I'll end here for now. my apologies if any of these ideas have been stated before, there's just so much content on this site and I've read a lot of it, but I haven't read it all. I welcome your comments on any of this info though.

i just wanted to say also, i know a lot of people make fun of us for analyzing this storyline, but after a 5+ year investment in a brilliantly written show, I think it screws with our psyches when we get invested in trying to solve this mystery and then get such a big letdown and all these unanswered questions with a what seems to be a cop-out from the writers. (unless they are going to answer the questions by the end of the season...hopefully! yes i'm probably dreaming).

so I get it and I empathize with all of you and feel much the same. some people are just more analytical by nature and are therefore more attracted to shows like the mentalist. some people can let go more easily. but for the very analytical people, it can be a strength when figuring out things and solving mysteries, But also it can be kind of a bummer when so many loose ends are hanging around and we get a lackluster explanation. (or none at all). we want at least the big questions answered in a satisfying way. 

Bruno H. should hire some of us as consultants! There are a lot of super cool theories on here! Of course I'm partial to the Haffner ones but I've seen a lot of creative thinkers on here and I'm happy there's a place to go and discuss the show.
thanks for reading my thoughts and hang in there! It was good to get that off my chest.