For what it’s worth, I thought this was a great episode.

Let’s talk metaphors, shall we?

The grand jury is a metaphor for show.  The prosecutor is accused for being deceitful in order to ensure the defendant gets acquitted.  The jury is innocent but being led astray.  Jane says that it isn't that she is excluding or falsifying evidence but rather that the deceit is in how she tells the story.  She isn’t lying, but allowing the jury to believe something false by telling her story “halfheartedly” and “lacking confidence.”

We accuse Heller and co. of lying and falsifying clues about Red John when he gave us a disappointing reveal.  But, perhaps, his true misdirection is in the “halfhearted” way he has closed the Red John story and thereby lulling us into believing something that is false.  It’s not a con….its a sting.  ;)  (Ok, it is a con, but a good one.)

Speaking of halved hearts, if we are going to get any information about Red John it will be in “Black Hearts”.  Yes, the title is a reference to the black market hearts cut out of those poor women.  But, let’s not forget that in previous seasons the episodes didn’t always have “red” in them.  Sometimes it was just things that are usually red...like blood or roses.  Having obvious linkages between the title and the story in both yesterday’s and next week’s episodes distracts us from this.  

This whole human trafficking arc has me feeling uneasy and suspicious.  First “bow and arrow” and now a system of tattoos?  Both things were introduced awkwardly and both too obviously mirror the clues we got about the Blake Association. In “Brown Eyed Girls”, we briefly saw this Ridley fellow - we are meant to believe that he is the big baddie but I, as I usually am,  am suspicious.  

We will just have to wait and see.  We know that Red John had access to high risk women (from people like Jason Lennon and Miriam Gottlieb) and we don’t understand fully the circumstances under which he killed Lorelei’s sister.  There is potential for a tie-in of some kind with this arc.

Just so long as I don't have to endure Jane telling Lisbon to "get on that plane" in the finale episode, I'll be all right.  Not just because I'll be sad about them parting ways but because I could never accept such a heavy handed reference.  But Casablanca is a truly great movie.  If you've never seen it, you should drop everything and go watch it.  (Also, blanca = bianca = white.)