Hello my fellow Mentalistos and Mentalistas. Typically this time of year the board would be swimming with theories but I suppose its an appropriate statement on where the show has gone that the board is mostly just complaints these days. I've written some fairly well-received theories in the past (You can click on my username to see them), and may attempt to do so next week prior to the finale. However, this post is not a theory, just some observations and a poll.

Like many of you, this show was my all time favorite and the Red John plot line was what made it that way for me. As you can see by some of my past theories, the Red John resolution shocked me, saddened me and resulted in some heavy denial for a long time that Red John was really dead. It would be fair to say this show has put me through the 5 stages of grief these past couple years. I'll hold out hope until the credits roll, but it's really not looking good for us Red John hopefuls these days.

With that said, I've been monitoring the web trying to get a feel for where this is all going. I'll start with the "bad" from my perspective and end with the "good" then get your thoughts. Links are bitly so they're short enough not to get shortened by the board.

Possible SPOILERS ahead, so stop here if you want to know absolutely nothing about the last 3 episodes.
THE BAD:
Simon Baker gave a recent interview on the ending of The Mentalist. He echoes a lot of my thoughts and I can't help but wish Simon Baker has been given the creative reigns to finish up the show. The TLDR is that kissing Lisbon feels like kissing his sister (No kidding) and that he would have ended the show differently, on a tragic note as he has always viewed Patrick Jane as a tragic character. (Thus implying it will end happily and likely with a wedding as many of us have thought.)
http://bit.ly/1yYQU5q Here's another interview with Tom Szentgyorgyi and Josie Loren. This further supports the previous information with the statement the series will end on a "Joyous" note and furthering that "We'd already killed off Red John and didn't want to bring that specter up again".http://bit.ly/1Db60d6 Overall, this largely seems to point towards a boring happy ever after ending, with a likely marriage or baby, in my opinion.

THE GOOD:
Still, there are some good aspects of what we know for a fact will occur over the next 3 episodes from various media sources, here's a short overview of things which are 100% confirmed:
- A "real" psychic will be in the next episode. (This is the first mention of psychic since Red John if I am not mistaken)
- Summer Edgecombe will return
- Grace Van Pelt and Rigsby will appear in the finale
- Jane will be back in his wife/daughters grave yard for some reason.
- There will be a serial killer named "Lazarus" which is a biblical reference to someone restored to life after death.
- In another interview Tom Szentgyorgyi describes the finale in 4 words as "All you've hoped for." http://bit.ly/1yKeN0E

In other information which is not 100% confirmed, I still can't get that image out of my head which was posted here a while back. It could be photoshopped, though it doesn't look it. It could be from a deleted scene or something. However, I'm fairly computer savvy and though I didn't spend a ton of time looking into it, a brief search seemed that the image didn't exist on the internet until it was posted here. It's also the only thing that RedJohn_Returns ever posted on this site. I don't want to jump to conclusions, but it kind of seems like someone close to the show was throwing us a bone knowing how disappointed all of us were. Here's the image for reference: http://bit.ly/1C9D9UY it's really been bugging me and giving me hope. RedJohn_Returns, if you're still around here, I'd love an explanation for this one. :)

So, this post was fairly long, but could have been a lot longer with everything on my mind. Either way, it's been great discussing this show with you all over the last few years on this site, no matter how things turn out. But I'll leave it with a poll, we won't have to wait too long to find out this time.

GREEN: Red John is alive
RED: Red John is dead