I guess the hardest thing for me to grasp is the manner in which the various associates of Red John are so devoted to him.  They speak of him like they know him very well, but they come from such a wide range of the spectrum. 

Under what setting could they have meet him and gotten to know him so well?

 The church seems to be an obvious choice.  Brett Stiles is too old, but more importantly doesn't really seem to have complete control of the church.  It's like he wants to use Patrick to regain the edge he has lost within the church.

Ray Haffner seems to be frustrated in love and wants to be more worldly like Patrick.  He fits the bill of a person that may have enough low cunning to get control over the others within the church, but not enough flair to get the girl.  Brett Stiles had the second characteristic, but not the first.

The three men meeting at CBI may actually be trying to steal all of the thunder by solving the case of the century.  None of them really seem very smart and may be seeking each other for support.  None of them have been shown to be bad men - yet.

On the contrary, Bob Kirkland is a bad man - having committed murder.  However, he has a quality that he is working for someone, not a leader.

Lastly, the cast on Lisbon's arm seems odd.  There may be a simple explanation, such as she hurt her arm but they had to keep filming (like when James Garner's legs gave out during the production of the Rockford Files).  But I have a feeling that something is going on with her which Patrick doesn't know.  Even so, he is using her to feed false information to someone such as her poker partners.