Comments on: The Mentalist’s Red John reveal: Even less convincing than Bradley Whitford

By: Eques

Eques — Thu, 12 Dec 2013 21:36:47 +0000

Heller has tried to explain it away by using the “banality of evil” angle. That the Great Criminal Mastermind was actually nothing to be feared at all, just a sad old fantasist. Which would have been fine were it not for:
1) the fact that this was just a lame excuse for the writers having painted themselves into a corner and couldn’t logically have had anyone else.
2) The fact that Red John was, actually, a Great Criminal Mastermind, as he himself pointed out to Jane, running rings around Jane for six years, pulling off elaborate technological hoaxes, making women fall obsessively in love with him and running a secret conspiracy that reached into the heart of law enforcement.
3) The fact that RJ has had such an impressive build up for 6 years and so deserved a concomitant reveal – one of the team, Lisbon or Jane himself.

Any of those would have been thrilling (assuming the writers could have made it make sense logically).

I was convinced it was Van Pelt on the grounds that she has red hair, she was the only one of the team who joined after Jane (just after) and the fact she is leaving this series with Rigsby (I thought he would find out and she would kill him). My second suspect was Lisbon, on the grounds she kept having people saying “Tyger tyger” to her, or saying it to them.

Like other posters the worst thing for me was the revelation that Heller only recently decided who Red John was!! What a betrayal! This great story arc and no one has been in control of it at all!

And yes also the lack of any explanation for the smiley face or indeed the moniker.

By: debar

debar — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 01:34:13 +0000

It isn’t that the Sheriff couldn’t be Red John, it’s that he didn’t do a convincing transformation into becoming Red John when he was revealed… He has been trying to get Jane over to the ‘dark’ side for years, I’d be more convinced if he had tried to persuade Jane that murder was pleasurable while taking his life etc… Or some sort of mind games, I’d doubt that he would let Jane trick him like this.
If Red John was to be brought down, it should not have been like this… He’s Jane Dr moriarty, and if Sherlock was going to bring him down it would be with the help of Watson- so we needed Lisbon to be there being pragmatic while Jane and Red John play mind games with each other… I am deeply disappointed.:(

By: Tamara

Tamara — Wed, 04 Dec 2013 00:54:39 +0000

Actually, I think it’s the country bumpkin persona of McAllister allowed the women to live and trust him. He was charming in a sweet sort of way, probably giving them lots of compliments and attention to keep them appeased. As Red John, and the Blake Association, he had power over those whose careers he’d saved, ensuring loyalty from blackmail. And finally, that same small town sheriff thing kept him from being seriously considered as a big time sociopath, allowing anonymity.

By: luna

luna — Thu, 28 Nov 2013 15:12:49 +0000

I agree with everything you said, we need closure, thus isn’t a way of ending such a great tv show.

By: Ondra

Ondra — Wed, 27 Nov 2013 16:01:53 +0000

Admit it, you are just sulky about McAllister because Red John did not turn out to be Partridge or Kirkland. You are all pathetic. You are whining worse than McAllister.

By: Leo

Leo — Wed, 27 Nov 2013 15:16:15 +0000

I’m not saying she would tell back then when Craig was alive. But when Jane found that RJ had the tattoo. So this way Jane would figure that exists an organization or something like that…
That should happen on s06e06. Not before season 6.

Another question, where was Jane’s house? It was near Sacramento, but he also have a house in Malibu… I guess i missed that part.

By: Sabah

Sabah — Wed, 27 Nov 2013 14:52:58 +0000

I agree. Red John had this presence that McAllister never did, not even in the end. Bradley Whitford had it but not him.

I feel betrayed, duped. I feel like a chump. I spent so much time combing through the ‘clues’ they fed us and it all came down to ‘I couldn’t be bothered.’ Well, I’m going to remember the creator’s name and I’m never giving him a second chance. It would have been different if he had ended it in a way that I didn’t like. I could accept that and move on but to say that you didn’t really have a plan all along. Seriously? Well I believe in Karma and so for now, that’ll do.

Thanks to the cast, it’s been a wild ride even if the destination ended up the worst thing I couldn’t have imagined, and not in the creepy Red John way I had come to expect.

By: Ondra

Ondra — Wed, 27 Nov 2013 14:08:29 +0000

Why would she tell him? She did not know about the Blake association in that time. Nor did she know what the tattoo meant. Neither of this was revealed before season 6.

By: Ondra

Ondra — Wed, 27 Nov 2013 14:06:21 +0000

He is bald now, he was not in 2008 or whenever she met him.

By: Ondra

Ondra — Wed, 27 Nov 2013 14:04:09 +0000

You must be a “red-herring-redder-than-red Brett Partridge is Red John” fan – these are whining the most.