The Mentalist " Red John" review

So I just finished watching the Mentalist finale, actually just finished is an odd way of putting it since I saw the leaked episode the moment I found out it was available and I was hoping someone could maybe help me enjoy this episode since I found it remarkably...terrible.

Ok maybe terrible is a harsh word but it certainly can't be called a good conclusion to an arc that has spanned more than 5 seasons and here's my current issues with what happened.

1- What was the point of the FBI?

The FBI get involved in the last 2 episodes of a story that has spanned more than 110 episodes and start making issues for the CBI team and Jane, yet when you step back and think about it they didn't really contribute anything did they?

They take down the CBI offices and try to track Jane but all that really does is just eat up time, as the hero is so close to his goals you have to introduce obstacles to slow him down and that's all the FBI were, just an obstacle that didn't serve the story in anyway but to stall for time so that instead of getting a 20 minute talk between Red john and Jane we instead got a 3-minute confrontation and a chase.

2- Plot induced stupidity

The Mentalist isn't some hyper-realistic show so it always gets away with a few theatrics yet overall I felt like everything that happens is somewhat possible until "Red John" where too many conveniences happen.

* I loved how every time we see Bertram's face on a TV screen it's like a small preview that he will show up and kill someone, that's one way of making him more evil

* Did Jane plant a gun under every seat in the church? or did he just happen to somehow maneuver himself to the only seat with a gun under it?

* Remember people when you search a person for guns ignore any birds or livestock they may have on him.

* Lastly how freaking obvious was it that the Nun who showed up was a creepy woman? and Jane as a mentalist couldn't see that? also was she meant to be Red John's only backup? she shows up with a chicken knife to defend him and that's all she has, no gun or anything.

3- Yeah let's talk about the pigeon.

A fear of birds is perfectly reasonable although you wouldn't expect it from a mass murderer but okay we'll go with it that Red John is afraid of birds. What does bother me though is how Jane just managed to smuggle in a live pigeon in his jacket after being searched, it makes no sense whatsoever how that happened, he just goes " hey Johnny come over here" and Red John like a curious 5 year old is like " sure, why not? it's not like you've been trying to kill me for the last 10 years of your life lol". At which point a pigeon just shows up out of nowhere and scares the hell out of Red John.

Oh my god, poultry

Now either the pigeon just rushed over from somewhere the moment it saw food ( very unlikely) or it was in Jane's jacket the whole time, equally impossible. To think that such an incredible serial killer was brought down by bread crumbs and a bird just feels so remarkably cheap.

4- The bomb explanation

Almost nothing of the mentalist get's answered but the one thing that does get an explanation was pretty hard to swallow.

The bomb we saw back in episode 6 was 2 bombs, one was a concussive bomb that knocked people out and the other was the explosive bomb, now Jane tells us that Red John snuck in the two bombs, knocked everyone out with his concussive grenade, moved Jane and Bertram to a safer room then detonated the explosive bomb.

Here's the thing, if Red John was in the same room as Jane and the other suspects, how exactly did he not get knocked out as well? everyone else did so why not him as well? quality writing right there.

5- Too many loose ends

The writers of the show wrote themselves in a corner by providing information that they just couldn't explain themselves, what does " he is mar" mean? How did Red John get the same list of suspects as Jane? what happened in the Barn? How did he start becoming a serial killer?

Yeah... we're not getting answers for any of those, after making him this enigmatic figure we get a short reveal and a death scene, no closure or explanation on how anything in the show happened and that's pretty sad. Although there were some decent clues along the way I suppose.

A woman with red hair? hmmmm.... ring any bell guys?

Apart from that minor clue early on, nothing else really mattered and all the fans who spent years arguing, discussing and talking about the clues left behind were cheated out of the reveal they deserved.

Well those are my thoughts, how did you guys enjoy the finale? did you like it or did you find it unsatisfying like me? I personally think that Red John should just have been killed in season 3 if this is how they planned the story line to continue.