Red John John is the fate that awaits us all in the end." In season 2's finale episode "Red Sky in the Morning", a William Blake theme is introduced, when a person, whom we believe at the time to be Red John, saves Patrick Jane from being killed under the direction of deranged slasher movie makers Ruth and Dylan. Jane is tied with saran wrap to a chair and, while he is immobilized, Red John recites the first verse of the William Blake poem "Tyger Tyger": <poem>Tyger! Tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night What immortal hand or eye Could
Burning Bright was too long and too literary by the producers of the play led to the change to the shorter excerpt from the same poem: "Burning Bright". Friend Ed has been pointed out as one in a line of characters inspired by Steinbeck's best friend Ed Ricketts. At the time Steinbeck wrote "Burning Bright", Ricketts had recently been killed in a car accident, and as well as reflecting his friend's character in that of Friend Ed, it is thought that the settings of the circus and the sea may have had significance for Steinbeck: he had apparently been at the circus