There are many people who kill others without so much as an expression
on their face.They don't feel excited when they're doing it, they are
perfectly calm and if you check their pulse, it's normal during the act
of murdering another being.Those kinds of people don't really kill for
hedonistic reasons, they either kill for money(as in being a hitman or
inheriting a fortune), for prestige(something that has to do with how
proud they are, feeling of control and power) or for a mission(that is
to say they believe they achieve something by doing the deed, like
ridding the world of evil men or saving it).As humans, they are all
unstable persons, but as killers, they are not unstable because they
don't have an urge to kill like a sadistic killer who does it because he
gets off of it.Because they can actually stop, after they have enough
money, status or accomplishing their mission and they don't kill
spontaneously.But a pleasure oriented killer never stops because he
revels in it.And there are more types of hedonistic ones, like the
fantasy fulfilling ones, revengeful ones(targets a specific type of
people like only men, women, prostitutes, rich people) and so on and so
forth.
If you ask me, Brett clearly seems the type that is pleasure
oriented(that is if he is a serial killer) while Red John seems like the
mission oriented serial killer(the higher path, nobler existence, he
has a mission of love-Rebecca's words) and also the one that is looking
for prestige(killing Jane family to show Jane he's wrong and give him
power over him, killing everyone that insults him like that interviewer
who called him "beast" and James Panzer who brag that he surpassed Red
John's status as a serial killer).
But here's the thing, Red John's
profile obviously changed since the first season.At the end of the first
season, he seemed to be the pleasure oriented type, actually he clearly
was meant to be like that.Killing only women(revengeful type), cutting
them with a knife(indicating that it is something personal like he felt
he was betrayed by women or he was really traumatised by one when he was
young, maybe she raped him or killed his family), entering their rooms
at night, waking them to see the fear in their eyes, cutting them and
waiting for them to bleed out(the fantasy fulfilling type).As we can
observe, he was clearly meant to be a hedonistic(pleasure oriented)
serial killer in the first season, the only person he kills that doesn't
match his profile is Jared Renfrew, which was basically forced to do it
since Jared pose a threat to him having info about him.Then in the
second season, Red John changes a lot, he gets an upgrade, he has
disciples willing to do anything for him(even die), he is an educated
person(reciting Blake's poem) and he's resourceful.The more we find out
about him, the more complex he becomes, his profile is changing and he
doesn't even match his serial killer persona because serial killers
don't have followers, at least not usually, he matches more the con man
with his own cult like L. Ron Hubbard which is why it was obvious for me
that sooner or later it will be revealed he has some ties with
Visualize, since Visualize is cult just like scientology, actually
Visualize seems to be a parody of scientology.
This is why Brett
Partridge can't be Red John, he was a perfect candidate in the first
season(he was my first suspect and the obvious culprit in the first
season, no one else could be Red John in the first season) when Red
John's profile was that of a hedonistic serial killer, but then Heller
changed Red John a lot for the plot sake.That's because the first season
is just like the pilot episode, if it's good, your series gets renewed
for a second season, if not it gets canceled.That's why they make two
season finale, one that opens the road for a second season(if the series
is renewed) and one that ends the series at the end of the first
season(in case they don't get the approval for continuing the
series).Since Heller couldn't know if his series will have a second
season, he made a few Red John centric episodes and in the finale, he
had Patrick getting close to Red John.That formula was used in every
season from 1 to 4, because Heller was in the same situation, not
knowing if the series gets a new season, he had to be ready to end it at
that season.But now it's different because Heller has confirmation that
his series will have 7 seasons(or at least 6 seasons) so he knows he
doesn't have to end it this season in case it gets canceled.That's why
we get more info about Red John in almost every episode, little by
little we get there.
