Ellis Mars. I'm going to postulate this just to get some feedback.
The theory would be: Red John (Ellis Mars) has decided that it is time for him to meet Jane in person. It lets him get close to Jane and observe him in a way that he couldn't from spies or long distance. It lets him see if he can hypnotize Jane and really get to see how Jane interacts with people. So RJ calls up Todd Johnson and tells him about meeting Jane. He says it's time for him to meet Jane (the bigger picture Johnson referred to). He then engineers a ridiculously odd killing. A triangle pattern of 2 police officers and keely farlowe in which every victim was killed in a different way. This was done to attract Jane's attention just in case he had to option to pass it up and give it to the locals (and it had that very effect). RJ probably wanted Johnson involved somehow, to be close just in case, so he makes sure he kills his own fiance. Or maybe because he wanted to see how Jane would empathize, doesn't really matter.
RJ then follows Jane's lead when Jane tries to set him up and does what he tells him to. And he has night vision goggles just in case (really, what kind of 50 year old man of his demeanor in the country has night vision goggles?). Anyway, so then he runs because he can't get arrested, obviously that wasn't Jane's plan. So he goes and runs to the road and fails to get in his car, what? He then leaves his car at the crime scene (really? Mars had sound reasoning behind the things he said/did, so what was this nonsense? Scared I assume would be the reply).
Now we skip to the motel scene. Johnson and Jane bust in and turn on the lights, seemingly to wake the sleeping Mars. We then see Mars in full daytime attire complete with tennis SHOES. Mars is not under the sheets, he's simply laying there in the dark in full attire, almost like he had no intention of going to sleep, like he was just waiting to get up. So then why the lights off? Obviously to appear as if he was sleeping.
Then, RJ fears that Johnson may talk to Jane, so he tells O'Laughlin to go see Grace at the CBI.
We have a ton of very interesting coincidences. I'll list them.
1 - Mars knew that Johnson would kill again.
2 - Mars was just now trying to become a psychic, in his 50s... Shown by the progression of his business card.
3 - Mars had night vision goggles.
4 - He was "sleeping" in full daytime attire. A suit. On top of the sheets.
5 - Jane couldn't tell why Johnson did what he did, strongly implying that RJ was directing his actions. Heck, Johnson even says there's a bigger picture.
6 - The bodies are organized in a strange way. Jane says a complicated psychopath did this, then says Johnson is a garden variety psychopath.
7 - O'Laughlin just so happens to be at CBI in the middle of the night (Lisbon was sleeping at the beginning of the operation) in striking range of Johnson. And it seems Johnson went straight from the motel to the CBI. RJ knew very quickly that Johnson was caught and that he was going to the CBI, and it's clear that Johnson couldn't tell RJ himself, as he was captured.
This is now something that is going to bother me quite a bit. What was Red John's bigger picture with Todd Johnson? If your theory can't answer it (my Mashburn theory, currently, cannot) then your theory isn't covering all the evidence.
What do you all think?
