Who is Red John?

Theories of Tigran (3)

Theory #7780 • By Tigran
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More incriminating Van Pelt clues:

1. Three tattos on sholder is sign of breast cancer sruvivor. The doctors use the tattos to line up the radiation beams. Tatoo dots won't wash away during the course of the treatment.

2. When bug lady shows up and asks for Cho Van Pelt tells her Cho's not here, but his desk is over there in case you want to bug.
.
Problem with clue #2 is Van pelt already has access to much of what is said at Cho's desk
by virtue of working accross the room.  Need not be fatal problem - maybe she needs 24 hour coverage, or maybe she'll be off for more computer training soon.

This weeks regularly scheduled "are you doing it" talk between Cho and Rigsby shed no new light, except that Rigsby is very happy to wake up next to her. Looking forward to next weeks.
 
Want more clues? See Theory #7048 by Tigran

 

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Looking at this from 20000 feet...
You are creating a TV show whose hero is a crime-fighting fake mentalist who
believes all spiritualism/religion is humbug - you're GOT TO to make his
protagonist a believer/religionist/spiritualist/otherworldly-power-summoner.
And Mr. Heller did. The dinner conversation in the 1st episode between
Jane & Van Pelt wonderfully showcased the humbug vs believer tension and
set down the anticipated premise of the show.
As a TV show creator you MIGHT put "false" clues in your show (like the stretch in an early season where seemingly every other show
had a mugshot of someone who was 5' 11'). You MIGHT even spread "false" rumors
about your show (like the list of 7 Red John Suspects).
But you DON'T make Jane's protagonist some obscure sheriff from Napa-Sonoma-Wherever who has no particular spiritual angle/connection.

Now that we're orirented we can start looking at clues.

The REAL short list of susects is:

 Grace Van Pelt
  - has cousin who is real psychic,
  - feels kingdom of God is a very real place
  - based on dealings with Stiles, seems attracted
    to spiriual like moth to flame
 Theresa Lisbon
  - always wears cricifix
  - meetings with Jane in church
Brett Stilles 
  - Visualize conection
Longshot candidates:
 Kristina Frye  
  - spiritualist/mentalist
Ray Haffner
  - Visualize conection

To me, Van Pelt is the most compelling, so I won't be saying a lot about the others. Van Pelt's position at CBI lets her keep tabs on Jane, gives her access to useful
information, and allows her to manipulate siuations.

How hard is it to access Patrick Jane's private thoughts - the ones he's never told anybody? Its EASY if your cousin is a REAL psychic

Wait you say, Red John is a man right? "John" is a mans name, and a woman
wouldn't have a mans name, right?  Well people who might have known Red John describe
a man with female-ish atributes.

In any case, who's to say how manly Van Pelt is? Her former fiancee? He's dead.
Wayne Rigsby? In the latest episode he bluts out that they haven't yet had sex. When
he adds "as a married couple" is he clarifiing a mis-speak, or obfuscating a truth that escaped unedited. Not sure.

Did someone try to warn us of a female Red John in a previous episode when they tried
to write "sHE IS MAn"as thier dying act. Only to have it get smudged?

After the last episodes trench coat scene I'm looking forward to Cho and Rigsby's weekly talk about whether Rigsby and Van Pelt are "doing it". Should be an enlightening moment
of truth for these speculations. It might just put 'em to rest. Or confirm them.

Don't need em though. How do we know for SURE that the person Rosalind Harker knew
was Red John and not an associate.

Need more clues? Check out the obligatoty word/letter cipher clue:
   Red John = Cvc Cvcc = Van Pelt
The vowels and consonants match! (sorry I had to do that, but "It's the Law")

Oh yeah and she has red hair.

I rest my case.

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Let me share some possible clues I've found.

Season 1
1) In S1E1 Partridge believed the crime was made by RJ, which was a mistake. This reduces his chances to be RJ.
2) In S1E11 "He is Mar..." was on the hotel wall. There is no sense to write a surname (like Mars or Martins), because there would be no "He is" before it. So "Mar..." is something else. The most probable guess is "Marshall", which may refer to almost anybody from the final 7 list, except Stiles,

Season 2
3) In S2E8 an officer poisoned Rebecca (Bosco's secretary). Her smiling reaction directs to the conclusion that the officer was RJ. This speaks only against Stiles to be RJ.
4) In S2E23 RJ reads Blake's poetry to PJ. I see no reason to do that. The only thing might be to make PJ suspect somebody, who likes Blake (but as this point we hadn't met Bertram yet). By the way, RJ may be creating suspects by giving wrong clues ("He is Mar...", "Tyger...", else).

Season 3
5) In S3E3 O'Laughlin, while working on visualists' case, lets a guy shoot the member who was going to provide evidence against Stiles. So the man who was working for RJ worked for Stiles.
6) In S3E3 Stiles passed to PJ information about Frye. Can't make any conclusion from this yet, but obviously it's an important moment.
7) In S3E9 Todd Johnson's last words were "Tyger, tyger". After being burnt by O'Laughlin (and so by RJ), Todd would like to say something very important to PJ. So either Todd wanted to say that it wasn't RJ in S2E23 saving PJ, but Todd himself, or Tyger is a clue leading to RJ's identity. The only real thing is the letters "TYGER" or "TIGER" (this variation is also met in literature) being in the name and/or surname of RJ, for example "parTRIdGE".
8) In S3E16 Bertram directed LaRoche to suspect Hightower, which was a favorable scenario for RJ.
9) In S3E16 Bertram quoted Blake's poetry.
10) In S3E23 Gupta said he was very religious. This is a Stiles direction.
11) In S3E24 Timothy Carter (fake RJ sent by RJ) was at the mall cafe. So who did know about the meeting? Bertram knew. Besides, RJ knew about the "hotel floors trick" (because RJ sent Carter). So in the list O'Laughlin should not be the only RJ man. And again, Bertram is the primary candidate.

Season 4
12) In S4E1 Bertram asked the attorney to enlong Timothy Carter's case and probably was sure Carter wasn't RJ. This brings some increasement for Bertram's chances to be RJ.
13) In S4E13 RJ is shown to be left-handed or at least "equal-handed". Watching different scenes brings to the conclusions, that Bertram, Haffner, Smith and Partridge are right-handed, while Kirkland may be left- or equal-handed with a high probability. No valuable scenes found with Stiles or McAllister.

Season 5
14) In S5E1 Bertram tried to save Lorelei at CBI and not to pass to feds. This may be interpreted both as a RJ behavior and not RJ behavior. Anyway this may be a clue.
15) In S5E5 Alexa Schulz phoned Minnelli by Kirkland's request. The first idea is Kirkland to be RJ, but I would prefer another theory: Kirkland was trying to find RJ himself or to prevent PJ from engaging in RJ case and so saving him (see the clues below for more prove of this theory).
16) In S5E6 the transporter-cop told that a fed man called him and organized Lorelei's transfer. This was not to kill her and not to free her (none of these two happened). So the goal was either to interrogate Lorelei (this is a Kirkland behavior) or to put her far from PJ (also a Kirkland behavior).
17) In S5E7 Kirkland told Lisbon to stay far from Volker. Not an RJ thing to do, right? So Kirkland wanted to save Lisbon. What a kind guy!
18) In S5E13, which was about the case of visualists' farm bodies, it's mentioned that Martin Talbot said that a kid painted the smiley on wall. So nowadays the "kid" must be 30-50 years old. Not Stiles.
19) In S5E18 it's revealed that Kirkland knows RJ's identity (no question was asked about RJ before making the deadly injection).
20) In S5E19 Kirkland stole the results of PJ's investigation. But those results were probably fake, as PJ predicted the robbery.


So, let me conclude one by one.

Bret Stiles - Excluded due to his age. An alternative is that Talbot lied about the "kid" to prevent further investigations.

Gale Bertram - A lot of evidence talks for this candidate, but there is no sense in the manipulation with Blake's poetry. Mentioned above clue #14 is also a probable reason to exclude Bertram.

Raymond Haffner - See no reason to exclude him (except the clue #13, which may be not a hard one actually). To be honest, I can't see him being RJ because of S5E13, in which Haffner tried to get information from Lisbon about visualists' case by HIMSELF. Not an RJ style action.

Reede Smith - The same: see no reason to exclude except the clue #13. Actually the main reason to suspect him is his name. Which is the most famous fake name? John Smith (Red John, Reede Smith).

Bob Kirkland - Excluded. A very interesting character, but obviously not RJ. The first reason is clue #16. The second and more valuable is the fact that the disc record with Lorelei which we see in the last episode is made BEFORE Kirkland broke into PJ's room (combined with clue #19, Kirkland just wanted to find out how far PJ succeeded in his investigation). So, I Kirkland might be an ex-victim of RJ or an ex-companion. Anyway, Kirkland wants revenge. The "do you recognize me" question leads to the plastic surgery theory. So Kirkland may be Carter Peak somehow survived. Or Kirkland may be himself in the flashback scene, but later replaced by Todd Johnson. Martin Talbot may also be connected to Kirkland. A little fantastic, but it never seemed that Kirkland is a bad guy.

Tom McAllister - If taking under consideration only fact and forgetting that we are talking about a serial which should have its drama and special logic, I would say McAllister is the most probable suspect. There is no single reason to say he is not RJ.

Brett Partridge - If the series were to finish in season 1 or 2, then Partridge should be RJ. I think he was something like a plan B in case the project isn't prolonged for a new season. But after 5 seasons he's not going to be RJ. Not many facts to prove it, but the very first clue is reasonable.

So, the least possible suspect is Kirkland (only 2%), then comes Stiles (about 6%), nexts are Bertram and Partridge (12% each). Top three opened by Haffner (18%) and Reede (20%). The main suspect unexpectedly is McAllister (30%). He was nobody before the last episode, but now we should expect all the seven to be key characters in season 6, so it's actually not reasoned to say "he's not common enough to be RJ".
Everything said above is based on the belief that PJ's list is true.

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