Not a theory. Just some sort of question.
In the The Red Barn episode, in which we learn Red John has some connection with Visualize, I noticed something odd. The timeline for the killing is kind of confusing.
Patrick talks to the priest who was a former Visualize episode about the smiley face painted on the barn. He says one of the Visualize guys (one of the 2 victims) told him some kid drew it and, when asked what it meant, he said "what does anything mean?"
But the guy was one of the victims... so why was the smiley face painted on the barn if he was still alive? Red John always paints the faces after killing someone, using their blood, and making sure it's the first thing you see when you enter the room. But this killing doesn't add up: the smiley face wasn't easy to spot and it was painted before anyone was killed.
Also, in the scene where the mother and her daughter go to the barn and see one of the Visualize guys with a gun, the smiley face is already there.
That means, either:
a) Red John painted the face (using someone else's blood or just paint) beforehand and then killed the 2 Visualize guys in the secret basement, and was hiding there when the woman and the daughter went there. Maybe this was to mark his territory, like he did at Rosalind's house in the season 1 finale.
b) The face was painted by someone other than Red John (and maybe, just maybe, that's how he decided to adopt that signature) but it was indeed Red John who committed the murders.
c) It wasn't Red John at all.
What do you guys think? I guess a is the most likely answer, but with the sketchy timeline, anything's possible.
