random thought for the day regarding sheriff mcallister. he's not
my favorite choice. i am just playing devil's advocate.
in
recent theories i've read, everyone mentions the scene in the first
season (where he gets creepy with van pelt) as a strong cause of
suspicion. but lately, i haven't heard anyone focus on the weirder
aspect of it, for me. leading up to that scene, jane has set a trap
for the 'killer of the week' in the episode -- the crazy couple. but
when mcallister shows up and starts creeping on van pelt, jane is
surprised he's there. he's unforeseen, on a show that will make a
living of demonstrating how jane often 'sees it coming.'
add
to that the way the sheriff was able to sneak up on him while on the
phone and later save him in episode 3, and mcallister seems like the
only suspect to have caught jane off-guard.
true, he lost at
'rock, paper, scissors.' but in my opinion, all the suspects have
'played dumb' at one time or another. haffner has been fooled by
jane, but had a career in surveillance. can't imagine anyone lasting
in that field without some smarts. bertram needed help with poker,
and often looks befuddled, but management jokes aside, i don't see
anyone rising to that position without some brains, either. so i
don't regard 'being made to look foolish' as a reliable way to
demonstrate someone is 'definitely' red john, or not. red john has
spent the entire series making patrick look foolish. you have to be
smart to guess someone's next throw at rock paper scissors. but you'd
also have to be pretty clever to throw out the right hand to lose
every time, too.
my question for everyone on the forum is not
who your favorite suspect is. who is your LEAST favorite suspect?
which is the red john reveal that would aggravate you the most, or
require the most 'back story' in order for you to respond 'oh, okay.
you win, bruno. he's red john?'
for me, that person is reede
smith. i'll actually be a little pissed if he's red john,
because:
1. he doesn't meet the harker description (granted
we've all doubted that description lately)
2. he's demonstrated
overt anger issues, which feels 'obvious'
3. he hasn't 'been there
from the beginning,' in terms of being cast on the show
i
think the fun of any good mystery is being able to go back and piece
clues together from the course of the story...the full course of the
story. that, and actually having a 'fighting chance.' if smith turns
out to be red john, i'll feel cheated because i don't think we would
have had that 'fighting chance' to unravel the red john mystery, when
he turns out to be a character introduced 5 seasons into the series.
by that token, the remaining suspects all have reasons why
they'd irk me. haffner is only marginally less annoying as a season 4
introduction. mcallister's character was seen in one first season
episode, then suddenly makes the suspect list and shows up in season
6. bertram skirts the line of annoyance as a season 3 introduction. a
lot of people take issue with bret stiles' place on the suspect list
due to his age, and i confess to agree with that in some ways.
who's your least favorite suspect?
