6x08 Promo:  http://youtu.be/qQVYz7_8qeE

Check out RJ's voice 13secs into the promo, its certainly not Bertram or Partridge.  In fact it does not seems to be the voice of anyone on the list.

please open your minds to some realities here:

1- there is no f..... way they would show us RJ in the promo. Forget about Mc Allister.

2- Brett is dead. If he is not, then Cho is a total idiot not to check his face (if he didn't) and Heller is playing cheap tricks.

3- the person who jane killed (or not) in the church is:

    a-) bertram: patrick says "now you're asking for mercy after all you've done?" First of all, RJ doesn't beg for mercy otherwise the whole RJ character design goes to trash. Secondly, if it was RJ he was shooting in the church, PJ would have said something more specific than ".... all you've done (something like "did you show mercy before killing my baby or something") meaning what he did being a TT guy and his attempt to kill PJ (which is failed) and the bartender (which is succeeded).

    b-) Barlow: I don't have a specific reason but he is connected to RJ and might show up at such a sequence because he clearly has a grudge against Jane clan. Maybe he's one of the supporters of RJ and Barlow is facing PJ as an introductory reveal (plus his voice may match with the guy in the church when spoken out loud. Check it on youtube, you'll find it).

    c-) Judge Manchester: He might be the head of TT which puts him in a position to say "It's over, I've won. You're trapped here or sorts. Plus, having 1-2 scenes in total at the show doesn't make him either Waldo or Kaiser Soze. By the way, his voice resembles to the church guy too. But the thing is, the guy in the church is not RJ. 

4- Clearly some other person (either Stiles or Sheriff) has survived the blast but being Red John is another thing. He might just be trying to save his ass just like Bertram is.

5- Even though I kinda like theories about Bob/Mike Kirkland duality, there's no such a solid theory posted to keep all ends clear so far.

6- Zombie Bosco theories are really creepy but we have seen him shot to death, plus his body afterwards.

7- CBI Ron is the only one who we can identify as Waldo or Kaiser Soze but I doubt that he can pull off the RJ character unless he has some great acting talent which we have never seen so far. (The guy turned out to be Kaiser Soze in Usual Suspects was also great playing the crippled guy). If I had seen that acting light in this guy, I would bet on noone else because as an actor, he doesn't have a bright past and he can totally be flattered with being revealed as RJ (as the undisclosed actor has shared his feelings this way) plus the other things above. Plus, having a round beard DOES help conceal your face to be easily readable / fully characteristic.

8- Stiles being RJ would be a total insult to us as the audience. Everyone knows that including Heller.

9- Dr. Linus is supposed to be in prison and we'd have heard if he broke out or was released.

10- PJ is supposed to kill RJ at the park not in the church. This is a known fact. 

After all, what do I have in hand? Almost nothing. I am no different than I was at the end of S01E01. Nevertheless, keep an eye on what I say above...

i come here every so often to entertain my mentalist thoughts. yet, recently, i have to come to the conclusion that most of you, with all due respect, are dumb.
(referring to those still on the bertram/mcallister bandwagon)

why, suddenly, are all these over-confident speculations on said suspects becoming more prevalent? particularly after watching this 21sec trailer.. it irks me

we're talking about bruno heller here. an artist. a genius who has created and developed a fictitious persona who we've all grown to despise yet revere; red john is a character i will tell the next generation about. what an honour it would be to play the character.
anyway,
sure, it's been developed in such a way that the reveal will not live up to the hype. such a way that no matter who is revealed there will be controversy and uproar. heller went too deep, yes. but i think we can all trust he made this reveal as exciting and as best he can.

so do you really think that gale bertram, publicly announced, is jane's archnemesis?
or, just as bad, do you still believe the snippets from a cleverly edited trailer have revealed red john?
ala: they showed a bald man.. twice! it looks exactly like the sheriff!

in fact, it should mean the exact opposite: these 2 are not red john
that's why it baffles me why some of you say they are.
yes, sure, they could be red john.. ANYONE could be red john. this is the mentalist after all, and bruno heller could pull off a double bluff..??? consequently creating one of the worst plot conclusions in the history of tv (did i actually say that)
but ultimately, i'm saying--don't trust what you see. especially in cheeky trailers

yeah it may not be partridge either but at least i wasn't as gullible as some of you were in thinking it could actually be one of those two bald breadbaskets

prediction:
*the bald man(men) we have seen are not red john and are all part heller's reveal
*the altercation in the church is not with red john and jane is revealed to have been 2 steps ahead in recent times (red john has always been smarter up until the end of season 5)
*jane finally meets his goliath in an empty park and erotically strangles him but bertram and lisbon catch up to him to witness the intimacy (i predict this because jane has promised to lisbon and bertram that they be there when the moment arrives. and jane has always been true to his, correct?
theyve created jane into a character who chooses his words carefully and i cant see that changing)

*then some more people die and jane is hiding for ages yadadafafaa blurgh this new main fbi reaches out to jane and the whole team is reformed in some way minus one or two. then the writers begin progress on jisbon when they really should be trying to get tunney and righetti in a lesbian porno
who really cares i'll be fappin in all my red john glory after he dies

red john: hello, patrick
GAHHHHHHH!!!1

Random thoughts:
- All that episode did for me is confirm Bertram and Smith are the least likely of the 7 to be RJ.

- at this point I can't see any possible plot line for any of the 7 suspects being RJ that is even 10% as mind blowing as the Timothy Carter phone call in the cafe scene in 3x23...
Honestly, i'm so disappointed with the idea of Rj being any one of the 7 suspects that i'd accept just about anything else....I think I'd almost accept an ending that Timothy Carter really was RJ all along over Bertram, Mcallister, haffner or smith.

- I've swung from partridge to "not on the list at all" tonight,
The cliches that would attach to partridge being explained as RJ increased to a tipping point. I don't buy that cho wouldn't pick up on a body swap.

- I'll reserve final judgement (on the entire series The Mentalist) until next week. The shows plot lines and janes trickery normally have more layers than an onion and Red John plot lines have been solid until season 6. I hope it's been 7 episodes of misdirection with Jane knowing the real RJ the whole time... With subtle clues of RJs identity, not phobias and whistling.
Here's hoping for a big return to form and an ending worthy of the first 5 seasons of the show!

Thomas is a masculine given name. It is based on the Biblical Greek Θωμᾶς, which is itself a transcription of the Aramaic te'oma תאומא "twin"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_%28name%29

Honestly, 

I'm really disappointed.
Seven suspects, we have four of them who are really interesting: Bret Stiles, Brett Patridge, Bob Kirkland and Ray Haffner. Then, we have three boring characters, Smith, Bertram and McCallister. 

It's difficult to believe but the four interesting suspects are dead and we have just the three boring suspects. It has been something difficult to understand, because with the huge final on the fifth season they had a lot of possibilities. I'm just hopping that Bret Stiles or Brett Patridge dead's has something hidden.   

Watching the promo of the 6x08 chapter ("Red John"), I realized that Gale Bertram and Sheriff McCallister can't be Red John. Do you imagine? The most important serial killer running, breaking windows like a vulgar thief...?  I don't think so. 

Red John has been a genius, Red John has been surprising us during all this time. Please, I hope he is not going to be killed so easy. I want to be fascinated about this last red john's era chapter. I want to see how Bret Stiles or Brett Patridge are still alive, please tell us something different. 

Come on, six years looking for Red John, I don't want to see how he is killed by a bullet in a church. I want to see Red John tricking Jane a last time, I want to see how we have all been tricked. If Bertram, McCallister or Smith are Red John the best thing we can do is consider the third season as the last one. 

The other day a friend told me, imagine Jane killing Bertram, thinking that Red John is dead. And then, Red John kills someone else, so we see Patridge being Red John and Stiles as his father. It would be fascinating!!

I know the most probably is that I'm wrong. But I still hope Bret or Brett to be Red John.