I think Mcallister was the best choice for Red John.

This is not an opinion on how episode 8 was executed - I agree it could have been better and some important things should have been answered in more detail. Maybe the final version will have more explanation. But reality is that on Sunday I think we will see pretty much what was in the leak. Some specific clues were not answered but in general the sheriff fits the clues as Red John.

Here is my reasoning:

Red John is a showman. A showman is an act and Red John would ultimately have to be an ordinary man. Therefore, the season 3 finale for me would not be a fitting end to Red John since it was too much 'show' and not real. Also RJ dressed as a dumb sheriff would be an great act. I liked the fact that Red John was an ordinary man, not some God compared to Jane. I liked that in the end he was vulnerable and flawed, just like Jane. I think the writer's point is to build up Red John as some powerful God, but then show in the end he has to be an ordinary man - he can be shot, tricked, fearful. The fact that he is on the list and revealed to be the ordinary sheriff is totally in line with this.

Occam's Razor - simplest solution is usually the right solution - the physical description pretty much matches and is explainable (loss of hair). Red John would want to be low key and out of the public eye (this was stated many times by Partridge - Red John has been laying low) - a power behind the throne - so the small time sheriff in Napa seems a good way to go. He was the only person gaming Jane and wanting to be his friend or follower in season 6. He is a hunter and likes killing and can be invisible (as shown in s01e02 and s06e03). He is self-possessed and calm.

Bertram is out - too high profile, too tall and big.
Partridge is out - dead - Cho himself checked the body and to think one of the core team would not notice/suspect a fake body is disrespectful. Plus if body was fake, RJ would have had it destroyed before Cho got to it. 
Kirkland - dead. Any twin theory is too much of a complication so far into the end.
Smith - physically unsuitable, too much of a hot head.
Haffner - the only other possible/believable option - but came in late, was humiliated out of CBI by Jane, too outwardly emotional, publicly doesn't like Jane.
Styles - not an ordinary man, too public, too old

Also Heller said there would be no tricks, and I kind of agree - in the real world he has to end the story line so some long running big twist throughout season 5/6 and revealed in ep. 8 is really unlikely. It has to be someone from the list, someone we have seen from the beginning (s1 or s2) but know the least about. It just makes filling the clues easier as a writer.

Red John has been described as sadistic, lonely, tormented, arrogant. To have that proven right through an ordinary man Mcallister, this is a winning end for Jane.  And this is what it's about - not Red John being some mighty God who has in the end bested Jane. But Jane proving Red John can slip, can be tricked/beaten and Jane to exact his revenge on a broken arrogant man.

I just wish there is more of a backstory to Red John instead of pointless noise about Bertram, the FBI etc.

This comes from Philly.com, but I thought it was very good.

"An evil genius doesn’t explode a bomb in a room while he’s in it, risking being killed by flying debris or subsequent fire. That casts doubt on all five suspects who were in that room on Jane’s property during the explosion.So who could have been lurking, watching from a safe distance, if Heller's list is honest?Either of the first two dead suspects.Yes, we saw Robert Kirkland shot several times in the back, but remember how he said he had a twin?  Michael Kirkland supposedly worked with Red John and then was killed by him. But consider the old twin switcheroo, with the dead dude actually being Michael, who used his brother’s identity and cleaner record to land a career in law enforcement? That leaves Robert still alive and capable of being Red John.One flaw: Kirkland asked if he looked familiar, talking with a Red John associate, who said no. Maybe plastic surgery fixed that?That leaves Bret Partridge.Funny how we never actually saw him die. He acted and looked mortally wounded early this season when he was discovered by agent Lisbon, who turned away, then got snatched from behind.Funny how pigeons are seen in that house, and pigeon and partridge are synonyms.Funny how Partridge sounded the most like Red John.Funny how Partridge was introduced as a marginal character in the very first episode.Funny how agent Kimball Cho, on the last show, seeks out Partridge’s body and checks for a shoulder tattoo but never peeks at Partridge’s face.How could Patridge still be alive, while Lisbon and her colleagues clearly believe he’s dead?Uh, how about because, as we know, there’s a vast conspiracy adept at lying and faking evidence? How about because Partridge, as a forensic scientist, would know a thing or three about faux cadavers?The not-dead-yet scenario is also the way to explain the recording of Lorelai Martin naming the suspects. She simply made the recording after Jane made his list because she's still alive.Misdirection, made to look like magic.Makes sense for Red John to use such a ruse – and later set off a fuse to create a no-lose situation. If Jane dies, Red John wins. If everybody dies, Red John must be dead (but isn’t). If a suspect survives, he’ll wind up dead in a manhunt. Regardless, he’s alive.One big problem: Something Heller said before the season.“I can tell you it won’t be a sort of Ten Little Indians type of setup,” he told Entertainment Weekly.That Agatha Christie story, turned into a movie, has everybody on an island killed off one by one, with the killer turning out to be a supposed victim.Darn, I wish show’s producers and writers would refrain from spoiling some of the fun this way.It would fun to still be conjecturing about Red John being Grace Van Pelt.So if it’s not Bertram, isn’t Agatha Christie-like, and the Kirkland theory is too wacky (as are clones and zombies), then who? Another kind of identity fakeout? Some other so-and-so was really someone else? The Ray Haffner we knew was a Red John plant, while the real (and real twisted) Ray Haffner did the devilish deeds?Reede Smith had himself shot at to cover his tracks?Or “Red John” isn’t one person. It’s some kind of collective term. They all done it, like a seven-headed dragon? Maybe Martins and others who thought of Red John as just one man, because they’d met only one of the men."

**SPOILER ALERT**

The leaked episode was fake and McAllister
isn't RJ, the real episode airs on sunday and the pidgeon will be
revealed as Red John.

**SPOILER ALERT**

The leaked episode was fake and McAllister isn't RJ, the real episode airs on sunday and the pidgeon will be revealed as Red John.