Right this is not a theory, just something I wanted to share with you guys.
Even though Xander Berkeley is known as an excellent actor, the way Red John was performed is waaaay under everyone's expectations. (it is quite generally accepted that episode 8 was... you know, crap) Just look at some other villains of the show and the way their actor portrayed them.
1. Bob Kirkland
Although not really a villain, that character was awesome! Kevin Corrigan is just a perfect actor. I had seen him in Californication before, but his Kirkland performance was freaking brilliant, he could have been a perfect Red John.
2. Tommy Volker
You know an actor does a good job when his character looks so realistically sadistic and truly evil that you just wanna punch them in the face. Volker was one of those, he was really well portrayed and entertaining, in short an excellent performance.
3. Brett Stiles
Although not really a villain either, he has been a major character in The Mentalist since season 1 (correst me if I'm wrong). Now there's something I don't understand about Bruno Heller. Stiles was the head of a worldwide cult, with thousands of followers who could have died for him, he was rich, powerful, had the power to read through people, etc. He clearly knew what Red John was up to. Now I'm completely alright with the fact he's not RJ, but hello Heller, have gone insane? One of the most important and intersting characters of the show, and you just get rid of him with no explanation other than "he was killed in the explosion" ?? What is wrong with you? I've arleady expressed how disappointed I was in seeing all the best characters being successively killed off with no reason.
4. Partridge.
Right, he's not RJ, and that's fine. I wasn't a Partridge fan, but I must admit I thought for a while he was RJ. Now he's not, fine, he was just a red herring, fine, he was killed by McAllister to keep silence about his connections with him ("anyone who can identify RJ ends up dead"). But keep in mind he was very well portrayed too, the actor did a good job. That creepy thing about him was just brilliant.
5. Erica Flynn
Remember her? She killed her husband, tried to seduce Jane, was very clever and managed to manipulate people into helping her. She eventually escaped and is still in the wind. Every one must have forgotten about her, just like Heller and that's fine, but she was a good character, in my opinion better portrayed and developped than the actual RJ.
6. Any other villain I forgot to talk about and whose performance was way better than McAllister's. There are loads, but these five are the main ones I can think of right now.
Despite all those excellent characters, Bruno Heller chose to get rid of them and to come up with shitty ones for the ultimate episode. McAllister, Abbott, Kim, Cordero, Smith, some lady with a knife? You gotta be kidding me.
What are your thoughts about this? All this just to say that McAllister was under-developped, irrelevant to all the RJ clues from season 1 to 5, and simply extremely disappointing.
