I wish i had put up my personal list before the episode came out.
From the seven names i came up with only 4 were right.
Sheriff Thomas McAllister, Robert Kirkland, Ray Haffner & Brett Partridge.
I thought both Bertram and Stiles were too old to be Red John and Reede Smith was someone i didn't suspect at all.
My main suspect is Thomas McAllister, i always remembered him from the first season because of the actor who played him.
When he showed up in the 30 suspects list,  i had a gut feeling it was him.

Many people have already dismissed him and Reed as Red John but i disagree with their reasonings.
Many refer to the fact he was only in one episode of the show so far but Red John has been stated to be a Waldo type character in terms of appearances on the show.
Most people seem to mistake this as he being a character which shows up every couple of episodes but thats not the case.
The point of being a Waldo type character is that he is always in the background but almost never seen.

This fits with the idea of McAllister being Red John as every other time we have seen him in the show has just been a glimpse of him.
It could have been his back we saw when Rebecca was poisoned as both law enforcement uniforms of her killer and McAllister are similar.
His overall demeanor from the episode he was credited to being in was that he was suspicious and creepy.

Patrick has stated before that Red John is a showman and with this we can premise that him loosing to patrick in rock, paper, scissors and being frustrated and baffled was just an act.
Everyone on that list has been one upped by patrick one way or another whether it by destroying a team to a toothpick in a door.
The idea that Patrick made him look silly, thats why he couldn't be Red John is a stretch as he has done that to others as well and unlike the rest his act was easier to pull off.

Another thing i'll mention is that people state that his actor isn't charming/good looking enough, if you haven't seen how his actor really looks like(without the mustache and the shaven beard) i suggest looking at his imdb page http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0075359/.

I also believe that Reede is an accomplice of Red John and that he wasn't just added to fill up the list.
To me he is so out of left field that i believe he has some connection to Red John i believe the list not only has Red John on it but his contact in the FBI.

I would like to add that i think Todd Johnsons murders of cops ties in to the fact that the Sheriff wanted to get rid of certain individuals in law enforcement that he felt were too suspectful of him as in his personality/behaviour and not that they knew he was Red John.

Finally i would like to mentioned the fact that people state that he was too small time to have that many devoted followers and that some were so high up authority wise for him to be a real possible candidate of red john.
Even for a small time Sheriff, everyone who knew of him throughout the episode he was in thought highly of him even though we as the viewer saw the darker side of his personality which no one else knew of.
I believe this charisma he has and a hypnosis type skill he uses has been the reasons why he has such influence over so many individuals.

As for the fact he knew a personal memory of Jane's, i would say that he was either there when Jane was a kid or most likely got the info out of Jane under hypnosis when Jane was inside the Mental Institution.
On the matter of Red John knowing the list, i would say its a suspension of disbelief as Red John is stated at this moment in time to be smarter then Jane and the fact that Jane was able to come out with 7 names shows that Red John should be able to as well.

I admit I have been wrong all along.  I still don't have any concrete idea as to who it is.  I do however think that a key clue to finding out is determining how Red John knew which names Jane had picked and how he killed someone from his memory (a good memory that made him happy).  To me, it has to be someone that has hypnotized Jane at some point.  Red John has proven time and time again that he is a master hypnotist.  That being said, it must be someone that Jane has spent much time with..........most likely one on one time.

I am thinking Ray may be a good choice because he spent a fair amount of time with Jane alone.  He reasonably fits the description's given as well as age.  His name is Ray which doesn't deviate much from Roy.  Jane had said i a previous episode that people usually pick aliases that are very similar or have a connection to their own name.

Like I said......it is still a huge guessing game at this point.

Not a theory, just some thoughts.

1. We don't know for sure if the "list of 7" is really Patrick's list. Patrick didn't give us his list, he just showed Lisbon (and us) some cards with some faces on them. After he had already seen the Lorelei CD. Maybe it's his real list, maybe it's not. We can't know.

And no, I don't care what Bruno Heller has said. And by the way nowhere does he say "yes, RJ is one of the seven". He just says "no more twists", which could mean anything. 

2. Something is really wrong with Kirkland's name being on RJ's list. 

We all know about the handshake inconsistency here (Lorelei being in prison when Patrick shook hands with Kirkland) and we can safely assume Patrick knows too. Why would RJ list Kirkland's name? Some possibilities:

- Lorelei knew that Patrick shook hands with Kirkland, despite being in prison when it happened. If this is the case, than how did she know? Kirkland told her? Someone else in the CBI saw them shake hands and told her? And by the way, why would anyone tell Lorelei that they shook hands with Patrick at all? Can you imagine RJ visiting Lorelei in prison and telling her "hey, Lorelei, just so you know, I shook hands with Patrick Jane"?

- Patrick's list is real and Red John somehow obtained it. It must have happened before Kirkland had those people break into Patrick's room (Lorelei was already dead at that moment). If this is the case,  than why would Patrick put Kirkland's name on the list, knowing that he shook hands with him when Lorelei was in prison? And one more thing. If Patrick already had a real list by 5x16, then what was he doing in the next episodes? Imitating hard work?

- Patrick's list is a fake that he designed in order to mislead/trap Red John and Red John took the bait. Again, RJ did not get the list from Kirkland.

- Red John is merely guessing and for some reason Patrick makes Lisbon (and us) believe that RJ has the real list. This would probably mean that Patrick suspects Lisbon.

3. How does Red John know about some obscure childhood memory of Patrick's?

Again, possibilities:

- Red John has real "powers". This would mean that Bruno Heller and co have made a turn towards X-Files territory, which seems ridiculous.

- Red John is someone from Patrick's past, someone really close to him, someone who knows him very well. Father, brother, childhood best friend, something like that.

- Patrick has in fact told someone about this particular memory (and probably other things too). Red John recruited this person and/or tortured/hypnotized/whatevered them into telling him things.

- Red John gathered the info from the mental institution, that Patrick was in after Red John murdered his family. Patrick may have shared - willingly or not - some private things with doctors, nurses, other patients.

- Red John has hypnotized Patrick.

- Red John is Patrick.

That's it. Thanks for reading. ;)
 

Red John is Kirkland. In the season 5 finale we learn that Red John must have been at the same carnival as Patrick Jane because otherwise he couldn't have known about his fond memory. When Lisbon asked Kirkland about his youth he said that he travelled a lot and likes to think that he grew up in America which could actually mean that he was part of a circus as well. Perhaps Kirkland has shaken hands with Patrick there as well.

Ok, so I'm the first to admit this could be completely wrong...

But is it possible that these 7 suspects are more misdirection?

After seeing the excellent finale, Sean Barlow seems to be a suspect for many reasons.

1. Sean is the uncle of the girl who Red John murdered to destroy Patrick's childhood memory.

Is it possible that Sean was actually there at this moment, and saw Patrick's reaction to the moment? With his ability to read people he may have seen that it was a meaningful moment for Patrick.

The only other person in Patrick's memory was the girls Dad, and he would be fairly unlikely, but it's quite possible Sean was off to the side watching.

2. I believe the video Patrick watched at the end of the finale was made before Kirkland broke into Patrick's and stole the information on the wall.

So how does Red John know the 7 suspects Patrick would land on before he actually had?

An idea I had is that all 7 are accomplices of Red John and may actually assist each time he murders someone. This puts them all at each murder scene, which is how Patrick came up with these suspects.

Sean could be using this as a misdirection tool and also, as Patrick first met him years before, could be arrogant in thinking Patrick would never think of him.

But acknowledging Patrick's abilities would have realized that he would come up with the his 7 closest associates. 

3. Sean knew Lisbon was in love with Patrick and used this knowledge to show off his so called psychic abilities.  This could just be his abilities at reading people, but it's possible that it's because he has been following Patrick and Lisbon closely.

Lorelei accused Patrick of being in love with Lisbon earlier on in the season, so if she knew there were feelings brewing under the surface, so would have Red John.

4. The other people in the series who have taunted Red John have ended up dead. Why hasn't Patrick?

My guess would be it's a rivalry of some kind. Sean Barlow and Patrick Jane come from the same background, both showmen with amazing mentalist talents.

Red John wants to prove he's better and smarter so instead of killing Patrick, he kills his family. Then he continually taunts him to show he's smarter. He enjoys playing with Patrick and making him suffer.

It just seems a lot more personal in the way he's tortured Patrick for years instead of just killing him. This is why it could be family related.

This fits nicely with Sean Barlow because of the past family tensions mentioned. The "business deal gone bad".

Also, Lorelei talked about how how Red John reads people immediately and is that he and Patrick are very alike.

Sean fits this description more than anybody (Apart from Bret Stiles).

It's possible the other suspects could be putting on a front, but in terms of what we know about RJ, Sean is master manipulator just like Patrick.

On a side note, the reason I don't believe it's Bret Stiles, as Lorelie talked about how it was strange they weren't lifelong friends from when they first shook hands.

Patrick and Stiles have always been fairly pleasant with each other and even helped each other out, so they could almost be loosely classified as friends (unless I've missed episodes where this is not the case).

Now, they could both be playing each other, but in all honesty they don't seem like mortal enemies.

5. After the meeting with Sean Barlow, Patrick was quite dismissive of the conversation, saying he couldn't read him. I found this odd especially since Sean was practically mocking him about being a step behind Red John.

He could have been doing this to once again throw Lisbon off and keep his cards close to the chest.

Sean also said that Red John had powers, and as Patrick mentioned, Sean's family like to pass themselves off as real psychics.

Just the fact that Sean really seemed to take a strange amount of interest in Red John for someone who was only very distantly tied to him.

6. Finally, apparently Sean Barlow will be a recurring character in the next season, which means there's a slight chance of this theory being correct!

Just some crazy ideas, but who knows right?