Who is Red John?

Share your own theory and rate other people’s

List of seven

Thomas McAllister
Thomas McAllister
Reede Smith
Reede Smith
Ray Haffner
Ray Haffner
Gale Bertram
Gale Bertram
Brett Partridge
Brett Partridge
Bret Stiles
Bret Stiles
Bob Kirkland
Bob Kirkland

LATEST THEORIES

If Heller goes for the logical then we are left with 2 choices: Bret Stiles or Gale Bertram. Kirkland wants RJ to boost his career. Haffner was too easily fooled by Jane. McAllister also when they played Paper, Scissors, Stone. Reede Smith is too vague. Partridge too obvious but was in the Pilot episode. However, as brought up earlier by others, surely Heller should've had actual on-screen hand shakes for the Lorelei clue right!? If so, just Haffner and Bertram shook Jane's hand but Lorelei was incarcerated when Kirkland shook Jane's hand. She'd not know about him shaking hands. So, Stiles has never shook Jane's hand and that leaves Bertram. Recites Blake, was at the scene of Johnson murder, sounded like RJ and called Jane The Boy Wonder (thus knowing Jane's Carny past) so he is the logical choice. Thoughts?

Argue on this theory or rate it.
plausible
unlikely

I have already posted theory here (Theory #4258) in which I explained why I think that Red John is not a single person.
Today I will post something more important, an essence of this series.

Lets go in the Bruno Hellers mind and motives. 
The name of the series is MENTALIST. Its about mentalism. (Definition: Mentalism is a performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, appear to demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities.) In this series, Bruno praise a beauty of human mind, a brain skills based on scientific facts.
He often asserts that magic doesnt exist. Jane said that he is not a psychic. Psychics doesnt exist.
Jane abuses his abilities to earn money and he paid a price for that. 
Bruno Haller doesnt like fraud, manipulation and lies. He represents sadists, psychopats and manipulators as a worst kind of human being. According to that, he transfers all those characteristics to the ultimative bad guy - Red John. Also, Bruno Heller has antireligion attitude. He finds wishful thinking naive, bad and stupid. He represents VIsualization as a brain-washing machine, evil organization. 
Bruno Haller praises humanity, moral and forgiveness. 
Patrick Jane will catch Red John only if he would possess all those good characteristics. But, Patrick Jane is not a blissful character. He wants bloody revenge and it brakes him in his persecution of Red John. According to religion theme, it is fight between good and evil. But it is not imaginary fight, it is real fight between human beings. Red John is Devil, and Patrick is still Captain Jerk (anagram of Patrick Jane), and he will catch Red John only when he release his primitive instincts. If Bruno can eliminate revenge in this fight, the goal will be achieved. In that case, Good will win this battle without any stain. 
So, the main point of my theory is that maybe Red John didnt kill his family, or even didnt kill anybody. Red John is  pupeteer, he just pulls all those strings and makes things happen. He is pure evil, source of all bad things, but not an executor! Executors are naive, stupid, small human beings. They made all these crimes, and they are all stimulated by one man, a pure evil. 
He is devil in human body, not an imaginary creature, but real human, evil mentalist.

Argue on this theory or rate it.
plausible
unlikely
Theory #4607 • By oops1ahah
Show this theory

I have already posted theory here (Theory #4258) in which I explained why I think that Red John is not a single person.
Today I will post something more important, an essence of this series.

Lets go in the Bruno Hellers mind and motives. 
The name of the series is MENTALIST. Its about mentalism. (Definition: Mentalism is a performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, appear to demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities.) In this series, Bruno praise a beauty of human mind, a brain skills based on scientific facts.
He often asserts that magic doesnt exist. Jane said that he is not a psychic. Psychics doesnt exist.
Jane abuses his abilities to earn money and he paid a price for that. 
Bruno Haller doesnt like fraud, manipulation and lies. He represents sadists, psychopats and manipulators as a worst kind of human being. According to that, he transfers all those characteristics to the ultimative bad guy - Red John. Also, Bruno Heller has antireligion attitude. He finds wishful thinking naive, bad and stupid. He represents VIsualization as a brain-washing machine, evil organization.
Bruno Haller praises humanity, moral and forgiveness. 
Patrick Jane will catch Red John only if he would possess all those good characteristics. But, Patrick Jane is not a blissful character. He wants bloody revenge and it brakes him in his persecution of Red John. According to religion theme, it is fight between good and evil. But it is not imaginary fight, it is real fight between human beings. Red John is Devil, and Patrick is still Captain Jerk (anagram of Patrick Jane), and he will catch Red John only when he release his primitive instincts. If Bruno can eliminate revenge in this fight, the goal will be achieved. In that case, Good will win this battle without any stain. 
So, the main point of my theory is that maybe Red John didnt kill his family, or even didnt kill anybody. Red John is  pupeteer, he just pulls all those strings and makes things happen. He is pure evil, source of all bad things, but not an executor! Executors are naive, stupid, small human beings. They made all these crimes, and they are all stimulated by one man, a pure evil. 
He is devil in human body, not an imaginary creature, but real human, evil mentalist.

Argue on this theory or rate it.
plausible
unlikely

 I think that none of those on the list are actual suspects but rather a game. If you remember Jane put a toothpick in the door and when he returned he found it on the floor. When he picked it up he had somewhat of a half smile on his face, like someone was suppose to break in and see his board. Knowing someone would come he created a fake list that red john fell for, I mean we haven't seen what happened after he broke that dvd. The way the show has gone in the past this seems like a plausible theory to me. However I have heard the creator or someone said that red john IS in fact on the list, so it isn't likely unless he lied which maybe, but I think this would have been a good clever way to catch him maybe
anyway

I can eliminate one of the suspects in the list based on previous information, the visualize lead. Red john was someone in his late teens or 20s on that farm 25 years ago making him 45ish-55 years of age. Bret Stiles is too old, the actor that plays him is 70.

Kirkland is an obvious choice the way he is so creepy, but I feel like he is more of an accomplice.

Of those on the list the only ones that seems plausible to me are Haffner and Partridge
Both seem obvious though, we are somewhat lead to believe that Haffner was on that farm which could make him the killer obviously. Partridge's voice sound so much like the times we have heard red john's voice which again makes him obvious then.

If the list is real I'd go with partridge, but honestly he is kind of a random character, and if he is RJ that is a moderately lame ending. Any of them being red john......I like my idea better


Argue on this theory or rate it.
plausible
unlikely

I think that everybody overlooks something very important when considering the seven suspects on hand...this being that whoever Red John may be isn't going to be Red John in their every day life...if Red John is truly a mastermind like Jane he will have the uncanny ability to convince people that he's someone he's not....Brett Partridge, for example, could be Red John simply hiding his charming personality from the world that knows him as Brett Partridge...the same is true for the remaining six suspects. I think that when you look at it from this perspective it is impossible to narrow your list down...and when you think about it, the least likely a character is to be Red John...the more interesting a hidden side to that character could be. And example in mind is Gale Bertram. Next time you watch in episode in which Bertram speaks, imagine a high pitched, soft Red John voice. Imagine the way he acts as a scheme such as many of the ones that Jane pulls in which he's hiding who he really is in order to outsmart everyone else. After watching the season 4 premiere, I'm far more intrigued by the idea that Bertram could be Red John. But then again, anyone could be Red John if the writers want them to be...its only a matter of creating two characters in one. This is less of a theory and more of an observation...but consider it next time you compare each suspect to Red John.

Argue on this theory or rate it.
plausible
unlikely

Till the whole Timothy Carter death thing it was Timothy who was RJ, but later i think PJ is continuing those murders as a person with  mental disorder.i think that after this with TC, PJ sort of snaped, poped like a popcorn..with faces changing from RJ to PJ..i mean who could ever know things that only Jane knows...and the whole hand shaking thing..i believe its maybe not the physical hank shake...but maybe the psychical hand shake between the PJ personality and RJ personality..

Here are some things i would like to point out : 

...in the season 4 where Jane is talking to Lorelei she says why did they never became friends when they are so alike...i did not see anyone soo damm alike to Jane in the episodes

...and the face RJ drawns with blood is just like Janes face...

...why there were no RJ killings while PJ was in Las Vegas for 6 months...

...how the hell did Lorelei found him in Las Vegas?

....why was exactly the CBI dude Luther Wainwright the one who got caught by RJ...if i remember he and PJ were insulting each other the episode before...and RJ does not like to be insultet in any way..so LW ended up dead...why it was not hmmm...Lisbon? Because PJ likes her and think as a friend/crush

...and now you will ask me what are the other suspects doing in the series...and i wil tell you that they are nothing but distractions...just to keep us away from Jane in the first place....and on the other hand doing misunderstandings with PJ s mind...like for example the girl in the graveyard was sent from a disciple just to mindfuck PJ and the person with the baseball hat could be any of them...

....in the series we can see that PJ is very good at faking things...from his mental acts to his behaviour...like when he was in a verbal fight with Luther, even Lisbon believed all of that but it was just an act....

...somehow RJ is always one step ahead of PJ...wich is impossible...he knows his every move, his every tought and his every trick...

....in my opinion this all is just to turn PJ a RJ himself at the end and to make him crazy

...when PJ lost his memory he was a complete different person....

...nobody did not know about the meeting between Gale Bertram and PJ....

...how did RJ knew that PJ is going to the graveyard just when he saw the happy anniversary note on his car...PJ when arrived there was not looking around for RJ, but he was looking in the graves, and why he hipnotized the girl and said to Lisbon RJ could kill her...he could instead leave her go and follow her...

...also there is a big black hole in the series when James Panzer was killed by RJ...it was a great moment for PJ to follow Panzer privately just to get in trouble with RJ as he always did before...but this time he didnt....

...why is PJ keeping all the sudden everybody away from RJ...ok, he says that if anybody talks about RJ ends up dead...but i think there is something behind that....i think that PJ usually wouldnt care that much about others and that he would try to set a bait for RJ in that way....

....why didnt RJ take for example Van Pelt, or Cho, or Rigsby in the limo but exactly Luther wich PJ didnt like so much...and why is the group VP,Cho, Rigsby and Lisbon safe for 5 seasons now...

...why did RJ wanted to "have fun" with Darcy instead for example Lisbon wich is also helping to solve the RJ case with PJ...

...how come that Christina Frye is alive but was in contact with RJ....he hipnotized her wich is the thing Patrick does...and PJ does not kill her as RJ because he liked her..

....the voice in the limo sounds like PJ...

...."does anyone know who you are?"...charlotte asks PJ while halucinating...

....i am just not sure if PJ is RJ frome the beginning or it is half Timothy and half Jane...

...i think that when RJ was thinking it was time for him to approach was the time in the mall..because he knew he has done his job but wanted jane to continue it...so jane with the mental disorder did so...but when the Jane persona was more powerfull in his head than the RJ persona then the disciples and the clues where there to mess up janes head again...

...and whats with the happy memory thingy only Pj knew ;)

.. Also Red John guessed all the suspects correct which is impossible since how would he know which people did Jane shake hands with.

...Its feels like Jane is Red John. Whether its a case of multiple personality disorder perhaps..

....i really love PJ as a character and would not like an ending where Lisbon has to shoot him or something like that :( 

Argue on this theory or rate it.
plausible
unlikely

Reed can mean red, also we know that Roy means red.

Tagliaferro means iron cutter or iron worker, and smith refers to people who are blacksmiths. A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut.

Argue on this theory or rate it.
plausible
unlikely
Follow us on