So I have no idea who might be RJ, but there are a lot of people who think that Brett Partridge is RJ. And this is why I'm not sure about that: 

If Partridge pretended to be dead it would be to keep Lisbon alive so that she would think he was dead, right? BUT I think in that case Lisbon may remember someone grabbing her from her feet! And that could only be him! So she would know Partridge was not dead, so that may work against him. That's why I have concerns about this theory.

Besides, I think that if there's no body, Patrick wouldn't be fool enough to think Partridge (being one of the suspects) is dead. 

On that big clue Heller talked about, something about the sink Lisbon stares at makes me wonder. As I read somewhere before, I don't think it is possible that the door would just open without any help. I think someone was there. And also the car when she's out of the house, that was suspicious. I don't think anything they put in the show is a coincidence, so all of that has to be there because of a reason.  

My theory is that red john is ray haffner. I dont think red john works alone, he has at least one accomplice in the list of 7 (or now 6), but red john himself is haffner and here is why i think so.

He meets the physical description given by rosalind ( he is slightly over 6 feet and i know rosalind said red john was just under 6 feet but how could a blind woman know the exact height of a person?. So red john is 6 feet, give or take.

His age also makes him old enough to be red john. He is old enough to have been at the red barn in the visualize farm in 1988 (this will be important later).

Talking about visualize, he is a member of the cult, which would explain some of red johns contacts, specially bret stiles. Because bret stiles seems to know a lot about red john meaning that red john would very well be a member of visualize and stiles has to protect and help him. Him being a member of visualize would also link him to the red barn in 1988 because that was a visualize farm.

And lets remember his statements to lisbon. He said that as a teen he was troubled but then visualize took him in and helped him. Him being troubled as a teen could mean that he is really a psycopath and killed those people in the barn back in 1988 and went to visualize for help or something along those lines. Or visualize covering up for his murders since he was a member.

Lets not forget that when lisbon says he suspects him of being in the barn in 1988 he just shrugs it off and walks away. To protect visualize or to protect himself??.

Getting on to his job, he formerly worked with the FBI which would explain red johns high ranking contacts, ( Robert Kirkland maybe?, i most surely think he is an accomplice of red john, he works for homeland security after all, and had a friend in the FBI Alexa Schultz).

He also worked in the CBI which would explain red johns contacts in the CBI and tie him to bertram, who i think could be another accomplice of RJ. It would also explain how red john was able to be ahead of jane always and kill that woman inside the CBI building who was going to confess about RJ.

He used to work in the FBI in the organized crime division, and is an expert in wiretraps and surveillance techniques (according to the mentalist wikia). This would explain so many things as how red john knows so much and is ahead of every move the cbi team make. Or how he is impossible to catch. This could also explain why he knew lisbon had hacked the phones and therefore set her up with partridge.

To end this, his relationship with lisbon. He now works as a private detective (gives him more freedom to act i guess) and offers lisbon the job beside him, with a pay raise etc. I noticed he gets very angry when she refuses, because she says she cant leave jane. He seems like jealous that lisbon prefers jane over him. Yes, i think haffner aka red john has some feelings for lisbon and thats why he hasnt killed her yet, he has only captured her. He wants jane to act now.

Warning: Do not read this post if you haven’t watched the season premiere of The Mentalist.

At the end of last season of The Mentalist, we narrowed down the list of Red John suspects to seven. And by the end of tonight’s premiere, that number had changed.
Yup, RIP Partridge. He was the first suspect to fall. But will Lisbon
(Robin Tunney) be the next victim? Read on for our chat with executive
producer Bruno Heller.


ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Obviously, you started
off the season big by killing off one of the suspects right away. Tell
me about the decision to kill Partridge first.

BRUNO HELLER: It wasn’t my decision; it was Red John’s
decision. And it’s part of a much larger, dastardly plan that will
reveal itself over the next few episodes. This is a good question. This
is the first time I’ve been asked this question, but it’s a very good
point. Why DID he kill Partridge? What possible reason could he have for
that? A very good reason will be revealed down the line. So it’s both a
fun way to start the season and embedded in that scene is a big clue to
the identity of Red John that will pay off big time later.

Well, he did whisper ‘Tiger’ before dying.

Yes, he did. And that’s another clue that will have big ramifications
later on. These next few episodes, essentially the first episodes of
this season, all have those kinds of revelations and clues and hints and
big steps forward in the mystery. And all will be revealed.


When do we revisit the Tiger clue?

Watch episode 4 and you will get some answers to that in episode 4. I
can start very specific now about those. Episode 4 will give you some
answers that go a long way to answering that question.


I have to admit, Partridge was my No. 1 suspect. So after he died, I thought to myself, ‘Of course he’s going to go first!’

That’s the thing. Everyone has different No. 1 suspects, which is good.
That’s one of those things as a writer; you can spend a lot of time
weighing which one people think is the likely suspect. That’s very much a
subjective choice. I know that are a lot of people out there who think
Jane is Red John still.



…even though you’ve said explicitly he’s not!

I know. They don’t necessarily have to believe me, I suppose. I’ve never
denied that it was Lisbon. So I suppose it could be Lisbon.


For you, as a writer, was it ever going to be someone else first?

No. Because like I say, as convoluted and as elaborate as the plotting
might appear, you have to know exactly what you’re doing way before you
do it. So things might seem mysterious or too complicated to work out
what the hell is going on, but as these episodes unfold, the story will
unfold itself in a clean and clear fashion. It was very important that
Partridge die at this point in the story. It’s not just — he didn’t just
kill him as an act-out.



Can we expect more deaths among the suspects?

Yeah, you can expect more deaths of suspects; I think I can say that
without giving too much away. It’s not a Seven Little Indians thing,
where one drops dead every week. But part of Red John’s plan involves
bad intentions toward the other suspects on that list. It’s not a good
list to be on.


What I found interesting was that you brought the rest of the team into the fold so quickly. Tell me about that decision.

Well, because, we’re getting to the point right now where they’re
getting so close to Red John that the cracks between John and Lisbon and
how they like to operate are becoming much clearer. When Red John was
an abstract target, Lisbon could put up with Jane’s very different moral
universe. Now that they’re getting closer, it’s exactly that kind of
issue that’s going to cause conflict between them. Jane’s obsessive
secrecy is very much in conflict with Lisbon’s professional and personal
desire to keep things above board and honest. She needs and wants the
help and support of the team because she feels uncomfortable freelancing
— because she’s not a freelancer, she’s a cop. And Jane has the freedom
to do whatever he wants but she has to think about the law. So partly
for that reason, and partly because….up until this point, Red John has
been able to pull all kinds of tricks on Jane but he’s always been able
to work out how a particular trick was done and how Red John got the
better of him. But here, Jane has no idea how it’s possible Red John got
that list, and it raises the terrible prospect in the back of his mind
that maybe Red John is a psychic. Maybe Jane has been wrong his
whole life. In which case, his whole set of beliefs have been thrown
into question and Lisbon — seeing that in Jane — is a little spooked
because she’s never seen Jane genuinely stymied and genuinely unable to
workout what the hell is going on. So she feels she has to take the
initiative and take control of the situation. As you see it, it ends up
to be the right decision in the moment but the wrong decision by the end
of the episode.


Preview the next episode.

That story continues. I’ll tell you, one of the outstanding questions
for Jane leftover from last season is how the hell did Red John get into
his head and know about that young woman who died who was a child in
Jane’s childhood. How did he do that? That question is going to be
answered. But at the same time, every week we’re still telling a closed
whodunit story which is solved every week. So it’s as much that story as
the other story.


- This is all Bruno heller's words from an interview.

The reason I follow the Mentalist (aside from how legendary Patrick Jane is), is because from the very first episode, Bruno Heller has said he has always known how the final episode of the show would transpire. He said at the very beginning that Jane vs Red John is the overarching storyline and this would not come to a close until the very final chapter of the show. Therefore I am very confident that he has planned pretty much every Red John related episode with knowledge of who Red John is from the outset, just as we know who Jane is. And I firmly believe Simon Baker knows who Red John is, and has known this from when he was approached with the script and signed on to play Patrick Jane. For me, Red John's significance would dwindle considerably if it turned out to be some random guy/girl we meet later in seasons 3 to 5 (e.g. Reede Smith/Haffner/McAllister etc). And I am convinced directly as a result of that, that the show's significance would dwindle too. Therefore, I am convinced that Red John is someone we have met in the very first episode of the show that both casual and religious followers of the show would remember. However for a show of this type to maintain it's casual followers, said person would need to be a character who is present as little as possible, but just enough for the audience to go recall immediately when Red John is finally revealed to us. The only recurring characters from the first episode, present until even now (in what I am convinced is likely to be the final season of the Mentalist if ratings dip) are: Jane, Lisbon, Cho, Rigsby, Van Pelt, Minelli (though we have not seen him for some time now) and Brett Partridge. 

Of these, the character that fits this criterion is Brett Partridge (aside from all the other parameters pointing directly at him - e.g. being the correct age, height, build, the same voice, links within the CBI, morbid fascination with murders and crimes, etc)

I really badly have always wanted the identity of Red John to be Jane, Lisbon, Van Pelt or Cho/Rigsby and for this to be revealed in the very final episode of the entire show after we think the threat of Red John has finally been put to the grave a few episodes earlier. If this were my show, the final scene of the show's finale for me would be when all is supposedly well with "Red John" dead and everyone living happily ever after, us finding out that Jane really was Red John all along and the madness will continue because Jane has (as said in the opening credits of every show in Season 1) been "A Master Manipulator". However, that is just my dark and morbid way of thinking about this - as the boldest TV show in the last decade with the ultimate final twist, going out in a blaze of glory. Unfortunately, Bruno Heller has said a few times now that it is not Jane - therefore this shall reside in my imagination... for now.

However, it is unlikely any TV show will be as bold as that, even one of the calibre of The Mentalist. Additionally, Bruno Heller has said that there will be a little disappointment after we find out who Red John is. After watching S5 finale and S6 premiere closely and repeatedly I am now forced to entertain the most probable alternative - 


It is now more clearly obvious than ever that Red John is Brett Partridge...


He "faked" his death very cleverly in front of us and Lisbon in purposefully poor lighting and as she was distracted by that mysterious sink, she was simply swiped from behind by Partridge. It all makes sense. Even if we get to see Partridge's dead body next week, it will only be a very short glimpse. Had Partridge been "killed" off in any other episode than the premiere this season, my theory would have been very poor and I would not be posting this now. The very fact that he has been "killed" off in the season premiere is incredibly telling. Most of us will now forget him completely whilst other suspects/innocents are being murdered and Jane hunts for Lisbon - until the episode we have all been waiting for arrives and Red John is revealed as Partridge, who was alive all along - this is classic storytelling...

The obvious reasons:
1) He was located at the scene of the "anonymous" tip-off on both GPS and in person
2) His presence was extremely notable in both S5 finale and now the premiere
3) This is the perfect Bruno Heller foil - the real Red John would take himself off the list as soon as possible - faking death in the opening episode is the perfect way

Not so obvious but perhaps more pertinent:
1) Remember the show's premiere episode way back in 2008. Where we walk in to the fake Red John murder scene and are introduced to Brett Partridge whom Jane describes as a Ghoul, mentions the classic line "He irks me. He is irksome" and says if he doesn't "get off on fan gory, then I (Jane) am Britney Spears". Remember that demonstration by Partridge of how Red John draws the bloody smiley on the wall? He used his right hand. Now watch the final scene where Lisbon's face is being painted. We are to assume this is Red John wearing a black glove on his right hand, standing to the right of Lisbon's (clearly unconscious only, not dead or bleeding, body) and painting her face with his right hand. In exactly the same way Partridge did it. Please go back and watch how Partridge details the way Red John paints the face. Watch them side by side. The similarity is impossible to ignore. 



More to come... 

..
U


.