Michael Kirkland and not Bob.. after episode 6 I'm 95% sure of it.
I won't elaborate, there are countless theories here and I'll be merely repeating.

its more inquiry than a theory!

As we know, Bob Kirkland know nothing about his Bro.
So the Q is; how it comes to know his Bro's cabin location and he never knew for sure whether his Bro is dead or alive.
Could it be there is no Twin-Bro at all! and the Michael Kirkland character is a defensive mechanism to cope with an abusive father.

The twin story seems to me to be a little
too convenient a tale for Bob, explaining why he's hunting for RJ
suspects, and why Jane should trust him, as a brother in arms against
RJ.

We know that it is not just the false RJ suspects he's killing, and that he's not really trying to find RJ. He's also killing people off that know RJs appearance.
My theory: because he got a facechange operation.
I propose that it's due to RJ shaking Janes hand, way back when he
had killed his wife and daughter, and Jane was beside himself with shock
and grief.
RJ just couldn't resist the temptation of
keeping Jane alive for more play. Much more. But, while Jane appears to
have forgotten the encounter, RJ has concerns that he'll one day
remember. A modicum of facial numbness/immobility should also make his face harder to read. Hence the decisive move of a facechange, and hence the questions, and the satifaction at hearing that people can't recognize him.
As that means Jane likely won't remember him either.
When was it made? Likely shortly after
the murder of Janes wife and daughter, and shortly before RJs stay with
the blind woman Rosalind, while his facewounds were healing up. Once healed, he
could let her touch his face, no problem. Once healed we could see him
with Corrigans face in Red Dawn (ep 100), when Jane had just been hired by the
CBI.

His ultimate wish is to get
mentally close to Jane, and to befriend him, possibly with no intention
of revealing himself as RJ, but just to play cat and mouse role reversal with Jane, sometimes appearing to hunt with him, for RJ, sometimes killing new victims, as RJ.



Hunting for the false RJ suspects, and the touching story of his brother are both just tools of deception used by him to get under Janes RJ-radar. (Fun
fact: When Bob intimidates Jane, he uses a a kind of garden variety
scissors as finger clipper, which Lorelei was about to use on Janes
finger, by RJs order, right before the FBI charged in on the scene at
the car, in The Crimson Hat (5/24).)

Apparently, the deception works according to plan, too.
Jane writes him off as a suspect before we
see him get shot.  and Kirkland expressed absolutely no surprise,
panic or regret when Hightower and Lisbon 'interrupted' him. This was
not the response of a man getting foiled.


Supposing that Robert really doesn't have a twin, we must assume he
then really got shot. Except none of the bullets appeared to go through
him, but tore up the back of his prison coat pretty well... My proposal: Bulletproof
vest.
Was Smith really working for him? I don't know, but I obviously
assume, in this twin-less theory, that Robert getting gunned down was
all a show in honor of... who? the guard in front of the van? Or
possibly in honor of Smith and the TT club, to mislead them. (Then the
guard in front is probably RJs man)


I'm guessing it is the Tyger tyger boys that are getting played.

Why the private investigators attempted plant of a bug at Chos desk?

Because Robert can no longer afford to be seen at the CBI, possibly not even
to contact his former TT stooges. (I assume he initiated the secret movement, but has no problems sacrificing any and all of them to suit his goals.) He's supposed to be dead. When the bug plant
fails, he doesn't just remove his PI as a wittness. He frames the TT guys for
it.
I think he plans to resurface as "the heroic Robert Kirkland", leader of the resistance against Read Johns TygerTyger conspiracy, fighting side by side with his favorite playmate:
Patrick Jane.
_____________________________
A point of added support for Kirkland being RJ:
He only showed up at the CBI when Lorelie is gone, and can't ID him
[except if she gets caught again, or talks] and he then gets personally
involved in the manhunt.

In spite of the fact that he's known to be very interested in the RJ
case progression. A highly convenient absence from the CBI, it would seem.

I woke up this morning and suddenly I was a 100% sure that Red John will not be one of the three with the tattoos. I just know it. Just think about it. If it's one of the 3, we will all be yawning. There's no excitement, no shock factor. Is this really the big reveal? For 6 seasons we've been waiting and it will really just be as boring as this? No.

Red John has to be one of the "dead" ones (Kirkland or Partridge), or Stiles or Haffner. 

Stiles has the shock factor because he has been friendly with PJ and helping him, so it would be a bit of a surprise that all this time he was the one that killed his family.

With Haffner, even though he was popular as a suspect a few weeks ago, people have given up on him slightly. He seems to be superficial, cares about money, PJ doesn't think highly of him. So he would be more surprising too than the 3 with the tattoos.

It feels like the writers are putting it in our head that RJ must be one of the three. But if he is, we're going to fall asleep during the Red John episode. I'm putting my trust into the writers and hoping they are not gonna be that predictable.

Take away all the bells, whistles, sub plots, red herrings,
mental tricks, false clues and irksome hints that have littered the storyline in
Season 6 thus far and what do you get?

Red John and Patrick Jane are entering the ‘end game’ phase
of a duel; a game; a challenge that started way back.

Both of these characters have been plotting, scheming,
outwitting, outlasting and outthinking each other in a back and forth manner for
years. 

Almost like a version of ‘Mental
Survivor’.

This should make it clear that Season 6 is nothing more than
a culmination of the mental game of dexterity between the 2 is coming to its
end.  With two such ‘brilliant’ minds in
play, I’m almost certain this ‘end game plotting and planning by BOTH’ started
the minute Patrick Jane refused ‘Red John’s’ friendship. Not suddenly in last
season’s finale.


They both have different desired outcomes of course to the ‘end
game’ – but to think that both of them have suddenly been spurred into action
to rush along these events, is not giving either ones intellect enough credit.


Red John leaving a clue about a tattoo to reveal his
identity? Honestly? – Not a chance, part of his long term planning nothing
more.


Patrick Jane believing the tattoo clue and running with it?
Honestly? – Not a chance, it’s Jane ‘returning serve’ to Red John.


This tennis game started in Season 5 (in earnest), which is
when I believe Patrick Jane identified Red John. He obviously had to knit a web
of intrigue and lies (lists and handshakes and utterly ridiculous assumptions)
in order to draw Red John out in a manner of HIS (Jane’s choosing).  I have always thought that he would get red
John to come to him, in the same way Red John came to him way back – through insulting
him, belittling him or making him seem inferior in the media. See next episode
when Jane (IMO) reveals the name Reed Smith as Red John, in order to piss red
John off seriously. Then Red John will come out to play.

Even though Red John has been meticulously planning and
plotting his own ‘end game’ – which was supposed to be the glorious death of
all with a bomb, and a clean getaway for him.

The need to show himself as the
TRUE Red John (to Patrick) will overcome all his ‘best laid plans’.


Why wouldn’t he just get the hell out of Dodge?
Because what
do we REALLY know about Red John? Not the useless bits of info others have
given (Rosalind etc) which could or could NOT be reliable – but the information
Red John HIMSELF has given us.


1.      
We know he hates to be belittled in the media,
and made to look like a regular fool. We also know he can’t ignore this – he is
driven to act by his very nature.
 2.      
We know he hates imitation and people who ‘pretend’
to be him – once more he is driven to act by his very nature.


3.      
We know he thinks he is smarter than Patrick. He
says as much in the Lorelei video. He calls Patrick ‘lucky’ and himself ‘clever’
for revealing the names. While we know he ‘likes’ Jane as an adversary (simply
because Jane is the 1st person he has ever met who provides a
challenge to him and who is of similar mental intelligence), BEATING Jane in
this game is still very important to him. But driving him here is not so much
the beating – it’s making sure Patrick KNOWS he has been beaten by a ‘superior
intelligence’.

 



So using that, one can almost SEE Patrick's plans, (that he
put into play the minute he knew who Red John was in Season 5) laid out in
front of us. The bomb might have thrown him off course, BUT it was a positive
sign that Red John has ‘bought into’ Patrick’s plan. He’s got him on a hook
now.

He has simply used what he DOES know as FACT about red John’s
psyche, to trap the man – and then deal with him – alone. 
Patrick will not ‘share’ Red John with
anyone.


“Red John is MINE”



Bob Kirkland will be back as I theorized yesterday. Patrick
will announce Reed Smith as Red John to the media, infuriating Red John. While
Red John ‘knows’ he should use this as an ‘out’ and run – his ego won’t allow
it. The desperation to show Patrick how ‘wrong he is’ brings him into the open.  RJ is going to be one pissed off puppy; but
he’s also going to want to brag a little in between as to how cleverly he
fooled ‘Patrick’.


Sadly for RJ – PJ is counting on this.


Killing a man already dead, burying the body and telling
no-one who the real Red John is = PRICELESS. (And RJ’s worst nightmare)


***long post again – sorry – but if these characters were
mine, this is what both of them would be doing, because it’s a true reflection
of their psyches and intellect and to be honest, both characters deserve a little
more credit than what is currently being given them – silly clues, tattoo reveals
etc. We need to stop thinking like TV viewers and keystone cops, and start
thinking like Jane and Red John - it has been a marathon, not a sprint**

 

Here's one of my theories on Red John's voice and which might explain a few other things as well.

There are three things that have not been explained yet:
1) Why does Red John's voice sound the way it does, when the only two characters from the list with a similar sounding voice have been killed
2) How was Red John talking on his phone at the same time he was talking to Patrick in S6E1 (he can't have been using bluetooth or anything because he was using Teresa's phone, but could have had it propped up against his head with his shoulder)?
3) What's so important about Bob Kirkland's brother?

My idea is that Red John has an accomplice, one that he uses to speak to Jane for him. This would be someone he met long ago, like Bob Kirkland's brother. If we assume that Bob has close to the same voice as his brother, then this is a possibility. This would explain how Red John was talking to Jane while using both hands to draw on Teresa, since he wasn't actually the one talking. Bob Kirkland's brother must be important somewhere. Red John also made Lorelei Martins read the message to Jane instead of reading it himself. BH mentioned how there was an important clue in the first episode of the season that he was sure we wouldn't get until the reveal. I think the pigeons, 666, etc were all meant to distract us. Maybe this was the clue? Also, Red John did talk directly to Jane during the fake red john-wannabe episode finale (season 2?). Maybe Red John sent in Bob's brother for this. It didn't seem like Red John to be carrying a gun around and shooting people.

Leave a comment to disprove my theory, it's more useful than just an 'unlikely' :)

this site has had me in tears of laughter the past few days

I haven't read so many "ergo's" hahahahaha
Van Pelt the sex addict
but my personal favorite has to be "Cho is in fact a pickle sandwich"

but seriously who do you think the returning
"forgotten" character is? Frye, Minelli, Mashburn?
or something right outta left field

sticking with Kirkland, but less happy about it