I read an interview today with Bruno Heller who said a big clue was shown in the ending scene of the season premiere. I believe the clue he was referring to was the knife Red John was wiping the blood off of. That looks to be a scalpel that a medical examiner would use to cut open a body. Partridge is not dead. He faked it so when Lisbon wakes up the last thing she will remember is that Partridge died. It also looks like she had her legs swept out from under her not pulled down from behind. With the alias of Brett Partridge out of the way, Red John is more free to go about his killing spree.

The blade we see at the end of the s6e1 is soaked with blood. You see the blade horizontaly with a uniform layer of blood. RJ uses the blood from that blade to draw the smiley. He's clearly an artist but what strikes me is the shape of the blood. For it to be this way, RJ must have a bucket of blood of some kind. If it came from the body, it would not be uniform and strikes would be visible. If it came from the floor it would not be uniform on all the blade. What physic tell us is that this blood didn't came directly from the body. Also, Partridge body didn't seemed to be leaking much blood.

When Partridge fell on the floor, he still had much facial energy before and during the moment he spoke. As soon as he finishes/Lisbon attention turned to the noise, Partridge body went limp. If, for some reason, he was forced to say Tiger Tiger, he would have kept his energy after that... He just went motionless. What is the best thing to do to make sure the other person give full attention to the source of noise ? Disappear from the "important" list. Living human = need to be saved. Dead body = moving on.

24hours of work on the body in the desert, really ? Away from everywhere ? You need time to stage a kill. There's the mean for it. Add to it that in the next episode PJ says RJ killed quicker then usual. Well if he's dead, he's got lots of free time.

Forensic tech = best people to stage a death if the body are switched before the autopsy.

At first I though RJ was hiding behind Partridge in cupboard. But then I though, 1- Being in the dark, Lisbon eyesight had ajusted and unless he wore all black velvet, should would have see him. 2-RJ looked her outside through the window and then went with Partridge in the cupboard. Partridge would have seen him watch outside and keep quiet ? Doubtfull. 3-No blood was on the floor outside the cupboard which mean Partridge was waiting inside and RJ pushed him to go behind ? But left him alive and waiting like a big kid alone in the cupboard before that?


He collapse on the floor when the door opens. Ok why didn't he collapse on the floor inside the cupboard if he was in bad shape ? Why did he stayed on his feet alone, dying and waiting inside a cupboard without any ray of light(hope) ?

its freaking brett partridge im sure of it. he is not dead. he was pretending to be dead so he could grab teresa from behind and kill her. omg why did she went inside this house damn her DAMN this freaking woman

I couldn't "Accuse" the right suspect -- the website wouldn't let me beyond the first three, so I just picked BP but I don't think it's him.  I think poor BP is dead, and furthermore, I don't think it's any of the 7 Suspects [as RJ, that is -- they could have connections, for sure] but suffice to say for now that Jane set that list up for RJ.  Most people seem to want it to be someone on that list, someone we've seen a lot, but I realize now that when Heller says we'll be disappointed, it's because it's not going to be any of the suspects we've been thinking for months.  No -- Red John MUST have a personal link to Patrick somehow.  Patrick Jane's father, Alex Jane, was a red haired con man and we don't know what became of him at all.  We don't know if Alex Jane had other children [or another son]; and we have never heard of PJ's mother or what became of her, either.  There are many literary references, as well as name symbolism used in The Mentalist, and one of them is a "Twins" theme.  I think the possibility that PJ has a brother is there.  Alex Jane seems too old to be RJ, but a brother would be just the right age for RJ.

death for me brett partridge is a staging one-jhon red it an accomplice in the team of CBI and Jane know this is his anger against lisbon it was when she was telling grace on the list of suspects 7 2 I think brett partridge has strong links with bret stilles for all means that veus (knowledge in the FBI - the financial means) I even think that this is his father since Initially I think it's good to listen to her telephone conversation with jane at the end of the episode that is on it is not an old man who was already talking about eliminating three bob kirkland came after he was told that lorelei jane has he quark hand jr is also can eliminate reede smith he only play one episode and not the rest means haffner ray 50/50 + brett partridge in it boss its box security deprive paid by bret stilles finally jhon red and 1seule killer but do party official displays (google translation lol) sorry

Its brett partridge, and from my evidence I recorded the episode and rewinded it multiple times. The guy that was cut up by RJ was way to big and chunky to be partridge. I believe the guy on the ground that cut up was reede smith and because partridge was at the house thats why lizbon said partridge because thats who was on the map at the house. And brett partridge is just weird and his voice is similar to the call jane got. please email me if you disagree or agree.

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.