i come here every so often to entertain my mentalist thoughts. yet, recently, i have to come to the conclusion that most of you, with all due respect, are dumb.
(referring to those still on the bertram/mcallister bandwagon)

why, suddenly, are all these over-confident speculations on said suspects becoming more prevalent? particularly after watching this 21sec trailer.. it irks me

we're talking about bruno heller here. an artist. a genius who has created and developed a fictitious persona who we've all grown to despise yet revere; red john is a character i will tell the next generation about. what an honour it would be to play the character.
anyway,
sure, it's been developed in such a way that the reveal will not live up to the hype. such a way that no matter who is revealed there will be controversy and uproar. heller went too deep, yes. but i think we can all trust he made this reveal as exciting and as best he can.

so do you really think that gale bertram, publicly announced, is jane's archnemesis?
or, just as bad, do you still believe the snippets from a cleverly edited trailer have revealed red john?
ala: they showed a bald man.. twice! it looks exactly like the sheriff!

in fact, it should mean the exact opposite: these 2 are not red john
that's why it baffles me why some of you say they are.
yes, sure, they could be red john.. ANYONE could be red john. this is the mentalist after all, and bruno heller could pull off a double bluff..??? consequently creating one of the worst plot conclusions in the history of tv (did i actually say that)
but ultimately, i'm saying--don't trust what you see. especially in cheeky trailers

yeah it may not be partridge either but at least i wasn't as gullible as some of you were in thinking it could actually be one of those two bald breadbaskets

prediction:
*the bald man(men) we have seen are not red john and are all part heller's reveal
*the altercation in the church is not with red john and jane is revealed to have been 2 steps ahead in recent times (red john has always been smarter up until the end of season 5)
*jane finally meets his goliath in an empty park and erotically strangles him but bertram and lisbon catch up to him to witness the intimacy (i predict this because jane has promised to lisbon and bertram that they be there when the moment arrives. and jane has always been true to his, correct?
theyve created jane into a character who chooses his words carefully and i cant see that changing)

*then some more people die and jane is hiding for ages yadadafafaa blurgh this new main fbi reaches out to jane and the whole team is reformed in some way minus one or two. then the writers begin progress on jisbon when they really should be trying to get tunney and righetti in a lesbian porno
who really cares i'll be fappin in all my red john glory after he dies

red john: hello, patrick
GAHHHHHHH!!!1

Honestly, 

I'm really disappointed.
Seven suspects, we have four of them who are really interesting: Bret Stiles, Brett Patridge, Bob Kirkland and Ray Haffner. Then, we have three boring characters, Smith, Bertram and McCallister. 

It's difficult to believe but the four interesting suspects are dead and we have just the three boring suspects. It has been something difficult to understand, because with the huge final on the fifth season they had a lot of possibilities. I'm just hopping that Bret Stiles or Brett Patridge dead's has something hidden.   

Watching the promo of the 6x08 chapter ("Red John"), I realized that Gale Bertram and Sheriff McCallister can't be Red John. Do you imagine? The most important serial killer running, breaking windows like a vulgar thief...?  I don't think so. 

Red John has been a genius, Red John has been surprising us during all this time. Please, I hope he is not going to be killed so easy. I want to be fascinated about this last red john's era chapter. I want to see how Bret Stiles or Brett Patridge are still alive, please tell us something different. 

Come on, six years looking for Red John, I don't want to see how he is killed by a bullet in a church. I want to see Red John tricking Jane a last time, I want to see how we have all been tricked. If Bertram, McCallister or Smith are Red John the best thing we can do is consider the third season as the last one. 

The other day a friend told me, imagine Jane killing Bertram, thinking that Red John is dead. And then, Red John kills someone else, so we see Patridge being Red John and Stiles as his father. It would be fascinating!!

I know the most probably is that I'm wrong. But I still hope Bret or Brett to be Red John.

Out here In Bermuda Triangle all I do is watch Mentalist

Here is what I think happened: Gale Bertram, McAllister, and Smith all work for Tyger Tyger.

Gale Bertram, McAllister and Smith ALSO work for Robert Kirkland. Robert planted spies in Tyger Tyger so he could uncover the conspiracy. Who convinces Minelli to retire? It can be seen in season 2, its Kirkland! Then Bertram arrives later :) In the episode, Gale Bertram leaves a flash drive, full of names of everyone in Tyger Tyger in the safe. Red John thinks Bertram is playing a loyal footsoldier in pretending that he's Red John. However Bertram is complying with Patrick's plan. Patrick has been sedated. He's completely unharmed from the blast. Gale Bertram is completely unharmed. Reede Smith is completely unharmed then takes a freaking bullet for Patrick's plan- he's a stand up hero. Patrick doesn't need to tell Bertram to go and play his role well. Bertram is a stand up guy, acting for the greater good.

However this is what we think happened in the house.

Ray Haffner is told to lift up his shirt properly, revealing a vertical tattoo. Patrick fires a gunshot pointing above him. The bullet makes Haffner scream, even though it missed. Lisbon's phone is bugged by Red John. He hear's Haffner plead and the bullet. Later he hears Patrick blew everyone up. Remember who Patrick helped in episode 2? A weapon designing company. Its about time Patrick gets a reward for doing all those cases.

There's a long pause between the bomb and the bullet. Patrick issues orders to McAllister. McAllister kidnaps Bret Stiles and Ray Haffner. You can see him leaving the scene in another larger car.

Bertram and Reede Smith are ordered by Patrick to become fugitives after they're seen by Lisbon. These are loyal men. They are acting for the greater good. They will do anything to uncover the Tyger Tyger conspiracy, they will give their own lives, or even take others.

At the end of the episode Patrick is done. He has won by destroying Tyger Tyger. Bertram has given CBI the list of names.  and Red John's main Visualize links. McAllister is holding Stiles and Kirkland. HOWEVER by making Red John think he's won, Patrick lures Red John like he did in season 4. When Patrick says to Lisbon "I'm letting go," Red John hears because she's bugged. Red John sends a man on his behalf to say to Patrick "I've won". Patrick shoots him once, but Patrick has known, since Lorelei Martins told him he's met Red John, that Red John is Brett Partridge (Harker's description.) The man in the cathedral is not Red John, but Patrick pretends he is. He shoots him once then shows him mercy.

After that the real Red John is confident Patrick will not kill him, so he agrees to meet Patrick. And I really hope Patrick's blue teacup was not smashed in vain.

loool are you serious? i'm talking to the guy under my post. It's so obvious that Team Partridge is going to win now :D You can't tell me you really think its Bertram? This site should launch an IQ barrier to prevent comments like yours :P

Although it is clearly Mccallister bring chased through the park and ultimately jumping through the window. I believe RJ shows himself to PJ in the church, the person we see waking down the aisle is clearly too small to be Bertram or McCallister. Partridge could easily shave his head to go incognito and we have still too see his face. Also if he had the tattoo m, why go trough the trouble to remove it? Only a need to relive the skin if it isn't there.
One query I do have, nick nordella was meant to be playing a young man in last nights and the next red john episode yet I don't recall him being in it?
Could this be another red herring from the writers!?
Can't wait for next week!
Thanks
Billy

The man in the cathedral is not Red John.

The man Patrick chases in the park is Red John. They are NOT the same person. Also, he was in the cathedral at the end of the last episode. So that will be the beginning of the next episode. The man with the gruff voice is communicating on behalf of Red John. Patrick will pretend to give him mercy, because he KNOWS it's not Red John.

Then Red John, aka Brett Partridge agrees to meet him in the park. PJ chases and slays him. That's my guess.

Notes from the last episode (The Great Red Dragon):

- Why didn't Jane tell about gunshot at house? It was suspicious. Jane was acting and hiding something.

- Bret Stiles was an important man but when he was dead we didn't see any reaction from anybody.We saw people from Visualize whenever an event showed up related with Visualize even if it was small thing.

- We didn't see Partridge's face while looking corpse.

- CBI Ron continued trolling. (whistling, hey boss thing with Gale Bertram)

- What was the meaning of "The Great Red Dragon" name for this episode?