We've already seen Red John. It's the "FBI" guy who was on the few episodes when Jane helped Lorelei escape. He's the man who went with Lisbon to interview Lorelei s mother. Remember when the FBI woman was on the phone with the man in the limo?? She said "it's done". You see him briefly in the limo. That's who it is! He also shook Janes hand in the cbi

Red John has been very subtly been introduced to us in season 5 episode 5 whee a split second shot of him was visible at the end of the episode. He reapeared as a federal agent in season 5 episode 7 and revealed to be Robert Kirkland, homeland security.
He took special interest in Jane 9 years previously whne he joined the CBI team,( please see flashback episode where the FBI agent makes a call to Virgil to cooperate on the Red John file ) and when he met Jane he called him by name and shook his hand and proclaimed they never met but knew him. Also Lorelei mentioned they shook hands, Jane and RJ.
But the flashback did it for me, the purpose of that whole episode was to reveal Red John

Ok, so tonight was, if I'm not mistaken (and please correct me if I am), the first solid link that Red John was a member of Visualize.

Certainly, previous to this, there were potentially ties, but that could be just Red John knowing someone who was in Visualize, or perhaps an unsanctioned Visualize splinter group - much like the Freezone people are an unsanctioned splinter group of Scientology, which Visualize is obviously based off of.  But I digress.


Visualize is about, publicly, self-actualization - being the "best you that you can be".  Now put a sociopath in that situation.  (Aside from those running it, obviously.)

You've got someone who is deliberately making himself into the very best serial killer possible.  But he can't know he's the best, unless he tests himself against others, such as Jayne.

I think it will be revealed that a significant number of Red John's victims (obviously, not all of them) will turn out to be opposed to Visualize, and similarly, a number of the RJ cultists (is there an accepted name for them yet?) will turn out to be people met through Visualize.

As we learned in tonight's episode, Visualize refuses to turn over membership records, so we don't know how many of the known RJ cultists are also in Visualize.  I'm willing to bet money that, if revealed in the show, it will turn out that the correspondence between the two is above 80%.


Now, as to theory...  Ray Halfner did not make himself look good at the end of the episode.  Certainly, he could have said "no", but if it were later learned that he lied, that would make him look bad; worse, in fact, if he had said "yes".

That said, I don't think it's Hafner, though I wouldn't put it past him being a RJ cultist.

Wouldn't someone in that town know who "the kid" working on the farm was? Shouldn't Jane be out interviewing everyone who lives/used to live near the farm?

I agree with Ben. At this point, it shouldn't be hard to find Red John. Think about all the stuff we know about Red John. He hung out at that house near the blind lady. He is not fat or soft. He is not short. We know who many of his associates are.  We know the times and dates of his murders. If his name is on a list, process of elimination should work like magic. 

The last few episodes have introduced, or reintroduced, several suspects: Oscar Ardiles was called to Lisbon's office, Ray Hafner offers Lisbon a job, and CBI Ron is the first to congratulate Lisbon on her 10th anniversary.  

However, one of my favorite theories is that Red John is Ellis Mars.  He was in the episode where the suspect is set on fire but still tells Jane "Tyger,Tyger" before dying.  He also gave Jane a business card with a tiger hand drawn on it.  Now, the barn with the smiley face on it took place in Elliston and much of the story featured Ella's Diner.  Ellis Mars would fit the correct age, too...late 40s or early 50s

So, by next Sunday, Jane should know who Red John is, right...  Think about it – Jane is highly intelligent
and has the entire weight of the CBI and their databases behind him. He has a
list of approximately 400 suspects.  In
addition to all the other things he knows about Red John, he now knows that Red
John was on that farm on particular day (the date on which that woman shot the
one guy) in 1987.  It wouldn't take long
to eliminate most of the list.  The
majority of his suspects will have alibis for that time/place.  (As in they were too young, too old, living
in another state, etc.) The one suspect that has no alibi for that date AND no
alibi for the dates/times of the other Red John murders is Red John. Seems
simple enough. 

I definitley think Red John is Ray Hafner.

Red John was under 30 in 1988 and worked at the farm... Hafner was 21 in 1988 and he acted like he worked at the farm

Visualize and Red John are somehow connected... Hafner is a member of visualize

Maybe when he offered Lisbon that Job he was trying to get her on the Red John Team

Think about it.