I just saw episode 2 of this season and, although knowing that sheriff McAllister was revealed as Red John, I still think it’s Partridge and that his death in the season premiere is a ruse.


It’s like the plot of the book “And Then There Were None” where all
of the suspects supposedly died, only to have one of them turn out to be
the killer, after they staged their own death.
Bruno Heller has stated that “[i]t was very important that Partridge
die at this point in the story.” And I think that is so that he would no
longer be a suspect.


The way Partridge died, also does not seem in keeping with a Red John
murder. He was found in a closet? No red smiley face to strike terror
into the person that finds him before the body is discovered? That’s his
classic M.O. and this doesn’t resonate with that.

Also Partridge is
partially alive when Lisbon finds him. Alive enough to quote William
Blake. When is the last time Red John left someone half-dead?
I think Partridge is Red John, and is working with someone (McAllister), who
helped him stage his own death to cast off suspicion. Bruno Heller
stated of the final scene of episode 1 that “embedded in that scene is a
big clue to the identity of Red John that will pay off big time later.”
If you watch closely.

The person who Jane is talking to is different
from the person holding the phone, indicating that there are two people
there.

The person who paints the smiley face on Lisbon is not the real
Red John. First, he paints it on her face (huh?), Second, he uses only
two fingers instead of three (which both Jane and Partridge would know),
finally, he paints the smiley face counter clockwise, not clockwise
like in other Red John murders. That is the clue that I think Heller
wants to give, but he distracts us with the red herring of the bloody
blade.
One other clue which may or may not be relevant is the title of the
next episode Black Winged Red Bird which refers to a Scarlet Tanager.
The Scarlet Tanager is a poem written by James Russell Lowell, a
romantic poet like William Blake who wrote “The Tyger” which Red John
often quotes as well as painted “A Brace of Partridge.”


Far from casting off my suspicion, Partridges apparent death only
seals it more for me that he’s Red John. Bruno Heller also said that we
would be disappointed when we found out who Red John was, and most
people would probably be disappointed if big bad Red John turned out to
be Fangoria watching Brett Partridge. lol