Been a while since I posted here. But thought I'd share something to eliminate a couple suspects from the list of 7 names (even though I believe that list is fake and Heller, as usual, is trying to deceive us, just like he did in the previous season finale interviews.)

Do any of you remember Ashley Gable? She was one of the writers and executive producers for the show for the first 4 seasons. She wrote one of the best RJ episodes, "His Red Right Hand". And she was the one who said we had to look at RJ "like Waldo" (it was her, not Heller).

But most importantly, she said RJ "had already been visible in prior episodes" (yup, plural), before season 4 premiered. In addition, Heller mentioned in an interview last year (for the season 4 finale) that "Red John may have already been cast" and that we "may have already seen him". I know this contradicts one of my previous statements, but note that he didn't confirm it (like he did with the list), he mentioned it as a possibility.

So, neither Kirkland, nor Reede Smith, nor Haffner could be RJ, since they were introduced in seasons 4 and 5. However, Kirkland is one mysterious character, but his obsession with RJ, him warning Lisbon of Tommy Volker (telling her to back off) and his "can we trust her?" conversation with Bertram, make me think he's either a RJ associate (which I hope isn't true, since the whole "associates" thing is getting repetitive) or someone trying to get personal revenge or a very big promotion. Who knows? Haffner fits the profile too, and his connection with Visualize is something we can't overlook.

Also, if you take Gable's words literally (meaning she meant we had seen RJ more than one time by then - although it'd be too obvious to say we had only seen RJ in 1 episode), there's the Sheriff. By the season 5 premiere, we had only seen him in 1 episode (S01E02). I think it'd be safe to rule him out.

Then there's Stiles, Partridge and Bertram left. We had seen all those in more than 1 episode in the first 3 seasons. Although I honestly don't think it's any of them, they have enough reasons to be suspects. I liked Max Winter, CBI Ron and Ellis Mars better.

Anyway, even though this season finale was very disappointing (all of the other season finales had bigger reveals and more action-packed scenes), I can't wait until next season. I think we'll quickly know truly how RJ got the exact names on the list - after all, The Mentalist has always enjoyed finding rational explanations to supernatural phenomena. Don't be silly, they ain't giving RJ no superpowers... yet.

Also, worth mentioning: I liked that theory about the 2 different lists (the real one seen at the ending of the episode after Red Sails in the Sunset, and the fake one created around the time of The Red Barn, if I'm not mistaken). Something I just came up with: Patrick says, since his wife and child were killed, he met an exact number of people, in 2 different episodes, Red Barn and Red John's Rules, both times to Lisbon. If he was lying (if the second list is actually just a con), he could have just made up fake numbers. Did he mention the exact same number both times? I need to redownload those episodes.