Who is Red John?

Theories of Lily (4)

Some unanswered questions, which I hope will all be answered in a *super-episode of brilliance*:

-- What was wrong with Lisbon's arm in s5? It was mentioned briefly, and never mentioned again (I think I said before, if they can semi-cover Amanda Righetti's pregnancy for a season, surely they can cover a real-life broken arm)

-- Why did GVP and Rigsby get married so quickly?

-- Who is Carmen Lee / Leigh? - this could be a hypnotists trigger word

-- Why does Haffner insist on touching people on the shoulder? - this is a well known touch trigger for hypnotists and NLP practitioners 

-- If Sheriff McA is deadly afraid of pigeons, how could he have killed Partridge and stunned Lisbon in that pigeon infested room?

-- Where is Kristina Frye, and could she be GVP's aunt?

-- Will we ever see GVP and Rigsby again?

-- Why has the title for ep13 not been released?

-- Did Jane really expect Lisbon not to tell GVP, and GVP not to tell Rigsby, and Rigsby not to tell Cho about the list? Of course not, as a master people-reader, he would have known... so was it even the correct list?


Questions I'm not bothered about:

-- How did RJ know the list? If PJ can create the list using logic, so can RJ - if the final point above is true, and Jane knew that the list would be shared, maybe he was looking to out a mole...

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Wouldn't it be funny if BH still hadn't decided who RJ was, and instead was using the theories on this board, and others like it, to plan the ending?

Choosing the best bits of fan-fiction, to craft the ending that would thrill us the most?

I doubt it, my sinking feeling is that TM has sold-out, cut and shut the case disappointingly and moved-on.

But I would LOVE a twist, a real 'whoooah, how, what, who...really? Oh my...it all makes sense' ending.

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Was Thomas McAllister Red John?

The case for:
- He has been in the series since (nearly) the beginning
- His relationship with Jane has always had an undercurrent of distrust
- He was a leading member of the Blake Assoc.
- To have the 'bad guy' outted as a weakling who begs for his life makes a certain sense (like the Wizard of Oz when the curtain is drawn back to reveal the real wizard, or Rebecca De Winter) - the Red John we have believed in, is the Red John that Patrick has created for us
- Heller has mentioned in an interview that he only knew who Red John was in the last year(s) and so it makes sense that the ending is a little sloppy and ultimately disappointing


The case against:
- I am skeptical that McAllister has the power, intelligence, charm or charisma to manipulate so many people (including Patrick)
- There are too many unanswered questions (they've been listed on various theories, but my top ones are):
1. Where is Michael Kirkland?
2. Was it Michael or Robert Kirkland that killed Jason (it makes little sense for Robert to kill him, if he was hunting for RJ himself)
3. Was it Michael or Robert Kirkland that got shot in the back?
4. What was wrong with Lisbon's arm in s5?
5. Is Lisbon a member of the Blake Assoc (she did play poker with some high-ranking officials in s5)
6. Was it really Partridge in the final frame of s6 e8?

Either way:
Red John has achieved what he may have set out to achieve, he has made Patrick a murderer, first Timothy Carter now McAllister, to underline how similar he and Patrick actually are.

I would love to think this is part of a well thought out twisty-plot, and that it will unravel beautifully in the remaining episodes. I would especially like to think that we haven't been carrying on our own investigations, in our own homes, based on false clues.




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Heller has said that we’ll be ‘disappointed’ when we find out who Red John is… and to be honest I’d be disappointed if it was any of the seven, they are either too obvious (Stiles Haffner and Kirkland) or too feeble (Partridge) or too underdeveloped as characters (McAllister and Smith)….what about Bertram?…well he did know the words to Tyger, Tyger, but this type of misdirection wouldn't be uncommon in a show of this complexity. 


The ‘hero is the villain’ approach has been overused in film and TV – but it’d still be kinda cool if Jane was Red John.


Wouldn’t it be super cool if it was Lisbon? Just imagine her face, turning to camera to admit it was her all along. That’d be some dark-shizz.


All the usual reason that someone could not be Red John (too feeble, too dead, too good, too short, too young, too old, too close to Jane etc.) cease to count in this case because RJ is cast as a master manipulator and if anything; the series has told us not to accept any information at face-value.

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