Who is Red John

Ok People, here is a list of the Red John episodes:

Season 1: 01, 11, 23
Season 2: 08, 23
Season 3: 03, 09, 16, 23 - 24
Season 4: 01, 02, 07, 11, 13, 17, 23, 24
Season 5: 01, 05, 06, 07, 08, 13, 16, 18, 19, 22
Season 6: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08

People have been complaining that this Red John reveal felt rushed.
If you look at the episode numbers, anyone can see there is a growing frequency in Red John episodes. It's actually nearly perfect placement of Red Johns reveal.

And although Thomas McAllister was not who I thought was going to be Red John, he was only one of two from the list I thought it was, and I knew it was either him or Partridge, because it was always going to be one of the two dead guys.
So I'm not disappointed it's McAllister, because none of the evidence negates it being McAllister.
You at least have to admit that to yourself.

But to me it was a disappointing episode. And not even because, like a lot of people think, Red John turned out to be a bit of a whiny chump begging for his life. But because the way in which he took control of the situation wasn't at all clever. It was just a simple magic trick.
Which you could argue is why it worked. Red John may have been look for some elaborate trap didn't see one, had a false sense of security and that's why he went for it.

However, I much would have preferred a double episode with Jane managing to work out that it was McAllister and catching him.

If Heller had just made Jane somehow force Bertrams hand, catch him and make him believe he was still free, and force Bertram into the position of meeting Jane.

Perhaps if Jane had worked with the CBI, and arranged a scenario where the CBI would get close to Bertram but let him escape a couple of times, really turn up the heat on him and have Jane slip him a phone and Jane tell him,
"I know you're not Red John, but I know you know who he is. Lets arrange a meeting and you can use my car to escape if you tell me who Red John is".
Bertram see's a trap and doesn't trust Jane, but he explains that he doesnt care about Bertram, he only cares about Red John. He doesn't want the CBI to catch him, he wants to kill him himself."
Bertram's desperate.
The the Feds come in and do what they do, and Jane does what he does.
Bertram phones Jane a the park and Jane arranges the meet, tricking Bertram like he does into accepting the church as the meeting place.
When they do meet up, Jane covers his bases in case Red John is watching and is determined that Bertram is Red John to his face and the meet was just a ruse.
Jane claims that the CBI are on their way, knowing that RJ would know they've been disbanded, but Bertram wouldn't. Bertram decides to hurry things along, gets Cordero to pull the gun and so on.
Bertram gets shot, RJ turns up as McAllister, who feels an extra little nugget of pride of outsmarting Jane again when he hears Jane think RJ is Bertram.
And what happens, happens. Jane has the pidgeon because Cordero only padded him down as far as finding the gun.
Then on the grass, by the pond, when McAllister says
"Don't you want to know how I knew the list?" Jane says
"I live, sleep and work in a room surrounded by windows, all you'd need is a telescope. I don't care how you know."
Then with his hand pressing harder on his throat tells him,
"But when you set the concussion bomb in my house, you pulled me, Bertram and Smith to the next room. You placed a decoy body, set of an incendiary bomb and faked your death. That's when I knew it was you." You see confusion on McAllister's face.
"You got Partridge to change your DNA record before you killed him, that's how you fooled forensics. I knew I had you, but I couldn't tell anyone because you'd have run. I had to let you think you outsmarted me again, I had to make you think I thought it was Bertram."
Fear runs across McAllister's face and Jane squeezes more on his throat,
"I knew you'd want him dead. Just like Reed Smith. You always want them dead. And so I used him as my bait. I knew you wouldn't be able to resist coming to see me get it wrong again."
McAllister tries to keep him self alive a few moments longer,
"The list..... I'm psychic...."
Jane puts more pressure on his throat,
"Then you should've seen this coming"
Jane then squeezes the life out of him, as McAllister tries to push Jane off but hasn't the strength and he dies.

If that had happened, I'd have been much happier.

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Simon Baker: "In the season 2 finale, when Jane was captured and Red John did that 'Tyger, Tyger' thing with the mask on? That was me. I played both characters in that scene,"

Well there you go, PJ was RJ after all. LOL

I know lots of people find it disappointing that Heller didn't know who RJ was until a year ago, but I don't. I think it was very clever on his part.

Heller left it open for half a dozen characters, including an unknown one, to be Red John. This kept everyone guessing. As long as he didn't close those characters off in some way with some piece of evidence then the game was still afoot.
If Heller had picked his Red John from the beginning, he may have inadvertently given it away.

And while McAllister was not in my top two choices as Red John, I am not disappointed it was him.
But, after watching storylines like Strawberries and Cream with very complex twists and turns and clever writing, this episode of revealing and killing Red John was exceptionally disappointing.

If Heller had put the effort into making a two parter that was as convoluted as S & C was, nobody would be walking away from this with a frown on their face. They might have preferred a different Red John, but they'd have had a wonderfully clever episode worthy of the capture of Red John. And this was not it.

It was too easy. Too simple. It was, in the end, harder to catch Craig O'laughlin than it was to catch Red John.

Shame.

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Did anyone else notice in the very last 4-5 seconds of Episode 8 of this season, that the sombre and haunting music turns quite sinister?

It starts when a man comes on screen with his hands clasped behind his back as he watches a little girl go down a slide ( we presume his daughter).

I wonder....

Is this is the same man that sits between Jane and Timothy Carter in the red sweater?

Is it too much to ask that the man is in both episodes that Jane thinks he's killed Red John?

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I have to believe that McAllister is not the real Red John.

Bertram says nobody knows who Red John is.
Cordero does.

Almost none of the previous well crafted evidence to Red Johns identity is used in this latest episode.

I can't believe that Red John would be fooled so easily as bartering: Bertram says a place that Jane doesn't want, Jane says a public place that's very bad for Bertram, then offers a quiet places that sounds great in comparison.
It's the same as when you price something you sell too high in order to achieve a lower price that you actually want. Would Red John really fall for this? I doubt it.

This does indeed appear to be an appallingly written episode and I have to believe it's deliberate.

Simon Baker said it was bold/brave to do. And we've all assumed he meant killing Red John.
I have to believe that he meant PRETENDING to kill Red John.

I know some of you have given up. And I know others of you will give this a few more episodes to see where it goes. But I'm going to give it the rest of the 15/16 episodes of the season, and here's why:

Nobody would be foolish enough to kill off one of the biggest serial killers and nemesis' in TV history in the first half of a season and expect us to keep watching.
Nobody would be foolish enough to believe the audience of a show about how an eccentric and sad man solves crimes in an unorthodox way will be OK with that show suddenly being about that man being happy and the the rest of the show being a normal cop show.
And by the way, the only actual Red John episodes of this season were 1 and 8. The ones Heller wrote, because he always writes the Red John episodes. Sure people TALK about RJ in the other episodes, but the only episode in Season 6 with RJ was the first.

To me, this season has been about RJ burning his association with the Blake Association, since Jane had managed to find out about it and at some point someone would know who he was. So RJ had to get it dealt with. And how to people stop looking for RJ? Come up with a convincing person and story for Jane to believe he's found RJ and tell McAllister to take the fall.

The RJ episodes have frequently been the best and most intriguing of this show. This one was awful and seems like Heller couldn't be bothered. I have to believe thats because it was all a set up for Jane to go away, maybe so that RJ could finally retire like he said he would, without anyone searching for him.

However, if by the end of this series, when I get to episode 23, if I don't see a big red smiley face on a wall....

I quit.

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Theories of WasntRedJohn (4)