Theories of cdillard72 (4)

Michael Kirkland is Red John.

1. Red John did not save him after his abusing father's death, Stiles did.

2. He entered Visualize and worked at the Red Barn. He did the first killings there. He was 18-22 at that time.

3. Stiles knows Red John identity (we know this for sure and it has been confirmed in several episodes).

4. Michael can utilize Bob's face to act inside FBI/CBI without being seen as an intruder.

5. He fits Rosalind's description (but I never really believed Rosalind's words). 

6. He could be left handed and we have no proof against this... most suspected on the list are right handed so they could be excluded. Only McAllister is left handed.

7. Having an abusing father is almost a good excuse to be a serial killer in hollywood ;)

8. We cannot exclude that Jane and Michael shook hands in the past: Jane may have thought it was an encounter with Bob but it was Michael instead

9. It would be an "acceptable lie" from Heller if Michael was Red John and he was not on the list. Because an identical person to him was in. Let's say that "a Kirkland" was in.

10. Michael was killed by RJ? His body was never found...

11. Bob probably really believes that his brother was killed by RJ. But he may have now the real suspect that his brother IS Red John. That's way he always ask if they recognize him (=his brother). If his brother was killed a long time ago, why would people connected to RJ know him for sure?

Regards
gheba

I submitted this theory before but I made some updates lately...

For me the main question is: Has Heller known who RJ for the last 3 years or is he only trying now to find a "good" RJ that will not disappoint us too much?

In the second case there is not much we can guess and we can only wait. And hope that the RJ plot will be at least interesting if not consequent with all that happened until now...

In the first case, where the writer planned a smart plot and carefully planted hints around the whole five seasons, we can try to find who RJ is by analyzing this hints. I strongly hope that this is the case and Heller is not playing with the plot anymore!

In case Heller did everything correctly, I am pretty sure that he himself wrote the main RJ story line without leaving the job to other screenwriters. My theory is that we should filter the seven suspects against the episodes written by Heller. 

Here is the list of Heller's related episodes (Bruno Heller wrote only 17 episodes):

"Pilot": introduced Brett Partridge
"Red Hair and Silver Tape": introduced Sheriff Thomas McAllister
"Red John's Friends"
"Carnelian, Inc."
"Red John's Footsteps"  
"Redemption"
"Black Gold and Red Blood"
"Code Red"
"Red Sky in the Morning"
"Red Sky at Night": introduced Gale Bertram
"Red Moon"
"Strawberries and Cream"   
"Scarlet Ribbons"
"Cheap Burgundy"
"The Crimson Hat"        
"The Crimson Ticket": introduced Reede Smith.
"Red John's Rules"

Surprise surprise!

Bret Stiles, Ray Haffner, Bob Kirkland were introduced in episodes not written and not directed by Heller! I really think we can exclude them because of this fact and related lesser importance. Why would RJ be presented to the audience by a second level author? The filler episodes are normally the one left to other screenwriters. 

Since I really do not believe he would let the important task to introduce to us RED JOHN to somebody else... I will reduce the original seven persons list to these four:

Brett Partridge
Sheriff Thomas McAllister
Gale Bertram
Reede Smith

Let's talk about Reed Smith: he was introduced just a few episodes ago... there is no way he waited all these seasons to show us Red John. Furthermore, 2 years ago, Heller told us that in season 3 we got a *glimpse* at Red John. Reed Smith can be officially removed since he joined  the show later.

We now have these suspects, and I strongly believe Red John is one of them (not seven suspects anykore but THREE):

Brett Partridge
Sheriff Thomas McAllister
Gale Bertram

Since McAllister has been a very minor character, and in my opinion Patridge was RJ in the first season and then was abandoned because he was too obvious... I would say that Heller's Red John is GALE BETRAM.

This supports many other good theories about him, mostly related to the Season 3 finale. The O'Laughling case, the hotel trick, the rope, the encounter with Timothy Carter happening in the Mall after Betram leaves and so on.

Bruno Heller wrote only 17 episodes.

For me the main question is: did Heller altready know who RJ is or is he trying to find *now* a viable RJ that will not disappoint us too much?

In the second case there is not much we can guess and we can only wait. And hope not to be very disappointed.

In the first case, where he planned a smart plot carefully and planted elements around the whole five seasons, we can try to find who RJ is. I really hope this is the case of course.

In that case, I am pretty sure that Heller wrote the main RJ storyline without leaving the job to his other screenwriters. My theory is that we should filter the seven suspects against this 17 episode list. I would dare to add that RJ was introduced in one of these episodes!

Let me play this game, here is the list of Heller's related episodes:


"Pilot": introduced Brett Partridge
        
"Red Hair and Silver Tape": introduced Sheriff Thomas McAllister
        
"Red John's Friends"
        
"Carnelian, Inc."
        
"Red John's Footsteps"  
        
"Redemption"
  
"Black Gold and Red Blood"
        
"Code Red"
        
"Red Sky in the Morning"

"Red Sky at Night": introduced Gale Bertram

"Red Moon"

"Strawberries and Cream"   

"Scarlet Ribbons"

"Cheap Burgundy"

"The Crimson Hat"        

"The Crimson Ticket": introduced Reede Smith.

"Red John's Rules"


Surprise surprise!

Bret Stiles, Ray Haffner, Bob Kirkland were introduced in episodes not written and not directed by Heller! I really think we can exclude them because of this.

So the original 7 persons list could be reduced to:

Brett Partridge
Sheriff Thomas McAllister
Gale Bertram
Reede Smith

Since Reed Smith was introduced just a few episodes ago and McAllister has been a very minor character, I would dare to reduce the list to

Brett Partridge
Gale Bertram

I am a bit disapponited by both of them :-(

Now I just have to guess...

Brett has been a major suspect (the one that even my mom would suspect from episode one...) so to get at least a bit of surprise I would say that Heller went for GALE BETRAM.

Awful, but I fear that can be the result. After many years of guessing... :-(