I think after last night's episode we can fairly nicely discount several of the list of 7 as has been pointed out by many of you already.
Namely:
1) Reede Smith: This is the gimme, its not him
2) Haffner and Stiles: I'll get to McAllister further down
So who is left:
1) McAllister
2) Partridge: I really don't think its him, lots of great Partridge theories, but I just can't see how they miss him staging his death again
3) Bertram: Doesn't seem right for him to be Red John, especially given Red John set off the bomb. Post explosion he is off balance and on the run. Doesn't make much sense for him to have set off that bomb.
Now, to why I believe its McAllister (though admittedly I think as we've all pointed out, nobody really knows):
- It all comes down to the explosion scene, first you have to ask the question of why set off that explosion, if its to kill Jane then its inelegant and not like Red John. However if it was done to make himself disappear then it the move of a true showman. In essence it says that Red John is willing to walk into a meeting with Jane where he knows that Jane holds the upper hand and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. I like to think that this is what Red John is doing in this scenario.
- If we take this approach to the bombing scenario the next question we might have then is why I assume that McAllister and not Haffner/Stiles are Red John. I rewatched the final scene of 6.6 very closely. Let's make one assumption here, Red John carries the bomb in on his person, its a small, high grade device that is easily concealed. I think McAllister leaves the bomb under his hat once he gets up to be a part of the line-up. Now if you watch carefully, McAllister crosses to the point furthest away from his hat, but also right next to an open door. Now, if Jane is between McAllister and the bomb/Haffner/Stiles, how does McAllister's corpse end up being charred beyond recognition. It just doesn't make sense. If anything he should have been shielded most from the blast. Now I do realize that we still don't know the significant of the gunshot and what happened in the interim, so this does leave room for more happening than we have been privy to seeing.
- Now lastly, if McAllister is really alive then where did a charred body come from and the DNA. I think this is where one has to stretch the farthest, though I would argue not nearly as far as the BP theories. PJ and RJ are chess masters who anticipate each others moves in advance. RJ knows that this meeting that Jane is setting up with the suspects is his big reveal, hence why he constructs the bomb to make himself disappear. RJ also knows PJ psyche, he knows that the place to reveal his wife and daughter's killer will be at the scene of the crime. It makes sense for the grieving widower out for revenge to take his suspects back to the place where it all happened. We know that with his power in law enforcement and his ability to manipulate/hack that changing the sample DNA in the database would not be difficult. Neither potentially would be obtaining a body from a morgue and stashing it in advance behind/under the couch where he would be sitting. Admittedly, that is where the biggest stretch comes in to play, but I do think that its doable.
We won't truly know until next week, but I'm glad we are all enjoying the process of the final reveal.
