After I've shown you my theories about Partridge and Haffner, I want to show also my theory about GALE BERTRAM.
I have to admit it: maybe I’ve got rid of Bertram too much quickly in my previous thoughts. But now, Bertram strongly comes back among the main suspects, one of the two who could be Red John more likely.
Partly revaluating my old analysis, let’s see the evidences about him.
He appears for the first time in the episode 3x01 and he immediately opens defining Patrick “Boy Wonder”, just as he was known during his shows in his youth.
Patrick recognizes Bertram’s quotation from Mao Tse-tung: nothing so original telling the truth, even if it denotes a certain culture of the character. We’re going to see a more significant example.
Just see another curious detail before do that: during that same episode Patrick reveals to Lisbon his impression about Bertram. Patrick says “I got a weird vibe the first moment I met him."
He also appears in other episodes, but the one in which he surely arises a lot of suspicions is the 3x16. Approximately at the end of the episode Bertram quotes two verses from a poem by William Blake.
The poem is “"A cradle song” and it is part of the collection “Songs of Innocence”. This collection is published along with the collection “Songs of Experience” which represents its antithesis. In this second collection there is the poem “The tyger”, quoted by Red John.
Partridge's literary references are much more subtle than Bertram's, which looks like a gaudy clue. But in that exact moment Bertram's quote was a tool to misguide us about the mole who had killed Todd Johnson: authors wanted us to believe it's Bertram because of that poem and when the trap at the hotel was carried out, that suspect seemed to be confirmed.
Then, suddenly, the real mole came out: O’laughlin.
So, that’s the question: was the poem only a red herring or it also was a clear clue to point at Bertram as Red John? Who knows!
Moreover we actually know that it’s been Bertram who had peached to JJ LaRoche the love story between Hightower and one of the cops killed by Todd Johnson. And since Todd was working for Red John and since he told that there was a reason for what he did, we might think that it’s been Bertram who had indicated him which cops had to be killed in order to have some elements to catch Hightower.
If that's true, then the full event regarding Todd Johnson and the hunt for the mole are part of Red John’s plan: He knew that Patrick would have look for a “mole”; he knew he would have been among the suspects etc…
Someway, his plan provided for both the trap for Hightower and Timothy Carter's playing his role.
I’ve always have doubt about the reason why Red John wanted Hightower’s death, it could be a reason that still has to be explained.
Let’s analyze now the last two episodes of the 3th season, “Strawberries and cream”.
At the beginning of part 1 we get to know that it’s Bertram who requested the presence of the CBI on the crime scene. Soon after Bertram tries to pass off the bomb stuff as an isolated accident, attempting to deflate the importance of the fact, to preserve image of the nation (or so it seems to be). But since the issue will prove to be linked to Red John, it raises some doubts.
Even more when we watch the end of the episode: Bertram asks Lisbon explanations about the way they’ve arrived to the guilty. It’s possible to perceive a certain shade of annoyance, cause he says “How the hell did Jane know that it was the gas station attendant?”
Then he asks what was so important about the stolen client list, and just after understanding they didn't know, he tries to put an end on it, saying that with the culprit dead, the case is as good as closed. If Bertram was involved, this would explain why he have requested CBI’s presence on the crime scene: they had to take the list and then one of them would have fallen into the bomber’s trap, in order to recover the list from the CBI evidence storage. Because it did not have to look like an inside job of a mole once again.
We can now pass to the part 2, an episode which will remain among the most memorable of the whole series.
We find out that Bertram is in the list of the five suspects to be the mole and Lisbon tells him one of the fake locations of Hightower: in this scene we can see Bertram sipping some tea and holding in his hand the same newspaper that Timothy Carter held in his hand the following day.
Later Bertram is effectually suspected to be the real mole and Patrick throw the bait: he and Bertram have to meet Hightower.
From that moment will be a cycle of well-known events perfectly explicable without the implication of Bertram. But let’s try to reconsider everything supposing Bertram is Red John and that he has organized everything. Let’s see how could everything be explained: since O’laughlin was his mole, maybe Bertram has immediately understood it was a trap, cause they’ve received two different addresses. So the rope in the killer's bag could be a countermeasure to be one step ahead. Meanwhile O’laughlin has discovered the real Hightower’s hiding place and Van Pelt has brought him with her in order to having an help in the surveillance. We can’t see the moment when Patrick has told Bertram the meeting place, but it must had occurred. otherwise how could Bertram (suspected to be the mole) have informed Red John? Once known the place, he’s been able to organized his plane against Patrick. Here everything become more complex cause, if Bertram was really Red John, then he would have planned O’laughlin’s sacrifice, without his consciousness.
Only through O’laughlin’s death, it would have developed the series of actions which has brought Patrick face to face with Timothy Carter. If so, then it could explain why just when his trap to catch Hightower was working, Bertram has instilled in Patrick the clue about the rope, relying on Patrick’s deductive skills. Above all, the authors said it has been the most important scene of the series, and maybe it will be until the end. Since Bertram is the only one, among the seven suspects, to have attended on that scene, I wonder if that affirmance by the authors was an ulterior hint on him.
Or maybe they were bluffing, because in that moment the 4th season had still to broadcast.
If this isn’t a bluff, we have to consider that Bertram has left Patrick just when Carter has arrived, and meanwhile he could have spoken to the guard, telling him to take Carter's gun and phone away from the crime scene.
Bertram appears, during the 4th season, in the first two episodes.
In the first one he wants Patrick to be imprisoned; he provides many correct reason from his point of view; but if Bertram was Red John, his bitterness would be perfectly understandable.
We discover that one of the guards has taken Carter's gun and phone to catch Patrick; The disappearance of the phone also makes it impossible to ceck the contact list to find the number of the real Red John.
The second episode immediately begins with Patrick e Bertram who is expressly angry for what was happened and he assigns Patrick to Ray Haffner; Patrick points out that it's a little perverse that Bertram was rehiring him and he was firing Lisbon, but Bertram gives him a quick answer.
Later Haffner tells Cho that Red John thing really pissed Bertram off.
Next, our good old LaRoche, just before discovering Sally Carter’s “suicide”, deplores the fact that Bertram has treated Lisbon poorly and also the fact that Bertram never solicits his opinion on such matters.
At the end of the episode Bertram removes Haffner from his assignment cause he has not been able to control Patrick: we can notice Bertram has perfectly understood each detail of Patrick’s trap, including the attempt to make him feel foolish in revenge for Lisbon’s firing.
At the end he accepts to reemploy Lisbon in order to keep Patrick in the CBI. That’s because he solves the cases, or at least so he says.
Anyway Patrick has already caused many troubles but he firmly remains in his job place.
New season and new trouble: CBI’s agents and FBI’s agents have been fighting at a crime scene.
Bertram is really angry one more time, and he warns Jane he is down to his very last chance to remain in the CBI.
Then Bertram says he will do his best to keep Lorelei Martins under the CBI custody… but, practically, what happens?
First Lorelei is taken by the FBI, then Patrick manages in carrying Judge Manchester on his side to recover Lorelei’s custody, but meanwhile someone has blackmailed the guard who was transferring Lorelei to relocate her to another prison, obviously far from Jane.
In the third episode of the 5th season we discover that Bertram uses to play poker with a circle of bigwigs that includes also the FBI’s director Charles Bailey and the FBI agent Gabe Mancini. Two men in the FBI among whom there could be the famous Red John’s "friend".
We also have to keep an eye on Alexa Schultz even if she doesn’t look to be in good relationships with Bertram reposing on their dialogue in the episode 5x01: she doesn’t look as a "friend" who’s speaking to her master. So either Alexa is not a Red John’s accomplice or she is, but in this case Bertram couldn't be Red John.
But let’s come back to the poker. In the episode 5x14 Gale seems to be stranded cause he hasn’t success in bluffing against Judge Manchester. So Patrick gives him bluff lessons that will be paying. It really seems Bertram needed that help. But if he was Red John, that would be an act.
There wouldn’t be a good reason to perform this farce, unless he wants to appear less smart than he really is. I can’t image Red John who needs poker lessons. Maybe Bertram just wanted to test the relationship between the members of the team: actually he has immediately understood that Patrick’s help has arrived just to make him agree to sponsor Van Pelt’s program.
Lastly, let’s pass to the episode 5x16, the one in which Lorelei was killed: Bertram cooperates with Kirkland conferring him the investigations on Lorelei Martins.
They seems to be quite accomplice because, just after speaking with Lisbon, Kirkland asks Bertram if they can trust her. Bertram answers “can we trust anyone?”
If Kirkland was someone who really wants to catch Red John, then Bertram could have a dig at him, using those words. Either that words were referred to Lorelei who betrays him by the end of the episode, so he has no option but killing her.
But Bertram really could be honest and he could be really well intentioned to catch John with the help of Kirkland.
Last note: Lennon was a good fisherman, good enough to appear on the cover of a specific magazine. Bertram is a fisherman too, and we can deduce this by the trophy he has in his office.
There is also another trophy, a manikin with the left arm outstretched in the air, but I can’t figure out what it is.
I think that’s all we can gather about Bertram.
As I’ve said, he returns among the main suspects to be Red John; we’ll see how it will turn out.
