Season 6 episode 8 is an anomaly in the fabric of reality. It will disturb you and haunt you and make you question your most deep rooted beliefs in life. I was shocked. It is okay if you, as a loyal fan of the series, are shocked too. After watching the episode, as I struggled to make sense of the entire affair, I asked myself the following question and came to these following conclusions.

Who is Red John?

1. Red John is a charismatic, middle aged man, who has soft body and rough hands. I believe this is a true physical description of Red John.

2. He is a great seducer. He seduces people to meet an end. A recurring motif in the show has been Red John's desire to "provide" Patrick with a new life. Is it possible he seduces people by "making their problems go away", and "providing" them with a "new" life over which he has a great degree of control?

3. Unlike other serial killers who have some sort of psychopathy leading to an internal urge to kill, Red John has often exhibited control. In season 5 finale, He says he is going to start killing soon, and more often, until he catches Patrick or Patrick catches him, concluding that he has voluntary control on whether or not he will kill? It must be noted that Red John has resolved to play a game of chase with Patrick in which killings will be performed by Red John as Patrick tries to catch him.

4. Red John created Blake Association to aid him in getting away with his murders. He is not a lawman, but has top level partners in California law enforcement, together with whom he created this association. It is possible these partners are more like his disciples with the hierarchy of the organisation being like that of a pyramid. The Association specializes in providing covers for bad people and serves the dual purpose of bringing more bad people under his chain command who are now dependent on him directly via Blake Association. He "provides" for these people to utilize them to meet an end. Brett Partridge, Thomas McAllister, Reede Smith and Gail Bertram are all members of Blake Association. Rebecca Anderson may or may not have been a member, but was closer to Red John compared to any of the above individuals.

5. Red John has non legal disciples as well. Examples include: Lorelei Martins, Michael Kirkland etc.

These are some major conclusions can be logically drawn from the "facts" alone, presented by the show till season 6, episode 6.

I will discount the physical details and other details we can obtain from the physical presence of Red John from episodes where we see Red John, such as the episode where we see Red John trying to kill Patrick and where he recites "The Tyger", the episode where we see him drinking a cup of tea, the episode we see him poison Rebecca Anderson etc. simply because there is no guarantee that the shown individual was Red John.

I will also discount that Red John has ever shaken hands with Patrick, simply because Lorelei Martins said it. We have never seen her before those episodes so, if she brought the topic up, so casually making the statement as if she was present while Patrick and Red John shook hands and wondered why they didn't become fast friends?, it was because Red John informed and instructed her to do so. This is analogous to the fact that Red John also informed Timothy Carter about the scent of Jane's wife and daughter in order to make him believe that Timothy Carter was Red John. Both these times, Red John tries to make Patrick believe a lie by revealing a truth or truth-like statement and makes him do something against Patrick's general characteristics.

The above facts however, are the very basic and form the core of Red John mythology.

Now, how can we extrapolate from these facts, who Red John is?

The answer is, we cannot.

However, we can verify if a certain individual is Red John or not.

I base this analysis taking into account all the events in The Mentalist from season 1 to season 6 episode 8.

1. Brett Patridge: Perfect age, looks handsome, can be charismatic. Perfect profile for Red John, except he is dead. Hence he is not Red John. He was a member of Blake Association and perhaps indirectly worked for him. But then he went all x_x Anyway, something that bothers me is why did Red John kill Brett Partridge first? He could have killed off Smith or Bertram or anyone else in the list. But, he chose to dispose off Partridge at first, when there was no compelling reason for it.

2. Thomas McAllister: Age mismatches, looks handsome, can be charismatic. Somewhat good profile for Red John. But then Red John is a super smart person, who will never risk meeting Patrick Jane and risk getting killed. Red John may be a pathetic little insect with delusions of grandeur but he is a super smart pathetic little insect with delusions of grandeur. He controls all the variables in an Environment he is present. He will never meet Patrick and get strangled to death.

3. Ray Haffner: A former CBI agent with strong links to visualize. Perfect age. Charismatic. Strong hands. One of the most viable candidate if there was one. He is not a member of Blake Association, which neither makes a case for him or against him being Red John. Very viable. But he is not Red John, because he has been killed off. I don't expect him to return back from the dead. But, if he does, we will know he is Red John. There is something strangely off about him. Was he really as clean and loyal as he projected?

4. Bob Kirkland: Not Red John. He was hunting down Red John and got killed at Reede Smith's hand. A clever play on Heller's part would be to make Bob's twin Michael as Red John hence making all that "Red John is indeed one among the seven in the list of suspects" from Bruno Heller some degree of truth.

5. Gale Bertram: x_x Plus, he is kinda stupid to be Red John. Age mismatches. I wouldn't call him charming or seductive. He more like the loyal dog who will attack at any direction pointed by his Master. He is a hollow bureaucrat who does whatever is necessary to gain promotions.

6. Reede Smith: Just a lowly lackey. He has turned himself in. Doesn't fit any of the descriptions for Red John. Also, he was being chased off by Oscar and was on the verge of being killed, had it not been for CBI.

7. Bret Stiles: Had age not been a factor, I would never be convinced of anyone else as Red John. He fits the profile of Red John, failing only at the age criteria. However, he is dead. Some interesting questions lingering in my mind are a) Was he the father of Red John? b) Is Red John among his first disciples? c) Is he somehow related to Patrick? and my favourite e) Is Red John and Patrick Jane brothers/twins and Bret Stiles their real father?

So, yeah there goes.

And you may have guessed it. My conclusion/hypothesis is that Patrick Jane had a twin brother who is now Red John and Bret Stiles is their father.

Bret Stiles was a psychic show-off, who made a living out of defrauding people. He had two sons Patrick and his twin. When Patrick was young, something separated him from his twin and Bret Stiles, leaving Patrick behind. A sensible direction would be that Patrick Jane's twin was a born psychopath and tried to kill Patrick when he was very young. Bret came in time and saved Patrick but Patrick was left traumatized by the event. So he hypnotized Patrick into forgetting the events, but Patrick remembered everything. So, Bret made efforts until he realized that the only way to stop Patrick from the suffering was to erase his entire memory and send him away (Remember the episode in which a little girl approached Patrick with a message from Red John asking Patrick if he gives up, and Patrick made the girl forget the entire incident. In The Mentalist universe hypnosis is really so powerful that it can erase memory). Bret then hypnotized a man and Patrick making them believe that they were real father and son, whom we see as Patrick's father in his flashbacks. However, Bret kept close watch over Patrick while his twin watched Bret looking at Patrick and grew to resent Patrick even more. However, Patrick retained some intuition or shadow of memories of the "Mental-ism" that Bret performed, and grew up to mold himself into a Mentalist. Also, being Bret's son those came to him quite naturally. Patrick's twin however was equally as intelligent as Patrick and used those "Mental-ism" to create a cult of followers, who loved him and were ready to die for him at his will. Bret however protected Patrick from his twin. Until, ofcourse, that fateful day came, when Patrick came to taunt Red John and spell his doom.

This theory has several advantages:

1. It explains why Red John had such a great deal of control over people. He is a Mentalist too.

2. Being his twin, he would have got the list of seven suspects directly from Patrick's office. Imagine the horror.

3. In fact, being his twin gave Red John the perfect cover. He just hid in plain sight and no one noticed.

4. This explains how Red John knew about the "fond memory" from Patrick Jane's past. He watched the events of the memory happen before his eyes.

These are MY conclusions and I believe the Red John story-arc may have been truly over. But what if it wasn't over? What if Red John was still out there? Could the above be possible?

Hit Green if you agree!!

Season 6 episode 8 is an anomaly in the fabric of reality. It will disturb you and haunt you and make you question your most deep rooted beliefs in life. I was shocked. It is okay if you, as a loyal fan of the series, are shocked too. After watching the episode, as I struggled to make sense of the entire affair, I asked myself the following question and came to these following conclusions.

Who is Red John?

1. Red John is a charismatic, middle aged man, who has soft body and rough hands. I believe this is a true physical description of Red John.

2. He is a great seducer. He seduces people to meet an end. A recurring motif in the show has been Red John's desire to "provide" Patrick with a new life. Is it possible he seduces people by "making their problems go away", and "providing" them with a "new" life over which he has a great degree of control?

3. Unlike other serial killers who have some sort of psychopathy leading to an internal urge to kill, Red John has often exhibited control. In season 5 finale, He says he is going to start killing soon, and more often, until he catches Patrick or Patrick catches him, concluding that he has voluntary control on whether or not he will kill? It must be noted that Red John has resolved to play a game of chase with Patrick in which killings will be performed by Red John as Patrick tries to catch him.

4. Red John created Blake Association to aid him in getting away with his murders. He is not a lawman, but has top level partners in California law enforcement, together with whom he created this association. It is possible these partners are more like his disciples with the hierarchy of the organisation being like that of a pyramid. The Association specializes in providing covers for bad people and serves the dual purpose of bringing more bad people under his chain command who are now dependent on him directly via Blake Association. He "provides" for these people to utilize them to meet an end. Brett Partridge, Thomas McAllister, Reede Smith and Gail Bertram are all members of Blake Association. Rebecca Anderson may or may not have been a member, but was closer to Red John compared to any of the above individuals.

5. Red John has non legal disciples as well. Examples include: Lorelei Martins, Michael Kirkland etc.

These are some major conclusions can be logically drawn from the "facts" alone, presented by the show till season 6 episode 6.

I will discount the physical details and other details we can obtain from the physical presence of Red John from episodes where we see Red John, such as the episode where we see Red John trying to kill Patrick and where he recites "The Tyger", the episode where we see him drinking a cup of tea, the episode we see him poison Rebecca Anderson etc. simply because there is no guarantee that the shown individual was Red John.

I will also discount that Red John has ever shaken hands with Patrick, simply because Lorelei Martins said it. We have never seen her before those episodes so, if she brought the topic up, so casually making the statement as if she was present while Patrick and Red John shook hands and wondered why they didn't become fast friends?, it was because Red John informed and instructed her to do so. This is analogous to the fact that Red John also informed Timothy Carter about the scent of Jane's wife and daughter in order to make him believe that Timothy Carter was Red John. Both these times, Red John tries to make Patrick believe a lie by revealing a truth or truth-like statement and makes him do something against Patrick's general characteristics.

The above facts however, are the very basic and form the core of Red John mythology.

Now, how can we extrapolate from these facts, who Red John is?

The answer is, we cannot.

However, we can verify if a certain individual is Red John or not.

I base this analysis taking into account all the events in The Mentalist from season 1 to season 6 episode 8.

1. Brett Patridge: Perfect age, looks handsome, can be charismatic. Perfect profile for Red John, except he is dead. Hence he is not Red John. He was a member of Blake Association and perhaps indirectly worked for him. But then he went all x_x Anyway, something that bothers me is why did Red John kill Brett Partridge first? He could have killed off Smith or Bertram or anyone else in the list. But, he chose to dispose off Partridge at first, when there was no compelling reason for it.

2. Thomas McAllister: Age mismatches, looks handsome, can be charismatic. Somewhat good profile for Red John. But then Red John is a super smart person, who will never risk meeting Patrick Jane and risk getting killed. Red John may be a pathetic little insect with delusions of grandeur but he is a super smart pathetic little insect with delusions of grandeur. He controls all the variables in an Environment he is present. He will never meet Patrick and get strangled to death.

3. Ray Haffner: A former CBI agent with strong links to visualize. Perfect age. Charismatic. Strong hands. One of the most viable candidate if there was one. He is not a member of Blake Association, which neither makes a case for him or against him being Red John. Very viable. But he is not Red John, because he has been killed off. I don't expect him to return back from the dead. But, if he does, we will know he is Red John. There is something strangely off about him. Was he really as clean and loyal as he projected?

4. Bob Kirkland: Not Red John. He was hunting down Red John and got killed at Reede Smith's hand. A clever play on Heller's part would be to make Bob's twin Michael as Red John hence making all that "Red John is indeed one among the seven in the list of suspects" from Bruno Heller some degree of truth.

5. Gale Bertram: x_x Plus, he is kinda stupid to be Red John. Age mismatches. I wouldn't call him charming or seductive. He more like the loyal dog who will attack at any direction pointed by his Master. He is a hollow bureaucrat who does whatever is necessary to gain promotions.

6. Reede Smith: Just a lowly lackey. He has turned himself in. Doesn't fit any of the descriptions for Red John. Also, he was being chased off by Oscar and was on the verge of being killed, had it not been for CBI.

7. Bret Stiles: Had age not been a factor, I would never be convinced of anyone else as Red John. He fits the profile of Red John, failing only at the age criteria. However, he is dead. Some interesting questions lingering in my mind are a) Was he the father of Red John? b) Is Red John among his first disciples? c) Is he somehow related to Patrick? and my favorite e) Is Red John and Patrick Jane brothers/twins and Bret Stiles their real father? So, yeah there goes. And you may have guessed it.

My conclusion/hypothesis is that Patrick Jane had a twin brother who is now Red John and Bret Stiles is their father. 

Bret Stiles was a psychic show-off, who made a living out of defrauding people. He had two sons Patrick and his twin. When Patrick was young, something separated him from his twin and Bret Stiles, leaving Patrick behind. A sensible direction would be that Patrick Jane's twin was a born psychopath and tried to kill Patrick when he was very young. Bret came in time and saved Patrick but Patrick was left traumatized by the event. So he hypnotized Patrick into forgetting the events, but Patrick remembered everything. So, Bret made efforts until he realized that the only way to stop Patrick from the suffering was to erase his entire memory and send him away (Remember the episode in which a little girl approached Patrick with a message from Red John asking Patrick if he gives up, and Patrick made the girl forget the entire incident. In The Mentalist universe hypnosis is really so powerful that it can erase memory). Bret then hypnotized a man and Patrick making them believe that they were real father and son, whom we see as Patrick's father in his flashbacks. However, Bret kept close watch over Patrick while his twin watched Bret looking at Patrick and grew to resent Patrick even more. However, Patrick retained some intuition or shadow of memories of the "Mental-ism" that Bret performed, and grew up to mold himself into a Mentalist. Also, being Bret's son those came to him quite naturally. Patrick's twin however was equally as intelligent as Patrick and used those "Mental-ism" to create a cult of followers, who loved him and were ready to die for him at his will. Bret however protected Patrick from his twin. Until, of course, that fateful day came, when Patrick came to taunt Red John and spell his doom.

This theory has several advantages:

1. It explains why Red John had such a great deal of control over people. He is a Mentalist too.

2. Being his twin, he would have got the list of seven suspects directly from Patrick's office. Imagine the horror.

3. In fact, being his twin gave Red John the perfect cover. He just hid in plain sight and no one noticed.

4. This explains how Red John knew about the "fond memory" from Patrick Jane's past. He watched the events of the memory happen before his eyes.

These are MY conclusions and I believe the Red John story-arc may have been truly over. But what if it wasn't over? What if Red John was still out there? Could the above be possible?

Hit Green if you agree!

Credit to BillBlake

It should have ended like this if they weren't going to answer any questions.

McAllister appears. They do their crappy dialogue. Then after the pigeon trick by Jane, while McAllister is writhing on the floor, and the small woman enters, Jane says "Hey, you know, I've known you were Red John for years."

McAllister's like "Sure... Then why didn't you kill me?"

Jane slowly backs away from the woman and says shortly with a broad grin, "So I could do this." Jane whistles, and the confessionals on each side open. 2 Bengal Tigers bounce out and encircle the woman and McAllister.

"I've been training them years, for this moment." Jane whistles again, and the Tigers jump and start tearing the woman and McAllister apart. Jane puts on his coolest black sunshades.

 "TYGER TYGER, BITCH!"

Yes the fact the McAllister is RJ is dissapointing but why do you have to keep bitchin about Heller?
Maybe the last episodes were a bit sloppy but it doesn't mean we have to forget about all the other great episodes that have passed!
In my opinion, we should all be thanking Heller for an AMAZING show that took us on adventures, gave us mysteries to solve and introduce us to the one and only Patrick Jane!
Yes we may be wishing RJ was someone else (Ray Haffner for me!) but insulting Heller won't change that.
STOP BITCHIN'. RED JOHN IS DEAD.

I surely do think Red John is dead and done with.

That said, I'm not so sure about Stiles...  Yes, he said he was dying, but perhaps he was getting out of the line of fire so to speak?  If he knew Jane was getting close, and if there was some sort of relationship between Stiles and Red, maybe his dying 'story' would allow him to disappear if Jane found out and defeated Red John...  Maybe Stiles got blowed-up good anyways despite a relationship... 

Tom might have had the DNA records switched with two bodies to save Stiles as well...

Stiles might just be talking the talk when he says he knows more than Pat or John could ever know, but then again, he might be involved--the whole Tyger group... 

I don't know how, but I have a feeling we aren't done with Stiles.  The girl who tried to knife Jane at the end of 'Red John' sounded like she was from Visualize to me.  We also know that Stiles is very manipulative and followed.  That and he definitely has the resources which could have helped a NAPA County sheriff do what he did...  But so did many other members of Tyger I'm sure...

When the FBI rolls in at the end during 'Red John' we see an old man in a suit walking away with white hair...  Waldo?  Stiles?

I think bringing him back would be a smart idea from a writer's perspective--he'd make a good finale.  Stiles would allow the Mentalist to end this season (and possibly series) with some familiarity, yet something new as well.  A link with Visualize could help answer some burning questions we have left over.

So while I think John is gone, Stiles might show himself again...  Perhaps he along with Michael Kirkland...  I don't think that Tom necessarily followed Stiles, but some sort of relationship could clear-up some of our questions...  

But of course, maybe Stiles was just talking the talk.

I read a recent interview from simon baker and Heller.  Heller explains the rationale behind the final Red John episode, its a fitting rationale that fits the framework of that episode.  I watched it again from the perspective of Patrick Jane and I must confess that If I was Jane, I wouldn't be interested in hearing anything about red johns back story or how he knew so much.  I wouldn't want to give him the satisfaction of admiration, all I would be focused on was destroying the man responsible for the death of my loved ones and ending many others lives.  From that perspective I find the episode much more enjoyable and fitting.  However, is this what I wanted to experience?  Most definitely not, I watch these kind of programmes for entertainment, to be transported into a world that is unrealistic and in no way resembles the day to day occurrences of real life and real people.  Heller mentions in his interview that he wanted to show how red john was much like an ordinary man, with fears and vulnerabilities, but does that make a great story?  A wise man once said "don't let the truth get in the way of a good story"  and this should be the core philosophy for all things related to storytelling in the area of entertainment, otherwise.....whats the difference in watching the news!

So now what? Even if it would be the ending of RJ, what will those 10 episodes left be about? Jane doing everything he didnt do fot the past six years?....in this episode we see Jane with his new haircut, in the episode behind we see him dancing with some chic...Whats the point of all of it? There is no more CBI so that means no more crimes to solve and apparently no more RJ.....what will this show be about now?...Jane taking down the tigers? Hope not!....Red John and PJ ARE this show and they cant run away from it. The second RJ dies the show is over and thats how it should be but it isnt for some "mysterious" reason .The only ending of this show should be after RJ is dead....ok,maybe just two episodes behind the Red John episode just to make a fine ending and thats it