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.