Well, this is it. It's been a long ride of highs and particularly this season some lows, but I have high hopes for tonights episode. I've written some well received theories in the past but have refrained from actually taking a guess at Red John's identity until now. My final guess for the real Red John is none other than everyone's favorite dead forensic investigator: Brett Partridge. I've always deep down thought of him as Red John even if sometimes it seemed too obvious. I thought this was a trait the real Red John would posses, mocking Patrick with just enough questionable behavior to make us think, could it really be him? My gut says yes, so here is my final theory for Red John.
==== Background Story ====
Red John aka Brett Partridge was a distraught youth who became a member of the visualize cult. He was fascinated by the abilities of the higher ups such as stiles to seemingly control people's minds and behavior with hypnotism and other tricks. He learns from them and Brett Stiles realizes that Partridge is dangerous but tries to continue to help him anyway. Red John begins murders such as those which occurred at the Farm which were his first. Red John's smiley face is clearly influenced from the ascension ceremony Brett Stiles performed of which I am sure there were others throughout the years of a similar nature. The resemblance between how Red John constructs his smiley and what Brett Stiles did to the face of the second girl at the ceremony were uncanny (Both even use 3 fingers of the right hand to draw the blood on the face.) After the first murders occur, Brett Stiles realizes Red John is too dangerous to stay amongst the Visualize members and asks him to leave but continues to support and mentor him nonetheless. This is how Brett Stiles has seemingly had dynamite information on Red John throughout the show and knows how Red John thinks. Tonight's episode Blue Birds I believe is a reference to the blue shirt uniform of the Visaulize members and will center heavily around Viisualize and Red John back story.
What sets all of this in motion can be added to by an extended scene from the show's pilot. While on the talk show, Jane further describes Red John, but I believe this was cut because it made the suspect too obvious and sounded like Patrick Jane knew rather than was faking a psychic ability. Patrick states, "He is a very ordinary looking man, mid thirties, medium height, thinning brown hair. He’s methodical and tidy, keep himself very clean. He has a small speech impediment that he’s deeply ashamed of. He works at a clerical job, and lives with his mother or a sister in a single story blue house with a citrus tree in the front yard. Lemon, I think""
I believe it is this description which prompted Red John to kill Jane's wife and daughter. Not because Jane was clearly a fraud, but because this description was so spot on of Red John aka Brett Partridge, that he had to convince himself Jane wasn't psychic and leave him that taunting note. In doing this he was able to not only regain the upper hand but convince Patrick that his "fake" power had caused a tragedy when in fact it was his seemingly real power which spooked red John. I also believe this explains Red John's fascination with Patrick all these years, that he thinks Patrick might have some kind of actual power.
==== The Theory ====
This theory starts back with the death of Bosco and his team. I suspect the secret Bosco whispers to Jane which Jane apparently has never told anyone was this: He kept some of the evidence against Red John which Rebecca stole before sending it out for analysis. Unfortunately, it doesn't match anyone on record as Red John is too careful to be in the system. However, Bosco told Jane that if he could get a Red John suspect's DNA, he would be able to verify if it was in fact Red John. Patrick holds on to this evidence and this information for a crucial time when he is ready to set his plan in motion.
Fast-forward to season 6 episode 1, Jane has all but concluded that Brett Partridge is Red John and their confrontation at the dunes where Partridge asks Jane why he's been sullen with him lately and Patrick responds with "You really don't know?" Partridge realizes Patrick is on to him and sets into motion his own plan to fake his death before Patrick can kill him. This leads to the scene where Partridge is wounded at the house (But to me, doesn't really appear fatally wounded, just bleeding) before Theresa is abducted. Partridge wounds himself just enough to make it believable for Lisbon before having an accomplice help subdue her. (It's always been rumored there were two people in the room with Lisbon while Red John is on the phone with Patrick.) Red John then makes the one mistake Patrick has been waiting years for: He paints Lisbon's face with his own blood, as Red John would have done if he killed Partridge and painted the face on Lisbon. This gave Patrick the opportunity to get Red John aka Partridge's DNA to compare against the evidence from Bosco. This is why everyone felt that scene felt a bit weird when Patrick wipied the blood off of Lisbon's face. It wasn't out of concern for her as many thought, it was because he knew he had finally gotten his shot to prove Partridge was Red John.
Patrick then confirms Partridge is indeed Red John with the DNA taken from Lisbon and realizes he will now have to set into play a long con, of which Red John is also forming one of his own. Patrick continues with the remaining suspects all the while knowing none of them are Red John in order to convince Partridge he has succeeded in faking his death. When Patrick gathers all the suspects at his house, Red John worries about Stiles coming clean before he dies and hatches a plan to outwit Patrick once again. Red John stages the explosion and removes everyone from the room before the real bomb goes off to prevent Stiles (or Haffner had Stiles confided in him) from telling Jane the truth to save themselves.
it is at this point that Red John coerces or hypnotizes McAlister into the events which unfold at the church. This is why McAllister is so unconvincing as Red John and never even truly admits it himself. In fact, when offered the chance to gloat, he specifically uses phrasing that indicates he is not Red John. For example, "That's why your wife and child are dead" instead of "That's why I killed your wife and child". And when Jane comes out and says "You're Red John." McAllister says nothing, he just menacingly looks back. Additionally, if we take Jane at his own word from just a few episodes earlier he quotes "Red John would never break like that, not even as an act" which McAllister most certainly does by begging for his life, calling the police, apologizing for the murder of his wife and child etc. This to me clearly indicates the McAllister, while likely the real head of the Blake Association, is decidedly not Red John. Red John simply used his knowledge of the Blake Association to his own advantage and as a device to distract Patrick from his trail. This is why he sets it into Patrick's head back in the Season 2 finale when he recites the Tiger Tiger poem.
Jane proceeds to kill McAllister which is a bit dark, but I believe he knew he had to do this ever since he was kidnapped by Bob Kirkland. When Kirkland says there is a difference between him and Patrick in that he's willing to kill 7 people to get the job done, Patrick says nothing but realizes that he too may have to be willing to kill bad people in order to get to Red John. McAllister definitely is a bad guy who was probably done countless terrible things as part of the Blake Association, and Patrick makes the decision that in order to fool Red John for sure, he has to proceed with killing the man who claims to be Red John, lest he tip Red John off to the fact he know McAllister was a fake and Red John become wise to his plot.
Around this same time, Jane orchestrates the closing of the CBI by the FBI to rid himself of many of Red Johns sources of information and additionally get more information on his friends in the FBI. An astute viewer can recognize Patrick's tell-tale sign of hypnosis when he taps Abbot on the arm as their cleaning out the CBI and Abbot momentarily seems a bit dazed and confused. Patrick then orchestrates using the encoded list to bring himself back into the fold to continue his long con. Red John doesn't like this and gets a bit nervous as Patrick had seemingly lost all semblance of a life during the two years he was a fugitive. As Brett Stiles once said "It sounds like he's jealous, Patrick. It sounds like... he wants to take away everything and everyone that you care about. It's a form of love, you know?" At this point for Jane, that list only consists of one person really: Lisbon. As such, Red John has one of his friends from the FBI Marcus Pike proceed to try to take Lisbon away from Jane and once again leave him with nothing but Red John's potential friendship.
This all leads up to tonight's episode where their cons will finally come to a head and the real Red John will be revealed once and for all.
==== Conclusion ====
That's my theory everyone and Brett Partridge will always be Red John for me, even if Heller never fixes any of this. Thanks for making this show even more entertaining over the years everyone, even if it did go downhill these last few months. This time last year, the site would have been full of theories today as the season finale approaches. Let's just hope tonight will answer a lot of our questions. Cheers.
