Alright this is my CBI Ron theory. It's gonna be kinda long but if you read it all it will make a lot of sense I promise.

I've watched a lot of the mentalist in my day and until browsing this sight I honestly didn't know who CBI Ron was. I always thought that Heller would make Red John someone important because if it was like Reede Smith it would just be kind of a letdown. But after reading some CBI Ron theories they made sense and I'm putting it all together.

Heller said himself that Red John wasn't a main character but more of like a where's waldo in the series. Ron is the ultimate where's waldo. He kinda lurks around and never does anything bad but never anything good either. He is just kind of there. He has always been there, since the very first season.

Heller said that he knew who RJ was from the day he started the series. This makes me doubt that RJ could be Kirkland or someone else who showed up really late in the series. So he introduces Ron early and has him hang around doing literally nothing until boom he's red john and everyone is shocked.

CBI Ron is often absent in Red John episodes, for obvious reasons if you believe this theory. But he's never suspected of anything. He just lurks. That's what makes this so perfect.

So now I have to explain a few things. First I have to explain the list because Heller said we can trust the list. We know that PJ knows someone broke into his bulletin board or whatever with his Red John notes. He probably thought about this in advance because I feel like PJ would be more likely to just keep his thoughts in his head. So after that he guesses that Red John will make a video with that list, so PJ makes the list that he thinks RJ will make. So PJ is actually one step ahead, not the other way around.

Now this is the main thing I have to explain; how CBI Ron is Red John based on the first couple episodes of this season. But before that. I need to talk about the people on the actual list. Kirkland is RJ's main accomplice, and I derive this mostly from the breaking into the notes and another point i will make later. Reede smith, bertram, and mccalister are a tag team trying to catch RJ for themselves or trying to keep PJ from catching Red John for some reason. Haffner and Stiles are just visualize members who know RJ and help him when need be. Partridge is dead.

So this leaves us with Season 6 episode 1, which went down like this. Partridge, a former accomplice, fails Ron somehow, and Ron decides he has to go. So he ties him up bleeding in a closet he can't escape. Lisbon gets a call that she needs to go to this location and Ron knows she will because she sees where Partridge's phone is. So he waits til she gets there, knocks her out, takes her phone, and leaves. When Lisbon is on the phone tracking system Kirkland is being shown as in transit. He is going to the house to do the rest of the work. Ron goes back to CBI to wait for Jane. He looks around for Jane, doesn't find him, and is about to call Jane on Lisbon's phone. Then he bumps into Jane. Jane asks him has he seen Lisbon, he says no and walks off the screen. Immediately Jane gets a phone call. Back at the house Kirkland is painting the face on Lisbon. We know that he does it wrong, showing that he isn't RJ. Plus there are two hands on the knife, so the person there isn't RJ. So Ron is back at CBI talking to Jane with Lisbon's phone.

The "big clue" that Heller talked about in the last scene of S6E1 is the two hands on the knife. Also 666 is a clue somehow, as it is the number of the beast.

This is my Red John theory and it sounds pretty dang good to me. Comment any questions or doubts please so I can develop this theory.