I just posted a theory like an hour ago, but I had to add to it:
Not only did Patrick not have to tell his list to Lisbon...He didn't even have to show her the video!!
To me, EVERYTHING about the list of 7 suspects is fishy, and I'll break it down:
1. Why tell Lisbon and the team?? (He knew the team would find out if he told Lisbon)
The only place the list is safe is in his head...Telling other people can only complicate things....having that information in his room is VERY dangerous, especially since people have broken in before...
I go into further detail in my first post, just scroll down a few theories...
2. Why destroy the DVD?
If the video was really from Red John, don't you think that Patrick would try to get ANY and ALL information he could from it? Wouldn't he want someone to analyze the disc and try to find some info? I understand that he may believe that Red John has covered all of his bases, but still, he doesn't even TRY to get any clues from it?
3. The only way Red John could get Patrick's REAL list of suspects is if Patrick wants him to...Red John is NOT psychic, and Jane never told anybody who his suspects were...We still don't know how RJ knew the names, so I'm thinking it was just a part of Patrick's big plan.
4. Lorelei going to kill RJ by herself? She of ALL people should know how that was gonna turn out!
Why wouldn't she tell Patrick who Red John is? Or at least leave him a clue for if she died? Something was just not right about how that all went down.
5. Would make for a better ending if the list was fake (This is just my opinion)
When it's all said and done, I don't care tooo much about who Red John is...I care more about Patrick looking like a COMPLETE GENIUS in finding it out! I want Jane's plot to catch Red John to be EPIC...I hope that he has been planning something for a lot longer than we know, and I hope that the Lorelei video and the list of 7 is all a part of it!
I think that if the list is real, we kind of lose some of that "Patrick Jane Amazing-ness." Like Red John said: "That's NOT clever!" because all he did was narrow down a big list of people by his good memory...