The Mentalist Season 6: Is Gale Bertram Really Red John or is it a Ruse?

Patrick Jane's (Simon Baker) five-year-long hunt for serial killer Red John seems to be finally coming to an end. It has been publicly declared on the latest episode of the show (The Great Red Dragon) that the dangerous serial killer Red John is none other than…

Ok, before that is revealed, let's look at what happened after the explosive ending of the last episode (Fire and Brimstone).

After the explosion at Jane's house, it was revealed that three of the dead bodies were identified as Stiles, Haffner and McAllister, leaving Bertram and Smith, both of whom had shoulder tattoos, on the strike. Smith turned himself into CBI and confessed the details of the Blake Association, a secret faction of corrupt cops, judges etc.

The CBI then attempts to stealthily grab Bertram, but the Blake Association instead floods the scene with SWAT team members, allowing the target to slip away. Before the CBI can plan their next move, FBI Supervisory Agent Dennis Abbott (new series regular Rockmond Dunbar) storms onto the scene and shuts their office down, claiming that if their boss was dirty, who's to say they aren't as well, as per a report in TV Line.

So is Red John CBI Director Gale Bertram (Michael Gaston)? Well, Jane certainly seems to think so.

Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) narrowed down his list of Red John suspects to one name by the end of Sunday's episode, The Great Red Dragon, Gale Bertram. Jane announced his discovery to the public through a television press conference, prompting Bertram to go on the run.

Show co-producer Jordan Harper who wrote The Great Red Dragon, his ninth script for the series, tells Zap2it, "It just felt like the right thing to do. Doing something like finishing the Red John storyline shouldn't be as clean as, "Well, that's done. Let's move on with where we were last week." We really felt like this should be something that should move mountains and break down walls and bring a lot of stuff down on them. It shouldn't just be easy. ... Jane gets into trouble quite a bit, and sometimes maybe in the past he's gotten in and gotten out of trouble and there haven't been any repercussions, but there are repercussions to what's going on right now.

"I think it's really helpful to see Fire and Brimstone, The Great Red Dragon and Red John as three parts of a whole. There are a lot of questions raised in Fire and Brimstone and earlier episodes that are not answered in The Great Red Dragon. That does not mean they're not going to be answered," he adds.