Story explainer

Who is Red John? The Mentalist reveal explained

Answered in season 6, episode 8Reviewed Oct 22, 2026

The Mentalist names Red John in season 6, episode 8: episode 124 of 151, a little past the 80% mark. That is more than five seasons of smiley faces for one name. The answer, the suspects and how the hunt ends are below, folded shut, so you can check how close you are without having it spoiled. In a hurry? Our Red John route gets you there in 41 episodes.

See where the answer comes ↓Choose your route

Choose your route

01 Mid-binge?See how far away the answer is, without the name.02 Just tell meOpen the folded answer.03 Watch only the huntThe 41-episode Red John route.

Coverage & selection notes

An explainer for The Mentalist’s central mystery, reviewed October 22, 2026. The folded sections name Red John, the suspects and how the hunt ends. Everything outside them stays at the show’s opening premise. Episode numbers follow the original CBS order.

When The Mentalist answers it

The name arrives in season 6, episode 8, the 124th of 151 episodes. That is the middle of season 6, and the show keeps going for 27 more episodes afterwards.

The hunt doesn’t build evenly. Red John surfaces only a few times a season at first, steadily more from season 3, and then the first eight episodes of season 6 run as one countdown. If you are in that stretch, you are close.

When The Mentalist answers it
Season	Red John episodes in our route	Episodes in the season
1	4	23
2	3	23
3	7	24
4	8	24
5	11	22
6	8 (episodes 1–8)	22
7	0	13

Who Red John is, before the reveal

Red John is a serial killer who signs his murders with a smiley face painted in his victims’ blood. Years before the series starts, Patrick Jane, then a TV psychic and a fake one, mocks him on air. Red John answers by killing Jane’s wife and daughter.

Jane quits the act and signs on as a consultant with the California Bureau of Investigation. He solves its cases with sharp eyes and old tricks while he waits for Red John’s turn.

Watch only the Red John story

BingePath’s Red John route keeps 41 episodes from the pilot to season 6, episode 8, with notes that stay hidden until you reach them. It skips most standalone cases, so expect the team’s lives to jump between stops.

The answer Spoilers — open to reveal

Red John is Thomas McAllister, the sheriff of Napa County.

He has been hiding in plain sight since season 1, episode 2, where he turns up as a local lawman on a case, and then he is absent for more than four seasons. Across the whole show he is on screen in five episodes.

He also founded the Blake Association, a secret network of corrupt police and officials who mark themselves with three tattooed dots and greet each other with a line from William Blake’s poem The Tyger.

How the hunt ends Spoilers — open to reveal

Season 5 ends with Jane’s private list of seven suspects read back to him by Red John. Season 6 then removes them one at a time: one is found dying in episode 1, another is killed in episode 4, and in episode 6 Jane gathers the last five at his old house, checks their shoulders for the Blake tattoo, and the house explodes.

Three of the five carry the tattoo, and the explosion seems to have killed McAllister. In episode 7 Jane goes to the press and accuses his own boss, Gale Bertram, and the fallout ends with the FBI closing the CBI.

Episode 8 corrects him. Bertram was never more than a minor member of the network. McAllister faked his own death and walks into the church where Jane has come to meet Bertram. Jane is ready, having worked out that the sheriff is afraid of birds, and he chases the wounded McAllister to a pond in a park and strangles him. Before he dies, McAllister claims he really is psychic; the show never follows that up.

The suspects Spoilers — open to reveal

Jane builds his list in season 5 from a single clue: at some point he had shaken Red John’s hand.

The suspects
Name	Who they are	First seen	How they leave the story
Brett Partridge	CBI forensics lead	S1E1	Found dying (S6E1)
Thomas McAllister	Napa County sheriff	S1E2	Red John; killed by Jane (S6E8)
Bret Stiles	Leader of the Visualize self-help movement	S2E20	Dies in the explosion (S6E6)
Gale Bertram	CBI director	S3E1	Shot by a man working for Red John (S6E8)
Ray Haffner	CBI agent, later private security	S4E2	Dies in the explosion (S6E6)
Reede Smith	FBI agent	S5E1	Surrenders (S6E7)
Bob Kirkland	Homeland Security agent	S5E5	Killed by Smith (S6E4)

Common mix-ups Spoilers — open to reveal

The man in the mall at the end of season 3 isn’t Red John. He talks his way into Jane’s belief, Jane shoots him, and the first stretch of season 4 shows he only worked for Red John.
Gale Bertram isn’t Red John either. He is the decoy of the final stretch: Jane names him in season 6, episode 7, and the next episode proves him wrong.
Bret Stiles, the Visualize leader, isn’t Red John either.
Nothing later undoes the reveal. The only loose end is McAllister’s dying claim to be psychic, which the show leaves alone.

What happens after the answer Spoilers — open to reveal

Season 6, episode 9 jumps two years. Jane has been hiding abroad, and a deal with the FBI puts him, and soon Lisbon, on a team in Austin, Texas. The show runs 27 more episodes in a lighter key and ends with season 7 in 2015.