‘The Mentalist’ season 6, episode 9 spoilers: Is Jane’s post-Red John future without punishment?

Of course, we start this story all about “The Mentalist” out with a pretty substantial warning: If you want to avoid spoilers about the end of the Red John case, stop reading now.

The dust has settled now on the case, and the stunning information has been revealed that the guilty party was none other than Sheriff Thomas McAllister. We don’t quite know all of the details surrounding the why or the motivations behind all of his moves, but we suspect that it was never really the point to know every little detail about the move. The point here feels a little more like it was meant to be this powerful moment where Patrick Jane kills the man responsible for murdering his family with his own hands. It was a simple, but realistic chase, and there was almost a sense even in Red John’s face that he knew that this showdown was meant to be the end and that he had done all he could do.

While there are all sorts of questions that we could ask about Jane’s future, and the promo for Sunday’s “My Blue Heaven” gives some of that away, what we are most curious about now is how in the world is Jane going to be able to now go and continue living his life? This is a man who just killed somebody, and while he was killing a killer, revenge is still frowned upon. Jane’s also not Dexter Morgan, a man without emotion. As creator Bruno Heller notes in an interview with TVLine, this is a deed that will be have repercussions in some form moving forward:

“You can’t go around killing people willy-nilly without some sort of ramification. Jane is going to be in a position where his personal desires are not the point…. What he does in the future is not going to be entirely up to himself.”

What we could see from him presumably is a situation, similar in a way to “White Collar,” where he helps to work in order to secure his freedom; or, he may choose to stay away from places where he could be arrested. With the two-year time jump coming, the character and the show have a little bit of a clean slate to try out some new stuff.

What are you the most excited to see on “The Mentalist” moving forward? Just be sure to share some of your thoughts below.

Photo: CBS