‘The Mentalist’ season 6 spoilers: Amanda Righetti confirms Van Pelt’s exit, explains future

For those of you who loved the Van Pelt character, it’s probably still tough to swallow that “The Mentalist” season 6 is going to say goodbye to both her and Rigsby at around the midway point of the season. The good news is that they will be around at least for a little while after the Red John saga comes to a close on Sunday night. With that being said, there are still questions how the two will find a way to say goodbye to the world of Patrick Jane and the (former?) CBI; as a matter of fact, Amanda Righetti still has no idea how the show plans to do away with her character.

Speaking per TVLine, the actress offers up the following in what is sure to only make fans a little more nervous than they already were about how we are going to say goodbye to these two characters following their recent wedding:

“It keeps changing. It’s been a little bit of a fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants season. I think it was sort of an unexpected turn for the writers too, to have the show kind of be reworked this season. So everybody’s kind of trying to figure it out. And [they’re] probably keeping it close to the vest so it comes as a surprise to everyone that is watching.”

The obvious good news is that thanks to her living through “Red John,” we at least don’t have to worry about seeing the characters becoming the final casualty for the killer … which we definitely consider to be a great thing, since that would be the most horrible way to ever lose two people who are so important to the show as a whole. Righetti does also say that beginning on December 1 when the show starts its new era, we will see Van Pelt and Rigsby operating their own private security firm, which helps to further confirm that there will be a time jump, and the CBI as we know it at this point is pretty much gone.

You can watch a video preview for Sunday night’s pivotal episode here, and we imagine that it will cause a mixture of emotions. While you will be thrilled to see that the mystery come to a close, there is a certain amount of anxiety in not really knowing what is going to happen next.

Photo: CBS