Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
Season 6 brings Jane’s Red John hunt to a head. He gathers the remaining suspects around a clue about a three-dot tattoo, but an explosion at his home kills two men and leaves others presumed dead. Reede Smith survives an attempt on his life and exposes the Blake Association, a network of corrupt law-enforcement officers embedded across California agencies. With the CBI under investigation and its director Gale Bertram publicly suspected, Jane slips past the FBI to meet the killer he has pursued for years.
Red John is Sheriff Thomas McAllister, who survived the blast by faking his death. He meets Jane in a church, escapes after being shot, and is finally cornered while fleeing through the surrounding streets and park. Jane kills him by strangling him, completing the revenge that began with the murder of his family. The Blake Association scandal has already closed the CBI; after Jane kills McAllister, the story jumps forward two years, with Jane living quietly on an island and Lisbon leading a small-town police force in Washington state.
FBI agent Dennis Abbott offers Jane a return in exchange for a deal on the murder charges, and Jane negotiates his way onto Abbott’s Austin team with Lisbon and Cho. The new cases include an investigation into attacks on the old team and a human-trafficking ring, while Lisbon grows closer to FBI agent Marcus Pike and considers moving to Washington, D.C. In the finale, Jane admits he loves her as she boards a plane; after he is detained, Lisbon returns and tells him she feels the same. They kiss, beginning the relationship that carries into the final season.