I just remembered that at the end of last season there was a debate which show should be cancelled (due to financial issues): The Good Wife or The Mentalist. Both shows were brilliant but if it had to be one, it would have probably been The Good Wife that would have stayed on.

Somehow, however, producers of both shows managed to convince the board to keep them going. My guess is that Heller pulled some proper ace off his sleeve and CBS trusted him with a whole next season. Would the amazing stuff look anything like what we saw last Sunday? I seriously doubt it. I think Heller is going for something completely NEW here and the CBS saw it. There would be nothing new in finishing off an arch ememy like this and proceeding to 'two years later' and a new career opportunity for Patrick. It was  done before and has killed many popular shows. What are they going to do now? Mope around for 14 episodes??

There're two options:
ONE: Heller came up with a unprecedented development in a TV series plot and is going to knock us off our feet (like he did to the CBS decision making body)
TWO: Heller begged and begged that he could at least finish his show before it goes off air - and thus the rushed, poorly written, unprecedentedly ridicilous ending