Rebus: What just happened in episode six and what will happen next?

Richard Rankin plays Detective Inspector John Rebus in the BBC Scotland reboot of Ian Rankin's crime series. Pic: BBC/Viaplay /Eleventh Hour/Mark Mainz

It’s Rebus’s boss Gill who utters the words we all want to hear half way through the sixth and final episode of the TV reboot of Ian Rankin’s novels : ”This isn’t over.” She’s right. By the time the credits roll much of the plotline has been tied up but there remain questions unanswered and boosting hopes for a second series.

The final episode sees John Rebus, played by Richard Rankin, and his brother Michael both wanting to kill Cafferty and with him at their mercy in a lock up. It’s just a question of who’s going to do it and Rebus steps in to stop his brother firing the fatal shot (he’s in enough trouble, having stolen the drugs, the money and killed a UDA man) then admits he wasn’t going to do it himself. Cafferty has beaten them to it anyway by having a heart attack so Rebus finds himself performing CPR to save his enemy’s life instead.

We’ve had the revelation that Lockie the investment banker, whom Rebus’s ex-wife Rhona is in a relationship with, knows all about Cafferty and Christie, confirming what we’ve been thinking all along - he’s dodgy. So when he winds up being shot by a masked gunman on the steps of his showy mansion the big question is who pulled the trigger? Was it Rebus’ brother Michael, trying to help his sibling get his family back? Or was it an associate of Christie and Cafferty?

Richard Rankin stars in the new BBC Scotland Rebus, which has been a hit with viewers and critics alike. Pic: BBC

So it looks like Michael has made a run for it, but has he got away? What will happen with Rebus and Rhona now that Lockie is out of the picture? She clearly still has a thing for him, previously arriving at his flat with bags of healthy foodstuffs, so now that she and Sammy have to leave the posh pad and move in with him, that’ll make replenishing his empty fridge easier.

And what is Maggie thinking, turning up at Cafferty’s hospital bedside (causing us to wonder further at the choices the women in Rebus make with regard to men)? And will the morally upright professional standards man, Foxy Malcolm get the brush off from Siobhan, now that she’s sided with Rebus and made the mistake of getting herself indebted to Christie?

With so many questions still to answer and the fact that it's been such a hit with viewers and critics alike - Rebus has won an audience of more than 10 million via the BBC iPlayer -the failure to to make a follow up is about as likely as Big Ger Cafferty going straight.

For his part Richard Rankin is keen to make another:

“I don’t see us running out of material and it’s all really brilliantly written,” he says. “There’s a wealth of material from Ian Rankin and original material by Greg Burke. Mix those and you’ll always get brilliant storytelling. It would be beyond me if they found they couldn’t continue with subsequent seasons. But who knows?”

“I’d like to do more Rebus because I think we’ve just teed it up. We’ve established characters and relationships and the world at the same time as having a real driving plot and narrative that’s exciting. I feel like we’re just getting to know these people. I think it has endless potential, so there’s a load I want to do with the character.”

With a huge amount of source material from Ian Rankin’s 24 Rebus books (with another due out in October), as well as new plotlines provided by the contemporary setting, there’s plenty of scope for new episodes to explore.

“It’s a very interesting, exciting, fresh, reimagining of this character which has lots of potential,” says Richard Rankin. “He has much further to go,”

Rebus, episode six, the last in the series airs tomorrow, Saturday 22 June, BBC One at 9:25pm, is repeated on BBC One, Friday 28 June at 12:40am, and BBC One Scotland at 01:40am. All six episodes are available on BBC iPlayer now