From the very first, mysterious scene in this concluding episode - far away from Chalons Du Bois in a bleak Russian housing estate - it was clear we were going to be taken on quite a trip before we found out what happened to Ollie Hughes.
And what a journey it was - with the newly-discovered sobriety chip leading all the way back, as in the best mysteries, to where it all began, at Hotel L'Eden and its doughy proprietor. At least he wasn't a paedophile, far too many of them around already in this series, just a drunkard in charge of a chariot that had the misfortune to collide with a fox, oh, and little Ollie.
Tony Hughes (James Nesbitt) was a man still searching, whatever anyone else advised
That might have seemed a merciful end compared with all the horrors we'd been faced with in previous weeks, but the writers weren't done. Instead, we had a wheezy Alain suspending his last breath for the old deathbed confession - that on the night of the accident, he'd handed the reins to his disapproving but ultimately loyal brother… George! Well, of course. I think we ALL knew the investigating judge was up to his knees in this particular soup, didn't we? No more Victor Bourg confession, no more Ian Garrett revelation, just a football celebration gone horribly wrong, except Ollie did get to face an extra horrible end - or did he?
Along the way, everyone did what they'd been doing for eight weeks… James Nesbitt got over-emotional and tried to beat up the only person who could help him, Emily (a Golden Globe-nominated Frances O'Connor) seduced with softness, and the wonderful Julien Baptise blinked a lot and somehow got to the truth of the matter.
Tony Hughes will leave no pavement unwalked in pursuit of answers about Ollie
The real suspense in this finale was whether Alain would have enough breath left in him to tell the whole terrible truth, and then whether the mortally wounded Tony would punish him by telling his wife Sylvie. But, somehow, he found enough compassion to leave at least this one relationship intact.
So that was that. Cue wedding bells for Emily and Mark and a big brotherly handshake for Tony and Julien. Except… Emily happier sitting with Tony than her new husband, and Tony still looking wistfully at a child's drawing with big ears, hinted at more untied ends. Which took him all the way to Russia and that first scene, with the strange man accosting confused children turning out to be Tony himself, and suddenly any hopes he, or we viewers, may have had of resolution evaporated once more. Series 2, anyone?
