SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER!!!
Finally, we know.
SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER!!!
The sock, the twine, the trophy drawer… all the detritus of a horrific rape appeared in the first 30 seconds of the final ever episode of ‘Broadchurch’ before some frantic last-minute sleuthing by Hardy and Miller led them to the garage door of …Clive Lucas, and of Ed Burnett, and Leo Humphries, and finally, the taxi driver’s step-son Michael.
The truth, when it finally emerged, made sense but was surprisingly depressing - the grooming of a pathetically impressionable boy by a smiling, swaggering young man who hit Trish Winterman with the cricket bat, then coerced his unwilling acolyte into raping her, and the taxi driver’s snivelling attempts to protect the step-son he’d already broken with bullying. The looks on the faces of the detectives said it all.
Was it a satisfying finale? Well, writer Chris Chibnall finally alighted on a culprit who had stayed largely out of view until now, and tied this central mystery - as we’d hoped - to the subtext of the porn doing the rounds on the youngsters’ phones. It was both a surprise, and a surprisingly dark 20 minutes, both in the reconstruction of events leading up to the crime, and the seemingly indifferent reactions of still-smiling Leo when charged, calmly explaining his sense of pride in his list of victims, and his rationing them to one a year. At least, fortunately for DS Miller after the horrors of Series 1, her family wasn’t directly involved this time, however, she was left shocked enough as it was by the sociopathic tendencies of their adult culprit. It was a serious topic given serious attention, making for uncomfortable viewing, as it should be, once the mystery had been solved.
In other news, the Latimers chuggingly came to a resolution - sort of - facing a future united but separate, newspaper editor Maggie provided some much-needed light relief with her plans to join the vloggers of the world, and the vicar finally gathered a congregation worthy of the name, as he reminded everyone that all anyone really wants is “love and good deeds”. Loose ends were tied, as everyone we’ve ever met in ‘Broadchurch’ had their few minutes back in the dappled sun.
The final episode did the job before its creator Chris Chibnall moves onto his next duties with a certain time-travelling problem solver, but comedian Al Murray probably spoke for many as the final credits loomed:
Things we liked best in a dark hour:
The taxi driver’s wife finally laying out some new ground rules:
“You don’t tell me what to do anymore”
David Tennant’s Hardy has one final flip:
“You have a moral duty and a legal duty to tell us the truth”
Stuff we didn’t:
The Latimers dragging it out, one more time.
The contrived church attendance by every single person in town, borrowed straight from ‘Grantchester’ and every other much inferior TV crime drama out there.
