Amor Fati – As the finale of The Devil’s hour begins, Gideon (Peter Capaldi) says he has died more times than he can remember and it always feels the same. Lucy (Jessica Raine) asks if he can rise from the dead only for Gideon to say no one can do that. Ravi Dhillon (Nikesh Patel) wants to know why he killed his father since he believes he is stalling right now. Gideon explains that life is a scratched record that keeps playing over and over again. You don’t remember you’ve heard the song before and keep dancing. Once Lucy asks what makes him special, Gideon says he remembers the song and can move the needle. After the intro, a woman gives birth to a baby and tells her husband that they need a miracle. A vicar blesses the boy in front of Moira and Lawrence. Later, Moira reads to a young Gideon while she is pregnant with another boy. During Malcolm’s birthday, Lawrence gets mad when Gideon grabs a piece of the cake before running out of the room.

Lawrence punishes Gideon for being loud in church by whipping him with his belt. Then, he gets into an argument with Moira and accuses her of trying to coax another man into bed. Lawrence tells the boys to be good while he is away. Gideon asks him what mommy said about losing all the money, but Lawrence insists she doesn’t understand and he is going to fix it. The boys catch their mother having sex with another man. Lawrence takes the boys to a cliff’s edge where he tells them they need to say a prayer for their mother’s soul for what she did. He drives them over the edge. Moira screams while giving birth to Gideon again. The process continues with the events repeating. Lawrence drives the car over the edge before the process begins over. This time, Gideon decides to behave in church so he doesn’t get punished. In the middle of the night, Gideon grabs a knife and kills his father to prevent him from killing them.

He knew his mother and no one else would understand so he decided to run away. Although he didn’t understand what was going on, every life came with its own lessons. Every time the police found him, he killed himself to escape. Ravi asks if he is basing his entire defense on reincarnation, but Gideon calls it recurrence. Gideon warns him that it would be a mistake to submit him for a psychological evaluation. Lucy asks what he meant when he said they had met before. If it happened in this lifetime, she would’ve remembered him. She realizes that he manages to survive because he knows what is going to happen next and can change things. Ravi asks him about the 13,000 pounds they found at his hideout. He didn’t need to steal after passing 18 since he is very good at picking a winner. In the past, he met a young girl named Evelyn who got killed in a vehicle crash because the car’s tire blew out.

He couldn’t help them in that life, but it didn’t matter because he knew why this was happening to him. In every new life, he finds that family again. He goes to their house on the morning of the crash to make sure that car never leaves the driveway. Gideon knows he is saving people. He goes on to say he learns a little more about the nature of suffering in each new life. When he hears about a tragedy, he writes down what happened so he can fix it in his next life. Ravi asks why he didn’t stop 9/11. Gideon isn’t sure how he would do that, but Ravi thinks a phone call would be worth a try. He can’t stop 9/11 yet although he managed to stop 7/12. After Ravi asks about the child porn on the laptop, Gideon claims he stole the laptop from Harold Slade. He thought he could get it to the right people so Harold could be arrested before it happened again. He changed his mind when he saw what was on it and looked into Harold’s soul and saw nothing but foulness.

He knew he had to die. Ravi begins asking him about his notebook that contains names and dates. Ravi wonders why he’d write anything down when the pages would be blank again in the next life. When he resets, he only has his memories so he surrounds himself with every detail. Once he buys the book, he fills it with everything he needs to remember. As he learns new information, he adds to the book. Gideon asks them to turn to the last page. He reminds Ravi that he knows him and knows what he is about to do and say. Ravi finds a note asking if his handwriting is better after he criticized Gideon’s writing previously. Outside of the interview room, Ravi argues that he is playing a game with them. Lucy thinks they should play back. She believes he is telling the truth the way he sees it. He killed his dad to stop him from killing him and killed Slade to stop him from killing those girls.

She wonders if he took her son because he thought someone was going to hurt him. Lucy admits he is deluded although he isn’t sadistic. She wants to know why he thinks he is rescuing Isaac. Ravi says that means Jonah Taylor is still alive. In a flashback, Gideon takes Jonah with him as the boy admits he isn’t scared. Gideon says a lot of people are going to be looking for him, but he can’t let them find him. He is going to take him somewhere safe. Jonah drops his bear from the window as the van continues. In the interview room, Gideon tells Ravi that he’ll never find him. Ravi asks how he saved Jonah when he abducted him. Gideon argues it is hard to do a good thing when people call you a monster. He tells them that Jonah’s parents were going to kill him and bury him in a shallow grave. Gideon left Jonah with someone he trusts who keeps him safe. When asked why she’d do that, Gideon says he explained what would happen if he went home.

She believes him because he woke her up. Evelyn was supposed to die in a car crash on September 5, 1977, but didn’t. Although her family could move on, Evelyn could sense that something was different. Part of her would always remember that crash. She started seeing things that weren’t there like patterns in the wallpaper and shadows without weight passing across the room. She was seeing ghosts that were drifting in and out of her reality. Gideon realized she was seeing the world as it was before. Every change caused ripples that followed her wherever she went. When she was 19, she checked herself into a psychiatric hospital. Gideon got her out and helped her come to terms with the glitches. In time, she was able to make sense of her memories. In every new lifetime, her memories return so she always knows what she has to do. Evelyn moves to the same house because she can’t stand the ripples. She has the company of a little lost boy. Gideon is adamant that they’ll never find the house.

He goes on to claim that he likes helping people and making the world a better place, but it isn’t always that simple. In the past, he looks at a newspaper article about a pregnant mother of two who was stabbed over drug debts. He visits and kills Aiden. In the present, Gideon reveals that Aiden stabbed a woman to death over her boyfriend’s drug debts. Since he killed Aiden, the woman in question is allowed to live. Even though he knows that is right, he still can’t bring himself to look him in the eye. Ravi reminds him that didn’t happen so Gideon says it changed when Nick waged war on those drug dealers. He tells Ravi that he’ll see his friend again because death isn’t the end of this story. Ravi saw what he did to Connor Larsen before he shot him in the back. Gideon claims Connor rapes five women. Instead of torture, Gideon says he was experimenting with him because fear can change a person’s nature and it transcends lifetimes.

He wanted to see if he could make a rapist disgusted by sex. Gideon admits the suffering never ends, but there is hope if he can change a person on the inside. The problem is that he always runs out of time and ends up here. If that is the case, he has told Ravi this story before. Gideon says he has. Gideon isn’t trying to convince Dhillon. He turns to Lucy to tell her that he is telling the truth. He can prove it and she can prove it to herself. He wants her to think about the worst thing she has ever experienced. Gideon says he stayed alive and incarcerated for 25 years waiting for her to come back. Since he shared a cell with Shane Fisher, he decided to add his name to the list along with many others. Gideon urges her to remember the last thing she ever experienced. Lucy remembers finding her mother after she committed suicide. Gideon says she told him the worst thing that ever happened to her and she stopped it 30 years ago.

He broke into their house and removed the firing pin. While doing so, the button from his coat is ripped off and falls to the ground. Gideon tells Lucy that she led a very different life after that. Ravi tries to get Lucy to leave the interview room, but she closes the door and locks him out. Gideon tells Lucy that he can help her remember although she’ll only wake up if she gets there on her own. The last time they met, she asked him to do this. She wasn’t married to Mike and Isaac isn’t supposed to be here. Lucy believes that is why he tried to take Isaac away, but Gideon quickly denies that and begins asking for her shoelace. He ties knots and says each knot is the ending of one lifetime and the beginning of the next. He used to think it was a straight line. Now, he wonders if it is a loop so the new life is passing along the same curve. He remembers his other lives and they’re in his past, but also happening in his present. That is why they glimpse the world that was before.

She wakes in the night to the sound of a shot that never fired. They were never supposed to live in that house. Isaac is not bound to his lifetime so he can reach out and touch the other loops. He sometimes loses his balance and slips from one lifetime to another. When Lucy asks why Isaac, Gideon says he is an anomaly and isn’t supposed to exist. Mike finds Isaac sitting in front of the television even though it is not turned on. Mike begins telling him a story about having dinner with a girl named Sonia. During their dinner, he heard Lucy’s amazing laugh as she was drinking with her friends. Sonia went home in a taxi while Mike stayed and spoke to Lucy. They married six months later. For the next three years, they laughed together and they were the happiest years of his life. When Isaac came along, it was all over. Mike bluntly says Isaac destroyed their lives. Mike wonders if he feels anything because it is like there is no one in there.

He pours his beer on Isaac’s head before telling him to go play somewhere else. Isaac unhooks his phone and takes it with him. Gideon says there is something vital in every human life that passes over from one loop to the next, but Isaac doesn’t have that. He says it is a spark of humanity and a soul. He came from nothing and will return to nothing. He is never going to love her, feel joy, or be real. At home, Isaac throws his shirt on top of the heater and calls Ravi using Mike’s phone, but Ravi’s battery is dead. Lucy says he really had her going there but he gave himself away because she believes her son loves her. She asks if he has ever been loved or loved anyone else. Lucy says her son is more real than he could hope to be before leaving the interview room. Mike goes into the bedroom where he finds the fire that Isaac started. He shuts the door and leaves Isaac there. While in her car, Lucy gets a call from Isaac saying his dad made him cold.

He pleads with her to come home and says he loves her. As Ravi cleans up the interview room, he finds the shoelace with one end frayed. Gideon uses it to unlock the handcuffs. Lucy finds the home burning when she gets there. Mike claims he went back for Isaac but couldn’t find him. Lucy runs into the house to look for him while Ravi tries to catch up with Gideon. Lucy falls in the bedroom as she struggles to breathe. She thinks about being with Ravi and working on Aiden’s case. Lucy remembers being a police officer and questioning Gideon after he is arrested. Detective Chambers learns that they got everyone out and they’re treating the mother, Debbie, for burns. Lucy tells the other office that she has déjà vu before the episode ends.

 

The Devil’s Hour Review

The finale of The Devil’s Hour wrapped everything up conveniently without leaving any gaps in the story. While not totally original, the twists and turns were good enough to keep things interesting from start to finish. Once again, the actors and actresses were excellent adding more realism and emotion to the show. The finale might’ve run about five or ten minutes too long because it got a little silly there in the end.

It could’ve ended in the interview room with Lucy believing everything that Gideon was telling her because the stuff with Mike and Isaac just seemed a bit over the top and possibly even unnecessary. The core of the story reminds me a lot of Life After Life since Gideon was dying and reliving the same events over and over again. Nevertheless, The Devil’s Hour managed to set itself apart by incorporating crime drama as well.

There are issues here, but the series was enjoyable overall. It can be a bit dull and tedious at times because it goes much too long. If one or two episodes were cut, it likely would’ve gotten to the point much sooner and ended up being more impactful in the end. Regardless, it is only six episodes or six hours so this is a good binge for Prime members. The finale scores a 7 out of 10. Recaps of The Devil’s Hour can be found on Reel Mockery here. Learn how to support our work by following this link.

 

The Devil’s Hour Ending Meaning

The Devil’s Hour may have been a bit confusing at times, but the finale showed that the concept was actually straightforward. Anyone who recently watched Life After Life, which was based on a book, will be familiar with the concept of dying and reliving the same events. As we quickly find out in the finale, Gideon and his brother were killed by their father in a murder-suicide after he found out that his wife had cheated on him. However, Gideon came back to life and relived the events several times before deciding to kill his father to prevent it from happening again.

He ran away from home. As he got older, he started helping people avoid vehicle crashes, murders, and other tragedies. He had even changed Lucy’s life at one point by preventing her mom from committing suicide. My opinion could be wrong, but I’ll discuss the way I saw it anyway. Lucy must’ve been a detective and involved in Gideon’s arrest at some point. He mentioned that he stayed in prison for many years to help her.

Lucy visited when she was much older to talk to him and tell him about the worst thing she ever experienced. After Gideon died, he must’ve prevented Sylvia’s suicide by removing the firing pin from the rifle in a different life. After this experience in her life, Lucy became a detective in her next life after she died in the fire trying to save Isaac. Debbie and her family were living in the house as Isaac had noticed numerous times throughout the series.

Truthfully, the ending was pretty clever in the way it explained everything without being too unbelievable.