As the finale of Dead and Buried begins, Lena (Niamh Walsh) is glad to see Andrew (Michael Hanna) return home. He claims they were messing around and lost track of time. Michael (Colin Morgan) tries to comfort him, but Andrew pushes him away and goes to bed. Lena tells Michael he’s a great example. Raymie (Waj Ali) tells Cathy (Annabel Scholey) that John is going to read him the riot act. Cathy tells him to get the union rep on it. She learns about Sally’s death on the news. Police come into Michael’s house and take him into custody. Sean McAfee with McAfee and Sons catches up with Michael at the police station. Michael says Hughes and Burns are supposed to be his solicitors. Sean says they will not be representing him.
Michael asks if he can call Jack Sullivan. Sean (Karl O’Neill) has already spoken to him. Raymie tells Cathy she doesn’t know it was Michael. During an interview, Michael refuses to answer any questions. He’s asked about entering the hospital. CCTV shows him being escorted outside while he was drunk. Michael is accused of smothering Sally with a pillow. He continues saying “no comment”. Jack Sullivan (Owen Roe) asks Lena to see what she’s told Andrew. She told him that his dad is not a murderer. Lena admits there’s something else. Ander watches the news report about the murder. Lena approaches him to ask where he went last night. He claims he was at the park. Lena asks him to swear on the bible that he was at the park with his friends. Andrew gets upset and storms out.
Gary sees Cathy arrive outside and walks in. She receives a call from Dr. Kennedy but doesn’t answer it. Detective Cooper (Declan Rodgers) speaks to Jack on the phone and admits Michael hasn’t been charged yet. Cooper isn’t a part of the investigation team, but he’s hearing there isn’t enough evidence. If they don’t find anything, they’ll have to release Michael in the morning. Jack is adamant that Michael did this. Lena and Andrew are there when Michael is released. Cathy leaves home. Someone throws a rock through the door of the restaurant. Michael tells Lena he’s going to work. Lena says her dad said otherwise. He doesn’t want Michael near that place until everything dies down. Lena asks why he went to the hospital.
Michael reveals he wanted to ask Sally whether it was Andrew who attacked her. If the answer was yes, he wanted to ask Sally not to ruin Andrew’s life. Michael believes something is really wrong with their boy. Andrew interrupts. In private, Michael tells Lena they released him so they know 100% it wasn’t him. He asks why she doesn’t believe him. Lena asks if he told them about Andrew. Michael says he didn’t. Cathy returns and gets Sasha ready. Raymie learns they’re sending him on a safeguarding course to Sligo. He’s going to be gone overnight. Raymie invites Cathy to come with him but she refuses. She suspects he doesn’t trust her. Raymie says she stormed out this morning like she forgot they even existed. Cathy yells that her best friend was murdered. Lena finds the damaged door at the restaurant and begins cleaning up the glass.
Michael goes to work anyway. He tells Jack he hasn’t done anything wrong. Jack tells him about a special meeting of The Brothers of Caleb on Wednesday. He thinks Michael should give it a bye-ball just until things settle down. Molly ends up messaging Michael to ask if he wants to go out for a drink. Michael says yes. Raymie offers to return home to check on Cathy who insists there is nothing to check on. He tells Cathy she should ask mom to look after Sasha and she can have the night to herself. Cathy apologizes and says she’s fine. Before Lena goes to the meeting, Michael asks her not to tell her dad about Andrew. It appears Cathy is going to record something on her phone. Andrew goes to the meeting where he says he’s ready to access Jesus Christ as his lord and savior. Meanwhile, Michael meets Cathy at the pub.
Cathy tells Michael he is all over social media. He claims he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Cathy asks him about being at the hospital. Michael says he was visiting a friend. Moments after he left, the real killer must’ve entered. Once they leave, Raymie calls to say goodnight to Sasha. Cathy tells him he’s too late and she just went out for some fresh air. Cathy makes sure her phone is recording before she joins Michael in his car. She asks him about doing anything violent. Michael says he wouldn’t and this whole thing is so messed up. Cathy tries to get him to admit to something. Later, Jack tells Lena he had them followed last night and her name is Cathy McDaid. She works at the school where Sally Bowman (Kerry Quinn) worked.
Jack asks what Lena wants him to do about him. Michael messages Cathy to say he loved last night and should do it again. Michael returns home and finds pictures of himself with Cathy. He tries to get Andrew to open the door. Jack arrives with Cooper who assaults Michael. Then, Andrew comes out and attacks Michael as well. Lena tells Michael they’re better off without him before shutting the door. Jack threatens to kill Michael if he comes around again. Michael speeds away. Police arrive while Jack waits outside. Michael looks at the pictures in his car. It appears he notices something in one of them. Michael checks Sally’s social media and finds Cathy. He remembers her and what happened in the past. Detective Cooper is questioned about being at the hospital. Raymie tries to find out where Cathy went last night. She sarcastically says she was with Michael.
Raymie tells her she needs to sort her stuff out. Later, Cathy believes she sees Michael outside her window. She looks again and he’s there. He rushes in and she tries to defend herself. Michael tells her she must think he’s stupid. He asks why she’d ruin his life. Cathy says he killed her brother. Michael argues he paid for that. He denies murdering her brother and Sally. Michael says he’s sorry. He admits he murdered her brother and murdered her friend. Michael says he’s evil and must be punished. He cuts his neck. Cathy tries to get rid of the body. Michael wakes up moments later and Cathy begins suffocating with him with a plastic bag. Raymie comes down and catches her. Jack asks Cooper what he did. Cooper reminds him he told him to warn her off and he did. He admits he just lost control. A flashback shows him attacking Sally.
Cooper made sure they had nothing on him. He tells Jack he’ll see him soon. Cathy cleans blood off a glass in the morning. Andrew arrives at class late. Dr. Kennedy gives Cathy advice for locking her thoughts in the shed. It appears Michael’s body is in there.
Dead And Buried Review
The finale of Dead and Buried really messed up the whole thing by being so outlandishly stupid. There were some good performances here, but the writing really let the story down in the end. The finale made too many questionable decisions that stretched the imagination a bit too much.
For starters, Michael’s decision to accept all the responsibility was fairly cliché and disappointing considering he and Andrew were actually innocent. Cathy and Raymie’s actions were just as dumb. It’s hard to know exactly what the writers were going for here, but it definitely fell flat. It’s just too unbelievable for them to clean up the mess and hide Michael’s body in the shed.
As a whole, the series was watchable. It’s just a shame that the finale was so botched. I’d really have to seriously question whether I’d recommend this based on how bad the finale was. It scores a 4 out of 10. Recaps of Dead and Buried can be found on Reel Mockery here.
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Jay Skelton is a fan of all television shows and movies. He tries his best to keep up with the latest foreign television shows and movies. Jay loves skinny dipping in the dark too.
The series prior to this had been pretty decent (with a few silly things here and there) but the final episode was so poorly written with so many stupid things happening, the last 15 minutes or so the thing totally unravelled.
Michael hadn’t committed any crime here, I was angry when he admitted blame, he didn’t kill Sally and also we already know he got done for manslaughter not murder and he served his time. I ended up having far more sympathy for Michael with his suffocatingly religious family than Cathy who came across as cold and vindictive. The ending with the shed door opening of its own accord (lol) to reveal the body in there just had me shaking my head, the idea that they just dumped it there and were quietly going about their business as normal beggared belief.
I’m a big fan of Colin Morgan but I wouldn’t watch this again, this is the second drama he’s been in (The Killing Kind was the other) where I’ve thought the female lead character was annoying, self absorbed and unlikeable, and he was the most sympathetic character in it despite his dark past. The writing definitely let the side down and I agree with your score, I was so disappointed at the end, especially since I don’t think ANY of the characters learn’t anything from this, so what was the point of it all? Why did Michael have to die? It was so predictable despite all the red herrings thrown along the way how they ended it.
Also, the flashbacks offered us no real context about what was going on and what Michael did, by the end of this series, I still had no idea, by refusing to give more context to the reasons for Cathy’s bitterness and anger, she just comes over as unbalanced and borderline psychotic, whilst Michael seemed just like a normal guy trying to get on with his life.
Yep agree 100% with everything you said. Really a shame. I too sympathized with Michael more than anyone else in the show. Cathy just wouldn’t leave him alone. He was getting it from his family and everyone else. Whatever he did to Cathy’s brother wasn’t properly explained. Looked like he torched a car and her brother was burned alive (from what I remember lol).
I pretty much hated Cathy by the time this thing was finished, but I think they wanted us to cheer for her. Dumb for Michael to confess to anything. Think they did that as a way to get Michael to be a martyr and protect his son which is dumb in and of itself.
I’ll warn you now that The Boy That Never Was is pretty much identical. A very unlikable female character who isn’t perfect for the role. She is very easy to dislike. Colin Morgan was really good in it though. The ending is just okay there. Morgan’s performance might be enough to make the series worthwhile, but I know some viewers didn’t like it. Guess it’s all personal opinion lol.
Luther (a Reel Mockery forum member) enjoyed it, but I felt it was a bit too much like Killing Kind and Dead and Buried. A big build up for a fairly weak ending. Hope I am not giving away too many hints lol. Shame though because all of these shows could’ve been so much stronger with better, more realistic endings.
Yeah I agree about Cathy, she simply wouldn’t leave him be, the way she was almost exultant when he cut his neck and she calmly let him bleed out choking on the floor I found repugnant. I don’t get how the writers thought we should be sympathetic towards her. She also involved her poor husband, I can’t believe he helped her, also how did Raymie not hear them yelling and fighting? He wasn’t that far away, it was silly.
Also, from the brief clips we had, Cathy’s brother seemed like a bit of a hothead so I wonder how nice he really was, but we never got to find out, It was clearly a deliberate writing choice to keep what happened uncertainbut I thought it undermined what they were trying to do.
I’m just about to start watching the final episode of the Boy Who Never Was, thanks for the heads up on that one and fingers crossed I like it better.
Agree. Yeah, it did seem like Cathy’s brother was a problem although it didn’t explore that nearly well enough. Michael turned out to be the biggest victim here besides Lena and Sally. Of course, Sally was a victim of Cathy as well.
Yeah Raymie eventually did come downstairs and must’ve helped her cover it up. He was okay with that, but he was scared crapless when he was caught in the bathroom with a shirtless Andrew. Just a rushed, stupid finale unfortunately.
Let us know how it goes with The Boy Who Never Was and what you think about it!