As the finale of Obsession begins, Jay (Rish Shah) continues following William (Richard Armitage). He stops to call Ingrid (Indira Varma) to see if she knows where dad is tonight. William and Anna (Charlie Murphy) are engaged in a sex act. Jay abruptly ends the call and begins approaching Anna’s apartment. When he opens the door, he sees William and Anna having sex. Jay ends up walking backwards and falling over the rail. William runs down the stairs to hold his son’s dead body. Anna leaves the building. Before long, the police show up and question William. When William goes home, he finds Sally (Sonera Angel) comforting Ingrid.
Sally asks him if it is true before asking him what he has done to them. Ingrid tells William that he called her just before he died. William claims he is sorry although Ingrid doesn’t believe him. She asks if he thought it was some kind of love. Ingrid wants him to look at what he took from their son and from her. Ingrid goes in to see her son’s body after that. At home, Ingrid tells William he should’ve killed himself when he knew he was lost to her. Edward (Anil Goutam) tells William that Jay spent his life trying to emulate him, but his best quality was being nothing like him at all. The family goes to Jay’s funeral.
Once it is over, Elizabeth (Marion Bailey) approaches William outside to say she is sorry. She has been where he is right now when Aston took his life. William says Jay didn’t take his life. Elizabeth reveals it is hardest knowing your child wanted to die. She has never gotten over it. When William asks where Anna is, Elizabeth says she doesn’t know. Elizabeth says this is what she does. Ingrid approaches William to ask if he is waiting for her. She suspects she has become irrelevant to him. Ingrid claims this is the last time they’ll ever see each other. After William says he understands, Ingrid screams for him to go. In his car, William calls Anna and leaves a message saying he just wants to know if she is okay.
Then, he barges into Peggy’s office to see if she can help him. He pleads with Peggy (Pippa Bennett-Warner) to tell him where Anna is. Elizabeth asks Anna if she should be going to work so soon. Anna says she needs to go in before claiming she is okay. Elizabeth offers to let her stay for as long as she likes because she enjoys having her around. She just hopes that is the last time. Elizabeth doesn’t think Jay stood a chance and Aston didn’t either. Anna asks if she knew. Elizabeth admits she did. Anna questions why she didn’t do a thing. Elizabeth asks what she could’ve done when Anna seemed happy. She knows that Aston was enthralled by her.
Anna argues Elizabeth should’ve stopped him after all those nights he came to her room. Elizabeth wishes she could’ve stopped him, but he was so scared and confused. Anna yells that she was too because throwing stuff around. Anna storms out while Elizabeth pleads for her not to go. Later, a man watches from nearby as Anna swims. She comes back and sets down her room key before introducing herself to David (Oscar Batterham). Lynette (Letty Thomas) joins David and is promptly introduced to Anna. Anna tells them that she is in the honeymoon suite. When they ask about her husband, Anna says he is dead. She explains that she had an affair with his father, he found out, and he fell. Anna goes out and dances with a man.
They go to a private place for sex, but the man is too aggressive for Anna so she quickly tells him to stop. She ends up hitting him and running off. When she makes it back, she finds William waiting for her. William takes her back to the room and helps her bathe. In the morning, William tells her about his marriage to Ingrid and letting uncertainty in when he met her. Anna isn’t sure they can ever separate who they are from what they’ve done. William says they can’t let it all be for nothing either. William doesn’t regret it and says it is done now even though Anna reminds him they’ve caused so much pain. Anna wishes they’d never met.
She tells William not to try and find her again before walking away from him. Anna goes back to work. After she is congratulated on her wedding, she calls someone and says she needs them. She asks them to meet her at the flat. Peggy meets her while William meets with an agent to talk about buying the flat where his son died. Anna tells Peggy that she can’t do this anymore. Peggy urges her to stop punishing herself. Anna leaves the flat with Peggy. William looks in the fireplace and retrieves Anna’s diary about her struggles and how she always survives. She knows that he will survive as well no matter what happens between them. That is what they’ve learned to do.
Later, Anna visits a psychotherapist to talk about her tough year. He asks if she feels she needs some rules. Anna finds that strange.
Obsession Review
Between Richard Armitage, Charlie Murphy, and the rest of the cast, there were some good performances in Obsession. Unfortunately, it never felt like those performances amounted to much because the story ended up being purposeless. It does seem like a missed opportunity considering what Obsession could’ve been, but the lack of depth through four episodes led to an empty feeling from start to finish.
The series isn’t terrible and can easily be watchable, but viewers will have to make a lot of compromises to find a little satisfaction in the end. Richard Armitage and Charlie Murphy shouldn’t be criticized for tackling such daunting roles though. In fact, both did well enough with their respective characters.
The series went overboard with the sex scenes while the character development was lacking so it was impossible to care about anyone. Some of the casting choices were odd and that didn’t help either. Unfortunately, Obsession needed a solid finale to make it work and it just didn’t. It was a bit of a mess at times and profoundly disappointing at other points.
It would be difficult to recommend Obsession unless the viewer is a diehard fan of either of the two leads. The finale scores a 5 out of 10. Recaps of Obsession can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising on Reel Mockery by clicking here.
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.
It would have been much better had so much focus not been placed on the sex act itself. After the first sex encounter it was clear that they were mèting regularly to have sex and showing it like 30 times didn’t add much value. It just got dumb after a while and not even titilating… just Richard Armitage using that woman like a fleshlight and finishing in like one minute. I feel that Richard Armitage must have agreed to appear nude, so the director decided to exploit that to the hilt, and to the detriment of the story. They even briefly show his penis. I mean I do get that he us 51 and proud to still be sporting a beach body but come on. it could have been a very deep psychological drama. Instead it was hindered by cheap… and I do mean cheap… sex scenes.
lol! Yep. Felt a bit like voyeurism after a while. Got to give Richard and Charlie credit for being willing to showcase it all if they really did. Out of four episodes though, probably 3 hours was nothing but pointless sex scenes that added nothing to the story after the first couple of times.
There are probably pornos with deeper stories sadly. Seems like Armitage hasn’t been able to catch a real break lately with these roles. Needs to go back to period dramas where he really shines.
He made a great MI 5 agent on Spooks (Mi5 in the U.S.). Maybe he should give that a try again 😄
Gonna give The Diplomat a shot… can’t be any worse.
North And South was great as well. Surprisingly, there are two The Diplomats and they were released within months apart. Only God knows why. Anyway, I’d assume you’re walking about the new Netflix one. I’ve only seen the first episode of the latter so far but it is interesting enough. The one with Sophie Rundle wasn’t bad either. Good luck!
Next big release that may be good is Citadel. Fingers crossed on that one.