As the finale of Showtrial begins, Meera Harwood (Lolita Chakrabarti) tells Dhillon (Joseph Payne) that this is his chance to tell her now although Dhillon says he has already told her everything. She encourages her son not to let them provoke him. He apologizes for putting her through this before she tells him to be truthful during the questioning. Dhillon takes the stand on day eight of the trial. He admits he and Talitha (Celine Buckens) were inseparable although they didn’t have a physical relationship. When asked about Talitha’s fantasies, Dhillon says he never heard her say anything about strangling another woman during sex. When pushed further, he says Talitha was into femdom although he thought it was just game playing. Then, he says he couldn’t see Talitha when they were with Hannah due to his position because he was giving oral to Hannah. He says they got into trouble and out of trouble regularly.

He goes on to say Talitha is a one-off, totally original, and that is what he loved about her. At one point, he claims Talitha said they had to put the body in water. He begins explaining the fugue state he was in after the incident. When he is asked if he regrets his actions that night, he says he does. He swears on his mother’s life that he didn’t kill Hannah. Then, Emma Hemmings (Lu Corfield) begins questioning the defendant. Dhillon says it was both of their ideas to go to the ball, but it was Talitha’s idea to go to Hannah’s house after that. When asked about the GHB drug, he says Hannah had that because she was a normal person and took drugs like everyone else. Emma wonders how Dhillon didn’t notice a struggle when he was performing oral sex on Hannah. He claims he only noticed something was wrong when Talitha kept saying Hannah’s name.

Emma gets upset and says any decent person would’ve called for an ambulance. She accuses him of going to Hannah’s house with the scarf alone although he denies it. Niche Barie (Rebecca Grant) finds Meera outside pretending to smoke a cigarette. Meera tells her how she feels when she sees Andrea (Claire Lams) before talking about the innocent years of Dhillon’s life. Cleo Roberts (Tracy Ifeachor) talks to Talitha who laughs about Dhillon’s performance. She admits she can’t believe he betrayed her like that although Cleo says she had plenty of time to assess his character. Talitha says she doesn’t like Emma and wants Cleo to question her when she is up there. Cleo agrees to talk to Emma about that. James Thornley (Kerr Logan) forces Hillcroft to show him the footage Paula allegedly hit from the defense. Next, Adam Reynolds (Sam Hoare) is given the chance to question Dhillon in front of the jury.

He starts with Dhillon’s claim he had sex with Hannah before the ball. He admits that was a lie and it was a lie when he told Lucinda he was using a condom. Dhillon realizes he is trying to make him look like a habitual liar. The conversation turns to Hannah’s harassment complaint against Dhillon and how they found out about it. He thought he loved Hannah and got stressed when she wouldn’t return his phone calls. Dhillon says being rejected by Hannah made him sad and Talitha thought Hannah was using the complaint to get closer to Vendler because she had a thing for him. When Adam presses him on that, Dhillon says he doesn’t know if it is true because he and Talitha aren’t joined at the hip. The questions end after Adam asks if the complaint was the motive for killing Hannah.

James sits with his wife who asks if he has figured out what he is going to do with the video footage of the scarf. He wishes the drunken cops would’ve kept their mouths shut so he wouldn’t have to make this decision. Cleo tells Talitha that they might have to talk about her childhood, but Talitha worries they’re going to say the abused has become the abuser. Cleo believes she can make the opposite effect for the jury. When Tally says she can’t fake things, Cleo tells her to be herself. Tally is told they have to break the Lady Tease persona if they want to have a chance of winning this. We jump ahead to day 12 of the trial. Brian Reeves (Rupert Holliday-Evans) stops Cleo to give her pictures from the Green Man Festival that will be helpful.

He also encourages her to use Talitha’s abuse in court. Once Talitha takes the stand, she is shown the pictures from the Green Man Festival and asked about her bracelet and Hannah’s rucksack. Talitha can’t remember handling Hannah’s rucksack although she might’ve. Then, Talitha says she was upset with Hannah because she kept going on and on about not having any privilege. They also had a fight because of the things Hannah said about Dhillon. While Talitha sent abusive texts to Hannah, she argues that Hannah was capable of giving it right back to her. Cleo shows her a picture of the scarf before Tally says she doesn’t know what happened to it. She remembers having it while riding the Ferris Wheel and eventually hung out in the chill-out zone until Dhillon said it was time to go. Tally insists she did not go to Hannah’s place.

Dhillon might’ve discussed Hannah since they saw her at the ball, and she called Tally a silver-spooned ho. Damian (James Frain) listens carefully as Talitha says she didn’t take any money from her family and supported herself with sex work and other things. Although she didn’t mind being called lady tease, she didn’t like being called a silver-spooned ho. She has tried most things she wanted to but never thought about strangling someone during sex. Tally insists Dhillon is lying about that and everything else. She confesses to partaking in sex with humiliation or roleplay because she was in sex work and was usually the one being humiliated. Then, they reach Tally’s less than consensual sex. She is worried about how it will sound so Cleo tells her not to worry about that. Tally says she went to her mother’s parties and had sex with most of the men there. Cleo says she was raped by them.

Tally admits her mother watched and it might’ve changed her somehow. She tells the jury about singing the French nursery rhyme to herself when she is anxious. The singing started around the time of the parties. Her mother told her she enjoyed it and demanded to go to the parties, but Talitha isn’t sure about that anymore. When Cleo says she has no further questions, Talitha says she wants to say something else. She claims her mother abused her at the parties by performing sex acts on her for the benefit of the men. James talks to his wife about the abuse and they agree it doesn’t mean she is innocent. His wife wonders if she was lying although James says she turned down several opportunities to lie before. Damian talks to Cleo about the abuse from her mother which he says he didn’t know about. Cleo says Talitha was finished if she didn’t rebuild her character and the revelation helped.

Damian wants to see his daughter and he believes he owes it. Cleo agrees to fix it before encouraging him to ask for forgiveness. James calls to tell Cleo about the disclosure issue before day 13 of the trial begins. Tally is questioned by Adam about her relationship with Stephen. She admits she thought Hannah was exaggerating about Dhillon and felt it was pathetic. Tally gets sassy when she is asked to describe her personality. She eventually gives four words to describe herself. Adam asks if violent would fit her list, but she says no because she hates seeing people in pain. She says she might’ve told Stephen she likes the idea of strangling people during sex because Vendler liked hearing scenarios like that. She insists she made it up for his benefit because he liked hearing things that would sound weird, disgusting, and even ridiculous. She believes he remembered general stuff that was said and fitted it to the crime because he was angry at her.

She doesn’t have a bad conscience because she didn’t do anything and only warned Dhillon. Cleo meets with James and tells him that they’re saying they replaced the footage of Dhillon with the scarf. James encourages her to recall Cassidy and agrees to talk to her about it. They talk about the risk of putting Tally in the witness box before James admits he is going to tell Cassidy what he did. Paula Cassidy (Sinead Keenan) scolds him for telling Cleo about the footage. She doesn’t think she did anything wrong and argues she didn’t make the footage disappear. She says she hopes he can look Andrea in the eye when Talitha is walking the streets again although he claims he’ll be able to look himself in the eye. Paula is put back in the stand so she can admit that there was evidence of Dhillon with the scarf. Emma asks her if this is the first time in her career that she allowed her dislike for a subject to cloud her judgment. Tally meets with her father who apologizes and admits he is the one who taught her the French rhyme when she was young. She hopes her saint can work miracles.

After the meeting ends, each team works on their closing statements. Then, the jury comes back and finds Dhillon guilt and Talitha not guilty. Dhillon is given a minimum of 23 years in prison. Meera ignores the press outside and lights a cigarette in the vehicle while they watch her. Andrea tells James she doesn’t know what to think and she questions whether justice was done since Talitha went free. James asks her for permission to use Hannah as the middle name of their baby. Andrea agrees before thanking James for his kindness. Next, Talitha meets Cleo at her office and reveals she is going to Paris. Talitha realizes she won’t see Cleo again and that she was just a client. Cleo refutes that she was just a client though. Talitha says they did it and totally fooled them. She reminds Cleo she said it didn’t matter and was all about the process. She laughs out loud before saying got ya. Cleo tells her to send her a picture of the Eiffel Tower. Talitha steps outside and waves at her from the street as the episode ends.

 

Showtrial Review

While Showtrial had a lot going for it, it really never hit its peak and there was never a satisfactory climax. The last two episodes felt like a complete copout from the writers considering they took the easy, predictable way out. Talitha was often an unlikeable character making it difficult for us to cheer for her. On the flip side, the detectives were two-dimensional and incompetent so cheering for them wasn’t easy either.

Anyone who watched the first three episodes will know what is coming in episodes four and five. The only real suspense in the end was Talitha claiming they fooled them although it was a silly cheap shot this late in the game. The first three episodes were better than the last two which were sloppy and rushed. We never got to see Andrea’s testimony or any of the closing statements which are immensely important for any jury.

It doesn’t help that the writers gave too much credence to the jury when this really wouldn’t have happened in real life. Most juries aren’t this sophisticated and would’ve found Talitha guilty based on their trust in prosecutors and the evidence presented. Perhaps the biggest problem was the fact that Showtrial never established its purpose, or it might’ve got lost along the way. Regardless, I have no clue what the show wants us to feel or believe. It almost feels like they have no idea how to finish it and just threw everything together at the end.

It was a good idea with some excellent performances, but Showtrial never lived up to its true potential. The finale scores a 6.5 out of 10. All recaps of Showtrial are available on Reel Mockery here.