As the finale of The Holiday begins, we see someone checking Izzy (Cat Simmons) for a pulse. Kate (Jill Halfpenny) runs the path while firefighters work to deal with the blaze. When she makes it back to the villa, she gets hugs from Daniel and Lucy before asking Sean (Owen McDonnell) for his phone. Once she uses his phone, the cops arrive moments later. Kate goes inside where she tells Rowan (Siobhan Hewlett), Jenny (Liv Mjones), and the others about Izzy. Russ (Andrew Macklin) comforts Rowan while Alistair (Aidan McArdle) shuts the door. Odette (Molly McCann) knocks on the door so Russ opens it to tell her they’ll be with her in a minute. In the kitchen, Lucy (Lara McDonnell) questions Jake whether he started the fire before complaining he should’ve killed someone because Daniel was down there.

Jake (Shaun O’Callaghan Wade) reveals he told Izzy everything. Alistair asks the others whether Izzy would’ve died instantly or would’ve suffered. Kate confirms that the police will want to question them. They wonder if anyone saw anything as Jenny makes it clear that Jake came back to the villa with her. Russ thinks he saw Jake running through the woods shouting for Daniel and Odette. Jenny is adamant that it was an accident. As Sean enters, everyone tells him it must be so difficult for him. He admits he saw Izzy down by the ravine and she saw so happy because she had a whole new life ahead of her. Kate decides to leave to lock Izzy’s room while the others try to figure out what they should do. Once she enters Izzy’s room, she finds and takes what looks like her journal.

Alistair joins Jake outside to ask him whether he saw Izzy since Russ thought he heard him in the woods. He warns him that this could be very serious so he needs to tell him what he saw although he isn’t accusing him of anything. Alistair reminds him that everyone including the police will want to know where he was. When Sean tells Lucy and Daniel, Lucy begins breaking down and blaming herself although Sean insists it wasn’t her fault. Daniel tries to comfort her, but Lucy asks them to leave her alone before rushing out of the room. Russ asks Rowan if Izzy might’ve been murdered. He suggests it could’ve been Sean since Kate thought they were having an affair. Rowan doesn’t want to believe Sean could do something like that and still believes it was an accident.

When looking through Izzy’s book, Kate finds pictures of Izzy including one of her kissing another woman. Once Sean enters the room, he admits he knew that Izzy had a girlfriend whose name was Kristin. He only found out when he picked Izzy up from the airport and she had intended to tell Kate herself. Then, Kate demands to know who Coral Girl is. Daniel interrupts to say a very upset Lucy locked herself in the bathroom. Sean tells him they’ll be there in a minute. Sean changes the subject by telling Kate about Lucy’s video with Alex Frazer. A couple of days before they left, Sean went for a run and saw Jenny’s car hit a boy before speeding away. The boy was hurt but still moving. While someone else called for an ambulance, Sean called Jenny and found out that she was still at home.

Jenny started screaming because Jake was behind the wheel. Although the police came, Sean claims he couldn’t make a statement. He couldn’t tell the police because Jenny found something on Jake’s phone. Sean lets Kate listen to the message of her daughter telling Jake about Alex coming over and taking a video of her. She urges him to kill Alex if he has ever felt anything for her. Sean reveals the boy died earlier today. When she asks why he didn’t tell her, Sean insists he didn’t know what else to do. Kate asks how that is possible when Izzy came to the meeting point after she contacted Coral Girl. Sean saw what she had done so he warned Jenny who sent Izzy in her place. As for the condoms she found in his bag, he hadn’t used that bag for months. Sean promises he was just trying to protect Lucy and couldn’t tell her because she is a cop.

Kate walks out of the room. Daniel is shown working on a Rubik’s Cube. He gets a message from Lucy asking to meet at the Hunter Hideout. She eventually convinces Daniel to come even though they’re not supposed to leave the villa. Kate tries to get Lucy to open the bathroom door. Soon, he runs into Jenny who asks if they should go look for Lucy. Back inside, Lucy sits down to talk to her mother and father. She asks who told them and whether it was Izzy. Kate says no although she thinks Izzy was getting ready to tell her. Sean reveals he saw the car speed away and got a message from Jenny telling him that Lucy had left with Jake. Kate says they’re going to have to deal with this. Lucy explains that Alex visited while they were out and she didn’t know he was filming her. When Sean asks why, Lucy blurts out that she was going down on him.

Lucy admits she should’ve known better because her mom has warned her enough times, but that isn’t what Kate meant. Lucy says it wasn’t easy to talk about. She wanted Alex dead and that is why she decided to talk to Jake although she didn’t think he’d act on the message. She just knew Jake was her friend and had defended her. Jenny shows Daniel the lighter he had and suggests it could be evidence. She tries to convince him that he started the fire, but he says he didn’t. Alistair walks onto the balcony to ask Jake whether he has seen his mother. Jake says nothing. When Alistair leaves, Jake throws the ball against the door. Back inside, Lucy can’t find her phone. Alistair interrupts to ask if they know where Jenny has gone. Sean checks the monitor app on his phone and learns that Daniel and Lucy’s phones are down by the ravine.

Odette comes in to say Jenny did it. A flashback shows Odette hiding while Jenny and Izzy scuffle nearby. Izzy eventually goes over the edge. They run down by the ravine where they find Jenny threatening to throw Daniel over. Jenny begins saying she needs their help. She knows what Lucy did and offers to keep it quiet if Kate doesn’t say anything about Jake. Jenny insists what happened to Izzy was an accident because she would never do that. She tells Kate that this is what her life is. She wants to save Jake as much as she wants to save Daniel. When Jake shows up, Daniel begins wiggling until he breaks free. Kate leaps forward in hopes of grabbing his arm and saving his life. Then, we jump ahead to a funeral where Kate holds hands with Daniel. A flashback shows that she managed to grab Daniel’s hand and prevent him from falling.

Alistair arrives at the funeral. Lucy finishes playing a song on the piano for Izzy as Kristin watches nearby. Later, Alistair approaches Kate to tell her that Izzy was his friend too. He insists he didn’t know and they both made mistakes. Kate listens as he compliments Lucy’s playing before saying Jake has checked himself into a hospital to deal with his mental health issues. He reveals that Jenny has confessed to killing Izzy, but she is claiming diminished responsibility instead of murder. When he says there is nothing Jenny wouldn’t have done for Jake, Kate asks him where he belongs in all of this since he is Jake’s father. Alistair responds by saying she has already made it clear what she thinks of him. Jake knows that what he did is wrong so he is genuinely full of remorse.

When Alistair begins crying, Kate hugs and comforts him briefly. They say goodbye to one another. Kate leaves before finding Sean talking to Russ and Rowan. Alistair watches them all leave together. In the car, Sean tells Lucy she was great today as Daniel asks why they’re not going to the wake. Kate has to go back to work tomorrow so she can’t go. Sean says he is going back to work, they’re going back to school, and everything is going back to normal. Later at home, Sean apologizes to Kate who says this isn’t about them. A young boy was knocked down and left for dead. She asks what it would be like if the kid was Daniel or Lucy. Kate complains that he knew Lucy was struggling yet he never told her. She knows Lucy will always struggle with this.

When Sean apologizes, Kate tells him to stop saying that. Her ring sits in the drawer. In the morning, Kate gets dressed as she prepares to return to work. She wakes up Lucy to tell her she has changed her mind because she can’t live a lie. She doesn’t think any of them can. Jake murdered someone. Although Lucy sent that message, she had every right to be that angry. Regardless, Kate has to do what is right since she feels the boy’s parents deserve to know what happened. Sean walks in as Kate promises to do whatever she can to support her daughter. She explains she is going to play her boss Lucy’s message to Jake and see what happens. At the very least, Lucy will know that she did the right thing so she can live her life.

Lucy doesn’t think she should do that because she was with Jake when he ran down Alex. She thought they were just going to confront Alex and talk to him, but Jake had other ideas. Jake saw him and ran straight into him. When she told Jake to turn around and go back, he screamed at her to shut up. Although Sean insists he didn’t see Lucy in the car, Kate doesn’t believe him calling him a liar. Lucy didn’t know her father was there. She reminds her mother that telling them about Jake means she is telling them about her too. Lucy offers to go to the police station to tell them everything although her father doesn’t want that. Kate walks into the bathroom and closes the door while Sean tries to figure out what she is going to do.

She listens to Lucy’s message to Jake while crying. Kate changes her mind and deletes the message before wrecking the bathroom and breaking the mirror.

 

The Holiday Review

I can easily see why so many people would be disappointed with The Holiday since it never really had a satisfying climax, turning point, or conclusion. The ending felt a bit rushed considering how much time they had to make something interesting happen in the first three episodes. Regardless, I am not sure the series deserved to be beaten down as badly as it was with scores lower than a 5 on IMDB.

Besides some of the younger cast members, the acting was pretty good. There were some deep moments that likely couldn’t have been pulled off by lesser actors and actresses. The story was pretty straightforward without a lot of time jumps or anything remotely confusing despite having a few twists at the end.

The Holiday wasn’t revolutionary and maybe not even memorable, but I think the scores were far too low. Some may enjoy it while others will likely be annoyed by some of the characters who were difficult to tolerate at times. Overall, I’d give the finale a 6.5 out of 10. Recaps of The Holiday can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support the Reel Mockery project by following this link.