As the finale of The Suspect begins, we see someone planting a spade at the cemetery. Riya Devi (Anjli Mohindra) and Vincent Ruiz (Shaun Parkes) investigate the murder of Rupert Erskine. He has been there for a week or two and there are no signs of wounds or trauma. Since his mouth was taped shut, it is speculated that he died of dehydration. It seems like a punishment killing so someone really didn’t like him. Ruiz wants to find out how Erskine was connected to Joe O’Loughlin. Ruiz questions why Joe would ask Rachel to find Erskine if he killed him two weeks ago. Devi says the jury might buy that he wanted to appear innocent since he knew they were listening to his calls. She argues that he has been trying to play them all the while. Ruiz says they need to check if there are other people they need to worry about.

As for Bobby’s family, they’re still trying to trace a half-brother in Australia. Melinda (Angela Griffin) and Joe (Aidan Turner) visit a social worker who helped push through the court order for Bobby’s father. Joe hopes he can tell them who might’ve poisoned his daughter. Joe O’Loughlin approaches Lucas Dutton (Stephen Whitfield) who is busy painting over graffiti. Joe asks what happened to his daughter Sonia. When asked why, Joe admits he doesn’t think her death was an accident. Lucas has been waiting a long time for someone to say that. When she was in her first year at a university, she went to a club where someone gave her a drug. She spent three weeks in a coma and never regains consciousness. He talked to her friends who said a much older man gave her the drug and he wasn’t a student. He was confident and good-looking.

Joe reminds him that they accused a man of abusing his 8-year-old son when they worked together many years ago. They got it wrong, a man killed himself, and the son is taking revenge. Joe suspects he could be involved somehow. He promises to do whatever he can to get the truth. He tells Melinda that Bobby isn’t the one who gave Sonia that drug. Instead, Joe believes Jack might be involved because there are too many coincidences. Joe doesn’t want Melinda involved anymore. She offers to let him take her car so he can get back to Julianne and Charlie. Once Joe confesses that he stole the file, she encourages him to go to the police because he can’t keep running. When Julianne (Camilla Beeput) takes Charlie to the park, she gets mad at the police officers following them. She goes back to the playground only to find that her daughter is missing. Gerald ‘Jack’ Owens (Adam James) shows up with her seconds later.

Although Jack wants to apologize, Julianne isn’t eager to listen to him right now. Devi calls Vince to tell him that one of the groundsmen at the cemetery found a spade hidden under leaves. They are going to check it and the soil samples to see if it can be connected to Joe. They also believe Joe is coming back to London. Vince wants to know where his wife and daughter are every minute. Joe contacts Vince to say he wants to give himself up. He invites Vince to the City of Westminster Hospital so they can meet. Vince struggles to get to the balcony where he meets Joe. He promises to go with Vince, but he has to look at the evidence first. Joe says it details the evidence that Bobby killed Catherine and Cara before framing him for it. He goes on to tell Vince about Jack matching the description of the young woman who was drugged. When Vince tells him about the new spade, Joe insists the spade was planted against his mother’s headstone.

Everyone who worked on Bobby’s case has lost someone they loved. Joe encourages Vince to warn Rupert because he is in danger, but he doesn’t know that he is already dead. Vince wants to take him into custody to protect him. When he comes after Joe, he has difficulty reaching him. Joe flees using the ladder before he has to talk Vince through getting back inside. Vincent makes it back to the station where the others have CCTV footage of Joe at the hospital. He admits he is the other person in the video and Joe got away. Jack goes to Julianne’s place in hopes of apologizing again. He doesn’t understand how she stays loyal to Joe after everything he has put her through. He says the idea of banishment and never being able to see her again doesn’t seem fair. When he tries to embrace her, Julianne stops him and says Joe is right about him being too screwed up to maintain a relationship of his own.

She insists it was never a choice between him and Joe because she never even knew that he was there. Once DJ (Tom McKay) enters to check on them, Julianne asks Jack to leave. After he does, DJ says he’ll get a helper to clean up and load the van so they can go. Bobby’s solicitor encourages him to pay attention when he is in court. Eddie (Gary Oliver) warns him that they might want to send him to jail for a couple of months. Vincent catches up with Devi to say he thought he could bring Joe in and didn’t know he’d be on a roof. He doesn’t know how Joe figured out about his fear of heights, but they need to take the information he provided seriously. Devi says forensics has Joe’s fingerprints all over the spade. She believes that is enough to say he is guilty and they’re wasting time looking at his evidence. Vincent says Judge John Bryant made the judgment on Lenny Morgan being barred from seeing his son so they need to see if anything happened to him.

Vincent leaves with another detective since he might know where Joe is. Joe is watching from across the street as Eddie comes out with Bobby and calls him lucky since he got probation. Joe follows him to the park where he harasses him about the cops investigating the murders and Lenny never being a good father. Detectives arrest Joe and let Bobby go. A cop is placed outside of Bobby’s room to keep him safe while Joe is interviewed by Vincent and Riya. Joe tries to convince them that he was with Cara on the night of Catherine’s murder. He tells them why he didn’t notify them when he found Cara dead. When they begin talking about Bobby (Bobby Schofield), Joe says something dark and terrible must’ve happened to that child. Dr. Owens is the only person he can think of who fits the description of the man who drugged Sonia Dutton. When Devi gets a message, they decide to take a break.

They’re told that Judge Bryant’s wife broke her neck in a riding accident. A car swerved in front of her horse about eight months ago. The witness thought it was deliberate and the description matches the of the man who drugged Sonia Dutton. Devi and Vincent wonder why Joe is being punished differently. After looking at the forensic report, they go back to Joe to talk to him about the spade he found leaning against his mother’s headstone. Vincent admits he believes he is being set up because he is not a lucky man. He finds it odd that the piece of evidence that nails him shows up at the perfect time. Vincent suggests the spade was carefully stored and planted. Joe is released while they investigate further. Jack is picked up while Devi finds out that Bobby has managed to escape. When Joe makes it home, he briefly talks to DJ who is fixing one last thing. He finds Charlie’s fish drawing nearby.

When he walks into the kitchen, he is surprised to see Bobby with Julianne and Charlie. Bobby says the plumber and his cheery little assistance would’ve been gone in a few minutes. While DJ opens the gas and sets up the bomb, Bobby orders Joe to sit down. DJ comes upstairs to say it is running. Bobby says there is going to be a gas leak and a massive explosion. Joe’s hands are tied behind his back. Bobby tells him about the paper he had in his pocket for every session. It was the report for his dad that Joe had signed. Joe admits he shouldn’t have signed it and should’ve done more. Bobby asks his brother if he heard that. If Joe would’ve come back an hour later, he would’ve been reminded of his mother’s incineration like their father. Joe is told that the timer can’t be stopped and it’ll blow if he tries to tamper with it.

Julianne pleads with DJ to take Charlie with him. As he prepares to leave, police officers begin knocking on the door. DJ pulls out a gun and forces Joe to answer the door. Joe attempts to convince her that everything is okay. In an interview room, Jack is accused of obstructing the investigation from the start. Jack admits he never thought of Joe as a real friend. A phone call from Devi interrupts so Vincent can learn about the incident at Joe’s house. She explains that Bobby’s half-brother Dafydd Jude Morgan worked as a plumber in Australia. She believes something is up since Joe was tense and a plumber’s van is parked outside the home. Jack tells Vincent that Julianne called the plumber DJ. He is released. Vincent tells Devi to keep a distance and observe. Then, he declares a critical incident since he suspects they have a hostage situation. Julianne admits she and Charlie felt safe with DJ. She pleads with him to let them go.

Bobby tells his brother that it didn’t work since the police have blocked off the street. Bobby believes they’ve done everything they said they were going to do besides getting back at Joe. They can give in or stay and see that it gets finished. Joe doesn’t understand why Bobby didn’t punish his mother since she is the one he hates the most. As Joe continues talking about Bridgett, Bobby gets mad and says this isn’t about his mother. Joe believes it is about an eight-year-old boy having to suppress a justified rage. Bobby says he has no idea what he went through. He tells him about the lay-by on the coast road through Cosby. He got there about ten or half ten. DJ tries to get him to stop, but Bobby continues by saying there was another car parked there. You pull up behind that car and flash an indicator left or right depending on what you want.

When that car replies with the same indicator, you follow it. Bobby was six at the time his mom first took him there and he had to sit there and watch it all. She used to tell him that she liked it when he watched. Nothing was off the menu. DJ and Bobby get into an argument because DJ doesn’t think Charlie should hear it. Bobby says he is defending her when he wouldn’t have protected him. Julianne realizes that DJ must’ve been there. Joe asks Bobby where his mom would go when they followed the car. They’d go to a big barn and there would sometimes be 30 or 40 nonces. Bobby complains when DJ frees Julianne and Charlie so they can leave. Joe asks if DJ ran away so his mom made Bobby take his place. He wonders how many years Bobby was forced to go into that barn alone. Joe thinks DJ did the killings before saying this is about forgiveness instead of revenge. He thinks DJ needs Bobby to forgive him.

He thought Bobby would forgive him for carrying out his plan, but Joe doesn’t think he’ll ever forgive him for running out like that. Bobby claims he has and tells his brother he loves him. DJ unties Joe and says they need to keep him close so they don’t shoot at them. DJ argues this is how he can save Bobby like he should’ve back then. DJ makes them go outside before tying their hands together and running back inside. He tampers with the bomb to make it explode and kills himself. Joe tells Vincent that he managed to get them to come out by using the first rule of psychology which is to shut up and listen. Then, you ask the right question. It was always about them and it is always about childhood. Later, Joe talks about what men do to other men and women leaving a scar and you can only learn to live with those scars.

 

The Suspect Review

The finale of The Suspect was pretty straightforward considering there weren’t any big twists or turns. Instead, the big revelation was pretty much given away in the prior episode. Anything that set the series apart from others was already gone by that point unfortunately, but the finale still wasn’t bad. It felt a bit sloppy at times and left a lot of doors open because we don’t know what happened to Jack or which crimes can be positively attributed to DJ and Bobby.

Some performances weren’t spectacular and certain scenes were a bit silly to be honest. On the other hand, there were some legitimately shocking moments, especially those in which Bobby disclosed the truth behind the abuse. The ending was a bit abrupt even though it covered the main story okay.

The finale was really just decent compared to some of the earlier episodes that were a lot better. The series somewhat lost its way when it became evident that Joe couldn’t be the killer and Bobby was likely responsible. There is plenty of room for improvement, but the first season of The Suspect was enjoyable.

Since it only has five episodes of roughly 45 minutes, the series is well worth binging. Most will probably be intrigued with the story midway through the first season. The finale scores a 6.5 out of 10. Recaps of The Suspect can be found on Reel Mockery here. Learn how to support us at this link.