As the finale of The Tower: Gallowstree Lane begins, DS Sarah Collins (Gemma Whelan) visits Loretta Kennedy (Emmanuella Cole) who reminds her she said no police. Sarah is going to pretend she’s a social worker. Loretta says one of the men who took Tia was black with a tattoo on his neck. The other one was white. He hit Tia and drug her out by her hair. They were after Ryan. Loretta says Ryan changed his phone number and gave it to Tia. She doesn’t have it. Ryan was last with Shakiel Oliver. DS Mark Angel (Robbie Gee) and Lizzie Adama (Tahirah Sharif) keep an eye on Shakiel (Daniel Adegboyega) using CCTV cameras. Shakiel tells Steve (Jimmy Akingbola) he should get a better place if this thing works out.
Shakiel gets a message before telling Steve they need to go and he can’t take his phone. Kieran Shaw (Emmett J Scanlan) observes the operation. At the station, Sarah speaks to Lee Coutts (Bobby Lockwood), Archie Rivers (John Gully), and Elaine (Ella Smith) about finding Tia. She asks Lee to do a cross-check on cars leaving the Deakin estate last night and cars near Gallowstree Lane on the night of the murder. DCI Jim Fedden (Stuart McQuarrie) tells Sarah she must inform Shaw about Tia. The two men with Tia can’t get in touch with Ryan. They agree to call from Tia’s phone when they’re moving. They move her to the boot of the vehicle. Ryan Kennedy (Lamar Waves) plays with the gun. He gets a message telling him where to meet. Becca (Ema Cavolli) asks him if he wants tea.
She tells him good luck before he leaves. Sarah calls Kieran to tell him about Ryan. She says Jermaine King kidnapped Tia last night. Kieran reminds her she let the murderer escape from custody. He pleads with her to find Tia and Ryan. Kieran updates the team. Steve talks to Shakiel about Morocco. Shakiel gets a call and tells him to pull over. He calls Ryan to tell him to go to the old car wash and keep an eye out for feds. Ryan goes into a restaurant for a drink. Shakiel asks Steve about getting caught. Ryan gets a missed call from Tia. Lizzie confirms another vehicle has turned into the car wash. Steve pulls up next to them. Lizzie notices a bike near the café. She wants to rewind and watch it, but Angel tells her to focus. Mitko (Petar Cvirn) shows Shakiel the guns. Once Mitko checks the drugs and money, they swap cars.
Kieran tells Lucas it’s all his. Lee tells Sarah about the matches they got including a high-end Audi. Archie confirms Tia is in a car. Sarah wants to ID the driver of the Audi. Shakiel tells Steve there won’t be a war. Thanks to these guns, he just won the war. A cop car appears behind them. Ryan walks out and sees it. Shakiel tells Steve to pull over and play it cool. Once the cop gets out, Shakiel realizes he’s wearing a vest and this isn’t random. He gets up and runs. He’s surrounded but it appears he may be trying to pull a gun. Ryan watches from nearby with a gun. Shakiel surrenders. Kieran reaches the scene and checks the guns. He tells Shakiel he’s arrested. Lee says the rental office won’t provide a picture of the driver. Elaine takes the phone, says a few choice words, and gets the picture. It’s confirmed the driver is Jermaine King.
Sarah leaves with Lee. Ryan watches as Shakiel is taken away. Angel leaves Lizzie who rewinds the video and sees Ryan. Seconds later, Ryan drives by and sees Steve celebrating the arrest. Kieran calls Steve to talk to him and tells him Shakiel is being booked in. He tells Steve about Ryan and asks where he’d go. Steve believes Ryan might come to him. Kieran tells him to go there and see if he shows up. Lizzie keeps following Ryan’s movements and notices he has a gun. He finally answers Tia’s call. Jermaine tells him to meet. Ryan tells him to come to 14 Foley Street after he sees Steve nearby. He’ll show him who the real snitch is. Lee and Sarah try to track the Audi. Sarah tells Lee not to use the lights and sirens. Lizzie tells Kieran that Ryan saw everything. Kieran says they deactivated the camera inside Steve’s flat yesterday.
She confirms Ryan went to Steve’s flat with the gun and confronted him. Kieran says he’ll organize a team and a negotiator. Lizzie complains to Angel that she should’ve let him rewind the video. Kieran asks Shakiel about Ryan’s gun. Shakiel says nothing and suspects Steve set him up. Ryan tells Steve he doesn’t want to hear his voice. Kieran meets Lizzie near Steve’s flat. Lizzie reveals she met Mary and offered to leave London and never see him again. It was the only thing she could think of to stop her from doing what she’s going to do. Lizzie doesn’t think she persuaded her though. Kieran thinks he’s screwed and he deserves it. He promises he’ll make sure it doesn’t happen to Lizzie. She isn’t sure he should protect her. Ryan blames Steve for everything. Gemma and Lee see the Audi. Jermaine gets out before the vehicle drives away.
They follow the car. Kieran realizes what’s going on and that Jermaine is going to Steve’s flat. Ryan calls Steve a snitch. Steve says he doesn’t give guns to kids. Kieran hears a gunshot. He tells Lizzie to keep King away before running in. Ryan tells Steve the next bullet is in his head. Kieran knocks on the door. When the car crashes, Tia is stuck in the boot and the car sets on fire. Kieran enters and tells Ryan they know about Tia. Sarah manages to get Tia to safety. Gemma calls Kieran and confirms he has Tia. Kieran lets her speak to Ryan. She pleads with Ryan to come home. Kieran tells Ryan he needs to think about himself now. Steve tells him he hasn’t done anything bad and they can all walk away. Ryan sees Jermaine walking around outside. Lizzie tries to stop him. Ryan sees her too and calls them liars.
Ryan tries to watch Jermaine. Steve and Kieran go after him before the gun is fired. Lizzie tries to arrest Jermaine. Other officers arrive just in time. Steve walks out of the flat. He goes back inside with Lizzie who sees Kieran shot. She tells him she loves him, but Kieran tells her not to be silly. Alice Parker gets a call and agrees to tell Mary. She tells Mary that he’s been shot. Mary says she’ll get her bag so she can go to the hospital. She goes inside and destroys the phone. Alice tries to stop her. Mary tells her to arrest her because she doesn’t care. Gemma tells Jermaine in his cell that he’s arrested for Spencer’s murder. Ryan fights with the guards and says he didn’t mean to. Arif says he’s being arrested for the murder of DI Shaw. Mary comes out of the room and tells Lizzie that she destroyed the phone so she’s free of it. Mary looks at Sarah on her way out.
Tim shakes his head at Sarah who leaves. Lizzie goes into the room with Kieran who is dead. Sarah finds Steve who says he heard about Kieran’s wife and the phone. Sarah says they’re seeing if they can save anything, but it’s likely that they can’t. Steve isn’t sorry because Kieran was a good man. He knows Ryan won’t tell where he got the gun. They can get Shakiel for Lexi’s murder though. He gives Sarah the leverage she needs to turn Jarral. Steve asks Sarah to get Shakiel for him and Kieran. Jarral is interviewed by Elaine and Sarah. They let him listen to the recording of Shakiel calling him thick and dumb. Sarah tells him to decide how loyal he wants to be. Steve hangs out with his kids. Later, Sarah tries to call Julie only to get her voicemail. She watches a news report about Kieran’s death. Ryan remembers everything that has happened before being taken away in cuffs.
He has a note saying, “You did it, my guy” from Shakiel.
The Tower Review
The Tower has always had a problem with unfulfilling endings and that seems to be the case here. The first series left too much unresolved. In this one, the biggest villain was killed and everything was swept under the rug. That was fairly predictable although not necessarily a terrible finish to the series.
There were several believability issues in this episode that were difficult to ignore. Lizzie saw the bicycle, but Angel wouldn’t let her rewind the video and see Ryan. That’s fine, but they should’ve seen Ryan during the actual takedown because he was standing nearby. It was cringe for Elaine to take the phone from Lee to deal with the car rental company.
It’s highly unlikely Steve would’ve been left near the site of the takedown in Shakiel’s territory because someone might see him. With a proper operation, he would’ve been taken and at least booked temporarily. The crash involving Tia surely wasn’t bad enough to cause a fire or need a heroic rescue. I don’t remember the driver being apprehended either even though Lee chased him.
It’s also odd how the series portrayed Sarah throughout only to try to prop her back up after Kieran’s death. Sarah was pretty much useless in this series. In fact, she was a hindrance to the investigation at many points while belittling every one of her colleagues along the way. Not to mention, she went to Ryan’s house pretending they wouldn’t know she was a police officer. It wasn’t that long ago that she spoke to members of the community alongside other police and was pretty much called a racist. I bet they wouldn’t remember that.
She’s irredeemable, yet Steve has to give her evidence and ask her to bring down Shakiel. Weren’t the guns enough to begin with? After all, that’s what the entire series was about. It seems the police have definitely lost an asset in Kieran considering he and Steve were the only ones achieving anything.
After all that, I think the series really wanted us to hate Kieran and sympathize with Ryan at the end. It’s becoming a common thing on British television to sugarcoat the crimes for whatever reason. Despite these issues, the finale was fairly good thanks to Jimmy Akingbola and Emmett Scanlan and their characters. The absence of Kieran will certainly leave a big void.
The finale scores 6 out of 10. Recaps of The Tower can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent work at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. See what others are saying 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.
