Well, the show did it. This final episode of season one, which functions, by the by, perfectly as a series finale if you either didn’t watch or didn’t like season two, is a great one. I’ve heard a lot of people say that they “figured out” who the killer was; I would venture to say that it’s more a case of guessing based on . . . well, I won’t say, because I do recommend watching this show without knowing who the killer is, which good luck with that, now that everyone’s on about season two. The performances are phenomenal across the board. Olivia Colman, Jodie Whittaker and Andrew Buchan are all series best in this episode. It’s a gut-wrenching episode, filled with intense, extreme emotions. But it’s really the perfect cap to this brilliant season of television. The final scene between Hardy and Miller is everything you could want it to be and the finale on the beach is a moment of pure beauty, a truly cathartic end. This show really knocked this first season right out of the park. Haven’t seen season two; not sure if I will or not. Not right now, anyway. But this was a great season of television. If you haven’t seen it, do so. It’s only eight episodes, so it goes by pretty quickly. And it’s nothing short of brilliant. 4 stars.
tl;dr – season finale pulls off the impossible and wraps things up perfectly; an emotionally wrenching, incredibly cathartic episode is absolutely worthy of the great season it’s part of. 4 stars.