The Final Act (2)

The last case resolves as Jane's father dies. Arnold Tennison's death lands on her at the worst possible moment, and it forces the decision she has been putting off: what to do with herself when the job is over. The episode does not let her grieve in peace; the case still needs closing. The job has defined her for so long that the idea of its ending is harder to face than any case she has handled.

She cracks it, in the end. But the resolution is not tidy. Success brings a series of shocks, and the people around Jane are left reeling in ways the closing credits cannot smooth over. The tough decision she has to make is hers alone, and the script earns every minute she takes to make it. Nobody offers her an easy way out, which is, for this show, a kind of respect. The shocks are the point: even when justice lands, it lands sideways, and the cost is counted in the people left standing.

Frank Deasy wrote it and Philip Martin directed, for transmission on 22 October 2006. Helen Mirren's Jane is supported by Stephen Tompkinson as Sean Philips, Laura Greenwood as Penny Philips, Eve Best as Linda Philips, Gary Lewis as Tony Sturdy, Katy Murphy as Ruth Sturdy, Frank Finlay as Arnold Tennison, Tom Bell as Bill Otley, Robert Pugh as DS Alun Simms and Brendan Coyle as DCS Mitchell.

The series bows out without letting Jane off lightly. It never did, and it would be wrong to expect a clean ending now. What it gives her is a decision of her own, made on her own terms, and the quiet that comes after. For a woman who spent her career fighting to be heard, that is something. She leaves the way she did everything else, on her own terms and with her eyes open.