Vendetta

Three months have passed, and Janet is back at work after the knife attack that nearly killed her. Rachel is living with Nick, and Janet is not the only one who thinks he is using her to stop her reporting his malpractice. Then Rachel is walking home and a car narrowly misses her before smashing into the side of the road. The next day she learns the crash is connected to what she found out about Nick's affair with a juror. Whether Rachel was targeted, and whether Nick had a hand in it, hangs over the whole hour. It is the last in a long line of signals that Rachel has backed the wrong man.

Rachel tells Gill everything. Gill has problems of her own, with a vengeful ex-husband, but she decides against reporting Rachel. The gesture is a gift, and Rachel knows it; her career has been hanging by a thread all series.

The case that week is a teenager shot dead at home. His best friend saw the shooting and is petrified that he is next. And it takes all of Janet's skill to get him to open up. Janet is also trying to end her affair with Andy once and for all. The two battles turn out to need the same kind of nerve.

Sally Wainwright, Diane Taylor and Suranne Jones wrote it, Benjamin Caron directed. Lesley Sharp's Janet and Suranne Jones's Rachel lead, with Amelia Bullmore's Gill, Nicholas Gleaves as Andy, Tony Pitts as Adrian, Reece Noi and Dean Fagan as Frank and Paul Goff, and the rest of the squad in support.

A series that began with a murder dressed as a suicide ends with two women standing up to the men in their lives. Long may that last. The finale leaves both of them bloodied but upright, and nowhere near finished.