'Grantchester' Sets Up a Cliffhanger for Its Last Hurrah in Season 10's Finale

Grantchester's Season 10 finale opens in a place Geordie's been before, and I don't mean his living room. His vicar is mad at him, and once again, he is bound and determined not to apologize, even though it is entirely his own fault. Cathy rolls her eyes. Geordie will apologize because it's what he does, and because his vicars never give in first. (Sidenote: Cathy's extremely iPhone-like hand mirror she uses to do her makeup on the couch feels like it's underlining the point: "As it was ever thus.")  Besides, despite this season's crisis of David's Masculinity — Geordie's crisis, David seems to be fine with himself — her husband is the softest man who ever softened. 

(Listen, if crying at Bambi is wrong, then I don't want to be right.)

But Grantchester is just as determined for this season's cop-and-vicar relationship to be different than previous iterations, which is why when Geordie comes out of the house, Alphy is right there, apology in hand. Of course, he's grateful that Geordie found a lead; it's just that he's spent his life living in what child psychologists refer to as a "ghost kingdom," where parents can be anything, anywhere, which makes the mere idea of meeting his mother as a fallible human somewhat terrifying. 

Geordie, naturally, has the best distractions: "Would you like to come and meet a fascist?" I mean, when you put it that way... it depends, are we going to jet over to BritBox real quick for tea with the Mitford sisters? Of course not, the fascist in question visiting Cambridge at the invitation of the student union is one Wilbur Church (Richard McCabe), a (blessedly fictional) right-wing nutter who thinks Diana's beloved Oswald Mosley is too moderate.

Upon arrival at the college, they find a peaceful protest of one. Simeon Jones (Sam Reuben) is attempting, like Gandalf, to stand upon the bridge and cry, "You Shall Not Pass." He is sadly not nearly as effective as Ian McKellen (who, to be fair, was busy starring in David Copperfield at the time), as Geordie steps right over him, while Alphy corrects him that the bridge in question is "Khazad-Dum" before doing the same. They aren't there for him anyway; Vice Co-Chair Eve De-Beauchamp-Berenet-Vaux, "Silent p, silent x, three hyphens!" (Madeleine Sidi) called the cops because someone burned her Union Jack decor ahead of Church's arrival. 

She accuses Simeon, but the two engage in more pigtail pulling than actual fighting, with name-calling and other antics. (Naturally, both Alphy and Geordie are rooting for the "beardy-weirdy one" despite Simeon's shaven face.) He agrees to leave just as Church arrives with his wife, Maude (Maya Barcot), mini-me son Julian (Milo Hallett), and bodyguard Eddie (Duncan Lacroix). After Alphy does his perfect turn-the-other-cheek act, winding Church up, the two begin to take their leave as Eve De-Beauchamp-Berenet-Vaux walks the Churches inside, clearly fluttering over her hero... only for a bomb to go off. 

When the smoke clears, Church is fine, but his wife, Maude, is dead. Eve claims there was a package addressed to Church in the mailroom, and she had given it to Eddie before leading the family upstairs. She claims she thought Maude was just behind them, but then the explosion occurred. Eddie, despite his blustering, admits he gave the package to Maude to open because he didn't believe anyone would attempt to kill Wilbur, even though the family has gotten dozens of death threats.

Listen, there might be murder, but everyone else has a much bigger issue to deal with: the arrival of Daniel's parents. Mrs. C. is determined to put her best foot forward — the toast for tea should be triangles, and the answer to Leonard's sartorial woes is always knitwear. (Always.) However, Clara Marlow (Brid Brennan) arrives solo, and Daniel's father sends health excuses and his regards. It might be good he's not there; her expression as Leonard greets her says she's not fooled by the "lodger" nonsense. Actually, it turns out he didn't come because neither of them was fooled, as she reveals when she corners Leonard in the kitchen, accusing him of being a pervert who's ruined Daniel's life.

(Chekov's crockery officially spotted at tea time, and Daniel has already had a drink. Brace yourselves.)

Down at the station, Eddie hands over all the death threats, which go to Miss Scott, err, Jenny, while Larry blankets the area with police presence and shuts down the planned talk, as much to make the Churches feel like they're doing something as it is to find the killer. After all, the bomb (an "improvised IED," if you will) was filled with nails and built from toy train parts. Unfortunately, Alphy recognizes the handwriting, having looked at Simeon's poetry book. The poor kid is dragged into the station, and (after being reminded we once fought nazis and Geordie is a veteran of said war) admits he'd written Church multiple times, but swears the strongest thing he ever sent in the envelopes were curse words.

Alphy doesn't have to argue that Simeon is innocent; the address was taped on the package from another envelope, indicating it was used by someone to set the kid up. The obvious suspect is Eddie, but it's quickly apparent that he was madly in love with Maude. That's when Jenny pokes her head in to say the Superintendent has overruled Geordie, and the talk is on. Something Alphy, it turns out, agrees with, to Geordie's frustration and horror. Alphy sees stifling Church as creating a martyr, but all Geordie sees is a potential terrorist attack, and one that kills a lot more people. After all, death does wonders for ticket sales, and this talk will be no exception.

As Geordie storms off, Larry and Jenny ask if Alphy knows about "the file" on his mother Geordie's been working on, which Alphy did not realize was quite the file. (He thought it was just an address.) However, Alphy finds something else on Geordie's desk: a file revealing that Eve, of the three hyphens and silent letters, had been a communist until recently, with an arrest record for protesting and fighting fascists. 

Suddenly, Simeon's statement to her saying he hoped "Papa" noticed her for setting up Church's talk makes a lot of sense. Eve dissembles about it, joking how leftie boys are a bunch of broody manchildren. However, Simeon is happy to tell Alphy and Geordie how the two of them had been besties until her sudden, inexplicable turn rightward this semester. Eve admits she's doing it all for the attention, which only makes Geordie angrier. His officers are about to risk their lives, and all so one little rich kid can get the attention of the terrible people who birthed her.

Back at the vicarage (does it not occur to Clara how odd it is to meet at the vicarage?), Leonard, who still must be protected at all costs, refuses to tell Daniel that his mother is a bigoted creep and homophobic trash to boot. He wants Daniel to be happy, and he knows what it's like to have your family reject you. Right? Wrong. If Mrs. C is Leonard's mother, spiritually and emotionally, Jack is his adopted father, and he heard every word that creature said to Leonard, and he will Not Stand For It. While Mrs. C is taking Clara on a tour of the church, Jack storms into the living room and lays out to Daniel the truth: Clara's goal is to poison his relationship with Leonard to get Daniel to return home and get back with his ex-wife.

It takes Daniel a minute to get his nerve up when the two women return. However, when Clara invites Daniel to come back home, he makes Leonard's coming with him a condition, and when she refuses to agree, he tells her his truth — this is who he is, Leonard is the best thing that ever happened to him. When she protests his "being difficult," he tells her he'll make it easy. Never darken his door again. 

He walks back inside and YES! THE CROCKERY FLIES!

No time for crying over broken teapots, though, it's showtime at Cambridge College, complete with slow-motion walking to the front door of the venue for the Church family, flanked by Geordie and Alphy. Someone throws an egg, and Church has the indignity of Alphy being the one to give him a handkerchief to clean it off as Larry drags the kid away. Geordie and Alphy enter the venue first to double-check that everything is fine and safe, and discover that the decorations include blown-up family photographs, wholesome images of the Church family, playing with... you guessed it, a train set.

Obvious conclusion is obvious. But Wilbur has to complain about Geordie's sudden queries about his hobbies, only to be dismissed by being told that if he doesn't stop interrupting, Geordie will take Julian to the station for questioning. Wilbur leaves in a huff, and unsurprisingly, as soon as he's gone, Julian quietly admits he hates trains... fascism... and his father. He hated his mother too, who he says didn't believe in any of this, but who never tried to stop his father from abusing him into being a miniature clone. Even so, it's probably not Julian, who obediently goes inside as the crowds file in.

I will not lie. I legit stopped the screener and clicked over to the Grantchester Season 11 announcement to double-check that Bradley Hall is in the final season, because the moment I saw Larry walking towards the suspicious box on the floor, slow as you like, without saying anything to anyone, I had to make sure he wasn't about to die. The box does hold a bomb, for the record. However, by the time Larry lifts the lid, the room is already well on its way to clearing out since Simeon threw a firecracker into the hall through the side door.

Alphy runs Simeon down, as the kid swears it was just a prank. As Alphy looks down, he has a brainwave. All those death threat reports that went nowhere, a wife who didn't believe in her husband, a bodyguard who loved her, and a son who despised his father. The boy hated the train sets... but his father knew them inside and out. It was Church himself who set all this up, framing some dumb college kid who sent him angry letters. The intention was to kill Eddie, who knew the death threats were fake, and whom his wife liked better than him. Thankfully, Larry had already disabled the bomb before Church could press the button and blow them all sky high. 

As Jenny swoons over Larry's childhood trainset skills, Geordie takes the day off to take David fishing for some father-son bonding, and Mrs. C goes around handing out presents to celebrate CeCe's Boutique's first month of sales. Daniel gets a new teapot; Jack receives a painting, which the show won't let us see because it is accidentally racy. Alphy gets a box with the letter from his mother that he had torn up, which Mrs. C. rescued and taped back together. It's enough to inspire him to take the file and travel to that last known address Geordie found. 

At first, there's no answer, but as Alphy turns to leave, the door opens.... and he smiles, because we're all going to have to meet back here next year to see who is inside come Season 11.

All episodes of Grantchester Season 10 are available on most PBS stations, the PBS app, and the PBS Masterpiece channel. Seasons 1 through 9 are also available to stream on PBS Passport for members. As always, check your local streaming service/listings. 

Grantchester has been renewed for its eleventh and final season, set to air in 2026.

A personal note: As everyone is probably aware by now, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has announced that it will cease operations. While D.C.'s PBS station, WETA, will continue operations, we all know cuts are coming, and there is no guarantee Telly Visions will survive them. (Donations welcome, and tell them I sent you.) 

I will still be recapping Grantchester somewhere come next summer, but whether that's here, for another outlet, or just for my own enjoyment remains to be seen. That being said, I have thoroughly enjoyed covering this show, and I hope very much that we are all still here next year to meet back for the Season 11 premiere in June 2026.