The 'Grantchester' Season 8 Finale Sees Will Both Fall and Rise Again

Due to the ineffable whims of scheduling, the last two episodes of Grantchester Season 8 arrived together, airing back-to-back on PBS Masterpiece as a two-hour block. And, while that particularly broadcast decision was perhaps an unintentional one, the pairing of the final two episodes of the season ultimately really works out, allowing viewers to avoid the painful cliffhanger that would have been Will's disappearance at the end of the fifth episode and making the vicar's descent into rock bottom feel seamless and propulsive.

Granted, it's not like Will's downward spiral is much of a surprise; the bulk of Season 8 has been focused on the fallout from the motorcycle accident that kicked off the season and the death that he (albeit accidentally) caused.  From recurrent PTSD episodes and constant chainsmoking to a palpable fear that God has abandoned him and a sudden addiction to anti-anxiety medication, the vicar was clearly spiraling toward a dark place long before he decided to abandon his wife and child.

There's something terribly tragic about Will turning to bar fights just to feel something again, but in many ways, it completely tracks with the lost boy life he's always lived, and maybe finding someone to throw a punch at him is a coping method that feels most familiar to him in an especially dark place when the larger support systems in his life (his faith, his family, Geordie) are absent. Granted, they're absent in large part thanks to Will's own behavior, but it doesn't make the hole they leave in his spirit at this moment any less real.