Sam's Shady Secrets Have Dangerous Consequences in the 'Grantchester' Season 9 Finale

Grantchester's ninth season ends much as it lived, with an hour that is...fine, if generally unremarkable. There is nothing shocking about this final hour, which makes a vague attempt at raising the stakes for several characters only to essentially reset things to the series' baseline status quo by the end. Larry and Leonard both get shot! (But they're fine.) Alphy's packing to say goodbye to the parish! (J/K, he's keeping his job.) Daniel entirely abandons his relationship with Leonard! (No worries, they're back together in the end.) Even Cathy Keating's off the mood stabilizers! Everyone wins. 

To Grantchester's credit, the show does a fairly decent job of threading a larger mystery throughout the season. Sure, it's occasionally clunkily handled — the show forgot about the "strange letters showing up at the vicarage" subplot for literal weeks at a time — but in a landscape where paint-by-number episodic storytelling rules, the show deserves points for trying to do something different. 

The penultimate episode revealed street preacher Sam isn't the man he's been pretending to be; however, this episode takes us full circle to Season 9's premiere. Rose Shirley, the young teacher who abandoned her baby in the parish church in Will Davenport's last episode, apparently is behind the letter. Instead of just telling Will/Alphy/the authorities Sam's a manipulative, dangerous creep, Rose thought it best to convey his real identity by... slipping random Bible passages through the vicarage mailslot.

(The wisdom of this plan versus simply telling Will/Alphy/Geordie that the man threatened to burn her and her baby alive...let's just call it questionable.)

The mysterious Bible passages weren't trying to convey spiritual guidance. They spell out Sam's real name: J-O-H-N A-M-O-S. A truly next-level grifter, Sam, err, John Amos, has not only been busy stealing money, homes, and inheritances from lonely, lost souls but also entire identities. The real Sam Reid was a theology student at Corpus Christi; however, he died in a fire in 1948. John was the real Sam's housemate — and likely his murderer — and took over his name and backstory, gleefully using a dead man's mission for his own financial game. (Also, to pick up women, if the speed with which he's moved on from poor, jailed Caroline is any indication.) 

Alphy heads to Sam's new residence, Alexander House (purchased with WayFinders donations), to confront him with the truth, but it turns out that Leonard's beaten him to it. Desperate to confront Daniel about his disappearance (and the note he left behind that was a breakup letter in all but name), he follows Sam home in an attempt to change his boyfriend's mind. 

Their talk doesn't go well: Daniel sounds delusional, insisting this is the first time he's ever felt accepted and happy. (I guess his years with Leonard don't count??) But it means Leonard's still in the house, snooping, when Alphy shows up, followed closely by Geordie and Larry. Sam, who is definitely not a cult leader, pulls out a rifle and starts shooting at them while telling his followers that they're the ones being attacked and ordering them to barricade the house. (These folks are lucky Kool-Aid hadn't been invented yet.)

All told things tie themselves up neatly. Sam/John is arrested fairly quickly despite shooting several people, threatening Alphy's life, and seemingly trying to hold his own followers hostage. While I've been incredibly frustrated with the insertion of this character this season, actor Elliot Warren seems to be having a great time playing completely unhinged, and I wish the show had allowed him to go full camp before and lean into Sam's unbalanced edges a bit more throughout the season. 

Anyway, although several people get shot, this is Grantchester, and so everyone turns out fine. Receiving a life-threatening injury while trying to apprehend a cult leader proves to be a sure path to romance, given that Larry finally gets a real kiss from Miss Scott after surviving getting hit in the shoulder. All it took to change Daniel's tune about where he belonged in the future was Leonard bleeding on him. 

It's the typical abrupt narrative about-face that counts on the audience's established affection for Leonard, and this relationship, to paper over nothing about this subplot made sense. The finale also does nothing to solve the problems this season created; if Daniel's feeling lonely and jealous, why would Leonard dying fix either of those things? As the internet's card-carrying Leonard Finch defender, watching him apologize for being "too selfish" after Daniel broke up with him via the 1960s equivalent of a postie note was infuriating. (Leonard did nothing wrong!!)

More importantly, as expected, Alphy's not going anywhere. (What Grantchester expected to achieve with this unsubtle fake-out is anyone's guess.) If I've got one complaint about this season — or at least one that I'll remember come next year — it's that we've spent the better part of six episodes with new vicar Alphy, and it still feels like we barely know him. The finale gave us his argument with the bishop over Grantchester and its residents and how they deserve better than to be served by Vicar Terrible David. That scene was his best moment of the season, finally conveying a real emotional connection to the town that's becoming his home. But it took far too long for the series to get there.

(Did anyone seriously believe Alphy would be leaving? I'd honestly have been more angry about being stuck with Vicar Terrible David, to be honest.)  

It also highlighted how little the show has told us about who he is or what he wants over all these extra installments. (Grantchester's pacing just works better as a six-episode show, not an eight.) Alphy seemed to have mostly accepted moving on...until he didn't. We needed honest introspection about how he sees his place and impact on this village, and the show missed that opportunity by not using Sam's manipulations that Alphy is lonely with no family and unwanted. It would have landed harder if we knew if it were true.

Here's hoping Season 10 gives Alphy the depth he deserves. His relationship with Geordie, which should theoretically serve as the show's heart, still feels awkward and perfunctory, particularly when compared to Alphy's bond with Leonard. Their relationship also feels more genuine since both are uniquely positioned to understand what it means to be different or marginalized in a place like Grantchester. I wish the show would lean into it, as it would create a more natural bridge to get close to Geordie than "Welp, guess I solve crimes with you now!" 

Anyway, Mrs. C's relentless letter-writing campaign pays off, and Alphy stays. (Yay?) Season 9 ended with Alphy expressing gratitude for Geordie's presence in his life; it would be nice if Season 10 showed them becoming friends. The season closes with the same family dinner it opened with, just with Alphy happily ensconced among the Keatings, Chapmans, and Finch-Marlowes, just as Will used to be.

All nine seasons of Grantchester are streaming for members on PBS Passport and the PBS Masterpiece Video Channel. Season 10 is in production and has been confirmed to debut on PBS in 2025.