Sacrifice, Loyalty & Courage Lay at the End of 'The Tower: Gallowstree Lane'

Season 3 of The Tower concludes with a tense, thrilling episode in which Operation Perseus finally gets underway. However, first, there is the little matter of Tia’s kidnapping, which concluded last week’s installment. DS Sarah Collins is sent to Loretta’s, traumatized by Kingfisher’s brutal home invasion. Worse, Ryan, already in trouble, has disappeared with Shakiel, and Loretta is terrified of what that might mean. Sarah checks CCTV for footage (gone), so she calls DI Kieran Shaw, head of Operation Perseus, to tell him the latest update. He jumps to the worst-case scenario: Ryan and Tia dead due to her department’s inability to arrest Kingfisher. Sarah listens stoically as if it’s nothing she hasn’t thought of herself.

It’s the early morning of the handover, during which Shakiel will trade cash and drugs for weapons and solidify his position as the most powerful gang leader in the area. He’s appointed Steve as his driver for the event, and Shakiel, all business, tells Steve there’s no time for coffee before forcing him to leave his phone behind, which is not a good sign. Meanwhile, Ryan left the apartment where he was hiding, watching what was unfolding on the streets at a cafe, and Lizzie, who was manning the CCTV screens, noticed the bike outside. 

He follows on his bicycle as Shakiel and Steve, initially parked opposite the cafe, drive off to the handover, followed by an exchange of cars, putting Steve and Shakiel in a black BMW with a trunk full of weapons. Kieran and his team wait for the moment to strike. 

Kingfisher has been trying to phone Ryan, but he only has the old phone number. Irritated with his unwilling charge, he sticks Tia in the car’s trunk. Even gagged and bound, she manages to make a good deal of noise. Back at the office, Sarah and her team detect a call from Tia’s phone, which is routed through the car’s audio, and identify the vehicle as a rental hired by Kingfisher. 

In the BMW, Steve asks if there will be a war, but Shakiel claims this ends gang fights; obtaining the guns means he won. Of course, this is the moment they are pulled over by a police car, and Shakiel complains it’s another instance of driving while black. But as the officer approaches, Shakiel realizes he’s wearing a Kevlar vest, a dead giveaway it’s not a random traffic stop. Armed police descend, cornering Shakiel. There’s a tense moment before Shakiel agrees to surrender his gun, and Kieran formally makes the arrest. Ryan watches from his bike, gun drawn, which Shakiel notes, giving the kid an upnod. With the excitement over, Lizzie’s colleague, Mark, leaves, allowing her to rewind and identify Ryan’s bike. 

Invisible to the cops, Ryan sees DI Lucas Stanning exchange a friendly handshake with Steve in the back of a police car. Kieran congratulates Steve on the operation’s success before breaking the news about Tia. Steve’s best guess is that Ryan would come to him. Kieran tells Steve to go back but only wait a couple of hours. Ryan powers up his original phone and calls Tia, but the call is answered by Kingfisher, who tells him his sister is with him. But Ryan has the trump card: he found the snitch. 

Ryan follows Steve home, unaware that Lizzie is flipping through the various CCTVs, watching his every move. Outside the front door, Ryan catches up to Steve and forces him into the apartment at gunpoint as Lizzie flags Kieran. He agrees to organize a team to rescue Steve and asks her to set up across the street to see in the window and tell him what’s happening. As Lizzie sets up, she can only see Ryan; while they wait to get a bead on Steve, she tells Kieran about her meeting with Mary, who refused to make a deal. Kieran says he’ll protect her, but Lizzie has accepted her fate.

Inside the apartment, a nervous, angry, and upset Ryan is furious he was deceived; when Lizzie and Keiran hear a gunshot from inside, they drop the convo as Kieran leaves his radio behind and checks to see what’s happening. He taps at the door of the apartment; Ryan, still armed and panicked, lets him in. Steve is uninjured, thankfully, and calm enough that Kieran decides to tell Ryan the police have found Tia and are following her. 

Concurrently, Sarah and DC Lee Coutts find Kingfisher’s car and reach his location, tailing him until he abruptly changes direction. From his route, it seems like he’s on the way to Steve’s apartment, but he knows they’re onto him; a report of a traffic collision ahead leads them to the rented Audi abandoned, having been rear-ended by a white van. Tia screams for help from inside the trunk amid smoke and patches of burning oil on the street. Sarah forces it open and rescues her.

Sarah calls Kieran from the scene and puts Tia on; Kieran hands the phone to Ryan, who hears Tia begging him to come home. Steve agrees Ryan should do as his sister asks, and the kid seems ready to cooperate, but then he sees Lizzie crossing the street in pursuit of Kingfisher. Kieran, foolish as ever, lies, assuring him she isn’t a cop. However, Ryan and Lizzie have met and even bonded a little, so when Ryan spots Kingfisher, he shouts a warning. There’s gunfire as Lizzie pulls her baton and hits Kingfisher with it, only to find herself at knifepoint. But at that moment, the armed police squad arrives, and there’s no use having a knife at a gunfight.

Steve emerges to bring Lizzie inside, where we discover the gunshot we heard was Ryan pulling the trigger on Kieran, who is bleeding out, having been fatally struck. She tells him she loves him, and he responds, “Don’t be silly,” as he’s taken to hospital. Alice Parker receives a call that Kieran is seriously injured and in surgery; she turns to tell Mary, who returns to the house to “fetch her purse.” She pulls Farah Mehenni’s phone from its hiding place and smashes it to pieces on the garage floor. 

The news that Kieran died during surgery breaks at the police station, and Ryan is arrested for murder. Mary meets Lizzie at the hospital and tells her the phone has been destroyed. Lizzie says her farewell to Kieran, who is still in the operating room; DCI Tim Baillie and Sgt. Arif Johar Ryan are also deeply shaken and grieving.

His assignment finished, and Steve readies himself to return to his family. But before he leaves, he meets Sarah to hand over a flash drive that he says will help the case. Sarah and Elaine are currently at an impasse; Shakiel’s former second-in-command, Ujal Jarral, refuses to talk, hiding behind a high-class lawyer protecting his every move. However, when Sarah listens to the file, she smiles and takes it to play for Jarral. After hearing Steve’s recording while Shakiel was recruiting him as Ujal’s replacement, in which Shakiel referred to him as “his dog” and mocked his stupidity, suddenly, he’s more than willing to talk.

Steve picnics with his sons as life returns to normal; Lizzie hugs her baby. Sarah catches a tribute to Kieran on the news, which prompts her to call Julie, but there’s no answer, and she doesn’t leave a message. In jail, Ryan has fully become Shakiel’s man. Someone has slipped a message to him from Shakiel: “You did it. My guy.”

All three series of The Tower are now streaming on BritBox.