'Unforgotten' Finally Admits It's Complicated in the Season 6 Finale

Unforgotten's finale doesn't waste any time getting our suspects into the interrogation room. In previous seasons, the series has typically eliminated one or two suspects by the time the finale rolls around. However, for Season 6, to keep viewers believing multiple suspects could have all done it together, no one has been eliminated yet, not even the ones who are most likely innocent, like Marty Bains. In fact, the finale opens with him being arrested for hanging out in Juliet's flat, having run to her for help. Why he thought she might help is unclear, since her first reaction is to use this as proof to Jess that Bains must have done it. But it's obvious he didn't, even before he gets the sit-down treatment. 

It takes nearly half the episode to get there, as he's third in line behind Mel and Asif. Mel is still in Ireland; this time, she's getting the full sit-down treatment with Garda Joe seated next to Sunny instead of behind her as an independent observer watching a foreign agent interrogate an Irish citizen. (Not that I think musical chairs will prevent him from spilling every single part of her confession to anyone who will listen in the coming days.) When asked about the baby, she admits that it's true, she got pregnant in June 2020.

However, Melinda lied to Father Ryan. He'd been shocked enough she'd gotten pregnant by a married man in the first place that she couldn't tell him she'd terminated it, too. This is what Cooper was blackmailing her about; it started on her birthday (February 12, 2021), when he threatened to expose her to BNC as a complete hypocrite and blow up her right-wing playacting gig. She claims she refused his demand of £30k, so he punched her in the face. She finally hit back and then fled to a male friend in London who can and will confirm all of this. He was gone when she came back, but he persisted in his demands until the amount finally lowered to £5k, and she agreed to meet him on February 24, hoping he'd go away.

Considering the voicemail that "proves" Cooper was alive on the 24th is, at this point, pretty obviously something Juliet found on a family phone and reused to hide that Gerry died a full 24 hours before she reported him missing, Mel's claim that she waited for Cooper, only he never showed, seems legit. It also fits with her story that, upon hearing a few days later he'd been reported missing, she decided leaving town now would be the best option.

Melinda also uses the fact that Cork is not in Northern Ireland (and therefore not part of the U.K.) by refusing to accompany Sunny back to London, since he technically doesn't have the authority to compel her to do so. She's willing to force a lengthy extradition process, and Sunny personally doesn't think it's worth it. He heads home, leaving her to her broken life.

Asif is second up, with Jess herding Sunny into the interrogation room as soon as he arrives back at the station. Murray has tracked down the Dowaris, and once again, Mrs. Dowari (Hayat Kamille) praises Asif's commitment to their family. Her youngest, Jamal, was the apple of Asif's eye; he babysat the kid regularly and raced to the hospital when he was admitted suffering from a fungal infection caused by Cooper's slums. He stayed with the family for days to translate what the doctors were telling them, including the night the kid died... February 22, 2021. 

(Once again, Elham Ehsas manages to put entire unspoken monologues into his endless repeated "No comments." Give this man a BAFTA.)

However, Sunny walks in armed with a second piece of information as well: with Hassan now in custody, Sam stepped forward and took full responsibility for smuggling him into the U.K., willingly facing a court-martial to keep Asif safe. That act of love finally breaks Asif's wall of "no comments," as does Sunny's deeply kind plea to tell them the truth so they can clear him from the investigation and let him continue his path towards full U.K. citizenship.

As they suspected, Asif was the one who actually attacked Cooper in the car park the week before he disappeared, not Marty, and it was in self-defense. He'd somehow naively thought Cooper would be moved by a photo of Jamal dying in the hospital, and went to the pub the night the kid was admitted to show it to him. When Cooper's response was to throw a punch, Asif swung back and put the dude down in two hits. He then walked away, leaving Cooper bruised but alive. That explains the blood and has the benefit of being true; he is allowed to leave.

Finally, it's Marty's turn to be asked what he was doing on the 24th, since the "voicemail" apparently originated from Ilford, where he and Dot were living. Marty, of course, knows precisely what he was doing that day, including what he ate for breakfast, which TV shows he watched, and an unshakeable alibi: the airport, a CCTV haven, where he was watching planes take off. Sunny and Jess will, of course, have that CCTV checked, but they're reasonably confident the kid has just been exonerated. Also, his mother, Dot, was the one who put the barbiturates in her own tea, a suicide attempt to relieve Marty of the burden of caregiving. So that clears up that red herring.

This is naturally when Fran walks in to announce that the old man who saw the body bits being thrown in the marsh last week has, in fact, located his diary. The incident occurred exactly when we'd known it would: 3:30 a.m. on February 24, 2021, 18 hours before Juliet reported him missing. Moreover, the license plate on the car had been altered, and the closest plate to it was Juliet's.

(By the way, Kaz: That Is Not How Wordle Is Played. Cute reference and, also, wrong.)

Juliet promptly confesses when Sunny says that if she tells them the truth, they won't involve Taylor. Her story almost hangs together. Cooper was a bastard whom she married in haste and repented at leisure. The further he dove into wacko conspiracy theories, the more she'd provoke him. The night of the 22nd, he didn't come home until 11 p.m., and they got in a knockdown, drag-out fight as she'd been chopping vegetables for dinner. When she turned in her chair to force him off of her, she stuck the knife in his leg semi-accidentally, unwittingly hitting the femoral artery. She then walked out, trying to calm down, and when she returned an hour later, he was dead in a giant pool of blood.

She cleaned up the mess, put his body in a bin liner, and stuck it in his office. The next morning, she took Taylor to school, went to work, did all her googling at an internet cafe to figure out what to do with the body so it couldn't be traced back, went shopping at the hardware store, and then chopped him up into six pieces before heading back out to pick up Taylor from her playdate for dinner. However, her story has one significant flaw, which Jess realizes from the get-go. According to the phone records, Gerry ordered takeaway that evening, which was delivered at 9 p.m. on February 22 to their flat above the pub, so her entire timeline for his actual death is a lie.

(Victoria Hamilton is gold, y'all, this is such a good confession, the way she tries not to laugh at the absurdity of the experience while silently crying. Even better, Hamilton's performance makes it really clear which parts are genuine and which ones... aren't quite.)

There's only one person Juliet would have moved heaven and earth to protect, and it's not Marty, Asif, or Melinda. (So much for not having to interview Taylor.) However, the kid's story corroborates what Juliet said.... beginning the morning after the fight. The night before, on the other hand, that was fantasy. Juliet did not best her husband with words; she did not attempt to de-escalate by sitting at the table to chop veggies, and most importantly, she did not stab him. 

When Taylor went downstairs, her mother was on the floor, and Gerry was repeatedly kicking her in the ribs. Seeing her father kicking her mother over and over, the kid panicked, thinking her mother was going to be killed if she didn't find a way to make it stop. So she grabbed a small knife off the table and stuck it in the back of his leg.

Juliet's story about leaving Gerry downstairs for an hour and then returning to find him dead from bleeding out was true, but that hour was spent with Taylor, bathing her, reading her a book, and lying with her until she fell asleep. The kid tells them all this while clearly utterly unaware that the stab in her father's leg killed him. She believed he was fine; he even apparently had left a candy bar for her the next morning before he left for that early meeting, or at least that's where Mum said it came from as she drove her to school.

It speaks volumes that Jess's first reaction is to do the same as Cassie all those years ago, when she discovered all three suspects were murderers, having preplanned and then executed killing each other's abusers in Season 2. Taylor's interview was done at home, off the record, with the social worker in the other room. They can sweep it all under the rug, work to ensure Juliet gets as short a sentence as possible, and pretend they never heard any of that.

But maybe Sunny wasn't as unaware of what Cassie had done as viewers were led to believe at the time. Or perhaps, looking back, he realized that the moment she began losing her love for the job was after that case, and that whatever the secret she carried from it was part of what turned her into the embittered, angry person she had become by the time she died. Either way, he refuses to let Jess take the burden of making the choice herself, insisting it's Juliet's call. 

The two go down to the cells, where Juliet is placidly awaiting being charged, and ask how she would like to proceed. She can continue to lie, and Jess says they will work to get her out in less than two years. Or she can allow Taylor's statement to stand, and corroborate it to Child Protective Services and hope that the extenuating circumstances (and the fact that they are white liberal middle-class women) will be enough that no one will want to touch this with a ten-foot pole. The last thing CPS needs is this polarizing, sordid story in the papers with the Crown on the wrong side of it.

However, Juliet's entire motivation, from the moment she found Gerry dead, was to keep Taylor from ever knowing she'd killed her own father. Jess and Sunny agree that Juliet can tell Taylor whatever she wants; CPS will keep the truth confidential if they decide not to pursue the case. It is with intense relief that the world has changed enough since Season 2 that CPS concurs: This is not a case anyone wants to prosecute. 

In what may be a first for the show, since none of our suspects are guilty, all are allowed to continue riding out the current horrors of the 2020s (which, let's be honest, is punishment enough). Mel gets to tell her BNC viewers she no longer believes the right-wing nonsense the network demands she spew, and wishes them all a good night before heading back to her fiancé to see if he's still willing to marry her now that the town knows, well, everything. Doreen promises to get Dot in-home help, allowing her and Marty to live together as long as they wish. 

As for Asif, Sam takes him back to the beach, ostensibly to tell him that his commission and career mean nothing if the man he loves isn't with him, and that they will fight to get Hassan freed. However, he's so overwhelmed by it all, he pulls out the ring he's bought, and asks Asif right then and there to make an honest man of him.

Heck, even Sunny and Jess get semi-happy endings this season, with Jess relieved of the burden of Steve's crap by doing the wellness check her mother suggested, only to find Steve is doing just fine, out at the pub with a brand new woman he's already setting up to suck dry emotionally and financially. Oh, and Leanne apparently really does want to date Sunny! She's just afraid she has too much baggage. As if "baggage" wasn't a challenge that Sunny relishes.... 

To misquote the Ninth Doctor, just this once, Cassie, everybody wins.

Unforgotten Seasons 1 through 6 are available to stream on the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel and on PBS Passport for members. Season 7 is already in production in the U.K., and is expected to debut on ITV in late 2026 or early 2027, followed by a PBS debut in 2027/2028.