Happy Valley spoilers follow – including the ending of the season-three finale.
We knew that another showdown between Catherine Cawood and Tommy Lee Royce was coming, and season three's final episode followed through on that promise – although probably not in the way that most people had been expecting.
While fans were primed for an explosive and, let's face it, violent face-off between the hateful pair (each having pummelled the other to a bloody pulp before), Happy Valley instead brought us a powerfully emotional confrontation that finally gave Sergeant Cawood the closure she so desperately needed.
Tommy had become something of a liability for big bad Darius Knezevic, who'd seemingly ordered his brother to, shall we say, get rid. But cottoning on to their plan – the boot and the can of petrol was probably a bit of a giveaway, lads – Tommy fetched a knife from the kitchen and caused the car to crash so that he could escape.
Having sustained a number of nasty injuries, and obviously unable to get any medical help as a wanted man, Tommy knew that his time was limited. Calling back to the season-one finale, he decided that he'd rather die than land himself back in prison. But this time, rather than trying to take Ryan and Catherine down with him on a canal boat, he opted for a more sentimental approach.
Related: Happy Valley star responds to theory of multiple endings being filmed
Breaking into their family home, knowing it to be empty, he pored over photo albums of his son and Catherine's late daughter Becky.
He later admitted to Catherine (who came home to find him downing a bottle of whiskey at her kitchen table) that he'd thought about setting the whole house on fire with the petrol can, but that seeing the happy life that she'd provided to his son had changed his mind. What's more, he's decided to forgive her for keeping Ryan a secret.
Rather than allowing this almost martyr-like moment to redeem him in some way, Catherine delivered a scathing summary of everything he had done – from his abusive and degrading treatment of her daughter, to the vicious attacks and assaults on other women including PC Kirsten McAskill and, of course, Ann Gallagher.
Tommy didn't much like having a mirror held up to his true nature, and yet he continued to turn his anger inward rather than physically lashing out at Catherine Cawood (there were plenty of insults and swearing though, naturally).
Whether it was because he was too injured and incapacitated, or because he really was putting Ryan's needs first is anyone's guess. But what is certain is that Tommy knew it was the end of the road, and he wanted to be the one to set himself ablaze and end it once and for all.
For Catherine, the exchange finally allowed her to offload all of the pain and anguish that she'd been clinging on to ever since her daughter passed away.
Perhaps most importantly, she finally gained the clarity that she'd been seeking, coming to the realisation that Ryan was nothing like his father.
The love and stability that both she and her sister Clare had shown him throughout his life, even when nobody else would, had in fact had an immeasurable impact. He'd come face-to-face with his father through the prison visits and made up his own mind to reject him and to choose instead the love and loyalty of those who brought him up.
It was a weight that we'd seen Catherine carrying through the show's three-season run, and she looked visibly lighter in the final scenes of her visiting Becky's graveside.
And it was while she was standing there, retired and ready to start the next chapter of her life, that she received a text confirming that TLR (Tommy Lee Royce, of course) is dead.
It seemed clear that they wouldn't both make it out alive and this seemed the most fitting way to end it: Catherine Cawood gets her happy ending, and didn't need to compromise her integrity to get it.
As regards those *other* nasty pieces of work, pharmacist Faisal Bhatti and teacher Rob Hepworth, it looked for a moment like we weren't going to get closure, but a quick conversation with Catherine's boss Andy cleared it all up: coercive, violent teacher Rob had been charged, not for the murder of his wife – which he didn't actually do – but for having indecent images on his phone of a boy at school who he'd blackmailed into sending them. (A flashback in this episode hinted that Ryan was next on his radar.)
Catherine, meanwhile, casually mentioned to Andy that she'd traced Joanna Hepworth's dodgy diazepam to a pharmacist called Faisal Bhatti, who just happened to live 100 yards away from the Hepworths. A knowing look passed between her and Andy, and it's safe to assume Faisal's freedom will be short-lived, leaving yet another family in ruins.
Happy Valley airs on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
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