This is it, the finale of Unforgotten series 6; do you know who the murderer(s) is / are? I have an inkling, but they’re playing their cards closer to their chest this series, so I haven’t quite got the shape of everything just yet…let’s find out for sure after the break in my Unforgotten series 6 episode 6 recap!

A couple of matters of housekeeping: I’ve just now realised that the series 6 opening credits are different from previous series and are specific to this situation. For all my going on about never skipping an intro, I clearly wasn’t looking very closely, either!

Another thing is that I’ve spent this entire time victim-blaming. Yes, the character is an easy person to find fault with, especially with my hippy dippy pedigree, but he was still a person who did not deserve to prematurely meet his death, be gruesomely dismembered and have his body parts scattered like trash in a windblown marsh and I apologize for the insensitivity. Truly. It’s easy to get into the gamification of true crime and crime procedural dramas, especially one that leans quite so firmly into current political tropes as does Unforgotten, but I should have done better. I knew better. Anyway, enough, onward!

We left off last episode with young Marty Baines (Maximilian Fairley) breaking into the flat of Juliet Cooper (Victoria Hamilton) and her daughter Taylor (Pixie Davies). They are the family left behind by the death of our victim, Gerard ‘Gerry’ Cooper, who was also Marty’s boss who perpetrated some pretty terrible things on poor vulnerable but also dangerous Marty.

Marty thinks Gerry stole from him, and thinks he caused Marty’s dad’s death with the anti-vaccination rhetoric Gerry was spewing. Marty is vulnerable because he is on the part of the Autism spectrum that doesn’t necessarily understand what is true and what sounds cool. I’m not explaining this part of his character properly; he is highly medicated and at the same time under served by the medical community in the show. He’s dangerous because while he has the simpleness of understanding of a child, he has been radicalized by the incel community, is easily angered, has low impulse control and has been violent to his elderly mum.

He creeps through the Cooper flat in the dark to find DCI Jess James (Sinéad Keenan) and other policepersons waiting for him, ‘whoops-a daisy!’ indeed! Juliet and Taylor are outside; Juliet thinks this is the mystery solved right here: this is the second time Marty came to a flat of theirs looking for Juliet, she thinks this points to him being Gerry’s murdered.

Again, I don’t think Marty is organized or sufficiently autonomous to be able to dispatch of Gerry the way he was found. It’s not that Marty can’t be cunning, I just can’t see him dismembering, wrapping body parts or even driving to the Marsh.

Marty asks DS Fran Lingely (Carolina Main) how his mum is, he tried to overdose her with his medication but she survived.

At the end of last episode, the police found Gerry’s blood on materials found in a storage locker belonging to another of our suspects, Melinda Ricci (MyAnna Buring), who was in a relationship with Gerry until right up to time he disappeared. She’s lied to the police about almost everything, including leaving out a whole baby she had with Gerry, but now she’s admitting that Gerry was violent with her, to explain the blood found. She’d previously denied it, but now she tells DI Sunil ‘Sunny’ Khan (Sanjeev Bhaskar) that blood was a result of her finally hitting Gerry back, on her birthday, 2 weeks before he disappeared.

They were fighting because that whole baby I mentioned? That was actually terminated by Melinda. Although her job the last twenty or so years had been selling right-wing propaganda, which includes a large pro-life component, she couldn’t face bringing a potential life into the world that she didn’t want and didn’t feel she could support. She did tell the priest she was sleeping with that she gave the baby up for adoption, I guess that’s better, biblically? Also, she can’t seem to ever stop lying.

I said this before about someone I used to know, and initially I used harsher words for it, but I believe that in this case (and my previous friend’s case), perhaps it’s how they move through the world, how they subconsciously protect themselves. I’m not saying it isn’t  problematic! Just that I can empathize with someone who felt they needed to never be honest about who they were, or anything else. From over here I can empathize.

So our pro-lifer devout Catholic ex-nun broke lockdown rules during COVID to have an affair with a married man and terminate his baby, which was what Gerry was blackmailing Melinda about. She gives a credible and emotional recounting of their encounter, but Sunny’s been lied to over and over by her, so he wants to know directly: did Melinda and Juliet Cooper ever met?

Melinda says Juliet called her to threaten her, but that they never met in person.

DS Murray Boulting (Jordan Long) rolls up on the Dowari family; they are the asylum seekers that were being mistreated by the slumlord victim Gerry. They were helped by another of our suspects, Asif Syed (Elham Ehsas), an imported translator from Afghanistan who had a very, very bad transition to the UK. Asif downplayed his involvement with the Dowari family, but evidence showed he physically attacked Gerry (who himself was prone to violence), and it was suspected that it was because of Gerry’s mistreatment of the Dowaris. However, the family disappeared and it’s taken until now to find them.

Nahal Dowari (Hayat Kamille) is home and ready to talk. She describes rental accommodation filled with damp (is that a more polite way to say mould?), and Asif’s determination to help them live safely. The youngest son Jamal was only 18 months when a lung infection put him into the hospital. Two weeks and five days later he died, which is not clear at first and a massive shock to DS Murray. This was February 22, the day before Gerry went missing, and of course, Asif was told.

**Kudos to Jordan Long as DS Murray Boulting here, absolutely fantastic in this role and in this scene in particular.

Sunny heads home from Cork and Melinda’s lies; she won’t come back to London willingly and extradition will take a while. She stares at a crucifix while Asif and Marty deal in jail the best they know how, Marty pacing and Asif pounding the wall.

Fran, Murray and Jess work through their known timeline of Gerry’s last week with the cell phone triangulation records. It seems most likely Gerry did die on the February 23, with his body disposed of that night in parts. However. It was his voice leaving a voicemail on the 24th, and that call was made in Ilford, where Marty lived.

It was a weird voicemail, though, it sounds to me like someone with access to his voicemail using it to leave messages. You know, like in Home Alone when the kiddo uses the message to impersonate an adult so he can get food delivered? You know who would have access to a voicemail message left by Gerry Cooper? Juliet Cooper.

Jess ends that meeting with a call from her mum Kate (Kate Robbins). Kate is worried because when Jess’s estranged husband Steve (Andrew Lancely) stopped by, he was ranting about how his life was all messed up and there was no way forward. Steve has a rental literally the next road over, Jess promises to stop by after work.

After re-interviewing Asif and Marty, that is. We’re not even going anywhere near Juliet, are we?

Sunny has an idea of how to maybe get Asif to talk, and it’s brutal. We’re straight in with talking about how and why baby Jamal Dowari died while Asif No Comments with tears running down his face. There are less than 2 hours left before they have to let him go without charging him.

Being reminded that his lovely partner Sam has taken the fall for the immigration offenses perpetrated by Asif and the hope that his life in the UK is still possible loosens Asif’s tongue. Otherwise, they were going to charge him with the altercation he had with Gerry in the carpark 3 weeks before his death, so he really didn’t have much choice.

Asif had gone to see Gerry the day after Jamal died, with a photo of the baby, to shame him. What he found was Gerry holding a lunch for the homeless; kind, funny, empathetic and charming. When he saw that, Asif was shocked by the understanding that Gerry was capable of all of that, and his violence and aggression was a choice against the people Gerry saw as vermin – the immigrants. He didn’t think Gerry saw him as human, any of the asylum seekers, just a horde descending to bully and disregard.

So they ended up in a bit of a punch-up, that Gerry started, over before it got going, then Asif never saw Gerry again.

That was the 22nd of February 2021. Gerry was technically reported missing on the 24th, but a cyclist saw someone dumping something in the wee hours of the morning on the 23rd. That cyclist since had a stroke, but he did write about it in his diary, which has just been recovered by his daughter Susan (Morag Cross).

We’ll find out after we talk to Marty again; he says he broke into the Cooper residence this time so he could give his condolences to Taylor, in the middle of the night, with a screwdriver in his possession. Sunny points out gently that Marty also had a hammer in his hand when the police found him. Marty insists those are just for lockbreaking but a hammer?

Marty also swears he never attacked Gerry after he was dissuaded by 12 year old Taylor, not then or later on. He has very detailed alibis for February 23 and 24, it was his tinned peaches we see in the opening credits! Which leaves…

JULIET!!

JUUUUUULIIIIIETTTTTTT

Hhahahahahahahha!!!!!! I knew it !! Woooooooo! SHE changed her number plate, she dumped the body parts, she used an old voicemail of Gerry’s for his timing on the 24th!

Also: Marty didn’t hurt his mum, apparently she stirred pills into her own chocolate. She didn’t want to be a burden and that is heartbreaking, truly.

On to what we’re really interested in, what’s going on with Sunny and Dr. Leanne Balcombe (Georgia Mackenzie)?? They hung out a couple of times, were getting to be great friends, and then she kissed him and hasn’t talked to him since.

She did finally get in touch when he was in Ireland, so here they are now finally face to face and she has something to tell him.

His ‘you’re not a serial killer, are you?’ felt only half in jest.

Well. She was in a relationship 24 years ago, miserably for the last three, so she just…left. Just walked out. The complication there is that she also left a daughter, who she hasn’t seen since. She leaves Sunny to process this without her staring at him, while we process as well.

I will say, I was concerned before she got to the kiddo part, because she said ‘I ran, like I always do’ and that’s not…great. Then come to find out there was a wee girl there ran from as well, that’s quite a bit more.

I mean. I guess men have a much more robust history of this being acceptable behaviour, although I personally know of at least 3 women who have done exactly the same. So. Hm.

At this point in life, they are in their late forties or early fifties, is this a set pattern? Is her telling him breaking from the running pattern? Is that sufficient to say she could potentially be attempting a different way to live her life? If I were Sunny, I wouldn’t throw this away, I would tread lightly and see how things go. Nobody gets to our ages without a life of stories, is Sunny able to accept hers?

Off we go to talk to Juliet, see, I always knew she had to be involved. The level and amount of planning and coordination, it had to be someone who knew Gerry Cooper very well, and who knows him better than his wife?

Jess and Sunny square off against Juliet, who has not yet retained counsel. They don’t have a tonne on her yet, but they do know Juliet doesn’t want them talking to Taylor, so it’s a lever they use. It works.

Juliet details Gerry’s last night, with a verbal spat that turned into a violent attack by Gerry, which she countered with a single stab on his thigh with a paring knife. That was enough, she locked herself away while he calmed down, and eventually died. That seems pat. I believe all the bits about the clean up, but the killing itself seems…anticlimactic.

Unless. Jess notices a discrepancy in the timing, Gerry got home about 4 hours before Juliet said he did. And now we have to think Taylor herself may be involved, because why else would Juliet lie about all of that while confessing to murder?

Hm. Okay, Taylor gives a confession to stabbing her father in the thigh with a small knife, but she is deliberately not under caution, thanks to Jess. First, I thought Taylor was lying, because everyone keeps.lying but then, it became clear that Taylor didn’t actually realise she’d killed her dad. Her mum kept her entirely in the dark and took care of everything. This is why Taylor kept asking her mum if SHE did something to her dad, she didn’t understand that sticking her dad in the thigh with a small knife could actually kill him. I mean, she was 12.

Jess and Sunny go sit in the car to have a think. They have a couple of options:

• Let Juliet take the consequences for Taylor’s actions, with the understanding she’d be out in a couple of years due to a credible self-defense claim
• Arrest Taylor for killing her dad
• Tell CPS

Understandably, nobody wants what’s behind Door B. But Sunny doesn’t think they should be making this decision, either. They need to tell Child Protective Services, and unfortunately: they need to talk to Juliet again.

Juliet sits in remand, still in her cardigan and blouse, lamenting the fact that the police would just not leave.things.alone.

Sunny and Jess are there with a choice, though. They suggest she allow Taylor to confess to Child Protective Services, Taylor would most likely not have any consequences. Juliet would be charged with dismemberment and perverting the course of justice, again, CPS would most likely not prosecute given the circumstances.

You can see the weight of all of this on Juliet’s face, everything she has been carrying around since Gerry’s death, keeping his death a secret, how he died, where he is, who actually killed him and why.

She looks at Jess: what would she do?

We switch to Melinda’s last broadcast; which she leaves with a surprisingly even keeled message: wouldn’t it be better to have more than just one side to think about? Couldn’t that possibly make things better?

Asif’s boyfriend Sam is more than happy to not have to return to work on a barge (I think he’s in the Navy?), he may have lost his job over Asif’s harbouring of the refugee that saved both their lives: at least twice. Sam apologizes for taking Asif for granted, and then he proposes, they’re getting married! Yay!

Jess chose to go with telling CPS about what happened, ultimately, CPS decided it was not in the public interest to charge Taylor or Juliet in Gerard Cooper’s death.

I mean, yay, but. No, yay, all good, it’s just that. He was still a person, but Taylor was only literally a child. But nobody will be charged with the whole death of a person?

Melinda heads back to her fiancé in the hospital, having cleared her conscience and is now ready to move on.

Speaking of moving on…remember when Jess told her slimy husband Steve to get out yesterday and then this morning Jess’s mum rung her and said Steve was in a bad way and she was worried Steve might hurt himself? Jess said she would swing by to check on him after work, which is when she finds Steve managing quite well, with a redhead and a pint at an outside pub.

Jess drives off and it’s Sunny who we end series 6 of Unforgotten with, calling Leanne to ask her to call him when she’s ready.

‘We all have our stories, Lee.’

Isn’t that the truth? I do love Sunny so much, and Sanjeev Bhaskar is a master at navigating his warmth, the gentle strength underneath.

Thanks for reading along for the series 6 recaps, I’ve enjoyed writing them and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading them. Until next time, everyone, cheers.