It doesn’t look like there’ll be any let-up in action before the series is over.

By Molly Moss

Published: Tuesday, 31 January 2023 at 12:00 am

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With Tommy Lee Royce’s great escape in full swing in Happy Valley, fans are frantically trying to guess the ending to the final ever episode of the series – and now some brand new teaser pictures have given us some more clues.

The penultimate episode saw James Norton’s villainous Tommy manage to communicate with Ryan in secret through his games console and try to persuade the teenager to run away with him to Spain – an offer which, worryingly, Ryan said he’d “think about”.

Episode 5 also revealed that Tommy is intent on carrying out one last revenge mission against Catherine (Sarah Lancashire) before he goes, even if it ultimately jeopardises his chances of getting to Spain.

Well, it certainly looks like there’s cause for concern in the final instalment, if the new images released by the BBC are anything to go by.

In one new picture released ahead of the final episode, we see the police sergeant in tears (above), while another shows her sister Clare (Siobhan Finneran) looking distressed (below).

In another image, Catherine is seen standing by a police car and looking up at something in concern, though it’s not clear what.

The official synopsis for the final episode teases that “scores are settled for good on Catherine’s final shift” and that “Ryan faces a moral dilemma”, but otherwise little is known.

BBC/Lookout Point/Matt Squire

Another image released ahead of episode 6 shows Faisal (Amit Shah) looking perplexed (below), but will justice catch up with the pharmacist after he killed Joanna (Mollie Winnard) – the diazepam addict he’d been illegally supplying – in cold blood in episode 3?

One thing we can expect for sure is a final confrontation between Catherine and Tommy, a showdown which has been teased by the show’s cast and crew since the beginning of season 3.

BBC/Lookout Point

“There’s a very definite climax,” creator Sally Wainwright previously said. “A narrative has gone across all three: in season 1, Catherine and Tommy came face to face outside Ryan’s school, and in season 2 they almost came face to face in the crematorium, at Tommy’s mum’s funeral.

“In season 3, there’s a very big face-to-face showdown. The kind of cathartic showdown that people have waited for. It’s pretty dramatic.”

Happy Valley fans have previously theorised that there could be a big twist ahead for Con O’Neill’s character Neil Ackroyd, after growing suspicious of the dynamic between him and Tommy Lee Royce, while others have predicted that the finale will see Catherine die.