The Channel 5 drama ended on a shocking note, but what happened exactly?
*Warning: This article contains full spoilers for the finale of Channel 5’s Heat*
While only four episodes long, new Channel 5 drama Heat has certainly packed multiple punches in its short stint on our screens. The series centred on Danny Dyer‘s Steve Cameron, who takes his family on their annual summer holiday to his longtime friend Brad Fisher’s (Darren McMullen) home in the Australian highlands.
The pair may have known each other for decades and agreed to move to Australia together many moons ago, but it seems as though there are a vast amount of lies and secrets lying beneath the surface for both families.
We’ve watched on as we wondered if Steve was cheating on his wife Sarah (Pia Miranda) but we soon found out that actually, he’s in a massive amount of debt. Coming to Steve’s rescue, though, is Brad, who offers to give him a loan to pay off the loan shark that’s chasing him. We soon find out that while Brad may be leading a picture-perfect life in his new mansion, he’s also a major enemy in this thriller.
But just how did things end for Brad and Steve? And did the families manage to make it out of Victoria’s sprawling high country to escape the bush fires? Read on for a full breakdown of Heat’s finale.
Heat ending explained: What happened to Steve and Brad?
!["Darren]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2023/07/Heat-channel-5-finale-2-751a264-e1689154399495.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"Brad")
Heat left off with a very tense cliffhanger at the end of episode 3, when Tom (Matteo Annetta) discovers Brad filming Jet (Richie Morris) and Mia (Matia Marks) having sex. The teenager panicked and ran into the surrounding woods, but when Brad caught up to the cliffside ledge, he couldn’t find him.
Using that to his advantage, in the finale, Brad tells Jet that Tom rode Kip’s (Hunter Hayden) bike to check on the kangaroos, but given the fires are quickly coming and Brad needs to organise an evacuation, he tells Jet to use his car to bring Tom home. Jet agrees, but now that he’s been sent off in one direction, Brad tells Steve, Sarah and his wife Louise (Jane Allsop) that Tom has been smoking marijuana and is wandering the bush.
His parents are shocked but quickly go to the bush to search for him. But once there and seeing the flames of the fire, Sarah hits a mental roadblock and is wracked with guilt, telling Steve about her affair with Brad. She tells Steve about the fact that Tom saw the pair kissing and has now disappeared, blaming herself.
Angry and confused at the news of his best friend and wife having an affair, Steve goes back to the house to confront Brad and does so in front of everyone. But while the affair is shocking, everyone is also dealing with the very real possibility of the house burning down as the bush fires keep growing closer.
Brad arranges for a helicopter to come and collect a group of them, but Steve and Sarah are still intent on finding Tom. While in the bush, Sarah stumbles upon Tom, who is unconscious, but she manages to wake him. Tom tells his mother that he has something to tell her about Brad, and when she brings Tom back, she goes into the house to find Brad watching videos of Mia.
She knows what Tom told her about Brad is right and Brad suffocates her, killing her.
!["Jane]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2023/07/heat-channel-5-louise-finale-ab1c782.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413" "\"heat-channel-5-louise-finale\"")
We then see Jet entering the police station and find out that his car has now been burnt out, but he rushes in to enquire about Tom and the rescue mission for Brad’s home. He finds out through Sergeant Angelos (Olympia Valance) that Brad has only enquired about a rescue helicopter for four people and not seven. There’s also been no report of a missing child, contrary to what Brad told Steve and Sarah.
Back at Brad’s home, Brad attempts to seduce Mia and she kicks him while trying to escape, also managing to run out of the room. We then pan to Steve, who’s running from the woods back to the house, with fires continuing to burn around him. He gets back to the house in time to pull Brad off of Mia and manages to get her outside with Tom.
Brad comes out of the house after them but Steve is still looking for Sarah, asking Brad where she is. Back in the house, Brad tells Steve that he and Mia have a “connection” but that only makes Steve angrier. He presses Brad about where his wife is and sees her laying on the floor, dead. Brad has killed Sarah. He leaves the house, crying about it burning down as the fire starts around it.
Steve comes out and punches Brad but Louise intervenes by calling out Steve’s name. He ignores her, grabbing the wooden plank with the house name on it. As Brad gets up to reach out for his wife, Steve hits him over the head. Louise then simply says to Steve: “Let’s go.”
The house burns down and we then see the reunions at the police station as Jet greets Tom, Kip and Mia. Steve and Louise walk in after them but Sergeant Angelos tells them that the police can’t locate their partners. Steve tells her that they haven’t been able to find them for hours and later, Steve and Louise make a pact in the station to protect their children.
Louise admits that she “saw something” years ago on Brad’s computer and questioned Brad but soon let it go when he made an excuse for it. “My husband was a predator and I turned a blind eye,” she says, but Steve admits that Brad fooled them all. They agree not to tell anyone that Brad and Sarah were murdered, with the fire acting as a coverup.
Sergeant Angelos later delivers the news that their bodies have been found with injuries so Steve and Louise then tell their children, who are understandably upset and crying. Jet takes Steve and Louise to the side to ask what really happened in the bush, because he’s found out details that don’t correlate with what Brad was telling everyone. He also reveals that Brad sent him off in a car with a leaking petrol tank, a clear risk when battling bush fires. Steve doesn’t reveal what’s happened exactly but says that Jet just needs to go along with everything they say, helping him with his answers once Jet’s being questioned.
Later on, Tom asks what happens now, and while Steve doesn’t know, he points at everyone – including Jet – to say he does know that they’re all family and that they need to be there for one another once they walk out of the station.
The final shots are of the photos that the families took on holiday and, now that the fires have subsided, the shell of Brad and Louise’s house.
Heat debuted on Channel 5 at 9pm on Tuesday 11th July and aired on consecutive nights until Friday 14th July.
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