Peter Capaldi is no stranger to twisting his way through time. As the Twelfth Doctor, he manipulated time and space at will to do battle with Daleks, Cybermen and all manner of interplanetary baddies but in The Devil’s Hour, the ex-Doctor Who star has a very different sort of relationship with time and reality.
Produced by his former Doctor Who boss Steven Moffat, The Devil’s Hour sees Capaldi plays the ominously named Gideon who, while imprisoned and chained to a desk, gnomically says insidious things like “You’ve suffered far worse than me. You just don’t know it yet.”
Gideon is a killer, a criminal and his life is somehow tied to that of the stressed out social worker Lucy (Jessica Raine) who wakes up every night at 3:33am exactly and is a mother to Isaac (Benjamin Chivers), an emotionless child prone to seeing things others can’t. She also experiences deja vu, remembering events and experiences as if she lived through them, only she never has and sometimes they appear to be glimpses of the future.
Across the series’ six episodes, which can be seen on Prime Video, the plot twists through time and loops and alternate histories.
So what happened at the end of The Devil’s Hour?
Gideon has died. Many times. Initially killed as a child by his father in a murder-suicide, instead of suffering death, he was returned to a moment earlier in time and realised he was able to change his own fate if he killed his father instead. Caught by the police, he kills himself and does so every time he doesn’t get away with his first kill, always retaining the memories of every one of his loops.
After going on the run, he becomes a sort of vigilante Time Lord, executing people before they can commit crimes such as an abusive husband set to murder his wife. It’s through his murder spree that his fate becomes entwined with Lucy’s. It’s revealed that Lucy wakes up at 3:33am every night because that was the time her mother committed suicide in the original, unaltered timeline.
As with the other people’s lives altered by Gideon’s actions across time, Lucy feels ripples of a different life – this is because Gideon changed her future by removing the bullets from her mother’s gun so Lucy did not grow up an orphan.
His reasoning for doing so is that, in the unaltered timeline, Lucy would grow up to be a police officer and fearsome detective who was able to apprehend Gideon and stop his crime spree – but without the tragedy of her mother’s suicide, she would become a social worker instead. This would have meant Gideon was free to carry out his version of justice as planned if it wasn’t for Lucy’s deja vu which allows her to still sense clues from previous loops to capture the serial killer.
![""]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2022/11/DVHRS1-UT105JAMHEN006-d5148ec.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"\"")
There is also the question of Isaac, who has the power to transport himself across timelines. This power becomes key to the finale as Isaac is bullied by his abusive father (Phil Dunster) who pours beer on him. Isaac attempts to dry himself on a heater but it catches fire, with his mother only arriving at the house after it has been swept up by flames. The house is engulfed and both Lucy and Isaac are seemingly lost to the flames as their house in the alternate timeline is also on fire and being investigated by the police officer version of Lucy, leaving no way to escape.
The fates of social worker Lucy and Isaac are left inconclusive – with a show like this anything is possible, especially given police officer Lucy (who never gave birth to Isaac) experiences a moment of deja vu right at the end of the final episode when arriving at the fire.
Meanwhile, Gideon, in one last flourish, manages a murderous escape from police custody using just a shoelace to rid himself of his handcuffs and kill two guards. He flees into the night, surely to continue his righteous murder spree.
If The Devil’s Hour does continue for a second season, Isaac and his time-hopping abilities will surely be key to tying the two timelines together, possibly setting the police officer version of Lucy on the path to hunting down Gideon…
Read more:
- The Devil’s Hour writer reveals why Peter Capaldi asked for rewrites
- Peter Capaldi won’t return to Doctor Who: “I’ve done my time”
- Peter Capaldi and Cush Jumbo lead new thriller Criminal Record
The Devil’s Hour is streaming now on Prime Video – try Amazon Prime Video for free for 30 days. Check out more of our Fantasy coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight.
The latest issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now – subscribe now and get the next 12 issues for only £1. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the Radio Times podcast with Jane Garvey.