By Abby Robinson

Published: Wednesday, 08 December 2021 at 12:00 am

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There was clarity at the end of BBC thriller You Don’t Know Me when we finally discovered who pulled the trigger and killed Jamil (or JC, as he demanded to be known).

He narrowly dodged death on a previous occasion when he was shot by Kyra at an imitation trap house after a plan devised by Hero and Kurt to rob him had spiralled out of control. If they had successfully pulled off their scheme, Jamil would have been forced into hiding, leaving Hero free to live his life with Kyra. But their ploy was littered with unknowables, threatening disaster at every turn, and that’s exactly what happened.

Hero and Kurt dumped Jamil in a metal wheelie bin, where he would have bled out and no longer posed a problem. But Hero didn’t have it in him to abandon Jamil and he phoned the drug dealer’s family from a burner phone to let them know where they could find him.

Jamil was taken to hospital, where he made a full recovery, but it was there that he crossed paths with Hero’s sister Bless. She paid him a visit while he was holed up in bed, claiming to be a volunteer, so she could gauge when he would be released to give Hero prior warning, and to find out any other information that could further help her brother. But Jamil knew exactly who she was, playing along with Bless’s charade until he was discharged. On his release, he had his stooges take her hostage.

Jamil contacted Hero to let him know that Bless was with him and unless he received his money, Hero would never see his sister again. That prompted our protagonist and Kyra to jump in his car and speed to Jamil’s hideout where he was waiting for them, gun in hand, as was Face, who was also armed.

After a tense standoff, which looked like it could spell the end for Kyra, Kurt appeared just in the nick of time and rushed Face, but not before he was shot himself. A chaotic struggle ensued but the madness was short-lived. All of a sudden, a single shot rang out and Jamil slumped to the floor. This time, there would be no coming back. Jamil was dead and it was Bless, of all people, who had pulled the trigger. Hero’s little sister, who had no place in such a dark, murky world had been dragged into a violent storm that had given her no option but to wrap her hands around the gun and squeeze.

Hero and Kyra formulated a plan to ensure that Bless would remain firmly out of the frame. In their version of events, it was Kyra who had killed Jamil, before framing Hero for the crime. The police raided his flat after receiving an anonymous tip-off from her, where they found a box containing Hero’s passport, a plane ticket, drug money and the murder weapon. He was arrested and held on remand for a year while Kyra travelled abroad to lay low, where she’d remain until Hero joined her and they could live happily ever after together.

But we never discover if Hero and Kyra were reunited. At the end of You Don’t Know Me, the two divergent outcomes – guilty and not guilty – are played out, and it’s never confirmed whether Hero will walk free and feel the sun on his face, or spend certainly the best years of his life, but possibly all of his life, behind bars.

As viewers, we’re desperate to know what happens to him. We’ve formed our own relationship with Hero after spending four hours being privy to his most intimate thoughts and emotions. His voice has guided us throughout You Don’t Know Me and now, we want to know what fate awaits him. But that is not what this story is about.

“Because no matter what those 12 people decide, there’s no end to what happened,” he said. “I carry that now.” Regardless of the verdict, Hero is forever changed. Even if he’s found not guilty, he will carry the weight of Jamil’s death and the grief inflicted on both Jamil’s family, and his own. His mother was driven from her home, fearing for her own safety and that of her children. Bless now knows what it feels like to take someone’s life. The curtain has been pulled back and she’s witnessed the heart of darkness. The memories of that fateful night will stay with her until the moment she draws her last breath, and the final judgement will not alter that.

But that’s not the sole reason we aren’t given the jury’s decision.

“In the end, if you want to know the truth of who I am, ask me if I love her,” continued Hero. “Because hand on my heart, that’s the only question I know I can answer where it’s nothing but true. Do you love her? Do you love her?”

You Don’t Know Me is as much a love story as it is a crime thriller. It dances between the light and the gloom, exploring how life can be both beautiful and brutal, sometimes within a single breath. This narrative has always been about Kyra, from the moment Hero first locked eyes on her on a double decker bus to the dreams he has of holding her in his arms once again. That has never wavered.

It might not feel like a satisfying ending to some, with Hero refusing to tell us what we want to know, just as Showtrial left us without a concrete resolution, but this is his story, not ours. Hero is at the mercy of the jury, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be in control of his own voice, and that’s exactly what he chooses to do.

Still, we can’t help but wonder…