*THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS LOTS OF SPOILERS FOR VERA’S ITV FINALE*
Millions of viewers were glued to their TVs on Thursday night as Vera came to an end with its last ever episode. And it certainly delivered the goods with two deaths, a moving but uneventful exit for Brenda Blethyn and a huge clue that a spin-off could be on the horizon.
It was announced by ITV last spring that Vera would be wrapping up on screen in 2025, after lead actress Brenda had made the tough decision to walk away from her famous role. After series 14 opener Inside attracted a large audience on Wednesday, The Dark Wives brought things to a fitting conclusion on January 2, as Vera and her Northumberland & City Police team investigated the murder of student Josh Worseton and the mysterious disappearance of teenager Chloe Spencer, which was linked to his death.
As every episode of Vera does, the finale took viewers on many twists and turns over the course of its two hours, after it began with an unexpected flashback to Vera’s youth, as the character of her dad Hector Stanhope was seen on screen for the first time. That proved to be the first of a number of nods to Vera’s past in the final episode, as she came face to face with people from her younger days and likened herself to missing teen Chloe, who ended up in a children’s home after the death of her own father.
Vera’s trusted colleague Kenny Lockhart was left for dead at the end of Wednesday night’s show, after a brutal attack from a murder suspect. Thankfully, Kenny survived with him receiving a warm welcome from the rest of the team as he returned to work. The closing scenes of Inside brought a heated war of words between DCI Stanhope and sidekick DI Joe Ashworth, which Brenda Blethyn and David Leon filmed in Whitley Bay, as Joe told Vera to accept the offer of a promotion to give everyone ‘a bit of peace.’
While at the start of The Dark Wives, things still appeared to be rather frosty between the pair, they got things back on track as the story went on and they had to work together as a second body was found, that of young children’s home resident Bradley Russell, who died from as overdose, days after killing Josh, with it materialising that Josh’s dad was responsible for his death.
And right at the end of the finale, Vera appeared to put her faith in Joe to follow in her footsteps, as she decided to retire, rather than take on a promotion and writing a letter, telling him to ‘spread his wings,’ after remarking ‘your time will come’ earlier on in the episode; with her move fuelling speculation that he could lead a Vera spin-off, should one happen.
After Joe found the note on Vera’s desk, the camera put back to Vera, with her seen walking a dog along the Holy Island causeway, with a huge smile on her face before credits rolled.