Entertainment

Everything You Need To Know About That Totally Unexpected 'Bodyguard' Finale Twist

by Aoife Hanna
BBC

Seeing Keeley Hawes prematurely taken off any TV show is obviously heartbreaking. Completely devastating perhaps if you have as big of a crush on her as I do, but that is besides the point. Her starring role in BBC's hottest TV show of the year, Bodyguard, seemed to end far too soon and also was low-key confusing. I mean, why Julia Montague was assassinated in Bodyguard? Well, the actual reason is so effing clever you won't even. Who doesn't love a plot twist — am I right? And this show has already had like a gazillion so no wonder the end is pretty wild.

OK, serious spoilers ahead so like...do not make me warn you again.

Yes, many Hawes fans were completely deved when her leading role, home secretary Julia Montague, was snuffed out. So much so that in actual fact, a lot of fans refused to believe she was actually dead. Despite both Hawes and the writer/director/producer (wow he has been busy) of the show, Jed Mercurio confirming that she was. The guilty parties and reasoning for her being seemingly hunted was one of the main mysteries of the thrilling show, as we watched the hunky main character David Budd (Richard Madden) try and solve the case.

So why was she killed? Basically it was all surrounding her intention to crack down on terrorism. Before her brutal murder, Julia was pushing a new counter terrorism bill that would allow security services to have the power to investigate, follow, and up the surveillance on basically anyone they want and with no hold barred.

However, this show did not disappoint with some unexpected twists. So yes, extremists were involved but actually it was a lot more complicated than that. Let's start with Budd himself being low-key put forward as like secretly intending to kill the home secretary from the very first few episodes. Also, the addition of shady goings on from the secret service and some sensitive material that the PM is hiding in order to save his own, well, er, hide.

But in the twist of all twists, tuns out, Chanel Dyson, Julia's former PR who caused a ha-yuge scene when she got sacked was actually low-key working with gangsters to get close to the home secretary. It turned out that it was them, especially the high up gangster Luke Aitkens. Because as he put it himself, she was "bad for business". Yep, surveillance wouldn't just be relating to terrorist attacks but to all criminal activities and would be super crappy for anyone trying to run a criminal empire. And so hard man killed her to protect his underworld businesses. I know. Who saw that coming?

The writer of the show, Jed Mercurio, said in an Interview with the Radio Times that he has been inspired in his work by his personal experience as a viewer. Longing for more than untouchable, invincible characters who you know will never be killed off. He wanted to stir things up:

"I think there’s a certain expectation with series TV that it will always orbit around an equilibrium, in which nothing much changes for the main stars, and there are no drastic changes to the set-up, especially now things tend to run for several series. But, with my work, I like to try to do things that move the story on, and with Bodyguard I wanted to have this event mid-series that would completely alter the dynamic."

Mercurio's brave and some might say risky decision to kill off a major character and completely change the direction of the series has had little or no impact on the ratings. In fact, quite the opposite. The show has received the highest ratings for a British drama on UK TV since 2006, according to the Telegraph.

Although a second season has not been confirmed and in fairness, they fairly tied it up in a lovely little bow, the rumour mill is spinning. Let's hope, after the huge success of the show, that they do bring it back.