The Living and the Dead ending: SPOILER ALERT

[chough]

Watched this series on i player, but the last episode's only on TV tonight, hence my spoiler warning.
I couldn't fathom the ending: did Nathan and his wife kill themselves or not? And what was all that with the car being found in the past?
Apologise if I'm just daft, but I couldn't get to grips with this ending at all.

Ooh. I've just been searching the net too. Not altogether sure. But this what I think happened:

There is some kind of link between Nathan who is grieving his son and Lara who is grieving her mother that draws them to the house and Gabriel links them together. So their fates are entwined.

When Lara is driving with the baby she sees the ghost of Nathan and that causes her to crash her car and she dies and then becomes a ghost in the house. But she doesn't realise what she's done until Gabriel tells her.

In a parallel timeline she tries to stop Nathan committing suicide and bursts in on him in the kitchen - only adding to his madness. When it seems he is about to top himself and Charlotte tries to join in. Perhaps they succeed? Although it seems as though they stop in the house - maybe they don't. And Nathan doesn't realise what he's done.

Lara dies first and Nathan finds the baby (according to Gabriel) and those scenes of the three of them happy are actually Lara's baby and not Nathan and Charlottes baby.

Lara's car falls down a deep hole. But the hole was not there in Nathan's time until Charlotte digs up the car. That creates the hole Lara drowns in.

But what is not clear is:
Why is there not a scene where Lara's (very quiet) baby is not rescued?
Why is the car grown over so quickly? ie the Lara - Garbriel grief the reason for all the unrest on the estate? Why is it not more obvious?
Ie the Maud character seemed destined to die. Why her?

WalkThePlanky, your suggestions make sense, but , as you say, it's still not all clear.

I assumed the reference was to Nathan's first wife. We know very little about her, and I think that was meant to be a twist in the story, possibly leading to a second series.

And Gabriel meant that Lara 's husband found the baby, not Nathan.

That's what I thought, Clawdy.

Lara was Nathaniel and Charlotte's great great however many times granddaughter. Her own gran told her that when she handed over the suitcase in the hospital. I've no idea whether the grief Lara felt for her own mother (who had killed herself when Lara was 3m old after being haunted by the same boy) had any part in the hauntings or strange happenings, but I would imagine that the direct relationship was more relevant.

Nathan and Charlotte didn't kill themselves.
Charlotte had the baby as the baby was the grandmother of the Red Coat Woman's grandmother.

My question is though how the car being found wouldn't completely fuck with everything.
It's as if an alien space ship landed in our time.
The finding would be noted in the newspapers of the time and I would think that science types would be turning up to look at it.

It was all very very strange but I absolutely loved it, especially the scene where them farm workers dig up the car. Brilliantly surreal.

Do we know if there's a series 2?

Maybe they do, Desolate.

I just watched this for the second time and still don’t understand any of it , or what transpired the entire show 🤷‍♀️

Can anyone explain the very last scene when Nathan goes downstairs and theirs people there playing with the Quigi board . They asked him if he killed his wife and why ???

I couldn’t fathom anything watching this show . It was interesting but needed more episodes and better explanations to make sense of all that was going on ..

This has popped up in my actives and I have no recollection of it whatsoever.

I just finished watching the series for the first time and immediately searched Google, hoping to find information about a second season. Unfortunately, I found nothing. This absolutely needed a continuation—we're all left hanging, trying to make sense of what happened... SO FRUSTRATING!

Yes, I was really disappointed that there was no second season, it was obvious from the cliffhanger ending that the producers and writer had assumed there would be one.

I just watched the series yesterday and loved it. I have been trying to find out what the issue is with Nathan‘s first wife and I cannot find much information.

I just finished it in 2025! Very confusing ending. I was thinking maybe he does kill Charlotte after the scene we witness with them sleeping but their baby has to have survived for there to be Lara! He must be infamous if the group are trying to contact him on the Ouija board. It must have been newsworthy and he must have been executed for it. His heirs are obviously cursed with visions of Gabriel! That