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HAPPY VALLEY S3 - thread 7 to chat and muse about the last ever episode

605 replies

Blondeshavemorefun · 06/02/2023 09:20

Several people have messaged me to ask if I will do another thread as still all chatting about it

6 is almost full so here you can linked to this one the previous 6

1
www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/4710280-happy-valley-series-3-bbc1-9pm-starts-1-january-2023-no-spoilers-tv-pace?reply=123037566

2 www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/4718852-happy-valley-series-3-bbc1-9pm-started-1-january-2023-no-spoilers-tv-pace-thread-2?reply=123279174

3
www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/4724933-happy-valley-series-3-bbc1-sundays-9pm-no-spoilerstv-pace-thread-3?reply=123400097

4 www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/4728813-happy-valley-s3-sundays-9pm-bbc-1-tv-pace-no-spoilers-thread-4?reply=123407648

5
www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/4731641-happy-valley-s3-tv-pace-no-spoilers-thread-5

6
www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/4736071-happy-valley-s3-tv-pace-no-spoilers-thread-6-and-episode-6-and-the-last-ever-episode-forever?reply=123662539

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17
duc748 · 06/02/2023 13:27

I always wonder about photo albums in TV drama. Genuine photos of the actors when younger, doctored, or maybe very well-cast lookalikes? Like the intro to Birds of a Feather? (IIRC).

SpideyCraw · 06/02/2023 13:30

PastMyBestBeforeDate · 06/02/2023 13:17

I didn't see this mentioned on the last thread. People were asking why it took so long for the police to arrive at the end. Halifax to Hebden Bridge or Elland takes 15 to 20 minutes. Had people forgotten that the local cop shop was gone?

I thought the voice on the radio said ETA 5 minutes, and that’s why people expected them there sooner?

HeavenIsAHalfpipe · 06/02/2023 13:32

duc748 · 06/02/2023 13:27

I always wonder about photo albums in TV drama. Genuine photos of the actors when younger, doctored, or maybe very well-cast lookalikes? Like the intro to Birds of a Feather? (IIRC).

With Birds of a Feather, the 2 actresses - Linda Robson and Pauline Quirke - have known each other since they were about 10, so those will be authentic photos taken when the 2 actresses were children... over 50 years ago...

HeavenIsAHalfpipe · 06/02/2023 13:34

I know people have got different views on this, and that is their right and their prerogative. Like this is mine.

It was a great episode, really well done, really well acted, and very tense etc...

However, they really needed (IMO!) to wrap up what happened to the pervy PE teacher (Rob,) and also Faisal (the dodgy pharmacist.) The last episode felt unfinished to me, like they needed to extend it by maybe 10-15 minutes. Or even by just a few minutes.......

They should have said what happened to them, (IMO,) what they got charged with, what sentence they got etc. The ending was a bit ambiguous in part IMO. Great episode, but yeah, it felt like it could have ended with a better explanation of what happened to Rob the PE Teacher, and Faisal the pharmacist.

They found more drugs Faisal had been pushing, and also found Rob's fingerprint with his (dead) wife Joanna's blood on it, and coupled with how aggressive he was towards her, and her 'historical' broken bones, it was looking like he would go down for her murder. So did he? Or did Faisal? (Ya know, Faisal, the one who actually murdered Rob's wife Joanna and stuck her in a suitcase!!!!)

We will never know!

BIWI · 06/02/2023 13:38

I think the fact that things weren't neatly wrapped up is much better! Like Catherine walking away from her retirement party, which is still going on in the background, it serves to remind us that life goes on. It's never neatly wrapped up or finished. And that the ongoing stories are more than just Catherine.

I loved that Catherine didn't kill TLR too. And that she actually tried to save him at the end, even though we know just how despicable she finds him.

I also wondered if 'Highlands' was an autocorrect for 'Himalayas'!

MissHavishamsMouldyOldCake · 06/02/2023 13:42

I definitely feel they could have done with another episode. It felt strange that the downfall of Darius the crime boss took place off screen and wax only mentioned in passing. I didn't need to see him being led off in cuffs but even if we'd seen his face when found out his three henchmen were all dead.

CaptainMyCaptain · 06/02/2023 13:47

diddl · 06/02/2023 13:14

I'm still not too sure about TLR having a "lightbulb" moment.

I suppose knowing that Marbella wasn't going to happen he knew he had nothing to offer Ryan?
(Obvs not his fault though)

I quite liked the parallel between Faisal & TLR though.

Different upbringings-both driven to becoming involved with drugs & committing murder.

Different upbringing but Faisal was the less favoured son. His father in law had funded the pharmacy and his wife clearly liked the finer things, private school etc. That doesn't excuse anything but explains why he did it.

Emotionalsupportviper · 06/02/2023 13:50

JaneJeffer · 06/02/2023 12:17

What did Becky say when she appeared to Catherine by the graveside?

"Go home, mum."

the80sweregreat · 06/02/2023 13:51

I Hope Clare and Neil and Ryan will be happy
They deserve it

SpideyCraw · 06/02/2023 13:52

I’m probably being stupid but how was Darius brought down? Did the two guys that got arrested speak? Or is the assumption that Catherine saying that TLR told her that Darius murdered that guy is sufficient for him to be convicted?

CaptainMyCaptain · 06/02/2023 13:53

BIWI · 06/02/2023 13:38

I think the fact that things weren't neatly wrapped up is much better! Like Catherine walking away from her retirement party, which is still going on in the background, it serves to remind us that life goes on. It's never neatly wrapped up or finished. And that the ongoing stories are more than just Catherine.

I loved that Catherine didn't kill TLR too. And that she actually tried to save him at the end, even though we know just how despicable she finds him.

I also wondered if 'Highlands' was an autocorrect for 'Himalayas'!

Himalayas doesn't auto correct to anything else on my phone.

Pl242 · 06/02/2023 13:53

On balance I really enjoyed the finale and felt it finished in the right way. It was arguably a little rushed. I’d have liked to have seen Ryan again and other family members in the last episode. I didn’t mind the other plots being wrapped up briefly/off screen. I suppose it was good to have got Darius but seemed a little inconsistent to overall theme of gangs keeping getting away with it/possible enabling role of police higher up chain. I would have thought there would have been an indicator of all the ongoing sh*t continuing in the valley after she leaves the police. Incredible acting and writing though. Will miss the series.

Emotionalsupportviper · 06/02/2023 13:54

JaneJeffer · 06/02/2023 12:48

.

For heaven's sake!

We're BUSY!

😂

GilliansFarm · 06/02/2023 13:55

Just caught up with it now. I think they got the balance right and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
SL is just excellent and a total icon.

JaneJeffer · 06/02/2023 13:57

If only Tommy had had a grandmother things might have worked out differently.

AntonDuPig · 06/02/2023 13:58

JaneJeffer · 06/02/2023 13:57

If only Tommy had had a grandmother things might have worked out differently.

Or an Aunty Clare!

PrincessScarlett · 06/02/2023 13:59

SpideyCraw · 06/02/2023 13:52

I’m probably being stupid but how was Darius brought down? Did the two guys that got arrested speak? Or is the assumption that Catherine saying that TLR told her that Darius murdered that guy is sufficient for him to be convicted?

I'm guessing Tweedledee and Tweedledum sang like canaries about Darius and the drugs. That plus Tommy's statement and a bit of digging would have been enough to bring Darius down.

MissHavishamsMouldyOldCake · 06/02/2023 14:00

Three weeks ago I was convinced Richard would be offed for his journalistic poking about. They must have realised he didn't have the gumption to get very far with his uncoverings and so left him be!

the80sweregreat · 06/02/2023 14:01

Nurture v nature
An old conundrum.
In this case nurture won the day ( Catherine )

BertieBotts · 06/02/2023 14:01

Haven't posted on any previous threads as tend to watch them the day after and want to avoid spoilers, but thought the ending was BRILLIANT!

The way that you started to feel like oh wait, TLR really does love Ryan, doesn't he? And then realise that means absolutely nothing, because although he says he loves him and wants to spend time with him and decides not to destroy his house, he still doesn't recognise that he has hurt Ryan by causing the trauma that he did to his mum, he doesn't recognise that he has made Catherine's life and job more difficult, he just reverts back to "this bitch took Ryan away from me, well, I guess I forgive her for that, since she's taken good care of him." He only sees people in terms of himself. He doesn't recognise that it would be terrifying and dangerous for Ryan to be taken on the run either, it's just an opportunity to spend time together to him. It's such an emotionally immature definition of love, almost like a little child.

Incredible to see on screen for me, because (going back a good few years now) DS1's dad and I had a really unhealthy, abusive relationship and I kept getting pulled back in because he'd say "I love you [both], I want us to be a family" and that was what I wanted too, until I started to look at what he did, not just what he said and realised that he might well totally and utterly believe that, but he didn't have the same definition/understanding of what it meant to love somebody, what it meant to be a family, that I did and so in fact, no matter what he said it would never ever ever work. That allowed me to emotionally disentangle and then I left. But I've never seen this illustrated ever before.

Also the moment where Catherine realised that Ryan definitively is not like his dad. I think she'd been holding onto that bottled up fear for 16 years and never voiced it to anybody, not even herself. That is possibly why she is sometimes harsh with him in what comes across as an unfair way. I've seen it on MN parenting threads, I had a bit of it myself. Every time DS1 acted in any way like his father, I would jump to this huge fear that he was going to grow up and be like him. In fact DS1 was not acting like his father, he was acting like a child. He grew out of it, my ex (as far as I know) never did. It's a horrible fear and so taboo people don't speak about it.

Pandor · 06/02/2023 14:08

I agree with an earlier comment that not wrapping up the teacher and pharmacist storylines any more “neatly” than they did just shows that from Catherine’s pov she is done with it now and is stepping back.

We know enough to get a good sense that things are rapidly going bad for both of them (thanks to Catherine), but they are now someone else’s mess to tidy up, and that will take months/years. They are no longer part of her story.

70sShmeventies · 06/02/2023 14:11

I can’t stop thinking about it today, Tommy's love for his son was his only redeeming feature and made the monster somewhat human. For the whole series I couldn’t quite believe it was genuine but in that last scene I finally did. It’s the closest to redemption he’ll get. Jaw dropping stuff. All in all I feel sad for everyone, Tommy didn’t know how to love and in turn was unloveable, poor poor Becky, Catherine suffering for the rest of her life and Ryan with that legacy. Thankfully Ryan turns out to be the most sorted of them all! A strange sort of peace for everyone.

Seeing those photos of Becky really bought home Catherine’s loss, not just her trauma.

JesusMaryAndJosephAndTheWeeDon · 06/02/2023 14:16

Pandor · 06/02/2023 14:08

I agree with an earlier comment that not wrapping up the teacher and pharmacist storylines any more “neatly” than they did just shows that from Catherine’s pov she is done with it now and is stepping back.

We know enough to get a good sense that things are rapidly going bad for both of them (thanks to Catherine), but they are now someone else’s mess to tidy up, and that will take months/years. They are no longer part of her story.

Except she will probably be summonsed to give evidence of TLR's dying declaration at the trial of Darius.

the80sweregreat · 06/02/2023 14:22

He burned in hell fires!
Was a fitting end
Those girls will be safe with their grandparents

Blondeshavemorefun · 06/02/2023 14:29

I hope police will find the bodies in the field before the farmer does

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