Category: BBC

Here it is folks, 16 episodes in total and the series has now come to an end.

DCI Morgan informs Sam that in order for him to finally get home, he must destory Gene Hunt and bring his department down. And Sam is willing to do it, all he has to do is expose the rules and laws that Gene bends and fractures in his pursuit of criminals, his in house procedures and his interrogation techniques. If Sam can prove criminal negligence in Gene's performance he can get back to Hyde. And with Gene's record how hard is that gonna be?

Gene and his crew are following up a lead, and a corpse, about a wages heist on a train, and organizes for his entire unit to go undercover, unarmed. Something Sam feels puts all of them in uneccessary danger; and he starts building his case to bring Gene down once and for all, because home is beckoning. The voices on the radio and the telly inform him that he has a tumor, and that's operable if he's strong enough. Sam is convinced that Gene is the personification of this tumor, which is why he's willing to stop him.

And in fact the spooky TV girl with the clown returns to help get him through it, though her second appearance in the episode is much more enjoyable.

Sam knows he's going home now. But there are some things he'll miss in 1973, rather, someone. Sam and Annie have some great moments in this episode as he tells her that he wants to spend as much time with her as he can before he leaves. There's a wonderful beat when Sam asks Annie to spend the night with him, just one night, and you know she wants to, but she wants more than the one night. It's a heartbreaking scene.

Then it all falls apart for Sam when DCI Morgan returns and with a visit to a graveyard lays out some stunning revelations about medical history and his job, that sound very close to the truth. Sam begins to spiral through paranoia, denial, despair and finally acceptance as he realizes why he's really there.

This leads to big blow-ups with Ray, Chris and Annie when he reveals to them who he is.

Despite all this the train job must go on, and it quickly falls apart, in a flurry of gunfire and Sam makes a choice...and we find out what's really been going on.

Poor Sam.

Then for the first time since the beginning of the series... Bowie's Life On Mars is used to underscore Sam last major choice of the series. And I personally don't think I would've wanted it to end any other way. I was worried about what they were going to do with it, and glad they went the way they did.

Now begins the long wait for Ashes to Ashes.

Life On Mars airs Saturdays on Showcase.

This post was Authored by TD, Our Resident Authority on all things BBC

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