With all the mysteries solved last week, all that’s left to resolve is how Zoë, Sarah, and Dinah are going to come out of all this alive.
Photo: Apple TV+
What could we have expected from the finale of Down Cemetery Road? Eight episodes in, the mysteries have been solved: We know what happened to Downey and Singleton and why the government wanted them dead — as well as where Dinah is and even what she looks and sounds like. Now, all that’s left to resolve is how Zoë, Sarah, and Dinah are going to come out of all this alive. Joe Silvermann died for knowing much less.
Most of all, I wanted our trio to survive through the force of their combined wits. A couple of weeks ago, I lamented that, as the plot ramped up toward closure, some too-convenient coincidences were being used in place of Zoë and Sarah’s wits, which brought them this far. I feared for the finale that they were going to scrape by through some miracle — that they would be saved, all of a sudden, by some third party that had descended upon them. No such thing happens. They survive because they do what they have to do, even if it means getting V-I-O-L-E-N-T, as Malik might put it in front of Dinah.
Speaking of the man: Last week, I mentioned that he never made it to the island at the same time as the rest of the crew, even though, traveling by air, he was supposed to get there the fastest. As it turns out, he made it to Firinn, just not the island. It seems strange that the chopper wouldn’t have dropped him off where he was technically supposed to be, but by the time he spots Dinah and Sarah coming in on Amos’s goth inflatable, it hardly matters. Over text, C instructs him to “FINISH IT,” like that, in all-capital letters. Though later Malik will pretend not to know for sure what that means, we know that it means to kill all three of them: women and child.
At this point, Sarah is still under the impression Zoë died on the beach. She’s in the middle of explaining to Dinah that Zoë was more bark than bite when the woman herself appears behind her with a woof. Donny, the puffin-tour boat captain, brought her back. Zoë thanks him with a firm handshake, but Sarah is still giving him an attitude. Maybe she’s jealous that Zoë wouldn’t hug her but called Donny a “real pal.” She should be grateful: (1) Donny saved Zoë’s life by getting her out of Amos’s sight, and (2) he’s on the right side of history (against British imperialism).
Before Zoë showed up, Sarah ducked into the village shop and stole some dry, warm clothes for herself and Dinah along with candy and some liquor miniatures that will come in handy later. As the whole town looks for Zoë — her picture is plastered on a “Wanted” poster being handed out by the local police to villagers and interested parties like Malik and, when he arrives, Amos — the trio make off for the bus. Malik watches them from afar. He still has that pistol in his pocket, but it’s been clear since C handed it to him that he’s going to hesitate. The race is back on with Malik after them, but for once, Amos has tapped out. He makes sure to take a grenade with him but leaves his bag of lethal goodies in an alley and steals a car to drive off to wherever he plans to set up his next mid-century-modern villain’s lair. He considers taking a Mercedes but notices, just across from it, a black Triumph Stag that has been left with the windows down. Much better — we know how carefully Amos curates his vibe. He couldn’t have driven off in a gray sedan!
Before getting on the bus, Sarah stops a minute to consider, What if they turned themselves in to the police and told the truth? Wouldn’t they see how none of it is their fault? Zoë snaps her out of it: They are in possession of life-threatening government secrets. She evokes the Scottish BBC kids’ show Balamory, which takes place on an idyllic fictional island, only to home in on the point that that’s not where they are. It works: They get on the bus. Malik keeps a close watch as the bus driver steps out for a moment. The trio have to duck out of the villagers’ sight as the bus begins moving, but by the time they’re on the road, they can relax and sing “Wheels on the Bus.” They are so relieved that it takes two missed stops and speeding past perplexed waiting passengers for them to realize that something is wrong.
Did you doubt Malik? I did. I wrote “yess” in my notes when the bus first drove off, believing that Malik had lost heart. But he’s set on fulfilling his mission. His own life, after all, is on the line. C calls him and gets his voice-mail, which aggravates him. He had just gotten a visit from a fuming Talia, who was made privy to the contents of the manila envelope containing the details of Joe’s and Zoë’s investigative finds. Varma gave it to Cheski, who gave it to her, who asked C, “What the hell is going on?” C weakly argues that he kept Talia in the dark to protect her plausible deniability. Then he assures her that “top government officials” are tying up the “loose ends” of the case.
Said “government officials” are attempting to prove their fearsomeness, first by driving the bus straight into a cemetery and then by shooting his pistol into the air. Zoë recognizes Malik from Janice’s house, but they’re ambushed before they can get away. Malik locks them in an empty church and, looking more sweaty and desperate by the second, calls C to ask a question he already knows the answer to: What now? “Not the kiddie, surely?” He pleads. Realizing that Malik won’t be able to complete the job, C instructs him to stay put while he calls for backup. Who would you call if you needed someone evil enough to shoot a child in cold blood?
C knows just the man. Amos wants something more than just the resources to disappear if he’s going to get his hands dirty again — he wants to kill Malik. That’s fine by C, who harbors little feeling for our bumbling man anyway. Sarah and Zoë exchange looks while Malik paces, huffs, and tries to convince them that despite the bad optics, he’s a good person. Some readers have been bothered by Malik’s character: He’s too inept to read convincingly as a top MoD official but too institutionally sanctioned for something like the Slough House. If nothing else, he is the only character involved with the government who appears to show remorse for his employer’s wrongdoings. Malik acts out of fear rather than duty — the second he decides to disobey an order, it’s his life on the line. Even then, we don’t know enough about him to answer the most puzzling question of all: How did this man end up in this line of work?
Yet pushing him too far while he’s in a heightened armed state is probably not a good idea: Sarah and Zoë agree that while they could probably tackle and/or disarm him, it’s smarter not to try. Dinah, who is getting heartbreakingly good at scheming, takes out a rusted shard of metal from one of the pews and gives it to Sarah, who hands it to Zoë. Before Malik can lose it for good, a grenade comes flying in through the stained glass. Everyone scatters — Zoë, Dinah, and Sarah are okay, while Malik is more compromised. The trio find a spot under the church’s floor, Inglourious Basterds style, to hide out while Amos paces. Having noticed a way out, Sarah and Dinah start crawling. Zoë is right behind, but she gets distracted by Amos and Malik’s confrontation, which is coming to a head. Amos has his forehead pressed to Malik’s gun, daring him to shoot, when they hear the clanging of a metal trapdoor and see Dinah’s angelic little face through one of the windows.
Sarah, still underground, whispers for Zoë to hurry up and follow, but it’s too late; Amos grabs her by the ankle. Malik and Sarah both run after Dinah, who hides behind a pillar and is savvy enough to divert Malik’s attention and get close to Sarah. Inside the church, Amos beats Zoë to a pulp. Outside, Sarah retrieves the gun she and Downey took from Gerard’s place and manages to point it at Malik. Realizing that they suffer from the same problem — enough humanity not to want to pull the trigger — Malik begs Sarah to consider the consequences that will befall her if she kills him. Everyone she loves will “meet major accidents.” Killing him won’t end anything — it’ll only start new problems.
Malik’s worst argument is not that he’s a good person — he’s just a coward. Even if he doesn’t have the heart to kill anyone himself, he is complicit enough to order murders and watch them be committed. Still, putting his own gun down, he persuades Sarah to do the same. What he doesn’t take into account is that our girl has been trained by Downey — she knows not even Malik is stupid enough not to pick up that gun. It’s exactly what happens, but the plugs, which Downey had warned her about, are still in. When he pulls the trigger, Malik blows off half of his hand. He looks at it in shock before lying on the ground and screaming, not unlike the soldiers did when the chemical weapons rained down on them. Later, holding his dripping hand, he will find his way to the main road.
Sarah finds Dinah by the side of the bus, waiting for her. Meanwhile, in the church, Amos has Zoë in a headlock. She pulls the shard from her pocket and gouges his eye out; he falls backward and splits his head on a slab of concrete. It’s something out of Kill Bill. “Fucker’s dead,” Zoë announces, coming out of the church like a corpse raised from the dead for the second time in less than 24 hours. Zoë’s struggle with Amos and Sarah’s with Malik happen at the same time — it’s a tense, gripping denouement to three episodes’ worth of high action. It earns a sunset-lit moment as our trio drive off in Amos’s stolen car. As if things couldn’t get more awesome, “What’s Up?” by the 4 Non Blondes starts playing as Sarah looks down at her wedding ring, takes it off, and tosses it on the road. It’s a bit on the nose — she is finally free — but it lands nicely. The personal cost has been tremendous, but Sarah is closer to understanding who she is: a fearless person, for better or worse.
“Some people might say,” she tells Zoë on the train back to London, that what they went through was a “bonding experience.” She wants to talk about what the aftermath of their lives might look like — but Zoë, with that ever-present bucket of cold water at her disposal, reminds Sarah that the first thing she needs to do is organize her husband’s funeral. As they speak, the camera cuts between close-ups of their faces. We’re used to seeing these women from a long view, but now that the chase is over, what remains? Sarah is more at peace with herself. But for her to find freedom and confidence, she had to put other people’s lives on the line — people like Joe, whom Zoë will continue to mourn. The least Sarah can do is pay the outstanding £2,000 she owes Oxford PI, which, if you ask me, is a bargain. Zoë survived two blasts and one mano a mano confrontation with Beelzebub!
Actually, the best Sarah does for Zoë, before they leave the train, is to give her one of those liquor miniatures. It’s a nice way to celebrate having Wayne “go global” with their finds, pinging Cheski directly on her iPad. Talia runs to shred the manila-envelope documents as fast as possible. C stops by to tell her that he’s “taking the hit.” I thought this meant he would take the fall for the whole thing and go to jail, but he’s just moving to the private sector. That night, Talia goes on TV to tell the people of Britain that she had no prior knowledge of the chemical weapon testing before seeing the decrypted video footage. Seeing it played back, she promises to do better. Are the tears she swallows back real? Watching from the sidelines, it looks as though Cheski is on the verge of a morality crisis. But as ever, power and money speak louder. Walking out of the network studio, Talia looks into the darkness, considering, the same way she had suggested C do, the “cesspit of her soul.”
Down Cemetery Road’s first season ends at the train station in London. Ella comes to pick up Dinah, as promised. Sarah says good-bye to Dinah; Zoë, being Zoë, walks off before things can get too emotional. But the expression on Emma Thompson’s face says it all: There is no expressing what they’ve been through. There is also no looking back.
VULTURE NEWSLETTER
Keep up with all the drama of your favorite shows!
Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice
