Karen Pirie season 2 sees our hero Karen, now a detective inspector, given a huge high high-profile cold case to solve, the kidnapping of oil heiress Catriona Grant and her young son Adam. It is based on Val McDermid’s 2008 novel, “A Dark Domain“, the second story in the author’s Karen Pirie franchise. Spoilers ahead if you’ve not seen episode 3! Here’s what happened in the final episode…
We start in 1984 at the cave, where Catriona’s body was found. Andy and Mick are frantic. Andy says what are they going to do if the police find the gun and her. Mick tells him to stop talking and to drive. In the backseat is Adam!
Karen and Phil are at the cave site with Broderick and Mary, who now know for certain their daughter is dead.
Mint says he believes Matthias/Andy is in Italy, and Karen tells him to fly to Italy. He asks if Isla can come as well, and she agrees.
River tells Karen and Phil that Catriona was shot dead. Phil wonders how she was murdered, given that she was in on her own kidnapping. Evidence of two guns at the scene, one Kevin’s and another a mysterious shotgun. She was killed by the shotgun. Phil speculates that people with money have shotguns for sport.
Phil and Karen question Fergus over why he paid a man to steal Karen’s computer. Karen says they found the stolen laptop in her office. Phil points out that Fergus knows how to handle a shotgun, as his family has a hunting lodge. Karen says she’s been working with a theory that Catriona was in on her own kidnapping. But there are problems with that theory, as the kidnappers escaped with a lot of money. So, who paid them? Karen suggests that the one person who could have paid them was Fergus. Fergus says he has nothing to do with this.
Karen and Phil leave the interview and talk tactics. Phil thinks that despite what he says, Fergus does care for Adam. Karen says they could try something, but it’s risky.
Karen shows Fergus a photo of Gabriel and says they believe he’s Adam. They tell him Gabriel is wanted by the police. The police think he’s helping criminal gangs bring migrants in illegally, but Gabriel says he’s an activist saving lives. Fergus says he didn’t kill Catriona. Karen says he knows he’s hiding something. He says he needs to talk to his lawyer alone.
“We’re missing something, right at the heart of this”, says Karen.
Phil and Karen go back into the interview. Fergus says that on the night he believes Kat died, he was in a hospital with his wife, and they lost their baby. He says there will be records Karen can check and gives her the hospital name.
He says he believes Kat died at dawn the following day, and he suspects this because the third letter was sent to him.
The letter said two bags of money were to be brought to a location, the caves, at 5 am. He wasn’t to tell the police. In 1984, we see him take the letter to Broderick. Fergus doesn’t understand why he’s been sent the letter. Broderick asks Fergus if he’s sorted the money. He says yes. Broderick says Fergus isn’t to tell anyone, and he’s going to go. He adds that his daughter is behind it.
Fergus says Broderick told him at the handover that Kat wouldn’t listen to him and took the money and ran. Broderick said Adam wasn’t there.
Fergus says he’s always thought Kat and Adam were together with the money. Fergus didn’t think she was dead.
In 1984, we see Mick, Andy, and Adam in France. Andy wonders what they should do with Adam, and Mick says let him worry about that.
Mint is in Genoa with Isla. They meet their Italian detective contact. He says Matthias wasn’t at his address because he’s at a hospital getting cancer treatment.
In the hospital, Matthias is evasive. He denies being Andy. Mint tells him now he has a chance to reveal who killed Catriona. Mint wonders what Karen would do.
In 1984, we see Mick, Adam, Catriona, and Andy in the cave.
Andy phones Mick/Daniel from his hospital bed and says the police know about them.
We see Gabriel tie up his boat. He pays someone a bribe to turn a blind eye.
Karen tells her boss Fergus’s alibi checks out. Fergus says Broderick ordered him to get Karen’s computer to find out what they knew. They add Broderick to the list of suspects.
In Genoa, Isla and Mint are in their hotel room, looking bored. The Italian cop knocks and comes in. Matthias has been moved to a private hospital. Mint says someone has paid him not to speak to us. The Italian cop says Andy called Mick from the hospital.
Karen takes Bel for a bottle of wine, and they discuss the case. Karen says she needs Isla’s help to dig into Broderick to find out what he’s not telling them. Karen drops a massive hint to Bel that the third letter Broderick claims didn’t arrive, did.
Mint, Isla, and the Italian cop head to Mick’s. The Italian cop turns a blind eye as Isla enters Mick’s place without a warrant. Mint follows Isla only to discover she’s being held at gunpoint by a mystery man. The man shoves Isla at Mint and flees for his car, driving off.
Isla says that when she found him, he was on the computer. There’s evidence of a flight booking. They look at Mick’s photos and can see he raised Adam/Gabriel there. Mint comments that it doesn’t fit with someone who’d kill the mother.
Mint tells Karen it appears Mick has taken a flight to Malta. Mint tells Karen about the man who had a gun, and Mint says Isla thinks he’s a private detective. Karen says the private detective is trying to reach Mick before they can. We have to stop him, she says. Karen says she’s coming to Malta.
Karen arrives in Malta. She still has her bumbag! Isla says she thinks Mint’s emails got hacked. They’ve tracked down the private investigator, who was accused of killing a fellow cop, and Mint says he’s had high-profile clients, suggesting it’s Broderick who hired him. They speculate that Broderick might have ordered a hit on Mick.
Isla turns up at the police station and talks to Phil. Isla has uncovered a letter Catriona sent to a journalist asking for a meeting in February 1984. Broderick stopped the paper from printing anything. The journalist was a business correspondent, suggesting it was related to Broderick’s business. The journalist is dead.
There’s confusion at the Malta police station, and Broderick is there! It appears Adam is on the island.
Karen spots a disgruntled cop on a fag break. She goes to talk to her.
The Malta police knock at an address. Gabriel’s girlfriend answers but denies he’s there. The cops leave, and we see him hiding.
Karen’s new Malta cop mate says they shouldn’t be doing this as they go to visit Broderick. The Malta cop says she can’t go any further and they say goodbye. Karen goes up to Broderick’s room. Broderick says he’s on Malta to find his grandson. Karen asks how he knows Adam is there. He says he has his sources, and she says, oh yes, the dangerous man he’s hired.
Broderick says Mick killed his daughter, and Karen says how does he know that. She adds they’ve arrested Fergus. Broderick says he heard the killing, the sound of the gunshot.
We go back to 1984. We see Broderick and his security man, Glen, walking towards the cave. Mick and Catriona are watching. Mick puts his balaclava on and ties up Catriona.
Mick shouts at Broderick to put the money down, but he wants to see Adam. Catriona begs him to give Mick the money, pretending to be terrified. Broderick says what if he doesn’t believe you. Mick fires a warning shot. Glen also has a gun. Broderick puts the money down. Mick takes the money. Broderick shouts after them to bring his grandson. Broderick says he waited and waited, but they never returned. He said they heard something and found the cave collapsing, and they thought that was the sound, but on reflection, it was gunshots. Glen ran to the other entrance to the cave and saw them drive off.
Broderick was ashamed and didn’t want anyone to know. But at that point, he thought she’d escaped too. Now he knows she died in the cave, and he says that changes everything. He tells Karen he thinks Mick betrayed her and shot her. Broderick tried to pay Andy money for information, but he refused.
Bel tells Phil she’s dug out a newspaper report by the dead journalist, and it’s about an oil rig accident on one of Broderick’s oil rigs. Three men died. But the families won’t talk about or possibly legally can’t. She hands Phil the article.
The Italian cop phones Mint and says Adam has switched his phone back on, which they’ve been tracking, and gives him Adam’s location. He says he won’t share it with the Malta police yet. Unfortunately, it’s quite a wide area.
Mick goes to Adam’s property. Someone is watching. The marksman, who held Isla at gunpoint earlier, takes a shot but misses Mick. Mick runs for it.
Phil lets Karen know about the oil rig accident and says he believes Broderick paid the families off.
The Malta cop tells Karen about the shooting attempt. She says it took place in Gabriel’s girlfriend’s place. She thinks Adam might be hiding with another activist. Karen and the Malta cop go into the activist’s house, but he says he hasn’t seen Gabriel for months.
Karen says do you mind if they look around. The activist refuses. Gabriel leaps out of the top window, and Mint gives chase.
Isla spies the German private detective, grabs a taser off a local cop and tasers him!
Karen joins the chase. They catch up with Gabriel/Adam by his boat. Mick turns up. Gabriel looks surprised when Karen calls the man he knows as Daniel, Mick. Mick begs them to let Gabriel go.
Broderick gets a call saying they have them.
Karen talks to Gabriel. She asks him what he knows about his mother. He says she died when he was young. Mick (played by Vicar of Dibley star James Fleet) joins them. Gabriel is shocked to see him in handcuffs and says he hasn’t broken a rule in his life.
Mick says he will tell Gabriel what happened from the beginning. He explains he was in love with her and would do anything for her. He then drops the bombshell to Gabriel that he was already alive and that he’s not his birth father. He says his real father is Fergus, and he works for Gabriel’s grandfather’s company. Mick explains about the brief affair Fergus and Gabriel’s mother had.
Catriona wanted to know why Broderick didn’t fire Fergus and was protecting him. Catriona worked for her dad after Gabriel was born and discovered he’d got Fergus to make cuts, which led to the accident. He also covered up what really happened and paid off the police. She’d tried the press, but that route was blocked by Broderick. Catriona didn’t want her son growing up as a Grant. She wanted a new life, and she needed money and wanted to hurt Broderick. She came up with the kidnapping idea. It went wrong when Catriona shot Kevin. They were terrified and went to the caves.
On the day of the swap, Andy stayed with Gabriel in the car. Mick said Catriona died in the cave. Mick says he believes they were aiming for him, but hit Catriona. Karen asks who pulled the trigger. Mick says he’s kept the secret long enough.
We don’t hear Mick’s answer, but we see Karen, Phil, and a lot of cops outside Broderick’s. There’s a report of Broderick being at an airfield.
Karen Pirie season 2 ending explained: Mary shot her daughter, Catriona, dead
Karen catches Broderick at the airfield with his wife. She arrests him for attempting to pervert the course of justice. And she arrests Mary for the murder of Catriona! Broderick tries to claim he’s the murderer.
Mary said she sensed something was going on. She followed them. She was angry they hadn’t told her. She drove the gamekeeper’s car, and the gun was on the passenger’s side. She took the shotgun. She knew there was another entrance to the cave. In 1984, we see her going into the cave with the gun.
Meanwhile, Broderick still insists he pulled the trigger. He says he shot her in the head, but Karen says she was shot in the abdomen.
In 1984, we see Mary confronting them, telling Catriona to go out of the cave to her father. But she says she doesn’t understand. Her mum is confused. Mary shoots at the top of the cave. Mick tells her to stay back and fires a warning shot. Mary fires again. In the present, she explains the first shot was to scare him, the second was to stop him. In the confusion, she shot Catriona, and the cave collapsed on her. Mick escaped with Andy and Adam. Mary didn’t know Catriona was dead.
We see Broderick come into the cave and ask Mary what happened. She says Catriona tried to protect the kidnapper, and she doesn’t understand why.
Broderick hugs Mary in 1984 and says she didn’t do anything wrong. At that point, he believed Kat had gotten away.
In the present, Karen repeats that’s what he thought. Broderick says they always wanted to believe that she and Adam were safe. Broderick says he blames himself, the selfish acts he did.
Karen tells Mary they’ve found Adam and he’s come to Scotland to see where he’s from.
Mary, crying, says she will plead guilty to all the charges, but can she just see her grandson once? Karen says she can ask him.
Broderick, also crying, tells Karen it broke his heart to have a child who hated him.
Both Broderick and Mary are broken.
Gabriel arrives at the Broderick house. Gabriel meets Fergus. Fergus tells him he faces trial later this year. Gabriel says he understands she hated him. Fergus says yes, Catriona had reason to. Obviously awkward between them.
Karen gives an interview to Bel.
Back in Malta, Gabriel tells Mick to stay with him here as the police can’t touch him there. And they hug.
Karen says in her interview: “Money and power can help you rewrite history. Until even you believe it. Everyone needs the truth. So I keep looking forward it.”