Hostage, a brand-new political thriller on Netflix, sees Abigail Dalton (Suranne Jones) swept into a plot of kidnapping and blackmail that threatens her role as Prime Minister as she meets with the French President, Toussaint.
Hostage recaps
Hostage episode 1
Hostage episode 2
Hostage episode 3
Hostage episode 4
As the two women head into political battle, it appears the threat is far greater than each other. During the French President’s visit to Downing Street, the pair become embroiled in a terrifying plot that could destroy everything they’ve worked so hard to build.
As Abigail’s husband, Alex, is kidnapped, Toussaint finds herself blackmailed into a stalemate that leaves each head of state faltering.
But, can they unravel the truth before it jeopardises their entire careers, their loved ones and even themselves? Spoilers to follow.
Here’s a recap of everything that happened in Hostage episode 5.
The final episode opens on a little girl arriving at Sylvie’s birthday party, back before Abigail was PM, but still a minister. Abigail receives a phone call and they ask her for codeword clearance. She’s put through to Belize where a situation is unfolding and they want to know whether to evacuate troops as they can’t get in touch with the defense secretary. They tell her she’s the most senior minister they can get hold of, so she has to make the call.
It’s explained that the Guatemalan army have taken Belize. They have the British troops ready to fly out, but Abigail needs to give clearance to leave the Belize civilians that helped them behind. This will risk them being executed. Abigail tells them to wait and stick to the original plan, but the woman on the phone says if they wait, they might not get anyone out at all. To this, she tells them to get their planes in the air.
In the present day, Abigail and Alex are escorted to a safe room where Sylvie is already waiting. She watches the news of the blast. Matheo arrives and watches the coverage while Abigail frantically washes the blood from her hands. Alex reassures her it’s okay. Meanwhile, Shagan meets with his group, including Saskia, loading up cases of weapons. One of the team hugs Shagan and says the mission is complete. He tells them to dump the guns and they’ll meet at the plane, but he wants Saskia to stay with him.
Shagan receives a phone call. It’s General Livingston. He’s angry at what Shagan has done, destroying Downing Street without his authority. Shagan says he had to kill Abigail and the General tells him he missed and she’s still alive. He argues that Abigail was right next to the laptop, but the General tells him it was Toussaint that he killed. The General says he didn’t want Abigail dead, just out of the way, but Shagan has a different mission in mind. General Livingston instructs him to get out of the country now. As the General hangs up, the Cabinet arrives. He welcomes Dan, as Prime Minister.
Meanwhile, Saskia wants to know why Shagan said detonating the laptop was following orders, when it wasn’t. He ignores her and instead tells her to run automatic number plate recognition to find Abigail. At the safe house, Abigail sits with Matheo and he blames himself for Toussaint’s death. Abigail tells him it’s not his fault and it was actually her that was supposed to be the target. Abigail watches the latest news with Dan declaring a state of emergency across the country, announcing Toussaint’s death, announcing his role as interim Prime Minister and revealing that General Livingston and his troops will be deployed to the streets to manage civil unrest.
At Downing Street, injured people are still being treated. The troops arrive and insist the press evacuate to a designated safe zone. Zadie asks where they’re being taken, but they won’t tell her. Abigail rings Ayesha and tells her it’s a coup. She wants her to gather the team and Kofi will know where to find her. Abigail tells Alex and Sylvie they need to go somewhere else, away from her, and she’s going to stay. Matheo offers his friend’s place, where he’s also heading, outside of London. As they head off in the car, Alex tells Abigail to be careful and make them pay.
Meanwhile, Kofi is walking through the streets of London as troops descend. He meets Ayesha, Zadie and Tristan and they enter the underground safe house. Inside, Abigail is relieved to see her team. Meanwhile, Matheo, Sylvie and Alex arrive at Matheo’s friend’s house, an enormous manor. The guard with them tells them to lay low and keep off the grid. Kofi reveals he’s run Shagan through MI6 and Interpol and has found nothing. But, then he searched the MOD files and found Captain John Michael Shagan from the same 3rd Battalion as Saskia. Abigail remembers seeing him at Downing Street right before the blast. Zadie says she also recognises him and asks Tristan to pull up the footage from Attaf’s vigil. They see him, dressed as police.
In Shagan’s report, it’s revealed that he was in Belize to train troops as a colour sergeant. He was involved in the mass evacuation and was medically downgraded due to mental health and depression. Abigail reveals she was junior minister at the Foreign Office and made the call to extract the troops. Kofi tells her she did that to save British lives. But she says she left local people to die. Tristan argues it would’ve saved Shagan’s life, so why would he want to kill Abigail? Ayesha thinks it’s not even about the why, it’s about the how because all this organisation must’ve been paid for and dealt with by someone of authority. Kofi asks who deployed Shagan in Belize and they pull up the name.
With General Livingston, a member of the Cabinet, Cathy, questions the violent tactics the troops are using on the streets, but Livingston defends it. She argues that it’s not a conflict situation and they should be worried about the press coverage, to which Livingston reveals he’s executed plans to make sure there’s a 24-hour media blackout. Dan interrupts to say they have the visitor log for Downing Street with Matheo entering 10 minutes before the bomb was detonated. He’s got the Met looking for him. Abigail calls Cathy on an unknown number. She tells her Livingston is behind it all and she wants Cathy to help her get into the Ministry of Defence.
At the large manor house, Alex and Sylvie wait. Alex asks Sylvie to make some food to distract Matheo from what’s happened. Outside, Saskia is waiting with Shagan. Saskia hesitates to say she’s found the house, but Shagan says Abigail discarded their battalion and Saskia is worth more than that and that now, they must end it. In London, Cathy is arguing with the guard to let Abigail and her team in as they arrive. He says he can’t do that until he gets authorization from the General, but Abigail argues that she knows who killed Toussaint and why. He lets them in.
As Abigail enters, General Livingston is angry to see her. She recites the name Captain John Michael Shagan and asks him if he knows the name. Dan comes to find out what’s going on and Cathy tells him to hear what Abigail has to say. Livingston denies knowing Shagan, but she argues he was Shagan’s commanding officer in Belize, so should remember him. Kofi and Abigail tell everyone that Shagan is behind the kidnapping, the civil unrest and the bomb detonating in Downing Street, killing Toussaint. And that it was all orchestrated by General Livingston.
In response, Livingston says Abigail cut the military budgets and left the whole country exposed and that everyone needs protecting. He tells her they need protecting from her. He instructs his troops to remove her and Kofi stands them down. She tells Dan that General Livingston will return the country back to him safe and sound and he’ll reward him with an increase in military budget, enough to reverse Abigail’s cuts and exactly what he wanted.
She calls Livingston a traitor and he argues that he’s a patriot. To this, Abigail says he gave the order to bomb Downing Street and killed an ally. He denies it. Now irate, he says if he wanted to kill her, he wouldn’t put a bomb in a laptop. To this, Dan says no-one has told him about a laptop. Dan instructs the troops to put General Livingston in custody. But, he tells Abigail before he goes, that she doesn’t know what people will sacrifice to keep the nation safe. She tells him not to talk to her about sacrifice.
Back at the house, the security guard hears a noise upstairs and goes to investigate. As she heads one way, a figure can be seen walking. There’s a window open in one of the bedrooms and as she shuts it, Saskia comes up behind her and they fight. Outside, Shagan takes out another security guard. Saskia strangles the one inside to death. She communicates to Shagan that she’s got them down and he tells her they’re in the kitchen, but he can’t see Abigail. Saskia heads downstairs with a gun. In the kitchen, Matheo and Sylvie are making pasta. When he turns round, Saskia is holding a gun up to him and Shagan tells her to kill them if she has to. He picks up a knife and heads to look for Abigail. Matheo asks Saskia how she could murder Toussaint and tears stream down her face as she continues to hold the gun at them.
Hostage ending explained
Alex is stoking the fire as Shagan walks around the grounds searching for Abigail. Alex spots him as he enters the room. Shagan tells him to drop the poker and asks where Abigail is. He tells her she’s not there and that he missed again. He calls Saskia on his phone and tells her to put Sylvie on. He hears her over loudspeaker and drops the poker. Meanwhile, Dan tells Abigail that the emergency powers have been halted and that the no confidence motion is now void. He tells her, as Prime Minister, she should make an address. Ayesha enters and hands Abigail a phone with Alex on the line. But, it’s not Alex. It’s Shagan. He tells her he’s got Alex and Slyvie and tells her to come alone. If she doesn’t, he’ll kill them both.
Matheo tries to talk Saskia down. He tells her Shagan is only in control if she lets him be, but she can still save the situation and herself. She tells him she’s in control and he tells her he loved her. Shagan tells her Abigail is on the way. She tells them to sit on the floor and behind his back, Matheo gets his phone out. Sylvie wants to know what’s going to happen to her mum and she tells her she didn’t save Alex when she could’ve and now because of the choices she made, they’re all there.
As Alex and Shagan sit across from each other, Alex notes where the poker still lays on the ground. He asks Shagan what he meant by telling him he had a daughter, too. He asks how he lost her and Shagan tells him that whatever Alex says, he won’t be distracted long enough for Alex to grab the poker. He asks Alex if he’s ever killed anyone and Alex says he shot one of his men. Shagan stands up and takes the poker. He looks outside as Abigail arrives. Shagan tells Saskia to wait for his signal. To this, Matheo calls 999 behind his back.
Meanwhile, Matheo starts to tell Saskia they’re being held hostage to which she asks to see his hands. As he reveals he’s on the phone to 999, she lunges for it and he smacks the gun out of her hand. They fight and Matheo tells Sylvie to run. She picks up the gun as she goes. Saskia strangles Matheo and tells him to fight back, but he won’t. She tells him if he knew what she was like, he wouldn’t have wanted her and he tells her she’s wrong. She lets him go. On the phone, an armed unit will be sent if he taps the keypad to acknowledge it. She hands him the phone and lets him respond, leaving the room.
As Abigail enters, Shagan calls for her to come to the room they’re in. He immediately holds the knife to her. She says they made a deal and he needs to let her family go first. Sylvie is looking for them. Abigail tells him she knows it’s all about Belize. As Shagan gets angry about the deaths of the local people that helped them, Alex asks what his daughter was called. Shagan reveals she wasn’t even born yet as his pregnant fiancée was a local translator, left behind by Abigail’s call. She was shot and they both died. He tells her he’s happy the bomb didn’t kill her because he wants to gut her the way she gutted him. Again, she asks for him to release her family first.
Outside, the police arrive. Shagan tells Abigail she broke her word, but she tells him she didn’t. While distracted, Alex runs at Shagan and grabs him. Abigail shouts for help. Shagan slices at Alex’s front as Sylvie enters the room with the gun. Abigail and Alex plead with her not to do it. Abigail tells her to put the gun down as the police are coming.
To this, Shagan begins to tell Sylvie to pull the trigger slowly or she’ll miss. He tells her not to miss, getting inside her head. The police enter the house, but they haven’t found the room yet, and Abigail again pleads with Sylvie not to do anything stupid. Shagan taunts Sylvie and tells her if she’d acted sooner, her grandad would still be alive. As Sylvie gets upset, Abigail tells her he’s trying to get into her head. Shagan tells her he cruelly put an end to her grandad’s life and Sylvie shoots him dead. Just as she shoots, the police enter and they’re all taken down. Sylvie is arrested and taken away.
Three months later, Abigail is at Downing Street. Her phone rings and she says she’s on her way down. Alex and Sylvie are there and she hugs him and asks Sylvie if they’re sure about what they’re going to do. They agree. Abigail heads downstairs and passes a portrait of Toussaint now hanging on the wall.
Ayesha tells her the press are ready for her and she takes Kofi, Tristan and Zadie with her. She stands at the podium and repeats Toussaint’s speech about providing the truth to the country and not listening to the wrong people and making the wrong decisions. She pays homage to Toussaint and calls for a general election. She wants a radical new mandate, but wants to tell the general public about it with all the facts and then, they can decide if they still want her.
All episodes of Hostage are available to stream on Netflix.