While the entire series of ‘Hard Sun’ has been available on BBC iPlayer for some time now, the finale has only just aired on normal TV.
And if you’d been watching along at normal pace, you’d be forgiven for being a little disappointed for investing six weeks of your life in it, given what a damp squib the ending turned out to be.
Having shown great promise in its earlier episodes, the finale delivered so little it terms of closure for those who had followed it, with Hard Sun seemingly arriving early to wipe out the world.
While there could be a second series (although we’re not really sure how), if there’s not, those loose ends it has left will remain just that.
With that in mind, here are just seven things that totally frustrated us about the ‘Hard Sun’ finale...
We never found out why Hicks killed Butler
In a flashback, we saw a scene were Hicks shot Butler in the head at point blank range while on a bridge. However, it was not at all clear why he did it.
“I saw you, Alex. I saw what you did... in a video, on that laptop you just lied about, reflected in a mirror, in that horrible bedroom.” Hicks raged. “We can’t ever let them find out about this. Alex, no-one can ever find out about this. No-one.”
After Butler said he was “out of control” and swore “it’s over”, Hicks then pulled a gun on him - but what on earth had Butler supposedly done? Was it to do with the Nicholson or something more sinister?
Hicks was never avenged for any of his crimes
Throughout the series, we’ve been in a constant state of conflict about how to feel about Hicks. We were totally on his side in the battle against MI5, but he was also a cheat and a murderer.
Not only did he kill Butler, but if you cast your mind back to episode one, you’ll remember how a balaclava-clad Hicks robbed Nicholson at gunpoint and made off with the money. However, his part in the gang and his other crimes were left up in the air. Plus we saw no evidence of what he did with the £300,000 he stole.
There was no resolution to Daniel’s story
Renko’s son was pretty key to the series, and while the last episode saw him take centre stage, he only featured at marginally in the series finale.
Although the scene appeared to suggest there could be light at the end of the tunnel for him, we still felt a bit short changed given how problematic his relationship with his mother has been.
Hard Sun’s convenient timing
It seemed very convenient that right at the end of the episode, with so many loose threads still hanging, Hard Sun arrives to wipe everyone out, meaning there will never be answers to all the remaining questions the series created.
Not only that, but we’d also like to know why it arrived early, and why the documents on the flash drive got it so wrong.
The wooden acting as Hard Sun arrived
We don’t like to be critical, but the way Nikki Amuka-Bird delivered the line as Morrigan realised that Hard Sun had come early was so underwhelming for someone who had just discovered she had seconds to live.
Morrigan getting away with everything
The MI5 agent was the one we all loved to hate throughout the series, and when it finally looked like Hicks and Renko had her up against a wall, Hard Sun meant we never saw the ‘baddie’ get what she really deserved.
The fact we didn’t actually get to see the end of the world
Call us sadastic, but for a drama based upon the premise of an apocalypse, it would have been good to see the actual apocalypse happen when the moment finally came. Perhaps the BBC ran out of budget?
‘Hard Sun’ is available to watch in its entirety on BBC iPlayer.