With Tui alone in the woods, about to give birth, and locals finally willing to testify against Matt Mitcham, events charged towards an emotional climax in the final episode of Jane Campion's 'Top of the Lake'.
Despite this, the pace of the narrative stayed admirably consistent with previous episodes, even as Detective Robin (Elisabeth Moss) headed into Matt's territory, ostensibly to hear his confession, but actually to reel in shock as he played his final card.
Robin had only one mission in mind - to get to Tui
And so Robin was left reeling AGAIN... from the professional consequences of hunting down Matt, and the prospect of continuing her relationship with his son.
All credit to Jane Campion and the actors, including Robin's mother, whose deathbed plea to her daughter not to get involved with Johnno now made more sense. I did not see this one coming - did you? - despite it being from the pen of Campion, which should have warned us to expect the stakes to go up a notch.
GJ (Holly Hunter) prepares to say goodbye
I have to say the same Campion copped out of this particular incestuous quandary by the end, however - us primetime audiences not being QUITE ready for that, presumably - and the other twist, just how Detective Al did afford that palatial waterside pad, had a brightly coloured bell on it.
But there was much to enjoy, along the way, especially GJ, Holly Hunter's prophetic Thunderbird, who boomed, "Stop your helping. Stop your planning. Give up." Ok, then. This scene was the highlight of the episode, both unintentionally hilarious and sadly true, and set the direction for all that followed, even if GJ had had quite enough and, in a distinctly un-Maharishi-like fashion - her health seeming strangely to rally - deserted her touchy-feely squaddies, collected her Louis Vuitton set of wheels and swiftly got out of Dodge.
She left behind the kind of resolution that she herself would no doubt have recommended - a bunch of people, bruised by the past and making the best of what they'd been dealt, some new hope with new life, and a satisfying conclusion to a bleak but gripping tale, against the most beautiful of backdrops.