Happy Valley spoilers follow.
We knew that another showdown between Catherine Cawood and Tommy Lee Royce was coming, and season three's final episode followed through on that promise — although probably not in the way that most people had been expecting.
While fans were primed for an explosive and, let's face it, violent face-off between the hateful pair (each having pummelled the other to a bloody pulp before), Happy Valley instead brought us a powerfully emotional confrontation that finally gave Sergeant Cawood the closure she so desperately needed.
Tommy had become something of a liability for big bad Darius Knezevic, who'd seemingly ordered his brother to, shall we say, 'get rid'. But cottoning on to their plan (the boot and the can of petrol were probably giveaways, lads), Tommy fetched a knife from the kitchen and caused the car to crash so that he could escape.
Having sustained a number of nasty injuries, and obviously unable to get any medical help as a wanted man, Tommy knew that his time was limited. Calling back to the season-one finale, he decided that he'd rather die than land himself back in prison.
But this time, rather than trying to take Ryan and Catherine down with him on a canal boat, he opted for a more sentimental approach.
Related: Happy Valley star responds to theory of multiple endings being filmed
Breaking into their family home, knowing it to be empty, Tommy pored over photo albums of his son and Catherine's late daughter Becky.
Tommy later admitted to Catherine, who came home to find him downing a bottle of whiskey at her kitchen table, that he'd thought about setting the whole house on fire with the petrol can. But seeing the happy life that she'd provided to his son had changed his mind. What's more, Tommy decided to forgive her for keeping Ryan a secret.
Rather than allowing this almost martyr-like moment to redeem Tommy in some way, Catherine delivered a scathing summary of everything he had done — from his abusive and degrading treatment of her daughter to the vicious attacks and assaults on other women including PC Kirsten McAskill and, of course, Ann Gallagher.
Tommy didn't much like having a mirror held up to his true nature. And yet, he continued to turn his anger inward rather than physically lashing out at Catherine Cawood (there were plenty of insults and swearing though, naturally).
Whether it was because he was too injured and incapacitated or because he really was putting Ryan's needs first is anyone's guess. But what is certain is that Tommy knew it was the end of the road, and he wanted to be the one to set himself ablaze and end it once and for all.
For Catherine, the exchange finally allowed her to offload all of the pain and anguish that she'd been clinging to ever since her daughter passed away.
Perhaps most importantly, she finally gained the clarity that she'd been seeking, coming to the realisation that Ryan was nothing like his father.
The love and stability that both she and her sister Clare had shown Ryan throughout his life, even when nobody else would, had indeed had an immeasurable impact. He'd come face-to-face with his father through the prison visits and made up his own mind to reject him and instead choose the love and loyalty of those who brought him up.
It was a weight that we'd seen Catherine carrying through the show's three-season run, and she looked visibly lighter in the final scenes of her visiting Becky's graveside.
And it was while she was standing there, retired and ready to start the next chapter of her life, that she received a text confirming that TLR (Tommy Lee Royce, of course) is dead.
It seemed clear that they wouldn't both make it out alive, and this seemed the most fitting way to end it: Catherine Cawood gets her happy ending — and she didn't need to compromise her integrity to do so.
Speaking on his character's journey through-out his season three arc, Norton told GQ: "My final conclusion on Tommy is that I don't think he is a psychopath, he's just incredibly damaged.
"The more we went through the series I felt that I was able to tap into [his] humanity.
"I was trying to find that love for Ryan all the way through. A person who is void of feeling and empathy, if anything I was playing someone completely opposite. Tommy was so charged up and full of love and full of hope."
Norton had a hard time saying goodbye to this Tommy in this way. He explained: "It was really heartbreaking for me. I recognise that there are absolutely despicable acts which he has committed along the way. But along that journey, I have been with him for ten years, I feel deeply sorry for him. I feel immense pity and empathy and I sort of really love him."
"Even in those seven years," he told Variety, "he would creep up in the weirdest moments in a conversation. And because he was incarcerated, it was like, oh, there’s Tommy in prison, tucked away in the back of my brain, locked up, but ready to be released again.
"Having said that, there were scenes where it did leave me in a strange place sometimes. The BBC put me in touch with a criminal psychologist and he helped me through Tommy’s inner workings, and why he is the way he is."
As for those *other* nasty pieces of work, pharmacist Faisal Bhatti and teacher Rob Hepworth, it looked for a moment like we weren't going to get closure.
But a quick conversation with Catherine's boss Andy cleared it all up: coercive, violent teacher Rob had been charged not for the murder of his wife – which he didn't actually do – but for having indecent images on his phone of a boy at school who he'd blackmailed into sending them. (A flashback in this episode hinted that Ryan was next on his radar.)
Meanwhile, Catherine casually mentioned to Andy that she'd traced Joanna Hepworth's dodgy diazepam to a pharmacist called Faisal Bhatti, who just happened to live 100 yards away from the Hepworths. She and Andy exchanged a knowing look, and it's safe to assume Faisal's freedom will be short-lived, leaving yet another family in ruins.
All in all, there might be a good reason this wasn't the ending we expected, as Sarah Lancashire did more to impact it than just deliver an astonishing performance.
"Sarah is to thank for that ending, in many ways, because I wrote the first draft, and everybody seemed quite happy with it, and then she made it clear that she wasn’t happy with it," Happy Valley creator Sally Wainright explained (via Metro).
"The Christmas before, she came up to my house, and she spent all day talking about it and she gave me some really good notes. So everything got pushed a bit further in that episode, and it was all thanks to Sarah.
"It was a great privilege to have the opinion of someone who knew the scripts almost better than I do because she put so much into it, so much thought into it."
Happy Valley airs on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
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TV Editor, Digital Spy Laura has been watching television for over 30 years and professionally writing about entertainment for almost 10 of those. Previously at LOOK and now heading up the TV desk at the UK's biggest TV and movies site Digital Spy, Laura has helped steer conversations around some of the most popular shows on the box. Laura has appeared on Channel 5 News and radio to talk viewing habits and TV recommendations. As well as putting her nerd-level Buffy knowledge to good use during an IRL meet with Sarah Michelle Gellar, Laura also once had afternoon tea with One Direction, has sat around the fire pit of the Love Island villa, spoken to Sir David Attenborough about the world's oceans and even interviewed Rylan from inside the Big Brother house (housemate status, forever pending).
