Down Cemetery Road’s ending was centered around the altercation between Hamza, Amos, Sarah, Zoe, and Dinah. At the island, where Downey and his comrades were experimented upon after being doused with chemical weapons, Amos killed Downey and Steph. Zoe seemingly sacrificed herself to allow Sarah to get back to Firinn Village with Dinah. But once the dust settled, Zoe, with the help of Donny, the captain of the ferry the ladies had hijacked to get to the island, returned to Firinn and reunited with Sarah and Dinah, thereby giving both of them the shock of their lives. Since Zoe had been framed by Amos for murder, she had to get out of Firinn as soon as possible. So, she boarded a bus with Dinah and Sarah to get to the nearest train station and return to England. That bus was hijacked by Hamza, and he took the ladies to a cemetery to put them in the ground, because that’s what he had been ordered to do by C. However, when the time arrived to pull the trigger (on the gun that had been gifted to him by C), Hamza began hesitating. Hence, C assigned Amos to finish off the task and take down Hamza as well. Amos entered the church at the cemetery (which was where Hamza was holding the ladies) with a bang, quite literally. This obviously caused some chaos, and while Hamza had a standoff with Sarah outside the church in a bid to get ahold of Dinah, Zoe took on Amos inside the church. What happened next? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
Zoe killed Amos
Yes, the lack of subtlety of the finale of a show titled Down Cemetery Road being set in a cemetery, whilst featuring a character whose deceased husband liked the poem that that title is inspired by, isn’t lost on me. But coming to the altercation between Zoe and Amos, despite the latter’s expertise when it came to dispatching people mercilessly, he could never let go of his penchant for monologuing. I mean, Downey literally had to tell him to stop acting like a Marvel movie villain so that he could finish the task of killing him. That advice didn’t stick with him apparently, because as soon as he saw the geriatric woman in front of him, who was advising him to stop being a weapon of the machinery that was destroying the country (the government), Amos began yapping. What was more insulting was that he treated Zoe so disrespectfully instead of giving her a quick and easy death, which completely contradicted this stoic and somber image that he presented while dealing with Axel’s death or conversing with his girlfriend. I think that, in Amos’ head, he was a classy mercenary like John Wick. He clearly had talent; he was great at hand-to-hand combat, and he was extremely handy with a gun.
But when it came to killing people, he just couldn’t keep himself from showcasing how crass he actually was. Well, that ended up being the reason for his downfall, because while he was focused on slowly choking out Zoe, he missed the large iron nail that Zoe had in her pocket, which she had gotten from Dinah prior to Amos’ arrival at the church. So, not only was he metaphorically blinded by his hubris, but he ended up getting literally blinded by Zoe, who thrust that nail into his eye. Before he could make sense of how quickly things had gone wrong for him, he slipped on the debris in the church, cracked his head open, and bled to death. I think that it was pretty fitting that Amos died by Zoe’s hand. Axel had killed Joe, but since Downey killed Axel, Zoe didn’t get to avenge her husband. By killing Amos, she indirectly avenged Joe and Downey, as well as those two innocent tourists that Amos had killed to frame Zoe. In addition to that, she proved that it’s best not to underestimate your opponent just because she’s old and doesn’t have any apparent fighting skills; she might just surprise you and outlive you.
Sarah one-upped Hamza
Throughout the course of Down Cemetery Road, it seemed like Hamza was in the wrong profession. Maybe he had joined the Defence Ministry for the right reasons, but there’s a difference between doing something in the national interest and doing something in the name of the national interest. And every time he failed to oppose C’s illicit activities, he was doing the latter. Since Hamza showed some level of hesitation when it came to carrying out C’s orders, I thought he was one of the good guys. On top of that, he was a family man. So, I assumed that he genuinely wanted to take care of Dinah and get away from this whole fiasco. He managed to keep up this charade when he was confronted by Sarah as he threw away his gun and told her that he’d arrange some NDA-like documents for her that’d allow her to put this whole fiasco in her rearview mirror. The only reason Sarah had difficulty buying what Hamza was selling was because he couldn’t commit to letting go of Dinah. So, as a final test that Hamza really wanted to find an amicable solution to this whole mess, Sarah put her double-barrel shotgun before his feet. And what did Hamza do? He picked it up and pulled the trigger.
Since the plugs were still in the gun, it exploded, eviscerating three of Hamza’s fingers in the process. No, he didn’t die of that, and Sarah didn’t kill him. During the concluding moments of the show, he was seen stumbling across some remote roads in Scotland. That said, now it’s crystal clear that Hamza is as bad as C and Amos. He wears this mask of niceness because he has a family, and he can’t always muster the courage to follow through on the tasks that have been given to him, but at the end of the day, if he’s pushed to his limit, he’ll break and act like any of the villains we’ve seen in the show. Hamza literally said that, in comparison to his colleagues, he is Mother Teresa, and that pretty much gave away the fact that he knew that he was on the same plane as his compatriots but he had convinced himself that he wasn’t as violent. However, when he pulled that trigger, he completely transitioned into a full-blown antagonist. His physical scarring will be a constant reminder of the ugliness in his soul. Whether he’ll allow that pain of this incident to fully consume him, thereby prompting him to go after Sarah’s life, or if he’ll push himself to introspect and think about where he went wrong in life is something that remains to be seen in a potential second season of the show.
C Joined the Private Sector
I don’t know what I was expecting from C’s character arc, but I was certainly surprised to see him casually resign from his government post and move into the private sector. That too after admitting that he was responsible for all the illegal activities that he was being accused of. Yeah, Zoe’s documents were delivered to Talia’s office by Varma, and when Talia confronted C about them, he just accepted the fact that he had conducted unauthorized R&D on a chemical weapon and an antidote. He even acknowledged that he had faked the deaths of Downey and his squadmates and then treated them like guinea pigs. And the worst part was that the whole operation was a failure. I mean, all those guys just died in vain. Sure, they had an effective chemical weapon, which is something that can be whipped up in any chemistry lab, I suppose. But the antidote? There was no antidote. Histropine was certainly not it, because we saw that it barely helped Downey with his pain, and it didn’t counter the damage that had been done to his system by the chemical weapon. Yet, C didn’t have to face the repercussions of that illicit experiment or the bodies that he had piled up in order to brush said illicit experiment under the rug.
Given how C always choked up when Talia alleged that he was involved in some shady practices, I thought that he didn’t have a way out of this mess that he had created. However, the casual manner in which he left Talia to face the repercussions of his actions and strutted into a businessman’s car to write the next chapter of his professional career did shock me. Because why did C feel the need to resign? He could have just cited national interest, made that businessman a part of some government deal, and resurrected his R&D on the antidote for the chemical weapon. Let’s be real, that’s what happens everywhere. Is this to show that there’s still some semblance of accountability in the UK, which caused C to shift completely into the private sector instead of turning the government into an arm of that businessman’s empire? I guess so. That said, what is C bringing to the table that made that businessman welcome him to the private sector? Only the second season of Down Cemetery Road can provide the answer. In the meantime, here’s my speculation: Histropine wasn’t a complete failure. I think that in the process of making histropine, C and his scientists made some kind of a breakthrough, which he hasn’t shared with the government because he won’t get the right price. Maybe that businessman is willing to pay a huge sum of money to start mass-producing the next version of histropine. It’s possible that the businessman will incite a war with chemical weapons, and when the British government fails to tackle that situation, C will appear with histropine 2.0 to save the day. How does that sound?
Talia Looked at Her Dark Future
Talia turned out to be a bit of a damp squib in Down Cemetery Road. I really thought that she had some tricks up her sleeve and she was going to put C behind bars. But as soon as Wayne leaked the footage of the chemical weapon dropping on Downey and his teammates on the internet, she just crumbled under the pressure. She destroyed Zoe’s documents. She allowed C to walk away. And she delivered a very weak statement at a news show, where the aforementioned footage was played for everyone to see, about ensuring that such unauthorized operations won’t happen during her tenure as the defense secretary, and that she’ll appropriately compensate the families of the victims of C’s R&D. After exiting the studio, there was this great moment where Talia began walking towards the dark end of a hallway instead of into the light, which would’ve led her to the parking area where her car was. She didn’t even realize where she was going until her assistant, Cheski, pointed it out to her. This showed how frazzled Talia was by the fact that she was starting her stint as the Defence Secretary of England on such a dark note. Is it totally her fault, though? I mean, the baggage of the previous administration is being dumped on her, and she has no choice but to deal with it. That said, I do think she had a lot of time to prepare herself for this outcome.
Talia asked C if he was guilty of something so many times that I was sure that she had taken the adequate measures to hold him accountable, thereby starting her tenure as the Defence Secretary with the message that she wasn’t someone to be trifled with. I don’t know if she has the avenue to do that anymore or not, because she has allowed C to just walk away. That dark end of the hallway is a hint that these revelations about the chemical weapon and its antidote, as well as C’s departure, are just the beginning, and Talia will be facing things that are far worse than any of this. If my prediction about C collaborating with a businessman to orchestrate a chemical attack on the English army (or even the general public), and then presenting himself and histropine 2.0 as the solutions, is correct, then we might see Talia bending the knee to C in Season 2. Based on what I have seen, Talia isn’t as ruthless as C, and she isn’t lying when she says that she wants to make sure that justice prevails. And in the political climate that she’s in, that puts her in an incredibly tough spot, because it doesn’t allow honest, patriotic public servants to thrive. It only rewards those who are corrupt and spits out those who try to clean this system. So, yeah, Talia is in for a wild ride. If Cheski showing Talia the light is any indication of the existence of hope, then maybe Talia has to keep Cheski by her side in order to weather this impending storm.
Zoe, Sarah, and Dinah bid each other goodbye
In Down Cemetery Road’s ending, Zoe, Sarah, and Dinah reached what looked like London’s Paddington Station. While waiting for Ella, Downey’s sister, to arrive, Zoe billed Sarah for all the work she had done to solve this case. She also informed Sarah that all the blood, sweat, and tears that they had put into saving Dinah and exposing the chemical warfare business were all worth it, because it was making headlines everywhere. After that, Ella arrived, and Sarah parted ways with Dinah, wishing her a good life with Ella and her kids. While she was doing that, Zoe took off without saying goodbye to any of them. Why? Well, she wasn’t someone who liked to publicly display her emotions. She’d always try to go somewhere private and let out her pent-up feelings. It’s not like she hated Sarah and Dinah, and that’s why she walked away like that. In fact, I think she liked them so much that she knew she’d create a puddle with her tears if she stayed and bid them both farewell. But what’s next for these three ladies? Will Zoe go back to Oxford Investigations? Will Sarah resume her job at the Ashmolean Museum? Will Dinah get to live a peaceful and happy life with Ella? If the show takes the anthological route where every season will pick up a new topic that’ll highlight some kind of systemic corruption and end at a cemetery to justify its title, then I suppose that we won’t be seeing any more of Dinah, Hamza, C, or Talia. Sarah and Zoe are kind of the centerpieces of the show. Hence, I expect them to reunite for a new case.
If the show continues Season 1’s storyline in the second season, which hasn’t been greenlit at the time of writing this article, then I am afraid the trio of ladies will need to go on the run again. I mean, it’s not like C or Hamza will allow these unresolved threads to go unattended. Hamza has personal beef with Sarah, and one of the best ways to get her attention is harming Dinah. Hamza was betrayed by C, so there’s a possibility that he’ll try to get back at him by joining hands with Sarah. Of course, Sarah won’t be able to do much on her own, which is when Zoe will enter the picture. If Talia doesn’t want to become C’s puppet, then maybe these guys are her only hope. Also, if C comes after Sarah, Dinah, and Zoe, maybe they’ll need a hand (with missing fingers) from Hamza, because he knows C’s methods. That said, this is me being optimistic. Hamza can do the exact opposite of all this and put the ladies through a world of hell in order to get back into C’s good books, thereby probably prompting Sarah to wonder if she should have killed Hamza. In that situation, expect to see another woman-hunt through the scenic locations across England, Scotland, Wales, and maybe Ireland, which’ll be laced with some pointed commentary about corruption in the government and the expendable nature of the country’s soldiers. Anyway, those are just my thoughts on the show. If you have any opinions that you want to share with us, the comments section is open for you.
