Lazarus’ ending was centered around the revelation that, much like Jonathan Lazarus, Aidan Catton was a serial killer too. In classic Harlan Coben style, the miniseries was overstuffed with plot threads, most of which were tied off, while only one was left open—not for a second season, but just for the love of the game. So, Joel Lazarus was a psychiatrist and the son of a renowned psychiatrist named Jonathan. While treating Arlo Jones, a patient with a criminal history, Joel learned from his sister, Jenna Lazarus, that Jonathan had died by suicide. He had left a very cryptic suicide note, and to understand it, Joel went to Jonathan’s office. That’s where he started getting visits from the ghosts of Jonathan’s former clients and Jonathan himself. That helped him solve the murder of his deceased sister, Sutton Lazarus, who had been murdered by Sam Olsen, the guy who was the original suspect in that case. As Joel heaved a sigh of relief at Jonathan’s office, he was visited by the ghost of Arlo, which took him by surprise because Arlo was still alive. Joel realized that he needed to have a second meeting with the maniac, and the revelations were startling, to say the least. So, let’s talk about them.
Spoiler Alert
Detective Alison Died
Arlo Jones was guilty of several crimes, but the one he had been imprisoned for was the murder of Imogen Carswood. Both Arlo and Imogen were clients of Jonathon’s. Hence, Joel assumed that Arlo killed Imogen and then Jonathan. But that wasn’t the truth at all. Arlo alleged that Imogen was murdered by Jonathan, and the blame for that incident was put on Arlo even though Imogen’s death didn’t fit his “style.” When the guilty verdict was announced by the court, Arlo glanced at Alison and saw her flashing a smile of victory (that’s because Alison really thought she had nabbed Imogen’s actual murderer). Joel checked if Alison was the presiding officer in Arlo’s case, and it was true. Joel, with some help from Laura, his girlfriend, decided to pull on this thread and check out if there were any more overlaps between Jonathan’s patients and Alison’s statements. And yeah, there were many, because Alison was overseeing the cases involving Cassandra Rhodes, Neil Croft, Harry Nash, Father Frank, Imogen, and Arlo.
Joel remembered that when he met Harry’s ghost and mentioned his name in front of Alison, she pretended like she knew nothing about him, even though she had released statements to the press regarding his death. That meant that she was covering up for the real murderer, or maybe she was the real murderer, and she was covering up her own tracks by throwing other people under the bus. After collecting the documents on all such instances, Joel presented them to his old friend and Alison’s colleague, Seth McGovern, and alleged that Alison had killed not only Jonathan’s clients but Jonathan as well. Of course, Seth rejected this allegation against his boss, and he refused to look into it because it’d jeopardize his own career. However, when he saw that Alison was connected to every patient of Jonathan’s, he realized that Joel was onto something. Therefore, both of them decided to confront Alison at a public place and hopefully get a confession out of her. Soon after Joel was done speaking his piece, Alison tasered Seth and made a run for it, prompting Joel to go after her. The chase concluded with Alison being run over by a double-decker bus.
Jonathan Was A Serial Killer
Before running away from Joel, Alison had warned him to stop digging into this issue any further. She flashed a tape that contained a recording of Jonathan and Alison prior to the former’s death by suicide, and she basically said that while Joel was on the right track regarding the murders and the cover-ups, the real truth about it will devastate him. When Alison was lying underneath that double-deckered bus, with her head cracked wide open, Joel nicked the tape, took it to Jonathan’s office, and played it on the tape recorder that Jonathan used to tape every single session. As Joel listened to it, his worst fear came true: it turned out Jonathan was a serial killer. Apparently, after Sutton’s death, something had broken inside Jonathan. So, when Cassandra killed Neil right in front of him, in his office, Jonathan helped her get rid of the body. But when he felt that Cassandra might expose his involvement in the discarding of Neil’s corpse, Jonathan murdered Cassandra.
In Harry and Imogen’s cases, Jonathan felt that neither of them could be fixed, and hence, he decided to free them from their misery. After that, with the “help” of Alison, he got some believable “suspects” to take the fall, and Bob’s your uncle. Why did Alison help cover Jonathan’s tracks? Because solving those cases got her the promotions and accolades that she yearned for. To be clear, she didn’t exactly know that she was covering up for him. She just blindly believed Jonathan, but Father Frank’s confessional video, which he had recorded before his death by suicide, had compelled her to see the truth about Jonathan framing other people for his own crimes. Now, after all that, Alison presented Jonathan with 2 options: confessing to his crimes and going to jail, along with Alison because she was almost as guilty as Jonathan, or dying by suicide. We all know that Jonathan went for the second choice. He wrote a 2-page suicide letter—the first half of the letter was burnt by Alison, probably to hide the part she had played in Jonathan’s heinous actions—and then he shot himself after trying to get Joel on a call.
Aidan Was A Serial Killer Too
Jonathan’s personal assistant, Margot Macintyre, had been murdered. The murder weapon, a serrated sickle, was found, but the murderer wasn’t. Initially, it was suspected that Sam or Margot’s own son, Billy MacIntyre, was the murderer, but there was no proof to nail them down. The only anomaly at that crime scene was Aidan. Joel should have noticed that fact, because Aidan’s presence at the scene, right after he was found breaking into Margot’s house by Joel, was odd. But since Aidan bombarded him with the inferences of a paternity test, which showed that he was a result of Joel’s affair with Bella Catton, not Bella’s relationship with Paul Catton, Joel just got distracted. Pretty randomly, Aidan showed up to Laura’s house for a therapy session, and seeing how he was Joel’s son, of course, Laura let him in. Meanwhile, Joel conveyed the information about Jonathan being a serial killer to Jenna and then went off to meet Laura, who was unable to get her on the phone. Jenna began listening to the tapes, and she got to the one that held a recording of a conversation between Jonathan and Joel right after Sutton’s death. There, Jonathan had said something about the son becoming just like the father.
Now, Joel definitely idolized Jonathan, but, as explained by Joel, he had dedicated his entire career to being a better psychiatrist than his father. Due to that, even though Joel had violent tendencies and he almost drowned Sam to death after learning that he had killed Sutton, Joel became a person who led with empathy, and he had a strong moral compass. Shockingly though, in the ending of Lazarus, it was revealed Aidan had become exactly like Jonathan, or maybe something worse. When Joel walked into Laura’s house, which was a mess, Laura was nowhere to be seen. Only Aidan was standing there with that serrated sickle, apologizing for what he had turned into. It’s strongly insinuated that Aidan had murdered Laura. Why? Maybe because he wanted Joel to get back with Bella, who was doing fine with Paul, instead of moving on with Laura. That way, Aidan could complete his idea of a perfect family. As for his murderous tendencies, it’s sort of apparent that all the bullying he had faced and his proximity to Sam must have turned him into a killer. It’s just sad that after dedicating his entire life to being someone better than Jonathan, Joel had to see his own son become a spitting image of Jonathan. Will he take the role of Alison and cover Aidan’s tracks, or will he continue to be righteous and give up Aidan to the police? Feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.
