Inside Man Ending Explained: What Happened To Janice? Who Killed Grieff’s Wife? The Fate of Vicar Harry?
Inside Man is the new series by Steven Moffat, the author behind the relaunch of Doctor Who, the cult series Sherlock and Dracula, which arrived on Netflix on October 31st. Since its announcement, the interest in the project has been a lot. A wait due to the well-deserved fame that Moffat carries with him, to which the weight of the names involved has been added. On the other hand, a series that presents itself with Stanley Tucci and David Tennant as protagonists certainly cannot go unnoticed.
The high expectations, as we have seen in our Inside Man review, collided with the reality of a series that does not always manage to keep the premises but can give the viewer various moments of excellent level. Moffat’s hand is felt in every step with all his strengths and weaknesses of him. He is also very present in the last minutes which openly recalls a second season. So let’s approach the explanation of the Inside Man ending, trying to understand what he wanted to tell us and how he wants to continue his story, Steven Moffat. Spoilers will follow.
The story begins with Jefferson Grieff (Stanley Tucci), an inmate who is about to receive a death sentence. On the other hand, Harry Watling (David Tennant) comes across Janice Fife (Dolly Wells), an ordinary woman who teaches mathematics to Harry‘s son Ben (Louis Oliver). Their stories can all intersect while Beth Davenport (Lydia West) is looking for a subject to report on. However, Beth herself has no idea how involved her personal life will be in a sequence of events to come. Next, we’ve gathered some crucial details so that we can understand a little more about the ending of Inside Man. Follow:
Inside Man: Plot Summary
Inside Man’s narrative follows two distinct events that take place simultaneously. On the one hand, we have Jefferson Grieff (Stanley Tucci), a former criminologist held in prison and sentenced to death for the murder of his wife. A man endowed with an out-of-the-ordinary intelligence, a certain elegance and with an extreme consideration of himself and his means. During his detention she decided to be of help, making herself available for the resolution of some mysteries and blocked cases. The choice on which to focus is very accurate and is based on filtering of a moral nature. Once it is established that it is worth it, he receives the applicant in a prison room accompanied by Dillon, a serial killer on death row who, thanks to his photographic memory, supports him as a human recorder of information.
At the same time in a small English town, we follow the Sunday of Harry (David Tennant), the local vicar. At the end of the weekly service, he finds himself fulfilling the request of the neo-sexton (and obviously from the unstable mental state) Edgar, who asks him to keep a USB stick for him and to hide it from his mother. Harry then goes to pick up Janice, his son Ben’s math tutor, whom we had previously seen stepping in to defend a girl from a molestation case. Due to the contents of the USB stick, the relationship between the vicar and the teacher is destined to precipitate, starting a series of events. The stories of Grieff and Harry will soon be bound to intertwine.
Inside Man Ending Explained: The Fate of Vicar Harry
The plot of Inside Man is divided into two main strands destined, with the passing of minutes and episodes, to intertwine more and more. One of these is dedicated to Harry, the vicar of a small English town, played by David Tennant. On any Sunday, a parishioner gives him a key, asking him to keep it hidden from his mother. The vicar then takes her home, where she ends up by mistake in the hands of Janice, the math tutor of her son Ben.
However, the content of the key is unexpected: it is pedo-pornographic material. From this point on, a sequence of events begins that will lead Harry to lock Janice in her basement, trying to find the most painless solution possible. The course of events will lead Ben to risk killing Janice. Harry, worried about his son’s future, will decide to take responsibility for the act by putting an end to the woman’s life only to be interrupted before the irreparable.
The narration stops at that moment and we see only later in a video call with Grieff that the vicar is in prison. We do not know the fate that Ben had when he found himself without a mother and with his father imprisoned. We are not even aware of the exact sentence imposed on Harry but we are quite certain, given the dialogue with Grieff, that the character of David Tennant can return in a second season, given the possible relationship that seems to have been created between the two.
Grieff and The Murder Of His Wife
The other Inside Man macro-plot is dedicated to Jefferson Grieff. Stanley Tucci’s character is a highly respected former criminologist who finds himself sentenced to death for the murder of his wife. While waiting for the execution, he tries to solve cases, well selected according to a personal moral filter, thanks to his great deductive capacity. Among these, there is also the disappearance of Janice who as we know will act as a link between him and Harry. The vicar’s story is exploited by Grieff (and the screenplay) as a sort of demonstration of the former criminologist’s thesis: anyone, on a bad day, can become a murderer. The more mysterious side of the character played by Stanley Tucci, however, is precisely the murder of his wife, treated as a sort of mcguffin.
Grief takes full responsibility for what happened several times and shows iron will in wanting to answer for his faults. The series, however, adds notes of chiaroscuro, showing us the character always in an ambiguous and never totally guilty light. We know little about the murder itself. Throughout the four episodes, we are gradually given more details about what happened. We know he strangled her. We are later told that he decapitated her but that the woman’s head was never found. We meet the woman’s father, a sort of member of organized crime. Finally, Grieff, in the final dialogue with the vicar, reveals to him that he could be the first to whom he will tell what happened. In short, a further mystery, perhaps the main one.
Grieff’s Execution and Interview With Janice
Another central focus of Inside Man is the sentence of the death penalty imposed on Grieff. In the third episode, he is told the definitive date of the execution: it will take place in three weeks from there. From that moment on, his hours are numbered. Although until that moment Grieff had always said he wanted to serve the maximum sentence without a discussion about it, something changes. At first, he tries to use the information on the location of his wife’s head as an exchange card to extend his life.
However, all this is a useful scam to solve Janice’s case and consequently, we can think that the execution has not been moved. Doubts about that are removed from the scene in the middle of the credits, perhaps the most important given a second season has not yet been announced. We had left Janice dying in Harry’s basement but surprisingly she appeared in front of Grieff and Dillon. Precisely at that juncture, the former criminologist asks how it can be useful before dying, suggesting that the execution has not been cancelled or moved.
Janice asks for her help in the murder of her husband. Except then to discover that it is not about solving a case but helping her to kill the man because she “deserves it”. Grieff, with a smile almost satisfied with her, asks how it can be useful. Except then to discover that it is not a question of solving a case but actually of helping her to kill the man because he “deserves it”.
This represents in effect the biggest hook to the second season of Inside Man. Given the information left by these first four episodes, we can think that the main cause of season 2 will be precisely the operation linked to the murder of Janice’s husband with Grieff to support it. On the sidelines, we will have the whole story inside the prison on the death penalty and the revelations related to the wife of the character played by Stanley Tucci. With this in mind, David Tennant will likely limit himself to playing Vicar Harry only for a cameo. However, these are only suppositions and we are sure that once again Moffat will surprise us, whether we like it or not.
The First Mysteries
As we anticipated, Jefferson Grieff is on death row and could have his life taken at any moment. He is an expert in criminology, one who likes challenges and investigating complex cases. At the same time, journalist Beth Davenpor is shown to meet Grieff to learn a little more about the man’s life. On the other hand, Harry Watling is the father of Ben, a young man who receives math tutoring from Janice Fife. The teacher ends up discovering a secret that could incriminate Ben and decides to take action. Before the case escalates, Harry takes an unexpected step.
He locks Janice in a basement to buy time and decide what to do. Harry decides to kill her and starts blackmailing her. The thing is, Janice is friends with Beth. The journalist receives a photo from the teacher and soon realizes that her friend is in danger. Face to face with Grieff, Beth finds no other solution but to ask him to help with the case and discover Janice’s whereabouts. The more time passes, the more Harry gets it into his head that the ideal is to kill Janice and protect Ben once and for all.
What Happened To Janice?
In the fourth and final episode, Mary, Harry’s wife, regrets sending Janice’s photo to Beth. With that, Mary decides to go to Janice’s apartment and leave all evidence of the teacher’s whereabouts. However, she runs into Grieff and Beth at the scene. At the same time, Harry decides to kill Janice by suffocating with carbon monoxide in the basement. The problem is, he doesn’t realize that Ben is there. The young man asks Mary for help after not being able to contact Harry. When warned about Ben’s situation, Harry immediately rushes to save him. Harry decides to end the story once and for all by killing Janice with a hammer. About to start the blows, Beth arrives and manages to avoid the worst, calling for help and preventing Janice’s tragic end.
Is Inside Man Based on Real Events?
At first, the BBC series with Netflix’s global distribution is not based on facts. As such, the miniseries is based on and adapts an original concept by creator Steven Moffat. The series delves into an original idea and was created by Steven Moffat himself after becoming known as the co-creator and writer of one of the most famous crime series in history: Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. Thus, Moffat decided to change the direction of his work and present something different from detective fiction.
The series, while fictional, carries the message and forces the audience to explore human psychology and people’s connection to criminology. Therefore, the script and the work itself call into question the balance and innocence of people and what they can do to protect themselves or those they love, and even, however, become murder under some circumstances.
How Mary Dies?
Beth and Mary have a confrontation, which ends in the worst way. Ms Watling gets a call from her son and discovers that she is in the cellar with Janice. The woman tries to get in touch with her husband to stop him before it’s too late. But now the priest seems to have let himself go to the most total despair and does not even answer his cell phone. Mary runs out of Janice’s house, knocking Beth down the stairs first, to go home. While running into the street, Harry’s wife in Inside Man is hit by a bus and dies under the eyes of the journalist.
Meanwhile, the carbon monoxide in the cellar confuses Ben, who hits his teacher with a hammer. Janice dies in the latest episode of the TV series Inside Man. No, but the boy is sure he killed her. Feeling guilty, Harry quickly goes down to the cellar hoping to find her still alive and finds himself in front of her son with a bloodstained hammer in his hands.
Harry Ends Up In Jail?
In the finale of the Inside Man TV series, Harry asks his son to leave and promises him that he will take all the blame. After that, the priest discovers that Janice is still alive and just when she tries to kill her for good, Beth arrives, who in the meantime manages to find the Watlings’ home. Fortunately, the police team raids Harry’s house before he can kill the two friends.
Harry is thus arrested, while Jefferson in prison seeks an agreement with the director: he will reveal to his wife’s father where he has hidden his daughter’s head only if he postpones his execution indefinitely. In the Inside Man series, Grieff initially appears ready to receive his death sentence. But it is clear that when he discovers that the execution is only three weeks away, the brilliant inmate begins to be seriously afraid. Jefferson probably realizes that he is not yet ready to die. Janice and Beth, on the other hand, can finally hug again.
The Meeting Between Jefferson and The Priest
The final minutes of the Inside Man finale show Harry and Jefferson having a face-to-face confrontation, which happens through a video call. Both are in jail and during this call, Grieff confesses to the priest how he helped Janice find the truth. The one between Harry and Jafferson is a fundamental confrontation, given that both have found themselves in life committing terrible gestures. It should be noted that Grieff is in prison and is sentenced to death because he is accused of killing his wife.
The doubt arises that there is another story about what happened to the woman. To the priest, Jefferson in the finale of Inside Man reveals that perhaps he will be the first to whom he will reveal the truth about how his wife died. Instead, Harry assures him that he is not a bad person, although it may seem otherwise. But Jefferson rightly reminds the clergyman that two people, his wife Mary and Edgar, have died as a result of his terrible deeds.
What is Harry Accused of in Inside Man?
Harry in the Inside Man finale ends up in jail, as it should be. The crimes for which the vicar is arrested have not been specified. Certainly, the crimes associated with him are attempted murder and kidnapping. It is not clear, however, whether Harry ended up in prison on charges of possessing Edgar’s child pornography.
What Happens to Janice?
Janice in the last episode of Inside Man manages to save herself, thanks to the intervention of Beth and the police. A few moments after the credits, the viewer witnesses the very last scene, in which it is possible to see the teacher go to Jefferson to ask for help in discovering the truth about the murder of her husband.
What Happened to Ben?
During the last episode of Inside Man, Ben runs away from his home, stained with blood and traumatized by what happened. Convinced that he has killed Janice, the boy falls to the ground and vomits. Through the confrontation between Harry and Jefferson on the video call, it is possible to discover that Ben is not accused of any crime. The young man lives with his uncle and is recovering from the loss of his mother and the terrible affair.
Jefferson’s Secret Has Not Been Revealed
In the finale of Inside Man, the secret of Jefferson Grieff, played by Stanley Tucci, is not revealed. The inmate does not reveal the whereabouts of the head of his wife, whom he allegedly killed. Instead, he encourages the police to continue their search by taking them to look in a specific place: Harry’s house. Right from the start, Jefferson senses that the last person who saw her, the priest, has to do with Janice’s disappearance. And so he points to Harry’s house as supposedly where he hid his wife’s head. Instead, the agents find the priest in the cellar ready to commit two murders. Certainly, the inmate does not reveal his secret, but he manages to save Janice and Beth from prison.
