The Final Episode Of 'Strangers' Is Here & The Conclusion Looks Unmissable

Now that we’ve sadly had to say goodbye to The Cry and Bodyguard, ITV has swept in and filled the hole in my heart where the psychological thrillers used to be. The network’s bold new show Strangers has been quietly ticking along under the radar and it’s fantastic if you haven’t seen it already. Now that we’re approaching the end of the first series, the question remains: will there be a Strangers season 2?

Strangers centres around a man named Jonah Mulray who is forced to fly to Hong Kong after he finds out his wife, who had been working there, died in a car crash. After he arrives however, he discovers something isn’t quite right and that his wife was tangled up in something much bigger than her.

I’ve reached out to the team at ITV about the possibility of a second season, however I wouldn’t hold my breath. At the moment, the show is only slated for eight episodes with the final one dropping tonight. Described as an “eight part series” by ITV, it doesn’t seem likely that they’ll be budging beyond that and it makes sense TBH. The driving narrative force behind the show is finding out why Mulray’s wife Megan died and we’ve already got our answer.

Tonight, we’re going to see the consequences that revelation has tonight and whether Jonah and Lau will survive the fallout. Behind-the-scenes production stuff aside, the events of tonight's episode will decide whether there's even the narrative possibility of a second series depending on what happens to the characters.

Whatever happens, the lead star John Simm has us feeling a little better about the thought of it all coming to an end. He told Digital Spy, "This series does have a conclusion. Like in [Simm's 2014 mini-series] Prey, it would be strange to have something [else] happen to Jonah after the whole world of hell he goes through in this."

TBH as far as Simm is concerned, it seems like a second series just isn't going to happen. Lightning only strikes once as they say and hopefully, political conspiracies are the same way.

If you’re keen on watching Strangers for the first time or you’re not up to date, look away as I’m about to jump into spoiler territory. I just want to recap where we are in the show ahead of the last episode tonight, since waiting a full week for each episode to drop rather than marathoning them en masse has done some terrible things to my memory. (Thanks, Netflix.)

In last week’s episode of Strangers, we finally found out the circumstances behind Megan’s mysterious death. It turns out her death was in fact orchestrated by one of Hong Kong’s biggest business moguls, a man named Xo Xiaodong, who is in the running to become the city’s Chief Executive (the highest political role in office there). Xo and Megan have a long difficult history however as she was raped by him twenty years ago, but never reported him to the police under advisement of the consulate.

Fast forward to twenty years later and her death in a "car crash." Sally Porter, who works at Hong Kong’s British consulate, discovered a set of tapes in which Megan alleged Xo had raped her. Sally then pressured Megan to meet with Xo while wearing a recording device to blackmail him into cutting deals with British businesses, however Xo wound up orchestrating Megan’s assassination afterwards.

Another big reveal was that Lau is in fact Xo’s daughter by blood, as Megan became pregnant after she was raped. She married her boyfriend David soon after discovering it and he helped raise her, though devastatingly he was killed trying to protect Lau and buy her and Jonah time as they fled from Xo’s men. Seriously, is nobody going to get a happy ending on this show?

Strangers has been airing for the past few weeks and the cast has been pretty great, with John Simm from Doctor Who playing Professor Jonah Mulroney. And if you're a Potterhead, you'll recognise Lau instantly as the actress actress Katie Leung previously played Cho Chang in Harry Potter.

The final episode of Strangers will air on ITV at 9 p.m. tonight.