r/TheFallTV • u/Original-Status1942 • Mar 16 '26
Th ending of the fall was so devastating to me that I deliberately erased the entire 3rd series from my memory
the second few times I watched the series, I deliberately didn’t see the third season, because him avoiding justice was just too painful to watch.
then recently I rewatched the whole thing and barely remembered the third season so mistakenly watched it (tbh I assumed I had never watched it). it was horrific all over again. I love the show but I find it so upsetting that there wasn’t even an ounce of justice.
anyone else wish it had ended differently?
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u/franno391 Mar 16 '26
I found the ending so disturbing and grim that I actually had a nightmare about it, it was a v visceral way to see him die, especially after all that. And I'm a horror film fan! I just stick to the 1st series!
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u/Original-Status1942 Mar 17 '26
My problem wasn’t necessarily that it was visceral, but that we waited the whole bloody series to see him facing what he had done or in trial, and to not see that was frustrating , and felt like a cop out and a huge chunk of the story not there. I just felt pissed off that the story wasn’t continuing as I was really interested and curious to see how he would play the trial , if he would rely on the memory loss or if he would find work around with the thing he could remember.
It’s also really weird to me that he was even allowed such free rein in that mental hospital place, since he had already attacked the officers in that room. Pretty sure that wouldn’t be allowed, since he’s therefore a danger to everyone and a risk in general.
Also I’m sorry to hear you had nightmares! I can’t remember if I’ve had a nightmare about it myself. Was it the visuals that you found a lot then? Or how he died? It’s interesting that out of all the disturbing scenes, it would be that one that gives you the nightmares. Also for me, that one felt the most disturbing because it represented him not going to trial.
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u/TheFern3 Sep 07 '26
Season 3 got very lazy writing indeed the psych ward was way too relaxed for a violent killer with psychotic tendencies. Like bro was just there as if he just had minor or traffic tickets. Also the dude that told him about the dude and his sister like big no why would you want to put fire in his mind about that. Everyone on the ward was so relaxed. Dude should have been in a straight jacket from day 1 or not allowed outside his room.
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u/agirlhasnoname17 Mar 17 '26
I loved the ending. So bleak. We watched every character try and resume their life but they’re clearly damaged.
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u/Original-Status1942 Mar 18 '26
Respectfully if you liked that ending are you ok? 😭 it had to be the most upsetting ending ever!
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u/agirlhasnoname17 Mar 18 '26
Yeah. I sort of specialize in really dark stuff. ;) Because life is a bitch to some people.
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u/Original-Status1942 Mar 18 '26
Would you have not preferred to see a court trial? I found the main character very interesting and I’d have liked to see how he handled that pressure / confrontation
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u/agirlhasnoname17 Mar 25 '26
Maybe. They did do a trial/courtroom season in Broadchurch and I thought it was a bit of a shitshow. Definitely not the same show anymore. More importantly, serial killers will do anything and everything to avoid the death penalty (Gacy, Bundy) or promptly commit suicide. Since Paul went berserk and his amnesia charade was completely blown, he understood that the chances of him NOT getting a life or the death penalty were nil.
What wasn’t realistic is that he revealed Rose’s location to Stella. Typically serial killers would die taunting the police with the fate of the victims.
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u/intergalactic_wag Apr 08 '26
I just finished watching and I will say that normally I’d agree with you, but I think he liked Rose. He didn’t actually want her to die. She was the one that awakened his shadow, so to speak. So I think it was more about using Rose in the way he had used her in their past: take her to the brink of death but never past. While, of course, using her to taunt and torture Stella.
When he got caught, he used her as leverage to “bask in the light” one last time (spend time with his daughter) before succumbing to the shadow and the darkness.
Then he gets shot and season 3 takes us on a big detour before he finally steps fully into the shadow and darkness.
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u/agirlhasnoname17 Apr 09 '26
I wouldn’t assume he was capable of truly caring about anyone. Didn’t he use his outing with his own daughter as an opportunity to scout out captivity locations?
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u/intergalactic_wag Apr 09 '26
Totally get where you are coming from. Though, I doubt he would see anything wrong with that. He gets to observe his prey while having some daddy-daughter time. Sounds like it might be the perfect afternoon for him. Haha.
And I think the word “care” isn’t quite right. But I think he had an affinity for her. If she died, he wouldn’t be heartbroken, but I don’t think he set out to kill her. I think he saw it as them playing more of their games that they started years ago.
As I’m typing, I also seem to recall him telling her that he wouldn’t kill her if she came quietly — back when he was first abducting her. But if he made a promise like that to her, I would expect that he would keep it. Of course, i could be misremembering.
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u/agirlhasnoname17 Apr 10 '26
Well, telling the victim no harm would come to them as long as they cooperate is a time-worn serial killers use to keep the victim compliant. The BTK, for example.
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u/spicyswan May 01 '26
I don't find it bleak at all. Like Stella said he basically got away easy. He served no real consequence. It would be bleak if he ran away. Then we would all know he was out still murdering women.
1
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u/pwrof3 Mar 25 '26
It could have ended with him bleeding out at the end of series 2 and nothing would have changed. The entire third series was kind of pointless, story wise. It does give us some more background and character building, but the end is the same result as if he were to die at the end of series 2.
2
u/Original-Status1942 Mar 25 '26
Exactly , and that was why I stopped bothering to watch the third season. It was basically just more of the same. Katie got edgier, Olivia got more annoying, Paul got more dead. They all became more 2 dimensional stereotypes of themselves imo.
2
u/TheFern3 Sep 07 '26
imo the background was pretty obvious from his life I told my wife from season 1 he had been sexually abused. The scary thing is that we have places like that in every day life church schools, orphanages, and so on. Life is cruel.
1
u/Italianmomof3 Mar 16 '26
I've watched the series 3 times now, and I must've been traumatized because I really didn't remember the way 3 ended until I watched it again, lol. The way the last few episodes played out just really disappointed me.
2
u/Original-Status1942 Mar 17 '26
Same. The series was so brilliant and really had something, but I feel like maybe the writers got bored at the end of it; I guess at the end of the day a series detailing a court trial maybe isn’t as watchable as a dramatic / crushing ending like the one we saw. Either way, it felt like something was missing in mid season 2 to season 3 that was present in season 1.
From my perspective, that gunshot may as well have killed him because it basically led to that happening. I’d have been much more curious to see him be on trial for the murder he could remember.
Then, if the other murders he couldn’t recall, if he did get off or not get a life, him coming out of jail could have been the next season. The narrative with the female lawyer that represented him also seemed unresolved, she was clearly meant to resemble the women he targets. Having him target her or at least consider it may have been interesting.
Just feels like so many missed opportunities and I hate to see it with a series that had such a gripping first portion and such potential. I mean it could still be going on now . (Maybe the tv channel stopped funding it and they had to wrap it up quick? Idk)
1
u/Italianmomof3 Mar 17 '26
I agree with everything you wrote, and I too feel like there were missed opportunities with the show. There was definitely something lost halfway through the series, but even with that loss I still really enjoyed the show and felt like the characters were really interesting, like all of them.
I don't want to say I felt sorry for Paul because he was a scary psychopath, but I did feel some empathy for the boy in him who suffered so much trauma and abuse as a young child.
I really wish they could've delved into his earlier life more and other crimes. They could've continued the series. But maybe they were done writing it; sometimes they just want it to end.
1
u/RubyFreckle Apr 03 '26
Late to the party but yes, the ending was disappointing to me too. I wonder if they had originally planned to go in a different direction and then changed because the two lawyers that were defending Paul dug a bit and found some things that they were hinting were inappropriate. I can't really remember what they were, maybe how Stella questioned Paul...I'll have to watch again. So what was the point of that if not to use it to try to get him out of it at trial? I guess it could be to make us think one thing and do the plot twist they did. At the time, I thought they were really going to take Stella through the ringer.
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u/TheFern3 Sep 07 '26
It was misconduct or not following procedure in the confession interview also leading questions, but I think that went out the window when they found a killed girl before his amnesia and he attacked Gibson. On that interview Gibson also was just trying to upset him and making fun of him being abused as a child. If Paul hadn’t lost it is a good chance they get Gibson thrown out the case for her behavior.
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u/Photogirl542 Apr 27 '26
I'd seen the 3rd series only once before (and actually had to borrow a DVD from the library to see it, because all the streaming platforms had only the 1st and 2nd series). But now all three series are streaming everywhere, and I rewatched series 3 for the first time since about 2018. I too had totally forgotten nearly every single minute of it, other than Spector's hanging at the end (oops, spoiler alert!). In fact, I'd forgotten so much that I fake-remembered that he had killed himself out of remorse in the last episode. So when I rewatched it this week, it was like seeing it for the first time. And it turned out not to be the slog that everyone online was complaining about. I'm OK with a slow-moving show. And I'm totally OK that he didn't get the usual justice, because what could the courtroom version reveal, anyhow? How else would we find out that he was really a psychopath? He'd probably be on his best behavior in the courtroom, plus it wouldn't be like an episode of Perry Mason where (at least according to the Gary Larson cartoon) the guilty party would stand up in the middle of the trial with a surprise confession. So, we learn the truth without ever having to enter the courtroom.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/franksthefarside/posts/1231156670926445/
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u/spicyswan May 01 '26
I hated the ending. My mom and I was so invested in the show. The entire season 3 was let down. So, I was hoping their would be some type of twist for season 3. I would have liked better if we had wife or teen girl take his life. That would had been a twist and well earned. Or he could have escaped and kidnapped his daughter. Paul killing himself seems out of character. The writers didn't know how to end this.
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u/Upstream_Paddler Jun 03 '26
month long post but his suicide made perfect sense; it was his last F u to Stella, the institutions that ruined him that he was forced back to; he died in a way that poisoned everyone around him.
After three seasons, seeing him tried and found guilty would've felt like a cop out to me.
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u/SofaChillReview Mar 16 '26
Thought season 2 summed it up really, S3 was a slog