Unforgotten season 6 ending explained: Who was the killer and what happened to them?

The Unforgotten season 6 ending took us in one direction only to suddenly make an even more poignant revelation.

We might have sadly just bid farewell to another season of Silent Witness but we’ve been treated to the return of the equally brilliant Unforgotten to fill the crime drama void it’s left in our lives. Unforgotten season 6 is airing on Sundays and Mondays and for those of us who couldn’t wait to see what lay in store for DCI Jess James and DI Sunil ‘Sunny’ Khan the whole season is also available to watch now on ITVX. If, like us, you’ve already raced through to the end of season 6’s expertly crafted mystery then you might have a few questions - including the identity of the person who dismembered and disposed of a body on Whitney Marsh.

The grisly discovery of a spine kickstarted the team’s investigation and in the Unforgotten season 6 ending we finally found out who killed the man in the marsh and why. This dramatic revelation didn’t come without a particularly heartwrenching twist which put Jess and Sunny in a difficult position…

*Warning: Spoilers and references to sensitive subjects ahead*

Unforgotten ending explained: Who is the killer?

Just like in several other seasons of Unforgotten, notably season 2 in particular, the revelations in the season 6 ending left you feeling more sympathy for the killer than you’d anticipated when the investigation started. After the victim was identified as Gerry Cooper who’d gone missing two years earlier DCI James and DI Khan had dug into his life and their efforts painted a rather horrific portrait of him. Gerry was violent, unfaithful to his wife Juliet, a blackmailer, owed money to dangerous people and held many controversial beliefs.

So it was in many ways no surprise when midway through the Unforgotten season 6 ending Juliet was arrested for his murder and confessed to the crime. It was more of a surprise, though, when it emerged that she had taken the blame for her 14-year-old daughter Taylor.

She gave a very calm and poignant account of the events that lead to her husband’s death, explaining to the detectives that Gerry had been violent towards her that night after arriving home around 11 and having a bitter argument with her. Juliet had reacted in self-defense to protect herself and "punched the top of his leg with a little paring knife" she’d been using to chop vegetables. She said that she’d "managed to get to the downstairs loo" where she locked herself in, meanwhile Gerry had shouted at her "telling [her] what he was going to do [her]".

"And then I heard him say he was bleeding badly. And then it went quiet for a bit and then he called my name, still quite angrily, and then it just went quiet. And stayed quiet," Juliet said.

At this point, the viewers and Jess and Sunny alike had no reason to doubt her recollection and Victoria Hamilton’s performance as Juliet was sensational throughout this intense scene. As tears quietly streamed down her face, Juliet detailed how she’d gone about covering up her supposed crime. She’d dismembered Gerry the next day and put him into separate binbags, bought supplies with cash and disposed of all of her clothes from both days too.

Juliet had been so careful to try and avoid detection and for good reason - because it wasn’t really her she was worried about protecting, but Taylor. The fourteen-year-old had been going through an awful time since her dad "disappeared" and she’d been suspended from her prestigious private school, Benborough House, for attacking another girl for mocking her mother. The awful truth was that she’d killed Gerry to save her mum that night but hadn’t been aware of how much damage the knife had done.

To this day she genuinely believed he had disappeared and that it had nothing to do with her actions. After interviewing Juliet, Jess and Sunny made their way to interview Taylor - something Juliet had been very against throughout Unforgotten season 6. Juliet had claimed that Gerry had come home at 11 that night but they found out that this hadn’t been the case, putting her whole story in doubt.

Taylor admitted that she’d seen her father being violent towards her mother that night and had "wanted to do something to stop him" because she thought he was going to kill her.

"There was this little knife on the kitchen table and I grabbed it and sort of jabbed it into his leg. He cried out in shock. He swung round and he saw me and he looked so upset. But then Mum was back up on her feet, so she grabbed my hand and she led me upstairs and I just remember looking back and seeing him watch me go, holding the back of his leg and he just looked really sad," the teenager told the detectives.

Juliet had run Taylor a bath, read with her and been with her until she fell asleep. It was presumably afterwards when she went downstairs that she realised that Gerry’s wound had been fatal. At that point she’d leaped into action to save Taylor from ever finding out she’d been responsible for Gerry’s death.

Sitting in the car outside the house Jess and Sunny was shocked and at a crossroads about what to do. Both felt unimaginably sorry for Taylor and didn’t know whether to risk arresting her, hoping that the CPS would decide it wasn’t in the public interest to prosecute her. In the end, Sunny told Jess that she shouldn’t have to make that decision. It should be Juliet who decided.

They visited her in her cell and gave her the choice to take the blame and prevent Taylor ever finding out, but leave her alone whilst she was in prison or to take the risk that neither she or her daughter would be prosecuted. Juliet asked tearfully, "What would you do?"

We never saw Jess and Sunny give their answer but regardless of what they said, Juliet chose to risk it. Thankfully, the detectives were told that the CPS had decided that Juliet and Taylor were free to go and as the Unforgotten season 6 ending drew to a close we saw them getting into a police car and Juliet nodding at Sunny.

It was such a powerful way to conclude Unforgotten season 6 - a series which had plenty of other twists and turns in the story of who killed Gerry for Jess and Sunny to unravel. This season also featured an appearance from imprisoned police officer Ram Sidhu who last appeared in season 4 and personally it was huge for the DCI and DI too.

Sunny ended up tentatively wanting to pursue a new relationship with pathologist Leanne after Sal left him in season 5. Meanwhile, Jess decided she couldn’t forgive her husband Steve’s affair with her sister Deborah, especially after learning he’d been unfaithful with other women too. We can’t help already hoping that the Unforgotten season 6 ending won’t be the last we see of this gripping and thought-provoking show and that it’ll be back for season 7.

If you or someone you know finds themselves in need of support or someone to talk to in a safe space, they can reach out to out to Refuge by calling their free, 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247 or visiting their website.