After the Flood ending explained: ITV drama delivers Line of Duty-style twist

Read on for a full spoiler-filled rundown of After the Flood's ending.

After the Flood ending explained

It emerged that Phil Mackie, who had long been accepting illegal payments while on the job, was responsible for murdering Daniel.

The police sergeant had smacked him with a plank of wood following comments he'd made about his politician wife Sarah's affair with property developer Jack Radcliffe.

Sarah and Jack were also present as the life drained from Daniel's eyes, as was Lee Ellison, who had previously been fostered by Mackie and his wife, and Pat, Jo's detective husband and the father of her child.

Pat had also been "on the take" for years. He explained to his wife that when he was a humble PC, there was one particular case involving a kid from a "good family" who had gotten himself into trouble.

Mackie persuaded Pat to let the case go rather than ruin his life, which he felt made sense at the time. But he later received a payment from the boy's family, "and refusing it was not an option".

From there, the payments continued to roll in from various other cases, with Pat claiming he was powerless to resist. Over the years, he accepted more than £20,000, which he had placed into a savings account for when the couple started a family.

But that wasn't the only staggering revelation. Pat revealed that Jo's late dad, who was also a detective, had bent the rules to suit his agenda – although he said her father only did it to "nail the ones who needed taking down, the ones who always get away with it".

On the night of Daniel's death, the group had gathered to discuss the insurance scam that involved Jack's "stolen" farming equipment, which Daniel and Lee would oversee the shipment of, with assistance from Mackie and Pat, who would ensure that there was no police interference.

Pat's brother-in-law Keith, who worked in the import and export business, wasn't present, but was also involved.

Jack had run out of money and desperately needed the insurance payout to complete the building of his new housing development, which Jo's mum Molly had discovered didn't comply with key eco guidelines designed to protect the town from flooding.

With help from Sarah, his woman on the inside, who had recently been selected to run in the local by-election, Jack had also acquired permission to build another development, even though the first one wasn't up to scratch.

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But his grand plan had been struck by delays, leaving him desperate.

As a temporary workaround, he wanted Daniel and Lee to loan him £100,000 of their own money, which he'd pay back with interest. If they agreed, they'd also be given a highly sought after council contract, enabling them to push on with their own legitimate business, rather than stealing for a living, and turn their lives around.

Daniel outright refused, seemingly unconvinced that Jack would be able to repay the money, but Lee wanted to accept the offer, which led to a fiery altercation involving a knife – and the loss of Daniel's life.

But in the immediate aftermath of his death, it emerged that Daniel's reluctance to loan Jack the money wasn't because he didn't trust the property developer to pay them back, but because he had cleared out the account himself, leaving Lee with nothing.

Following that, the scene of the crime was scrubbed down and Daniel's body was transferred to the lift in the underground car park, the manager of which, Chris Robinson, was also murdered.

He had been talking to Jo as part of her unofficial investigation, and as a result, he was a problem that had to be dealt with.

Initially, Lee was only supposed to "scare" Chris into silence, but when that didn't work, he contacted Mackie in the hope that he'd be able to help.

A short time later, Chris was dead.

Mackie had instructed Lee to make it look like Jack's former employee had killed himself – the timing of which worked, given that he'd just been fired from his job – and Lee, unable to say no to Mackie, followed his instructions to the letter.

He felt indebted to the sergeant for fostering him, claiming that every good thing that had come his way was because of Mackie, which he seized upon and used to coerce him into doing his dirty work.

And Mackie had also planned to pin everything on Lee, including the death of Daniel, following his death, which was caused by a car crash – an accident which very nearly spelled the end for Jo, too.

Thankfully, she lived to tell the tale, and she also gave birth to her baby in the wreckage of the vehicle.

Despite Mackie attempting to put the fear of God into the trainee detective, threatening catastrophic fallout for almost everyone in Jo's life, and all but admitting to the attempted murder of Molly, who was nearly killed in a hit and run, at the end of the drama she headed to the police station, with Pat and their newborn baby in tow, and approached DCI Roy.

Will Jo lay it all out, even though admitting the truth could destroy her own life? Will she do the right thing, unlike so many of the men in her life?

There's currently no word on season 2, but here's hoping it gets the green light. There's plenty more life in this story yet.

After the Flood airs on ITV1 on Wednesdays. All six episodes are available to stream now on ITVX. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on.

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