Innocent season 2 ending explained: ITV series creator explains the final twist

Viewers knew that Katherine Kelly’s character is not guilty of murder from the start, but there was a question mark hovering over the alleged sexual relationship with her pupil (murder victim Matty Taylor).

However, the final episode revealed that the person closest to her had committed the ultimate betrayal, allowing her to be sent to prison for a murder she didn't commit.

Following a dramatic arrest, Sally decides to finally leave her childhood hometown of Keswick (filmed around the Lake District – learn more about the Innocent filming locations).

Series creator Chris Lang spoke exclusively to RadioTimes.com about the Innocent season two ending and twist - and whether or not romance is on the cards for Sally and a certain police detective...

Let's recap the Innocent season two finale and all the clues you might have missed.

Innocent season 2 ending explained

All the evidence was pointing towards either Karen or her teenage daughter Bethany – the former had confessed that she angrily confronted Matty Taylor in the street just an hour before he died, after learning that his bullying led to Bethany's hospitalisation for a suspected overdose.

Bethany eventually "confessed" to police detectives, stating that she had killed Matty for the relentless bullying she had endured at his hands. But was she just protecting her mother?

In the end, two crucial pieces of evidence finally revealed that neither of the women killed Matty: it was Sam Wright (played by Jamie Bamber), Sally's ex-husband and Karen's fiancée, who had had a secret relationship with Matty before killing the teenager.

While the police found out that Sam had paid for an Amazon gift card for Matty, Sally discovered a writing imprint on the back of a photograph, revealing that Matty had sent a threatening note to Sam.

Sam tearfully confessed to Sally that he had always been gay, but had been too ashamed to come out to any of his friends or family. He had been in a secret relationship with Matty, meeting weekly and in private, and had killed Matty in anger when he threatened to tell Sally about them.

Innocent ending: The clues we might have missed

Innocent creator Chris Lang spoke exclusively to RadioTimes.com about the series finale twist, which he hopes is "rooted in truth".

However, the shock revelation that Sam Wright (Sally's ex-husband) was both Matty Taylor's secret lover and his eventual killer may well "wrong foot" viewers, says Lang.

"You're always trying to wrong foot the audience, but it always has to be rooted in truth. I can't stand it when a revelation comes from a place that is much more about just wrong footing, it's shocking an audience and pulling a surprise, rather than it being absolutely rooted in truth and character."

Explaining his inspiration for the twist, Lang references a number of real-life, high-profile male celebrities who have come out as gay following years in heterosexual relationships, including the likes of former rugby player Gareth Thomas.

"I've wanted for a while to do something that addressed the strange world in which we live, where it is still a thing, rather. And weirdly, shortly after we had gone into pre-production, there was a very high profile - I'm not going to name him - there's a very high profile case of a person who had been in the public eye for 30 years [and] lived what was seen to be a heterosexual, happy marriage, and then he came out as gay. And then there had been the rugby player, I think, [Gareth] Thomas, is his name... he lived his life as a heterosexual man, and then being absolutely tortured by the fact that he's actually gay."

He continues, "I was interested in the fact that in 2021, this is still a thing. Up in metropolitan, liberal elite London [we] think it's not a big thing to admit you're gay, but it clearly still is, for a lot of people in certain communities and worlds. And so I wanted to explore how - it seems extraordinary to me, but it's clearly not. It's a thing that people still struggle with. And still feel shame over, tragically. So yeah, [the reveal] had to come out of character, had to be completely believable. And I think we achieved that. I don't think we see it coming. But also, I think it actually, when you do see it, it sort of makes sense."

Asked about whether there are any clues viewers might pick up on during a rewatch, Lang says that there are "tiny little clues" dotted through the series - including Sam's choice of second wife, his fiancée Karen.

"They are in tiny little dotted clues about character. There are a few little tiny little investigative clues that if traced back they're there. But it's about character and about the choices that man [Sam] made. You know, you look at his marriage, the one that is about to happen. And you see he chose someone who's older than him, someone who's maybe - he chose a woman who may not have had such a strong sexual appetite, and you know, you ask: why did he make those choices? Because she was significantly older than him.

"You [hear]... that line in the car when [Katherine] Kelly's character finds out that he's with this woman and she goes, 'Oh, my God, I would never have seen him with her, she's so old'. And that said something, you know, why does a man make those choices? They're deeply buried little character clues, but those clues are dotted throughout."

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Do Sally Wright and DI Mike Braithwaite get together?

The series ended with Sally and her mother moving to Ripon - but not before Sally met up with DI Mike Braithwaite and suggest they finally meet up for a pizza sometime.

Braithwaite was clearly drawn to Sally in the brief moments we saw them together, and they bonded over their recent difficult experiences: his was the loss of his wife and child, and of course, she had just emerged from five years in prison.

Do the pair end up together? Series creator Chris Lang thinks it's more "magic[al]" if viewers imagine the characters' endings for themselves.

"I think that's the audience's gift if you like. When I write Unforgotten, I often get asked afterwards, 'What happens at the end to X or Y or Z?' And I say, 'Well what do you think happened to them?' And they said, 'Well, I think...', and then they tell you what they think... And I say, 'That's certainly very possible'.

"I think it's better that people create their own story after the credits have rolled. I think that's one of the enjoyable things. And I think as soon as you tell them absolutely what you think happened, it spoils the magic. Part of the fun is imagining what happens to characters after the final credits have rolled. I like that. Everyone can have their own idea about what happened."

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