Presumed Innocent ending explained: Finale avoids a tedious trope and is more disturbing for it

We now know the answers to all of these questions and more, in an emotional finale which brought Rusty's story to an end. But how did it all play out?

Read on for everything you need to know about the ending of Presumed Innocent.

*Warning - contains full spoilers for the Presumed Innocent finale*

Presumed Innocent ending explained: Finale avoids a tedious trope and is more disturbing for it

It's hardly surprising that Presumed Innocent went in a different direction from the novel on which it is based, and the 1990 film adaptation starring Harrison Ford.

For one thing, star Jake Gyllenhaal has stressed that the series would go in a "totally different" direction from other takes on the story. For another, the episode wasn't made available to press ahead of time - an unusual move for Apple TV+, hinting at a surprise.

Finally, there's just the basic fact that a lot of people will know the ending of the story, in both its books and TV forms. If you want to keep your viewers on their toes and keep them guessing, the only way to do that is to switch things up.

It's a risky move, though. The ending was the ending for a reason, and it was baked into the storytelling. Making a change to that has to be done with a sense of realism, and in service of the story.

In truth, the change that's been made to Presumed Innocent's ending has its flaws - but, for the most part, the decision has paid off.

For background, at the end of the novel Presumed Innocent, and the film adaptation, Rusty is found not guilty of the murder of his co-worker and mistress Carolyn Polhemus. It is then revealed who the real killer was - Rusty's wife Barbara.

She had killed Carolyn in a fit of jealous rage, and had left minimal evidence at the scene. There is an ambiguous question left as to whether she did this so that Rusty could work out it was her, sending him a message, or so that he would be implicated in the murder himself, as an act of vengeance.

Halfway through the finale, the series seemed like it was going in the same direction. Rusty wasn't convicted, he returned home, and he confronted Barbara.

In the first major change from the book's ending, he revealed that he had been the one to tie Carolyn up, making it look like a sexually violent, bondage-style murder, akin to another murder they had investigated together.

He did this because he had worked out instantly that it must have been Barbara who committed the murder, and had wanted to cover it up for her.

As Rusty laid this out to Barbara, she repeatedly denied the murder. He told her that she must have done it in a dissociative state, with her rage taking over. He had confirmed it was her when he had followed her car, and found that she was the one who planted the fire poker used in Carolyn's murder at Tommy Molto's house.

However, as Barbara continued to protest her innocence, their daughter Jaden, an addition to the series who was not in the novel, entered the room, revealing that it wasn't Barbara - she was in fact the killer.

She had merely intended to confront Carolyn about the affair, but when informed that she was pregnant with Rusty's child, Jaden had snapped, hitting Carolyn with the poker, killing her and escaping just before Rusty returned to find her lifeless body.

Horrified at what their daughter had done, Rusty and Barbara agreed to never speak of it again, and to go about their lives pretending as though it never happened.

As the family were later seen happily enjoying time together, Rusty and Barbara shared a knowing glance - they could pretend all they wanted, but they were now living with the knowledge that their daughter is a murderer.

It was a dark twist that, in some ways, came as a bolt from the blue, and seems purposefully intended to flummox those who know what the ending should be. For those unaware of the original ending, Rusty accusing Barbara will have been shock enough, only for that to be undone within moment of the revelation.

One also wonders whether the series could have done with just a few scenes more to explore the ramifications of this twist ending. For a show which, in truth, extended its story almost to breaking point across eight episodes, a bit of time could have been well spent at the end of it all, ahead of the final scene, wrapping things up.

However, on balance and on reflection, in many ways this was the right track for the series to go down - and not only for the shock factor and keeping things fresh.

Firstly, there's the fact that while the novel's ending may have seemed somewhat original at the time, the jealous-wife-turned-murderer conceit now not only seems hackneyed and lazy, but frankly leans into sexist tropes.

Ruth Negga's brilliant performance had done a lot throughout the series to make Barbara so much more than just an aggrieved wife, to suddenly pull a bait and switch and make her a femme-fatale-type figure would have undone much of this work, and reframed the scenes between not only Barbara and Rusty, but also her moments of openness with other characters.

There's also the fact that Rusty and Barbara's decision to stay together at this point already stretched credulity. Throughout the series, we're shown that he's a truly awful person, a potential murderer and a compulsive liar who keeps banging on about his love for another woman.

She, meanwhile, has a kiss with a man who isn't her husband, and he gives her the third degree. She should have kicked him out of that house months ago.

If you were to add to this the revelation that she had murdered Carolyn, the mix of emotions and misdeeds would be too complex to track, and the motivations for the couple staying together would have seemed murky at best.

However, the ending we're given puts a spanner into these works. As the only two people other than Jaden herself who now know the truth, they may feel they have a duty to stick by her and protect her - as well as watch out for her.

The final sequence, with the family all seen laughing together and beaming away, is truly eerie. No matter how much they love her, there's a sense that Rusty and Barbara may be just that little bit afraid of Jaden. We also now know there's another dark secret in this family's lives, as they keep the truth from their son Kyle.

The twist at the end of Presumed Innocent may not line up perfectly with the themes the show had been exploring thus far, and it may have come and been dealt with somewhat abruptly.

However, by revealing Jaden as the murderer, the series not only surprises book readers and film watchers, it also does away with a tedious and tired trope, and leaves things on a more disturbing note than they would have otherwise been left.

The show has (somewhat bafflingly) been renewed for a second season, but it seems this will explore a new case entirely, a move which should be welcomed. It's a show with a mystery at its centre that largely managed to stick the landing by taking a risk.

Now it's time to leave the Sabichs to their unnerving, hellish futures, which the final scene does more to hint at than any additional on-screen exploration could do.

Presumed Innocent is available to stream in full on Apple TV+ now. Sign up to Apple TV+ now.

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