Time season 2 ending explained: What happens to Orla, Kelsey and Abi?

When the BBC announced a second season of Time starring Jodie Whittaker, Bella Ramsey and Tamara Lawrance, viewers anticipated that it would be another remarkable instalment. Yet, nothing could have prepared us for the emotional turmoil of the three-part series, or its poignant finale.

Jimmy Govern's BAFTA award-winning show, which he co-wrote on this occasion with Helen Black (Life and Death in the Warehouse), follows Orla (Whittaker), Kelsey (Ramsey) and Abi (Lawrance) as they arrive at a women's prison in Liverpool on the same day – a contrast to season 1, starring Stephen Graham and Sean Bean, which unfolded in a men's prison.

The severity of their crimes varies: Orla is a single mum serving time for electricity theft, Kelsey is a heroin addict doing time for drug possession (which was engineered by her abusive boyfriend Adam), and Abi is in prison for murdering her baby.

In episode 3, we saw each of their dilemmas come to a head.

Time season 2 ending explained

As Orla's sentence nears its end, the reality of not having anywhere for herself or her children to live begins to dawn on her. When she is eventually released, she's given a tent to sleep in and expected to fend for herself, a damning indictment of the government's prison funding cuts.

The next morning, she meets up with her teenage son Kyle in a café and they finally reconnect after months of him refusing to visit her. Through tears, Orla asks for forgiveness and to be treated like his mum again. She shares her love for him and his demeanour softens, with the pair reconciling as he admits he's missed her.

Later, Kelsey receives a visit from Adam – the father of her newborn son – who kisses her and slips some drugs into her mouth, as he used to in the past. Horrified and panicked, she spits them out and hides them in her baby's clothes.

Though Kelsey makes it clear that she didn't want the drugs, she didn't ask for them (as she points out, she would have swallowed them if that was the case), and that she's clean, she has her baby taken away from her.

This heart-wrenching decision spurs Kelsey on to testify in court against Adam and tell the truth about what happened before she was arrested. She recollects that she moved to Spain with some friends to try and escape him, but he found her and brought her back to the UK.

When they arrived in England, he planted drugs in her bag, saying it was a present for his mum. But as she went through security, where her bag was checked, Adam had vanished.

Even though she's anxious to tell the truth about Adam, especially after he threatened to kill her and their child, her testimony lands him with a 10 year prison sentence, cutting her free from his exploitation. And her statement also reduces her own time in prison to just a further six months.

Meanwhile, Abi has a very difficult conversation with her husband in which she's unable to explain why she killed their son Daniel. Even when faced with his distress and questions about why she didn't reach out and ask for help when she was struggling, Abi doesn't have the answers.

Later, she's faced with yet more discrimination from the inmates as the women struggle to co-exist with a mother who has murdered her own baby and, on this occasion, they put faeces in her food. Disgusted by this and with nothing else to lose, Abi finally tells her story in the group session, led by the only returning character, chaplain Marie-Louise (Siobhan Finneran).

She shares the graphic and disturbing details of the days on which she was consumed by post-natal depression, her baby's cries overwhelming her. Most strikingly, Abi lived in fear that she had harmed her baby every time she puts him down or left the room, so she carried him everywhere, refusing to leave to him out of her sight.

This intense and isolated period of time – shown in flashbacks, as her husband continued to spend long days at work – reveal the extent of her mental health struggles and torment, which culminated in her drowning her baby in the bath, before taking herself to a body of water outside and trying to do the same.

She didn't want to kill her baby, but simply wanted to relieve his pain, and her own.

While Marie-Louise cannot grant her wish to go back in time, she says she will pray for Abi's other wish to come true – that God can give her the small peace of being able to finally process the death of her child, even though she is the one responsible for it.

The rest of the women admit they don't think they can ever forgive her actions, but after hearing about her extensive mental struggles, they collectively decide not to harm her.

That night, for the first time, she allows herself to cry as she begins to exorcise the guilt that bares down on her. While redemption seems too impossible a concept for this particular crime, there is a sense that Abi can begin to accept and take responsibility for what she did now that she has spoken the truth.

Read more:

• Time season 2 highlights the beauty and horror of the female body
• Jodie Whittaker links cost of living crisis to Time season 2 character
• Time star Bella Ramsey explains why new role "terrified" them

The final moments of the series are reserved for the young star of this show, Ramsey. Six months have passed and it's Kelsey's release date. Her prison mates form a line which she walks through as they clap and cheer to celebrate the momentous day.

The tear-jerking moment is followed by Kelsey reuniting with her son, with the foster mother and social worker present. If she continues on her positive path, he will be entrusted to her full-time.

Although the future is still very much uncertain, there are varying degrees of promise and hope for Orla, Kelsey and Abi, with all three leads delivering astounding performances throughout. With the award-winning acclaim of the first season, and the quality of the second, let's hope this isn't the last we see of this gritty, incredibly compelling show.

Time seasons 1 and 2 are available to stream now on BBC iPlayer. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what else is on.

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