Unforgotten season 6 ending explained | Who was the Whitney Marsh killer?

This time round, the remains of Gerry Cooper are found on Whitney Marsh and we soon discover that he's the missing husband of history lecturer Juliet Cooper (Victoria Hamilton).

One day he vanished, with Juliet left to wonder if some dodgy figures from his business ventures were responsible for his death.

But it's soon uncovered that Gerry was leading quite the double life, having fallen into debt during the Covid-19 pandemic and continuing to lead a life of secrets and lies. But who exactly killed him?

Looking into his original disappearance case was none other than season 4's Ram Sidhu (Phaldut Sharma), who said that he'd definitely suspected more was at play than Gerry just disappearing one day.

Chatting exclusively to RadioTimes.com about Sidhu's shock return, Sinéad Keenan said: "It’s brilliant. I gasped, I audibly gasped."

And there's plenty more gasps to be had in the final episode, where the killer is finally revealed.

But who was the murderer? Read on for a breakdown of the final episode of Unforgotten, which is available to stream on ITVX now.

Unforgotten season 6 ending explained

The final episode starts with Marty (Maximilian Fairley) being arrested by police for breaking and entering into Juliet's home. But when questioned about his whereabouts on the day of Gerry's murder, Marty manages to recount in stark detail just what he was doing that day, including being at a CCTV heavy location – London City Airport – to watch the planes.

Working in property and as a previous pub landlord, Gerry fell into quite a bit of debt during the Covid-19 pandemic. Acting as a translator for one of Gerry's tenants, the Diwari family, Asif Syed (Elham Elas) was understandably infuriated after their young son died from the damp conditions of one of Gerry's houses.

A motivation for murder? Well, while Asif was angry at Gerry's lack of action and the preventative death of a child, he didn't kill him. He did go to confront him at his pub but there, he realised he could be empathetic while handing out food and clothes to the homeless. But that Gerry didn't have empathy for Asif's Afghan community, clearly someone who thought of many of his immigrant tenants as beneath him.

Asif did eventually confront him and did have a tense stand-off with Gerry, punching him and leaving him laying on the ground but very much alive.

Later in the episode, the team find that Gerry supposedly left a voice message on the day after his disappearance but quickly realise that his killer must've done that to cover their tracks.

The location of the call was in Ilford and while they manage to pull together a list of potential cars in which the suspect made the call, they confront Juliet with their findings and the fact they think she changed her number plate with a marker and gaffer tape.

Seeing as Juliet is so against them questioning her daughter Taylor (Pixie Davis), Sunny and Jessica grew quite suspicious of her and it was in the interrogation room that she eventually came clean.

Who was the killer at the end of Unforgotten season 6?

Questioned about the truth on the night, Juliet tells Sunny and Jessica about her failing marriage to Gerry that was brought on by their debts and the pandemic.

Juliet says that on that night, she was cooking dinner when Gerry got back late – around 11pm – and was drunk. He told her that he had plans the following day even thought it was their wedding anniversary, which Juliet reminded him of.

Their argument grew increasingly heated, with Gerry spewing out misogyny and eventually physically hurting Juliet. Trying to walk away and continue chopping up stuff for their dinner, Juliet explained that Gerry came up behind her and punched her in the back of the head.

Spinning around to react, Juliet punched Gerry's leg but still had the knife in her hand and so, stabbed him in the thigh. Running away from him, Juliet locked herself in the bathroom away from him. But whilst in there, she heard Gerry say he was bleeding out quite badly and then everything went quiet.

Eventually coming out of the bathroom after 30 minutes, she found Gerry dead on the kitchen floor in a pool of blood. Juliet then says that her instincts kicked in as she thought of her daughter being left alone if she were to go to prison.

She used multiple cloths to clean up and put everything, including her clothes, into bin liners. She explains that she took Gerry's body into his office and locked the door to it. In the morning, she took Taylor to school and arranged a play date for her in the evening so she wouldn't at home.

Juliet went to work as normal and when her lectures finished, she went to an internet café to Google what she needed to do before going to a hardware store to buy carving knives, tape and refuse sacks. She then explains that she cut up Gerry's body back home in the kitchen and wrapped each part in bin liners, then putting them in his office.

She picked up Taylor from her playdate and gave her a herbal sleeping pill in her hot chocolate to ensure she wouldn't wake up as she continued what she needed to do. She changed the number plate on her car with the gaffer tape and then drove to the marshes to dispose of Gerry's body.

But straight after Juliet's confession, Jessica points out that her timeline is wrong and shows Sunny the time log sheets for Gerry's phone, which confirms that he ordered food to their flat at around 7pm, not 11pm. Why would Juliet lie, though?

Going to interview Taylor, they soon get their answers. Taylor confirms that Gerry was violent to Juliet and she would often hear it. The last row, she explains, she did see it. She'd come downstairs to find her mother on the floor, with Gerry continuing to kick her. Taylor wanted to do something to help and seeing a small knife on the side, she picked it up and jabbed it in his leg.

Taylor says that Gerry was so upset when he saw that it was her who hurt him, but Juliet quickly took her away upstairs to run her a bath. Juliet then read her a book and saw Taylor off to sleep and the next morning, Juliet told Taylor that Gerry had to leave early for a work meeting and left her a chocolate on her bedside, indicating that he'd forgiven her for hurting him.

When she'd come back from her playdate that evening, her mother had told her that Gerry was on a work call in his office and he wasn't to be disturbed. The next day, Taylor says, was when Gerry had gone missing.

So, it was Taylor that had unknowingly killed her father Gerry by stabbing him in the leg. But because Juliet had whisked her away before she could see the bleeding, she never realised Gerry was hurt.

Who gets arrested for Gerry Cooper's death?

Deciding what to do, Sunny maps out two options – they can ignore what Taylor just said and allow Juliet to take the blame. Juliet can plead self-defence and likely be out of prison in two years but then, Sunny and Jessica are liable for perverting the course of justice.

Or the other option is they can tell the CPS what Taylor just told them and will almost certainly decide that it's not in the public interest to charge her for murder. But with there being the small possibility of being charged, as well as Taylor learning that she killed her dad, Jessica doesn't think it's a better choice.

But Sunny tells her that it's not their decision to make and they should allow Juliet to decide what she wants to do.

When they do, Juliet is heartbroken to learn they've spoken to Taylor but Jessica tells her that they think an argument for reasonable force would work in Taylor's favour, meaning the CPS likely wouldn't want to prosecute. Juliet could be charged with unlawful disposal and perverting the course of justice but again, the CPS likely wouldn't want to prosecute given the circumstances.

There's no record of their conversation with Taylor so ultimately, Juliet has a choice. We then see Jessica and Sunny walk Juliet to a room to speak to Taylor in private. Later, Jessica gets a call from the CPS confirming that it's not in the public interest to charge Taylor or Juliet, meaning nobody will be arrested for Gerry's death.

While it's not explicitly confirmed, we would assume that Juliet either told Taylor the truth of what happened or perhaps lied to her and implicated herself in it.

The last we see of them is them getting into a taxi outside the police station, with Juliet giving one last glance and subtle nod to Sunny, seemingly thanking him for what they've done.

What happens to Jessica and Sunny?

At the end of the episode, once the case is wrapped up, we see Jessica drive home and park her car. Once she gets out, she looks over at the pub on the corner of the road and is surprised to see her estranged husband Steve (Andrew Lancel) there with another woman.

It's clear they're on a date, just days after Jessica told him she wants a divorce and he previously admitted to wanting to work on their relationship. Infuriated by what she's seen, Jessica gets back into her car and drives away.

As for Sunny, he met up with Leanne (Georgia Mackenzie) earlier in the episode to discuss why she'd been so awkward with him after their evening out together where they shared a kiss.

Leanne tells Sunny that 24 years earlier, she was in an unhappy relationship and left him abruptly. But she also admits that she left their daughter as well, who she has never seen since. Before Sunny can even ask anything, Leanne leaves him to process what she's said.

But in the episode's final scenes, Sunny calls Leanne and leaves her a voice message. He thanks her for telling him but says they should meet up and talk more about it, possibly paving the way for a continuation of their friendship or a new chapter for their blossoming romance.

Unforgotten season 6 is now available to stream in full on ITVX and will continue to air weekly on ITV1 every Sunday and Monday at 9pm.

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