The Devil's Hour season 2 ending explained: How is [SPOILER] still alive?

Less supernatural mystery (although it has its moments), more thriller, season 2 kept us guessing until the very end – and beyond, as some questions haven't quite been answered.

The finale episode sees Gideon and Lucy's attempt to stop a bomb going off at a toyshop, in an attempt to save the lives of 17 children – a tragedy they lived through in their past lives.

As fans will recall, Gideon has spent many lives attempting to stop tragedies from happening and he's now recruited Lucy to help him. But things don't exactly go to plan.

So, after another shock ending, here's that finale episode broken down with some theories as to what could be going on.

Buckle in!

The Devil's Hour season 2 ending explained: How is Lucy still alive?

The final scenes of the episode see Gideon (Capaldi) and Lucy's (Raine) plan to stop the bomber failing and them being hunted down by the police.

After hiding in a farmhouse, Gideon insists they have to "reset" and try again, to Lucy's despair. While she sets down the gun she's holding, ready to hand herself in to the police, Gideon picks it up and shoots her in the head, prepared to start their lives all over again and finally stop the bomber.

With her final breath, Lucy asks a very important question – what about her son Isaac (Benjamin Chivers)?

The final scenes of the show see Isaac during the aftermath of Lucy's death. Psychiatrist Dr Bennett (Meera Syal) and Isaac's new guardian (presumably a foster carer) discuss how he hasn't spoken since she died.

But Isaac does say another word before the show ends. In another big old twist, we hear a very familiar voice say, "Hello, darling." Isaac looks up in surprise, and delightedly says: "Mum!"

So, Lucy's alive! But how can that be? We're not 100% sure, but there are some key theories.

As we didn't actually see her face, it could be a Lucy from a different time/loop. That would perhaps make the most sense with how the scene is shot – is the point of the camera not showing Lucy's face to show that her appearance has changed? But how would Lucy have travelled between loops? And would another version of Lucy recognise Isaac?

Another possibility is that, in that final scene, Isaac travelled between loops, and it was him that arrived by her side rather than the other way round.

In that final shot of Isaac, we don't see Dr Bennett and Isaac's foster carer in the background - so it's possible that he's disappeared in front of them, travelling to wherever Lucy might be. It's made clear during the series that he does have this ability - and the ability to control it.

One other option is that Gideon didn't actually shoot Lucy at the farm and reset things.

Yes, we did see the gun go off, so this one seems a little unlikely. But is it possible that Lucy moved out of the way at the last minute?

Thankfully, The Devil's Hour is confirmed for a third and final season to see out the story - so we'll have to wait until then for some real answers.

Why does Gideon kill Lucy?

Gideon kills Lucy in an attempt to reset their lives and start afresh because their plan to stop the bomber didn't work.

The finale episode begins with an older version of Lucy visiting Gideon in prison. They agree to stop the bomber at the the toyshop. Lucy tells Gideon to "wake her up" in their next life so as they can stop him together. However, she adds that when it's done, she wants him to stay away from her – and that she'll make her own fate on her own terms. Gideon agrees.

But Gideon gets another visit after Lucy – a man he doesn't recognise but who insists they've met, or will in the future. He warns Gideon that he's going to change more than he thinks. He says his whole life is impossible and reveals that he's a grown-up version of Isaac, Lucy's son, demanding to know why Gideon "killed his mother" – foreshadowing that shock ending to the episode.

We return to the morning of the toyshop bombing. The bomber – the man with the yellow jacket – sets up his explosive and puts it into a rucksack, but everything is very glitchy – could this suggest he's got a strange relationship with time like Isaac? More on this later!

Elsewhere, Lucy makes Boyd (Saffron Hocking) a sandwich (pointing out to her that it's her favourite in an attempt to get her to remember her past life, when they were friends). Boyd, who's cuffed to the bed, pleads with her to no avail. Lucy asks Boyd if there's any part of her that remembers the children that died in the bombing in their past life and it's clear that Boyd remembers nothing.

Gideon gives Lucy a map and shows her where to find him that night after they (hopefully) stop the bombing. Lucy says she won't give him any more time –that, after the bombing, that's it, but Gideon's not so sure. Lucy tells Isaac she needs to go out but he tells her not to go and that bad things are going to happen. Lucy insists she's going to fix the bad things – but something tells us that's not what he's talking about.

Ravi is still grappling with whether Lucy's telling him the truth about their past lives. He watches a recording of himself and Lucy interrogating Gideon and feels flashes of deja vu from his other life – including a TV news report of the bombing. He grabs his keys and leaves the house.

Dr Bennett is clearly still shaken after seeing Isaac literally disappear and reappear in front of her eyes last episode. She listens back to the recording of their conversation over and over. The recording switches from Dr Bennett talking to Isaac, to her telling a little girl named Amelia to "come out from behind the curtain".

Eagle-eyed viewers might remember a haunting but brief shot in episode 1 of a little girl hiding behind a curtain when Lucy was talking to Dr Bennett – could that be her?

Chatting to RadioTimes.com about that shot, Raine said: "There's an incredible moment, I think it's in episode 1 with Lucy in the office. And it's chilling because the scene is happening, it's playing as a very standard, brilliant scene.

"And then it's my shot, I'm foreground, but in the background, there's an eight year old child that's just peeping out from behind the curtain. And it's literally just probably a second and the shot goes somewhere else. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up."

Terrified, Dr Bennett pulls back the curtain, only to find nothing there. But her flowers have suddenly changed to paper ones. Remember Isaac's comment about how her flowers sometimes aren't real? This isn't massively explored throughout the rest of the episode but we have a suspicion that Dr Bennett will be a lot more important from now on.

Lucy's now in the toyshop, and suggests to Gideon over the phone that she could warn everyone and get them to leave. He says that if they change too much, they'd spook the bomber. Gideon starts telling her a plan for if they don't survive, and Lucy cuts him off, saying that they will and have to.

Ravi (Nikesh Patel) goes and sits on a very familiar bench – the one where he proposed to Lucy (the detective Lucy!) in their past life. He remembers carving their initials into the bench and later getting a phone call from Lucy about the bombing with her on the scene. He also remembers the news report stating the time of the blast – just after 11am. In the present, Ravi looks at his phone and sees the time is 10:13am. Now convinced by what Lucy's told him, he rushes away.

Back at the house, Isaac is with his grandmother, Lucy's mum Sylvia (Barbara Marten). She tells him he's "slipping" (as she knows all about his complications with time) and asks him where his watch is, as that usually grounds him and brings him back.

Evelyn (Amanda Lawrence) looks in the mirror – but now sees a different woman looking back at her. When she opens her eyes, she only sees herself again, but hears chattering voices in her head. She runs upstairs and eventually the voices stop. When they do, she hears Boyd and steps into the room.

Boyd tricks Evelyn into releasing her. Sylvia fixes Isaac's watch and he notices that the voices have quietened, but he can still hear them. Lucy's mother asks if they're "still arguing" – he's presumably talking about Lucy and Gideon, who he can somehow hear.

However, then they both hear a crashing from upstairs, which is Boyd breaking out of the room, and Lucy's mother tells Isaac to hide. Boyd demands to know where Lucy and Gideon went but Lucy's mother gives her nothing – but Boyd finds her keys and leaves.

Back to Lucy and Gideon – Lucy spots an abandoned rucksack in the toyshop and inspects it, thinking it's the bomb. Actually, it's just the bag of a very unhappy woman, who's just found Lucy rifling through her things. Lucy makes a run for it and tells Gideon he needs to take over – only Gideon's face has been all over the news. She gets a call from Isaac, telling her that he and Sylvia had to leave the house because Boyd escaped. She races to find them.

After leaving a furious message for Lucy, Gideon sees the bomber walk into the toy shop – again without showing his face. Ravi arrives at the toyshop and tells the owner there's been a bomb threat, ordering him to get everyone out. He finds the bomber and tells him to turn around – but the bomber stabs him and runs away, again without showing his face. Gideon arrives and follows the bomber – but the bomber finds him first and whacks Gideon round the head before escaping again.

Ravi finds the bomb, before collapsing. He has flashes of memory from his life with Lucy again and we see him take his last breath as he dies from his wounds.

Back at the house, Evelyn sees blood on the ceiling and starts writing a note, with the note turning to scribbles as she hears the voices again. We hear police sirens and someone telling her to open the door – but they're faint to her amid all the voices in her head.

Lucy finds Isaac and Sylvia and Isaac says they have to leave. They pack their bags at home and Lucy memorises Gideon's location on the map before leaving it to burn. But Boyd and armed officers arrive and Boyd arrests Lucy on suspicion off multiple charges including the murder of Steven Dunn – the man she believed was the bomber in the last episode – and conspiracy to commit a terrorist offence.

She tells Lucy that the bomb did go off and that Gideon was spotted nearby. Lucy says goodbye to Isaac and gives him a hug, clinging onto his watch – and he manages to transport them both to another loop where he doesn't exist and where there's no house.

As Lucy asks him if this is "before", he answers that he's sometimes brought to before, and sometimes to what's next. Lucy says he shouldn't have brought her there - and Isaac insists she told him to (or will tell him to).

As Lucy insists she's not supposed to be there, she hears a ringing in her head and falls to the floor. It stops and she suddenly sees police cars and the house is back – at this point, they've been transported back to the present loop, but are now outside the house away from the police. Boyd grapples with the fact that Lucy just disappeared in front of her eyes and Sylvia tells her that it wasn't Lucy – it was Isaac, and that he's exactly where he's meant to be.

Lucy and Isaac wait for Gideon and she calls Dr Bennett, Finally Boyd starts getting flashes of memory, and she's handed the map of Gideon's location – which hadn't quite burned up. Gideon arrives and says that someone knows they're there.

He tells Lucy that the bomber could have killed him but let him live. Isaac tells Lucy that she has to leave him behind, and promises that everything's going to be okay. Lucy hands Dr Bennett a note explaining everything and leaves with Gideon.

Just before Gideon kills Lucy, he tells her that Ravi's dead – that he got the people in the toy shop out but couldn't save himself.

Who is the bomber?

We still don't know! The man in the yellow jacket remains a mystery, but some of the camera work in the season might suggest that he too has some kind of strange relationship with time, or is able to remember his past lives like Gideon and Lucy - and Isaac.

One key clue is that the bomber didn't kill Gideon – only whacked him over the head to stop him from getting away. So does the bomber know Gideon?

One theory is that the bomber could actually be the older version of Isaac. The youngster mentions to Lucy in the final episode that he knows "what's next" so he seems to have a clearer picture of what's happening than anyone else.

Perhaps he's attempting to stop Lucy and Gideon stop meddling with time – and maybe the bombing has to happen for reasons that we don't yet know. Does the bombing have to happen to stop something worse?

These are all theories at this point – so we'll be keenly awaiting season 3 to find out more!

The Devil's Hour season 2 will is available to stream on Prime Video now – you can sign up now for a free 30-day Prime Video trial.

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