The Devil’s Hour Show Ending Explained. Gotta start this recommendation and deep dive with a shout out to Nikki and Lisa for getting me into this one. They basically impounded the site until I watched this one. (Okay, they did no such thing and they were actually very kind about recommending that I watch The Devil’s Hour over on Amazon Prime). But what I loved about The Devil’s Hour was how such an obviously low budget show took on so many different cool ideas in an appealing way, despite their budget constraints. Chris – if you can get me Jessica Raine’s email address I would LOVE to interview her for the site at some point… because she definitely carried this show, 100%. I’m now going back through her oeuvre and seeing what other things she’s done.
Let’s do this one a little differently and just cut to the chase, shall we, by asking key questions that you probably have after shutting off the six hour-long series. But please know – I’m going straight for the jugular here – spoilers are going to be hitting fast and furious right off the jump. Don’t spoil this one… go watch, and then come join us for a discussion!
The Devil’s Hour – Gideon’s Character’s Powers Explained
In the world of Nietzsche’s writings, he believed that Sisyphus spent his life slogging, eternally, in a recurring nightmare of work and torture. But in that one moment, at the crest of the hill, having just pushed his boulder to the top, just before it rolled to the bottom and he was to do it over again, he could find exultation in that one moment. Triumph in the face of the eternality of it all.
Similarly, the philosopher also believed that our lifetimes are lived in a state called an eternal recurrence. And it was in these moments that were real litmus tests for one to either affirm, or deny, life. It is in this understanding, that you could relive every single moment of your life continuously forever, that is the crucial measure in your ability to become who you really are. Right? Similarly, in the show, it is these eternal loops that while repeating ad infinitum most do not remember the recurrence. But a slight few of all become aware of these cycles. Cut to Gideon Shepherd (played by Peter Capaldi) – who has déjà vu-esque moments in which he able to see across these loops. And it is through these visions that he is able to deviate from the intended future… the future that has been occurring for time immemorial.
Does that make sense? Everyone is looping – because Nietzsche says so. And almost none of us remember these loops. But cut to a rare few, like Gideon, who is able to see the future, and then change it. OK, great. Gotta get that key detail down before we move on.
How Did Gideon’s Super Powers Come to Be?
Now, as a child, Gideon saw visions about being abused by his father. Why? Because he had been messing around with a pine cone at church. This is what I’m calling a base memory – a consistently recurring memory in every timeline. But in one key timeline, Gideon decided not to pick up the pine cone, and in so doing, avoided the beating, and thus teaching him an enormous lesson about himself and his powers. Also, Gideon remembered his father killing the three of them by driving them off a cliff. But, to avoid this fate, and save his brother, he stabs his father to death, thereby avoiding their fate of death. And every time he was tracked down by the police, he committed suicide and started over again, remembering everything from previous lives as he continued his looping all over again. After killing his father, Gideon laid low by betting on sports events he remembered happening.
Then, in one timeline, he witnessed a young girl named Evelyn get killed in a terrible car accident. But he quickly realized that in his next lifetime he could stop the accident, and thereby save her life. And so he does, and this is how he begins doing good with his powers. He intercedes to stop abductions, fires, rapes, murders… and that meant that sometimes he would have to kill the perpetrator in order to save the person in question. For example, there was a man named Aiden Stenner, and Gideon intervened before he could kill a pregnant woman by killing Stenner. We also see ripples from from his killing Harold Slade and Shane fisher, who he killed originally in order to save their victims from their crimes.
The Original Detective Chambers Timeline
Along these lines, in Lucy’s original timeline it is really important to understanding this overarching show. Because it is from this angle that everything else originates. Before Gideon began changing things – Lucy’s mother committed suicide. Lucy, as a result, then went on to become a detective. Lucy does not marry Mike, and eventually married Ravi, another cop on the force. That is also why, later on, Lucy precognitioned a ton of information that was important to the wild things going on all around her… Chloe, Tilly, Shane, etc. Lucy originally worked the Fisher murders. She precognitioned the fact that Chloe and Tilly Fisher were going to be stabbed by Shane Fisher. And after Gideon killed Shane, Chloe talked about how her chest hurt… right? Also Ravi’s partner as well. Similar deals. It also explains Lucy’s ability to subdue Aiden’s mother so easily, and she had no idea where that came from.
But Explain the Lucy House Haunting Business!
This is one of the easier answers to explain. So, phew. Remember when Lucy introduced herself to Meredith Warren’s family? The girl that kept running in traffic? Meredith’s mother, Debbie, indicated that they had made “a bit of a cheeky offer” on her place, but Lucy’s offer probably wasn’t quite as cheeky… well, in a previous timeline, the Warren’s lived there. Better yet, the father, knocked down the wall in Isaac’s room, which allowed him to watch all the goings on in the Warren family’s alternate timeline. Got it? See? Simple. Cough. So, every time Lucy, or Isaac, saw people coming and going in their house, it was always the Warrens in an alternate timeline, when they actually lived in their home.
Why Is Gideon Connected to Lucy Chambers and Isaac?
This is a great question – and I was asking it throughout the entire show. I kept expecting the Hannibal/Clarice connection to BANG! out of nowhere, and to be explained through a massive AHA moment. But it never really crystallized throughout the course of the show.
But, if we think about it together, I think it’s a pretty easy explanation offering itself to us. For some reason, Lucy and Ravi are constantly stopping him from perfecting these alternate timelines and “saving the day” for these people that are definitely going to be murdered/raped/etc. So, Lucy – detective Lucy mind you – and her partner, Ravi, are always there, saving the day at the last moment. Which actually causes Gideon to wait over 25 years (remember the futuristic prison scene? That’s the one.) in order to finally get Lucy to answer one question… “What is the worst experience she’s ever experienced in her life?” She eventually tells Gideon that it was her mother’s suicide. Well, that is when he decides to prevent Lucy’s mother from killing herself, and thereby keeping Lucy from going into the police force. He was trying to disable that prime mover moment, but it doesn’t matter. Even as a child protection services agent (or whatever they call it in Britain) she still finds herself chasing Gideon down even in spite of the fact that she isn’t a cop anymore.
Gideon’s messing with Lucy’s life, to prevent her from finding him, is what unhinges Isaac, Lucy’s mother, and even Lucy. It is his meddling to fix his nemesis that allows himself to be found from her past memories of his previous lives. Does that make sense? It was his past actions that telemarked his previous actions against Harold Slade, Tilly Fisher, Aident Stenner, etc. It is his FIXING things that keeps Gideon from FIXING anything. It’s a conundrum.
Better Yet, Who Abducted Isaac?
Nobody abducted Isaac. Wait, this one is easier to explain by explaining something else entirely. Remember when Isaac peed on a kids backpack? He didn’t actually do that. He actually walked into a bathroom in another timeline, and went to the bathroom. Only glitch? There was no bathroom there in this timeline. It was just a weird coincidence that his bully’s backpack was located exactly where the toilet was in another timeline. Similarly… Isaac wasn’t abducted… he just wandered off in the wrong timeline.
So, Gideon’s ransacking of their house unmoored Isaac from this timeline, and reset him backwards to his original timeline. This was when Lucy, his mother, was a detective, etc., etc… well, anyway, he wandered into his house, and the Warrens who lived in his original address, took him to the police. Better yet, it was Detective Lucy Chambers and Detective Ravi Dhillon that took him in a police car, a dark car. And obviously, in that timeline, Lucy wouldn’t recognize him at all… a kid she had never had, right? And after being taken to the station, he flips back to his current timeline. When he was reunited with his mother (his real mother) he cried – why? Because “she knew me”… right?
What Happened At The End of The Devil’s Hour?
At the end of the show – in the finale episode – we watch as Isaac starts a fire in his bedroom. We also watch as his father (false timeline father – FTF) abandons him to die in the fire. We hear him later say that he went back for Isaac, but we know that’s a lie (cough strawberry ice cream).
But what happened to Isaac?? Well, it could be that Isaac slipped into the other timeline, but that doesn’t bode well either, because both houses were on fire. (Remember Lucy breaking the fire detector when Ravi visited in the original timeline? Yup, she never replaced it.) So, either place is going to be a bad place to be.
We do know that when Lucy runs into the flames to get her son, she is in the original timeline… ergo, she’s running into the Warren’s house. And, as she is overcome by the fire, we watch as she flashes forward through her future life with Ravi. We also watch as a detective is called to the scene, which sort of gives us the idea that she and Isaac did not in fact survive the fire. But better yet, it feels as though she has snapped back into her original timeline as a detective somehow?
Better yet? It doesn’t matter. Why THiNC.?? Why? Well, because, as Nietzsche put it, we are constantly looping our lives over again. Sisyphean nightmares. And it’s only in our contentedness in the repetition that we truly become at peace with our selves, and our souls. So, ultimately, Isaac’s death? Lucy’s death… will just be undone the next go round. Gideon will be able to change that one little detail that keeps it all from happening again. Better yet? Isaac can undo it the next time around.
How do you like them apples? Because you know there’s going to be a season 2… right? Has to be.
Edited by: CY
