Instead of arriving quietly, the last episode kicks off with Maplewood arriving in 1890, going as far as getting herself locked up in jail so she can get through to DI Hillinghead (played by Kyle Soller) and try to get his help to put a stop to Elias’ plan.
Hillinghead, right on time, admits to the Longharvest Lane murder to protect his partner, Henry Ashe (George Parker), from facing the consequences. He ends up in a prison cell close to Maplewood, who pleads with him and says: “The body you found, Sir Julian Harker – who is Elias – and I, we are not from this time.
A surprise betrayal as Tomas traps Elena and Zubak in his basement for a reward (Photo: Bodies/Moonage Pictures)In the future, Harker has done something horrible, something beyond belief. He’s behind a loop that we need to break immediately.” She opens up to Hillinghead that Elias will end up marrying his daughter, Polly, and she will have a child for him, starting a bloodline that will repeat itself until Elias is born again in the 21st century.
“If we can put a stop to his plan, everything will be different,” she insisted. “Mannix won’t come into existence, Defoe’s body won’t turn up – all of this would disappear. You would go back to being the person you were before you discovered the body. And the same goes for the rest of us.”
Just before they come to take Hillinghead to court, Maplewood tips him off that Elias will intercept the prison carriage and kill him. But before Elias carries out the killing, Hillinghead plants an idea in his mind, warning him that he would end up “dying alone, full of regret, and too afraid to make any real change.”
That final warning from Hillinghead rattles Elias. Though he eventually marries Polly, their marriage ends up cold. Polly notices he changed the night her father died and that he forced him to confess.
Though Polly has a child for him and helps him stay on track with his so-called destiny (probably because if he doesn’t, their child would never exist), Elias’ inner guilt keeps growing. This ends up triggering events that lead to the breaking of the loop completely.
How is the time loop in Bodies broken?
By the year 1941, Elias – now much older – begins to record audio messages meant for his younger self in 2023, encouraging him to follow the plan to blow up London and finally feel the love he’s been longing for.
Still, the pain from his miserable life and cold marriage to Polly, who at one point even says she hopes she’s the one who kills him, pushes him to secretly record one final message. “You’ve been lied to every single time you’ve heard my voice,” he says.
“What I’m about to ask of you is the worst thing of all. This pain we carry never leaves. It’s always been there, and it’s unbearable.” DC Whiteman (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd) eventually arrives and kills Polly to avenge Esther’s death – but just before he can shoot Elias too, Elias hands him a vinyl record and says it could change everything.
Elias instructs Whiteman to hide the record somewhere safe for DS Hasan (Amaka Okafor) to find later. He warns that if his son sees it first, he will destroy it. Whiteman obeys and takes it to the police pub, concealing the record behind a photo on the wall. Not long after that, the police shot him dead.
Then in 2053, Hasan’s memories begin to shift, and she suddenly realises Whiteman left something for her in that pub. Unfortunately, the building was destroyed in the 2023 bombing. So she decides to go back in time to 2023 and retrieve it before the blast ever happens.
She confronts her younger self and a young Elias just before the bomb is about to go off. She knows her son is among those who will die if Elias carries out his plan. But once Elias hears the recording from his older self warning him not to go ahead, telling him it would only lead to a life of deep regret, he decides not to go through with the bombing.
That act changes everything. With London safe, Elias never creates the so-called utopia, and he never travels back to 1890 to restart his bloodline. The loop comes to a stop. With no reason for his existence anymore, Elias disappears completely.
Because of that, Defoe’s body no longer appears on Longharvest Lane, and the detectives return to their former lives – the ones they were meant to have before they got tangled in Elias’ plans.
Even so, Whiteman still encounters Esther in 1941, and Hillinghead still sees Henry again in 1890, which shows they may still cross paths and reconnect in some way. That’s what some would prefer to believe. Hasan, meanwhile, reunites with both her father and her son in 2023.
But Maplewood doesn’t go back to her timeline like the others. At the end of the show, Hasan gets into a taxi and quietly says to the driver, “Sometimes I feel like this city is about to explode. It makes me worry about what lies ahead. Do you get what I mean?”
And who is behind the wheel? It turns out to be Maplewood. Her response: “Yes, Shahara. I know exactly what you mean.” It’s not clear how Maplewood ended up in 2023 or why she still remembers Hasan, considering the other detectives have no recollection of what happened.
Why does ‘KYAL’ appear at the end of Bodies?
As soon as Hasan shares her fears with Maplewood, the camera shifts to show the city of London. Out of nowhere, the letters ‘KYAL’ appear on a building in the distance. These letters stand for ‘Know You Are Loved’ – something that was only seen before in 2053.
Late-night filming in freezing England leads to uncontrollable laughter for Winslet and Schoenaerts (Photo: Bodies/Moonage Pictures)Its sudden presence in 2023 could be pointing to the fact that not everything realigned properly when the loop ended. The vague nature of this moment leaves many puzzled. Even though Bodies was originally designed to end with this season, this particular moment suggests that more could come, depending on the direction the creators choose to take next.
Writer Paul Tomalin gave some insight during a chat with Radio Times, saying: “When we were deciding how to wrap up each character’s journey, doing Maplewood’s story in a way that didn’t pretend like the future is going to be perfect felt more honest.”
He added: “The future right now is scary for most of us, so showing Maplewood smiling in it would’ve felt a bit too easy. Putting her in the present and figuring out why she’s there felt more real. And let’s not forget, her version in 1890 is still locked in a jail cell – we don’t know what happens next.”
“There are plenty of interesting directions the story could still take. Since her ending is the most open one, it makes sense that she’s the one who could carry things forward if the story continues.”
As Tomalin previously shared, Bodies was made to be a limited run. Still, that doesn’t mean the story is completely closed off. He mentioned to Cosmopolitan: “We brought each character to their conclusion.
But if the show becomes a huge success and viewers are demanding more on Netflix, we left things open just in case – with a very exciting idea that would honour what came before and push it forward.”
