Bodkin ending, explained

Bodkin is going to be one of the best Netflix shows of the spring. We know everyone wants to talk about that ending. It was an eventful finale; that’s for sure! 

After watching all seven episodes of Bodkin, I know how confusing the series got for a bit. To help viewers make sense of the ending, I shared a breakdown of the final episode of Bodkin, titled "Empty Your Pockets," and answered some of the most common questions about the new Netflix series. 

Spoilers ahead for the Bodkin season finale!

What happened to Malachy? 

In episode 5, we finally figure out what happened to Malachy, Seamus’s brother. Obviously, his body was found in the back of the car with the other person, who everyone assumed was Fiona. After Seamus turns up at the morgue to see Malachy’s body, he tells Gilbert that the other woman is not Fiona, which spins the series in another direction. 

While investigating, Dove finds a knife that was carved by Teddy in the submerged car. She puts it all together and discovers that Sergeant Power, Teddy’s father, was actually responsible for the car ending up in the bog. After confronting him in the pub, Dove visits Power at the hospital where he’s recovering from a heart attack. He finally spills the beans and mash about what happened. 

Power reveals that Teddy killed Malachy. After Seamus told Malachy and Fiona to flee Bodkin because the McArdles were coming to kill him and likely them, Power agreed to help Malachy get out of town, but they couldn’t find Fiona. Teddy and Malachy got into a fight, and Teddy accidentally killed Malachy with a brick. Power tried to hide the body to protect Teddy from Seamus, who would have killed Teddy and Power for killing Malachy. 

So, that’s the end of Malachy’s story, but if the body wasn’t Fiona’s, who was it? That’s the next part of the mystery. 

Whose body is in the back of the car with Malachy? 

This is also revealed during Dove’s chat with Power. The body isn’t Fiona, which Power admits.

Emmy is also hot on the case. While visiting the morgue, Emmy finds a bracelet on the body, which reads “Greta.” Emmy quickly remembers Greta and winds back her recording to their interview with Maeve who claimed she was taking her friend, Greta, to Dublin on the night of Samhain. Well, well, well, why are you lying, Maeve? 

Anyway, it was Greta in the back of the car with Malachy. Power hit her with his car and killed her while he was trying to move Malachy’s body. 

But, why did Maeve lie about taking Greta to Dubin? Well, that all has to do with Fiona! 

What happened to Fiona and her baby? 

As we learn in episode 5, Fiona was pregnant with Seamus’s baby, but Seamus didn’t know. The podcast trio finds the ultrasound image in Maeve’s caravan. 

Things get a little bit hectic for a minute, especially for Dove, but then in episode 6, Maeve and Sister Bernadette share that Fiona was given shelter at the Sisters of Mercy (the yoga nuns who have grow op for psychedelic mushrooms!). She died in childbirth, along with her baby, according to Maeve and Sister Bernadette, but Dove, Gilbert, and Emmy don’t believe that at all!

Leaving the island after Gilbert and Dove are arrested, Emmy realizes that Mrs. O’Shea, who was a nun, left the nunnery right around the time Fiona died. She, then, understands that Sean, their driver and Mrs. O’Shea’s “adopted son from Romania,” is actually the son of Fiona and Seamus. 

Back in Bodkin, Mrs. O’Shea reveals that Fiona’s dying wish was to keep her baby away from Seamus because she was afraid of him. Mrs. O’Shea feels she failed Fiona because Seamus and Sean are now tangled up in illegal eel trafficking. 

What happens to Gilbert, Dove, and Emmy? 

After Seamus finds out that Sean is his son, he takes Gilbert hostage. He plants explosives under the area where the Samhain party is taking place, and he ties up Gilbert before he flees. Dove and Emmy eventually find Gilbert and untie him before they all go their separate ways again. Emmy successfully moves the crowd, thanks to Teddy’s beautiful voice, away from the explosives, while Dove cuts off Seamus as he tries to make his getaway. 

The McArdles and the Interpol agents arrive while Dove and Seamus are talking. As the McArdles close in, Seamus blows up the explosives, which blows up the town’s water truck where Sean has housed all of the eels he’s trying to traffic. It’s a mess! 

Luckily, Gilbert was able to escape just in time. The three come together at the explosion site, reunited and thankful they all made it out alive. 

At the end of the episode, Gilbert records the closing of his podcast before he throws the recorder into the sea before getting into Sean’s car and leaving Bodkin with Dove and Emmy. That’s not the end of the story, as Dove says. 

Emmy goes to The Guardian offices, knowing there is an opening for an investigative reporter because Dove has been fired/charged with a crime and forced to leave the profession. Dove’s old boss shuts Emmy down because she doesn’t have enough experience, but she tells him how it is and that she’s starting on Monday morning before walking out. It’s a boss move, and it shows her growth and confidence over the series. 

Dove, who appears to have struck a deal after breaking the law, goes back to the convent where her mom dropped her off. She meets with the head nun, who gives her a box of her old things, including her stuffed animal wolf, who has been keeping her company in her mind this whole time. She reveals that she’s going to stick around at the convent to – and I gasped – start a podcast about the convent and tell their story. What a full-circle moment! 

Wait, did Seamus escape? 

That’s the one remaining question I have about Bodkin! I’ve watched the scene several times, and I don’t see Seamus’s body on the beach with the McArdles. We don’t see him apprehended by the Interpol agents, so what gives? 

After blowing up the Samhain festival, Seamus is nowhere to be seen while the McArdles lay dead on the beach. Did he escape? Was he killed by the McArdles in a shootout and we can’t see his body? Am I missing something? I don’t think so! The trigger for the explosives is on the beach with the McArdles, but Seamus isn't there.

It feels like they left Seamus’s story open-ended for a reason. What reason? Well, we’ll find out in time!