How to Get to Heaven from Belfast ending explained: What actually happened to Greta?

*Warning: This article contains full spoilers for the final episode of How to Get to Heaven from Belfast.*

Well, that was certainly a rollercoaster now, wasn't it? From the jump, How to Get to Heaven from Belfast took viewers on a wild adventure as childhood friends Saoirse (Roísín Gallagher), Robyn (Sinéad Keenan) and Dara (Caoilfhionn Dunne) reunite to attend their fourth friend's wake.

The news of Greta's (Natasha O’Keeffe) death comes as a shock to all of them, even though they haven't kept up the contact over the years. But as they travel back for her wake, they're confronted with memories – and familiar faces – from the past.

At the end of the first episode, we learnt that Greta was in fact alive and over the course of the episodes, we've seen how she's been seemingly kidnapped and a wider plot is at play.

With the women intent on finding out the truth about Greta while also trying to get answers about their past, how did the final episode of How to Get to Heaven from Belfast unfold?

Read on for a full breakdown of the finale.

How to Get to Heaven from Belfast ending explained: What actually happened to Greta?

So, as we learnt in the first episode of the series, Greta is actually alive. But why was there a wake put on for her?

It turns out that Greta's childhood friend, Jodie, was the one in the coffin and had died after a nasty fall down the stairs when she came to confront Greta. Panicking about what to do and having accidentally killed her childhood friend, Margo (Michelle Fairley) came up with a plan for Greta. They'd announced that Greta had died but actually, she ran away – the only thing they couldn't have foretold was Saoirse having a peek in the coffin and realising it wasn't actually her.

The organisation at the heart of things – The Evaporation Society – are all about helping women in tricky situations and as we see, both Feeney (Saoirse-Monica Jackson) and Booker (Bronagh Gallagher) are part of it. While Booker may seem like an enemy of Greta's for much of the series, she is actually intent on helping her get away.

Speaking about the role that Feeney plays in the series, the show's creator and writer Lisa McGee told Radio Times: “So, she's part of a society called The Evaporation Society, and it's a female society that helps women get out of trouble. She's been in trouble herself as a young, very young woman. She talks about being a 13 year old girl and this horrific thing happening, but she's very complicated and she's quite scary.

"She's doll-like and pretty and fun and bubbly, but we realize there's just beneath the surface, there's just real darkness, like terrifying. So I would say she's intense and she's part of a group of women that are this little, very particular organization that maybe doesn't - the rules of normal society don't apply.”

Back to the finale, Robyn accidentally runs over Greta on a country road and believes her to be dead. So, rushes back to the motel with Dara to tell Saoirse in order to come up with a plan. However, Saoirse is caught up with Liam (Darragh Hand) and while she initially seems reluctant to follow her friends, she stabs one of his tires with a fountain pen in order to make sure he doesn't come and follow them.

But when they revisit the scene of the crash, Greta is nowhere to be found. It turns out that she's bleeding and injured, stumbling her way across the hills and finds a local who she hitches a lift from. But the mysterious stranger (Conor MacNeill) starts to make references to dangerous people and seems creepy, eventually pulling over to retrieve a blanket for Greta and a pink bag, waiting for some other people to arrive.

Meanwhile, the trio continue to be on the hunt for Greta who has now paid her mother Nora a visit in her care home. Nora isn't pleased to see her at all and the last we see of her is attacking the midwife (Shauna Bray) and telling Greta to leave. But when the trio eventually make it to the care home, they've just narrowly missed Greta.

What happened in Heaven's Veil?

One of the overarching mysteries of the series was what happened in Heaven's Veil, the place in which Greta grew up. When Nora wakes up from being sedated and speaks to Robyn and Dara, she tells them of the big fire that Greta was involved in, telling them that Greta frightened her from a young age.

However, Robyn calls her out as she realises that Nora enjoys concocting stories about her daughter and so, there's clearly more to the story than she says. The trio vow to find the burnt down church in question in a bid to find Greta, as they think that's where she'll be. Liam drives there but under the condition that they tell him where the body of Charles Sampson is.

Of course, the girls didn't kill Charles, who was a journalist investigating what had happened at Heaven's Veil and took an interest in wanting to tell Greta's real story. But when Greta found that he was secretly recording her, all hell broke loose and as she refused to give him back his recording device, Jodie actually came up behind him and stabbed him. Jodie ran away and the girls came to the sound of screams, finding Charles's body on the floor.

They vowed to help Greta bury him and did so in the same grave as a priest at their school who they were having the funeral for. So, Charles's body is technically on their former school grounds. Liam takes the news back to his son Andrew, who is just happy that he finally has a resting place for his father.

As for the women, once they've parted ways with Liam, they actually do find Greta there at Heaven's Veil – and she tells them the truth. Greta tells them of her childhood, how she used to be called Aisling and Jodie was Cara.

In terms of the night of the church fire, Greta tells the women that as a child, they were told that Heaven's Veil was a magical and sacred place, a place that God himself comes to. Feeling as though she needed to be saved by God, they waited for him to arrive in some way but when he didn't, "we decided to burn his house down", she confesses. Greta and Jodie burnt down the church but didn't spot the children's bikes parked up on the side until it was too late, a secret they kept for the rest of their lives.

Just as Greta is coming clean about everything to her childhood friends, Booker and Feeney make an appearance and find them. While Greta thinks they're dangerous, they actually surprise her and hand her an envelope with new passports and identities for her, her husband and daughter, thereby allowing them to live freely.

It turns out that Booker had a hunch about their Evaporation Society leader who was doing over their clients for profit. With the help of the nurse, they gassed the headquarters and took out everyone there. Even though everyone's now wiped out, Booker says they can start over and do things their own way – with Feeney saying they're going to need some new soldiers.

What's in the mystery pink bag?

The women say their goodbyes to Greta in an emotional moment and reminisce about the adventure they've just been on at the local shop. But Dara has picked up the mysterious pink bag that Greta was given in the car by the stranger, saying that Greta had just left it behind.

Just as they're about to look in the bag, we get transported back to the clearing where the truck is parked up and see that actually, the stranger who gave Greta a lift has actually been stabbed in the neck with a screwdriver.

We never see what's in the bag but just see the three women's eyes looking into it, looking shocked by what they're seeing. Robyn simply says: "We are not, under any circumstances, getting involved in this."

How to Get to Heaven from Belfast is available to stream on Netflix.

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