Coldwater ending explained: What happens to John and Tommy?

Within days of arriving, he was suddenly covering up a murder with the help of his new friend and next door neighbour Tommy (Ewen Bremner).

Whacking the violent Angus Gillespie over the head with a brick when he attacked him in the woods, John believed he'd killed him – and Tommy was fine to let him believe that.

But as tension between the two men continues to reach a boiling point, it’s only a matter of time before secrets, truth and violence bubbles over in spectacular fashion.

Here’s how the Coldwater ending plays out – and how it sets the stage for a potential second season.

Coldwater ending explained – Was John able to expose Tommy?

John’s biggest problem with Tommy is not what he knows, it’s getting others to believe him.

After all, who would believe the new guy when he says a beloved member of the community – a bible study leader with a pastor wife in Rebecca (Eve Myles), no less – is actually a serial killer who had been evading justice for years?

It doesn’t help that Rebecca, who is all-too-aware and even encouraging of husband Tommy’s extra-curricular killer pursuits, has started planting the idea that John is behind the murders in the town in resident’s heads, using the local gossip mill to make him sound like a psychopath who fled London because he beat up a woman.

But John gets a lifeline when Tommy’s adopted adult daughter Moira-Jane shows him and wife Fiona (Indira Varma) evidence – a box of trophies including those he’s killed since knowing John. Among the items is a cross chain Angus wore, a ring worn by Angus’s father, Nathan, and even the collar of poor cat Harlequin, who Tommy strangled and left as a warning to John on his bins.

Realising this means he didn’t kill Angus as initially thought, John feels vindicated and ready to bring Tommy down for good.

But Moira-Jane has a bigger fight on her hands: convincing her brother Cameron that their dad is not a good guy. Refusing to believe her, they eventually get in a physical fight where Cameron strangles her – just like their dear dad does to his victims. Thankfully, she stabs him in the leg with a pair of scissors, and he loosens his grip.

Deciding to take matters into their own hands, John and Fiona invite Tommy and Rebecca over for dinner to “bury the hatchet”, so Moira-Jane can get the trophy box out of their house unscathed. Tommy and Rebecca know they’re up to something, and so up their game to frame John, taking Nathan’s ring and hiding it in John’s house for the police to later find.

The wheels of the plan come off quickly though, when Tommy insists Moira-Jane join them for the dinner, refusing to take no for an answer. When John slips off to try and get the box himself, Tommy catches him in his garage. Tasering him, he shoves him in the back of his car and speeds off, much to the horror of Fiona.

As Fiona calls the police, Rebecca quickly switches gear, turning herself into a battered and terrified wife in the eyes of Fiona, asking for her help – which Fiona instantly believes.

How does Coldwater end?

The series ends with a bloody showdown as John escapes Tommy’s car boot, and runs to friend William’s house nearby.

Tommy is in quick pursuit with a shotgun, and beats William until John comes to his rescue. As the pair scrap, William eventually subdues them both by grabbing the rifle and holding it up to them before calling the police, declaring Tommy the true killer in the town, leaving the gun in John’s hands.

Knowing he’s been exposed, Tommy convinces John to let him call Rebecca, who tells him: “It’s over, do you understand?” as Fiona watches. She then tells him to run.

Tommy still thinks he and John have a connection, and asks him to run with him. Tommy takes credit for “bringing out the real man” in John, who when they met was “weak”.

Believing John’s “just like him” he demands he shoot. But John holds firm, saying he doesn’t need to choose violence and murder to be considered a man like Tommy does. Tommy then lunges at John, and the screen cuts to black as they scrap, and a gunshot rings out.

When the picture returns, it’s revealed that John is the one who got shot in the scuffle – and Tommy made a run for it before the police could get there.

The show then jumps forward several weeks, with John fully recovered, appearing on a news report alongside Fiona about the events, saying it brought them closer together.

Now exposed at the Coldwater Killer, Tommy is nowhere to be seen, but Rebecca remains in the town, using her position as a pastor to preach forgiveness to her congregation.

Could the Coldwater story continue?

The mens’ prayer group that Tommy started is still active, and bizarrely have opted to keep holding it at Rebecca and Tommy’s house. John attends, and offers them to move it to his, but the guys – who firmly believe Rebecca had no idea about Tommy’s killer instincts – have decided to stay on her request, saying it makes her “feel comfort”.

It becomes clear that this story is not yet over though.

Rebecca is keeping an eye on the group bitterly from the staircase, Cameron still refuses to believe his dad is a killer, and Nathan Gillespie’s ring is still hidden in a toy hamper at John and Fiona’s house.

In other words, there would be plenty of loose ends to explore should the series prove popular enough to secure a second season.

Coldwater is available to stream now on ITVX.

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