Hostage creator gives verdict on finale death and what it could mean for the show's future

Held up in yet another hostage situation, Abigail is instructed to come to the house, where Shagan (Martin McCann) is now holding Alex (Ashley Thomas) by knifepoint.

When Alex and Shagan get into a physical altercation, though, it is Sylvie (Isobel Akuwudike) who eventually pulls the trigger and shoots Shagan.

We see Shagan appear to take his last breath in that moment as a shocked Abigail watches him and police officers whisk Sylvie away.

In the three-month flash-forward, however, we don't really see how things have unfolded for Sylvie in the aftermath of the shooting or even if Shagan is confirmed dead.

So, is Shagan really gone? We posed the question to series creator Matt Charman, who assured us that he at least thinks so and spoke about why he left things on a bit more of an open-ended note for Sylvie.

He revealed to RadioTimes.com: "I think Shagan’s dead. It was completely intentional around Sylvie because I think, truthfully, those ripples are... they never stop.

"If you do that, if you’re in a situation where you do something that completely crosses a line as human being, there’s no end to that trauma or that sense of who am I now, who was I before? That would be fun to explore, what that does to a person as they enter adulthood."

Speaking more about the finale, Charman said: "I wanted to make sure that the family were more than just collateral, it wasn’t just about the fact that the family was under pressure and those were the stakes. I wanted the family to be involved in the action, all the way up to the end.

"So, you felt the ripple of all the decisions that Abigail had made over the years playing out through her family.

"So, Sylvie being involved in the ending, for me, was crucial. It was about finding the right level of her impact on the drama. What I didn’t want to do was – I wanted the end to feel satisfying, but I also didn’t want the audience to know what was coming until the very end.

"That takes a bit of working out but, fingers crossed, when you get it right, it feels really good."

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The finale also confirmed that it was General Livingston (Mark Lewis Jones) who was behind the coup plot, stewing in anger over Abigail's cuts to military spending.

Speaking about that reveal and how Abigail's position of power as a woman fed into it all, Jones told RadioTimes.com: "The fact that there’s other characters in her cabinet that aren’t serving her well, that don’t believe that she’s the right person to run the country, I do feel like being a woman plays into that.

"Being a woman who has a husband who has his own career, being a mother, all of those things. The fact that she is quite volatile in the way she expresses herself sometimes, which I love about her. She wants to remain truthful, and that’s very unusual in the political climate. I think the men around her find that very intimidating and unstabilising."

Hostage is now available to stream on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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