Crime drama Intruder came to an end on Channel 5 tonight as the immoral actions of affluent couple Sam and Rebecca started to catch up with them, requiring drastic action to be taken.

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The series has had a rough ride since it premiered on Easter Monday, with RadioTimes.com branding it a "daft and predictable thriller" in our Intruder review, while the reaction from Twitter users has also been largely negative.

However, some people have taken to the show's dark plot revolving around the murder of a teenage boy following a botched burglary attempt (while others have stuck around simply for laughs).

If you missed the grand finale or would like a little elaboration on everything that happened, you've come to the right place as we've got your full breakdown of the Intruder ending. Scroll on, but beware spoilers follow.

Channel 5's Intruder recap

Things haven't been going too well for privileged couple Sam and Rebecca since the first episode of Intruder, which saw them attempt one of the most amateur murder cover-ups in the history of television.

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After taking an illicit substance, Sam encounters a burglar in his home – timid and bright teenager, Syed – and stabs him in the back as he attempts to flee the premises, inadvertently killing him.

Fearing the use of lethal force would only land him in prison as the situation clearly did not require it, Sam and Rebecca decide to paint themselves as the victims and Syed as a bloodthirsty attacker.

Fortunately, they live in a quaint seaside town where much of the local police force are paid off and apparently haven't wrapped their heads around forensic science just yet, so it looks as if they might just get away with it.

Intruder episode 1 stars Elaine Cassidy, Helen Behan and Tom Meeten
Channel 5

However, the dreadful duo had three major hurdles to overcome: an unstable witness to the crime, an inquisitive family liaison officer who doubts their story, and Sam's own deteriorating mental state which threatens to expose the truth.

In stark contrast to her struggling husband, Rebecca has only become tougher and more detached over the last two episodes as she tries desperately to keep her comfortable life intact.

After her colleague (and the aforementioned witness) Angela threatened to go to the police and tell them what really happened on that fateful night, it was Rebecca who bonked her on the head with a rock and rolled her body off a cliff.

Luckily, Angela had a habit of going for walks along the cliff-edge after downing a bottle of gin so it wasn't the most difficult murder to stage, but nevertheless police were suspicious that her head wound was not entirely consistent with a fall.

Channel 5's Intruder ending explained

Elaine Cassidy plays Rebecca in Intruder on Channel 5
Channel 5

Sensing that detectives were closing in around her, Rebecca's fight or flight response kicked in and she called in a favour from an old friend(?): farmer and local crime lord, Fitz.

It is revealed that as a young girl, Rebecca got lost in a local cave system and almost died, until she was discovered entirely coincidentally by Fitz, who offered respite from her abusive home.

However, in the present day, there is a great deal of tension between Rebecca and Fitz, suggesting their relationship wasn't particularly healthy either – but she realises that he is her only way out of this mess.

Using Fitz's connections with the local police force and that same cave system (which has a secret exit onto his farm), Rebecca sets in motion a chain of events designed to frame her husband for everything.

She sneaks out of work in the middle of the day and tells Sam that the police are onto them, adding that they have no choice but to go on the run to France.

Rebecca takes her panicked husband on an elaborate escape route through the cave system, which proves particularly difficult for him as he suffers from claustrophobia.

Channel 5's Intruder - Elaine Cassidy as Rebecca - Caves
Channel 5

Once they are deep inside, she tells him to take a break as she forges a path ahead for them, assuring him she will be back very shortly, but actually abandons him there – taking the exit onto Fitz's farm which is then permanently closed up.

Rebecca returns to the office but by avoiding the security guard as well as scheduling an email to send during her absence, she is able to create the illusion that she never left.

When she gets home, the police are at the door after discovering that Sam was having an affair with Angela, giving him both motive and opportunity to murder her – but Rebecca pretends not to know his whereabouts and, to a casual observer, it appears he has done a runner.

In reality, Sam freezes to death in the caves, where he is discovered the following day and police close the case with a little encouragement from Fitz's bribes.

However, there is one more rogue element at play: family liaison officer Karen Bailey, who has been conducting her own unofficial investigation into the deaths of Syed and Angela.

Sally Lindsay plays FLO Karen Bailey in Intruder
Channel 5

She gets every detail more or less spot-on and takes her findings to leading Detective Inspector Lilley, who believes everything she has to say but mournfully tells her that Rebecca has covered up her tracks too well.

The combination of a lack of indisputable evidence, police force bureaucracy and a ring of corrupt officers means there is little they can do to prevent Rebecca from getting off scot-free.

It's a devastating realisation for Bailey, who desperately wanted justice after getting to know Syed's grieving father, resulting in her leaving the police force and taking a job in the charity sector.

But in order to get closure on this dark chapter in her life, she confronts Rebecca and tells her quite candidly that she knows about her crimes, branding her a "really bad" person in a tense conversation.

Rebecca reveals that she is leaving the area to move elsewhere for a new job, which is a promotion from her current role, to which Bailey responds that she must be "awfully lonely" – a comment that visibly upsets her.

In the final scene, it is revealed that Rebecca is haunted by nightmares of what she did to her husband, who is one of the only people in her life who ever truly loved her.

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Intruder is available to catch-up on via My5. Check out the rest of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what's on tonight.

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