The Light in the Hall ending explained: What really happened to Ela
"I hope it will give people an opportunity to rethink their position about judgement." **Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Light in the Hall**
Who really killed Ela Roberts? That was the question hanging over Channel 4's The Light in the Hall as further details about the tragedy came to light throughout the series.
Joe Pritchard had been found guilty and spent his youth behind bars, but his memory of that day was non-existent. However many times he was asked – and beaten – he wasn't able to give Ela's mum Sharon the answers she wanted.
“I think that was really interesting, how he, the murderer, doesn't know what's going on," Joe actor Iwan Rheon told RadioTimes.com. "It's quite mysterious as to what's happened and how that unravels. It's really fascinating."
But when Cat Donato arrived back in her home town to carry out her own investigation for a story she was writing, the truth came to light.
Izzy Vaughan, the daughter of local councillor Nina Vaughan, was responsible. With help from Joe's dad Wyn, the crime was covered up, with all three agreeing to keep schtum about what had happened that fateful day, and Joe paying the price.
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Sharon actor Joanna Scanlan said: "I think there's something in the way that the whole story is framed which isn't just about taking you on a kind of rollercoaster ride of who did it, or how they did it, or why they did it, but also about how do we know how to think about these events and the consequences of them?"
Read on for a full rundown of The Light in the Hall's ending – but be warned: major spoilers follow.
The Light in the Hall ending explained
Joe wasn't responsible for Ela's murder. Instead, it was a lovers' tiff between Ela and Izzy which resulted in her demise.
On the day of her death, Ela arrived upset at Izzy's home. Her mum and step-dad had been locked in a heated confrontation over Gafyn's belief that Sharon was having an affair with her colleague Dai, which she strenuously denied. Their relationship had begun while Sharon's first husband was dying of cancer, which added further fuel to Gafyn's accusation.
Ela, appalled by her mother's actions, stormed into the room and branded her a "slag". Sharon, disgusted by her daughter's language, slapped her, which prompted Ela to storm out.
That was the last time either would see one another.
While Ela and Izzy were lying on the sofa together, the latter revealed that Joe, who worked as a gardener for Nina, had pulled her into his shed and sexually propositioned her. It was a lie, with Joe's flashback revealing that Izzy was the one who enjoyed flirting with him.
That piece of information incensed Ela and she stormed into the woods looking for Joe, with Izzy gleefully trailing her. Wyn also witnessed the pair heading into the trees.
Ela confronted Joe in the caravan, branding him a paedophile for showing interest in her 15-year-old girlfriend and striking him. Panicked by the accusation, Joe insisted that he was innocent and rushed to leave the caravan, but as he pushed past Ela, she fell and for a moment, was unresponsive.
Eventually, she awoke and left the caravan, grabbing a knife on her way out to take up the matter with him once again. But Joe had fled the scene.
"Oh my God! Why would you do that?" said Izzy, before revealing that it was a "joke".
But understandably, Ela wasn't amused and the pair began arguing furiously, hurling cruel insults at one another, the situation continuing to escalate as Ela stabbed Izzy in a moment of blind rage. In response, Izzy rushed at her from behind and shoved Ela, which caused her to tumble down a hill and smack her head on a rock, the impact of which killed her outright.
And in another tragic twist, Joe's father offered to help Nina "sort out" the situation to spare her daughter, which he used to his advantage within the community, hence his role as "county adviser".
He framed his son by planting the knife and Ela's necklace on him, before burying Ela's body on the land surrounding Nina's house.
Ela's diary, which her sister Greta had kept kept hidden, played a key part in unearthing what had happened.
The journal also revealed that Cat Donato and Caryl been exceptionally cruel to Ela, excluding her from their friendship group for no other reason than teenage impulsivity.
Caryl, who hadn't forgiven Cat for leaving her to deal with the fallout on her own, was the person who had been harassing Cat, painting 'Bitch' on her wall, among other unpleasant things.
On the day of Ela's death, Caryl was planning to meet with Ela, but she decided to swerve their conversation, a decision Caryl has regretted ever since.
Like all of the people involved in the sorry saga, the butcher believed that she could possibly have prevented Ela's death.
Speaking to RadioTimes.com about the finale, Joanna Scanlan, who plays Sharon, said: "I think there's a take home from the end of this, which I hope will give people an opportunity to rethink their position about judgement."
Alexandra Roach (Cat) added: "Hopefully at the end, they will take a deep breath and be able to have a sense of resolution about the show and about the characters."
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