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The Feud ending explained: One final twist
Let's break it down.
- Abby Robinson
Published: Wednesday, 23 April 2025 at 10:00 pm
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Channel 5's The Feud delivered melodrama, magpies and murder across its six-episode run, the catalyst for which was a humble kitchen extension.
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When Jill Halfpenny's Emma decided that she wanted some extra space at home, little did she know just how destructive that choice would turn out to be, leaving her own marriage in tatters, threatening her daughter's safety and ripping the once happy Shelbury Drive apart.
But how exactly did a kitchen extension wreak such havoc? And where did we leave the characters following the finale?
Read on for a full rundown of The Feud's ending.
The Feud ending explained
Who died?
Ray Fearon plays Alan. Channel 5
The body we saw at the beginning of the opening episode, before the narrative jumped back in time, was Alan's.
He was stabbed to death in Emma and John's kitchen.
Alan was initially found by John, who then disappeared for fear of being arrested for his murder. But John claimed he was innocent.
Derek also died following an earlier altercation with John. Emma's husband pushed him, causing him to fall and smack his head.
He was still alive when he was taken to hospital, but later died of his injuries.
Who's the killer?
Alex Macqueen plays Nick. Channel 5
It was Nick, the creepy neighbour, who murdered Alan.
But why?
John was having an affair with Alan's wife Sonia, which he'd known about for a long time. But rather than confront them, he decided to keep it to himself because he thought his next door neighbours were selling up and moving on.
"I thought maybe that might mean it would all just go away because despite everything, I didn't want to lose you," he said to Sonia.
But when Emma decided that she wanted to stay on the street, instead pushing ahead with a kitchen extension, Alan took drastic action in an effort to force them out.
Alan started killing magpies and using them to intimidate the couple – we find out early on that Emma is superstitious. And he also bribed Lee the contractor to scrap the planning permission, in turn stopping the build and leaving Emma and John's house in complete disarray.
Initially, Emma thought that was her dad's doing. He wanted her to sign some financial documents in exchange for the favour he'd pulled to secure her the planning permission in the first place, following opposition from Derek and Barbara.
But it was all part of Alan's grand plan and it was working, until he became ensnared in his own plotting.
After discovering Sonia was pregnant with John's baby, he'd had enough and went next door to confront John, also enlisting Lee to help.
But when Lee arrived at John's house to engage in some roughhousing, he found Alan with a knife in his chest, while John was no where to be found.
Yet, it wasn't John who had killed Alan, but Nick.
As a keen ornithologist, he simply couldn't tolerate the magpie murder any longer and decided to put a stop to it once and for all.
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It was Emma who figured it all out. She spotted Nick disabling his own security camera in the reflection on a car window, captured on his own footage, before he then went across the road to stab Alan.
He then tried to blackmail Emma when he told her that he also had footage of her and John leaving Derek's house on the day of his 'fall'.
Emma then tried to make a run for it but he grabbed her by the throat and looked set to choke her to death, before Sonia arrived with a nail gun and shot him in the head, before than using it to knock him to the ground.
One final twist
Tessa Peake-Jones plays Barbara. Channel 5
Throughout the series, there were rumours that Derek and Barbara's son Marcus had been murdered by one or both of his parents and buried under a tree in their back garden.
But in the finale, we found out that Marcus was alive and well – and had bought Sonia and Alan's old house so that he could live a stone's throw away from his dear old mum.
Barbara had no idea her son was planning on returning, but with the abusive Derek now out of the way, perhaps that's why he felt able to.
Unanswered questions
Rupert Penry-Jones plays John. Channel 5
- John appeared to want to make another go of things with Emma, but she told him to leave. Is their marriage really over for good?
- Sonia, who sold her house to Marcus, seemingly decided to keep her baby. Will she and John decide to pick up where they left off? Or has too much happened?
- As far as we know, Nick is still alive following Sonia's assault. Will he return to the street and if so, what will the fallout of that be? Emma has dirt on him, but he also has dirt on Emma. Could his health take a turn for the worse in hospital?
- Andi, the police officer who wanted to ruin Emma's life after the solicitor played an instrumental role in her suspension from the force, eventually released Emma's daughter Beth, who she'd been using as part of her scheme, after she got what she wanted: her job back and Emma's professional humiliation after she herself was suspended for lying in court to win a case. But will Beth confide in her mum about what really transpired with Andi? If so, what will Emma do?
- In the final scene, Emma walked into her living room, glancing at a family photo collage on the mantlepiece which she'd smashed during an argument with John. She then decided to call her dad, but we weren't privy to that conversation. Was she simply contacting him to try and mend their fraught relationship? Or did she want something from him? Perhaps Emma was still dreaming of a kitchen extension and needed his assistance in some way. Season 2, anyone?
The Feud is available to stream on 5.
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Authors
Abby RobinsonDrama Editor
Abby Robinson is the Drama Editor for Radio Times, covering TV drama and comedy titles. She previously worked at Digital Spy as a TV writer, and as a content writer at Mumsnet. She possesses a postgraduate diploma and a degree in English Studies.
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