The Teacher final arrived all too soon after a fantastic few days of drama led by Sheridan Smith on Channel 5 this week.
Viewers found out why Brian/Arnold was hellbent on getting revenge on Jenna by persuading pupil Kyle to say he’d had sex with her when she was off her face.
And also whose side Jenna’s so-called friend Pauline was really on – after the revelation that Arnold was her partner Brian at the end of episode 3!
But sadly the denouement left many feeling downright annoyed.
Let’s reflect on what it taught us first, though.
Pauline was innocent – hooray!
So, the first bit of good news in The Teacher final was that Pauline really had no clue that her Brian was actually called Arnold and that he’d been plotting to ruin Jenna’s life.
That sadly meant that poor Pauline, who was so obviously craving the love and companionship of a man, had been used all along.
(And that, as Pauline hadn’t been acting shiftily, her weirdness was just down to the role being badly acted.)
Kyle redeemed himself
But what else did we establish? Kyle had agreed to do Brian/Arnold’s dirty work in exchange for a bit of attention – thankfully there had been no grooming of a sexual nature – and a couple of hundred quid.
The teenager genuinely didn’t believe that things would go so far – that Jenna would plead guilty to having sex with him, and lose everything.
As we discovered Brian/Arnold’s involvement last episode, the focus in the final was on WHY.
It transpired that Arnold had been having an affair with a female pupil while he was a teacher at Hillsden and Jenna had reported him.
He was slung in jail and lost everything. After failing to rebuild his life abroad, he returned to the UK, became Brian and hatched his revenge plot.
Brian’s bloody bombshell
During a confrontation with Brian, who refused to accept he had groomed the girl, Jenna defiantly told him that she wasn’t like him – that she would start to live again.
At that part he smirked as he backed away from her, into the path of a truck that mowed him straight down – his final act of vengeance, to leave that sight in her mind.
Jenna collapsed… and then we saw her later chatting to Kyle, who revealed he’d got a 9 in his English exam. And then… well, that was it!
Read more: As Sheridan Smith wows in The Teacher, her best TV roles ranked
The Teacher final – viewers’ verdict
Well, it’s only fair to say that many viewers were left feeling distinctly disappointed.
Some found the ending nonsensical.
I missed the apprentice to watch that shit ending that makes NO SENSE #TheTeacher
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