Rohan Jain
BBC’s ‘Inside Man‘ is a TV miniseries directed by Paul McGuigan. The crime-drama show is written by Steven Moffat, known for shows such as ‘Doctor Who,’ ‘Sherlock,’ ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife,’ and more. Its story chronicles how Jefferson Grieff, a death row inmate in the US, tries to find a missing woman named Janice, held captive in a vicar’s house in the UK.
The show portrays how unforeseen circumstances and an unfortunate misunderstanding can take one down a dark path. Besides this, the overall narrative also emphasizes how thin the line between being a decent human being and a notorious criminal is. When Janice is locked up in the cellar of a vicar’s house, her only hope is Grieff’s expertise as an ex-criminologist. So, what happens to her, and what does the mid-credits scene in the season finale mean? Let’s find out. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Is Janice Dead or Alive?
Janice makes it out of the vicarage’s cellar alive. She is saved by the collective efforts of Grieff, an investigative journalist named Beth, and one of Grieff’s contacts, Morag. Early in the narrative, Harry, the vicar, receives a flash drive from one of the men who regularly comes to his church. The man called Edgar says that it contains porn, and he doesn’t want his mother to catch him with it.
Harry doesn’t give this much thought and decides to cover for him. Following this, Harry picks up Janice, his son Ben’s math teacher, and takes him to her home. This is part of their routine, but things turn dark that day. Janice gets her hands on the drive and finds child pornography on it. Almost instantly, she assumes it belongs to Ben, and Harry tries to convince her that it belongs to someone from the church. However, he doesn’t take his name because he wants to protect Edgar from anything Janice might do.
Janice begins to feel unsafe in the house and decides to leave, but Harry doesn’t let her go because his and Ben’s reputation is on the line. One thing leads to another, and the next thing you know, Janice is wounded and locked up in Harry’s cellar. Although he didn’t hurt her on purpose, he cannot let her go in her current physical and mental condition.
As the story unfolds, Harry and his wife, Mary, try multiple things to fix the situation, but it only worsens. While this happens, Grieff and Beth are getting closer to Janice’s whereabouts. On the other hand, Harry and Mary decide to kill Janice because they do not see any other alternative. They place a heater that releases carbon monoxide in the cellar to poison the woman.
But as fate would have it, Ben gets locked up in the cellar too. With each passing minute, their health deteriorates due to the poisonous gas, and Ben gets agitated. When he discovers that Janice thinks he and his father are pedophiles, he loses his temper. The headache due to carbon monoxide adds to this, and in a fit of rage, he swings the hammer and strikes Janice on the head.
Meanwhile, Harry realizes his son is in the cellar and storms into it, only to find his son with a bloodied hammer and a seemingly dead Janice. He takes the hammer away from Ben and decides to take the blame upon himself. However, Harry realizes that Janice is still breathing. So, to end everything once and for all, he calls the police and tells them that he has already killed Janice. After he hangs up his phone, Harry is about to deliver the final blow. With Grieff and Morag’s help, Beth reaches the scene just in time to tackle Harry to the ground.
In the end, Janice survives without any severe issues, and Harry gets imprisoned. We see Harry and Grieff talking through a video call in which the latter explains how he managed to save Janice. The show ends with a few open-ended questions, and the credits start rolling, but the story isn’t over yet. We see a mid-credits scene involving Janice and Grieff, where the woman asks the inmate for help.
Why Does Janice Need Grieff’s Help?
In the mid-credits scene, Janice asks Grieff if he can help her murder her husband. The death row detective, who only has one week till his execution, decides to aid her. It begins a while after the events of the season finale. Janice still has scars on her face as she sits before Grieff in the US prison. She tells him that she needs help with her husband’s murder, to which Dillon, his partner replies that her husband is alive. Immediately, she says that she is aware and her husband deserves to be killed. She asks if Grieff can be of service for this, and the inmate seemingly agrees.
Throughout the story, there’s no mention of Janice’s husband, which leaves the audience with many questions. First, why didn’t he report that his wife had been missing? Second, are her characteristics defined by her relationship with her husband? In a brief scene, Grieff explains to Beth how Janice is a person with no friends because she knows people too well. She is pretty clever, not very social, and always a threat to anyone backing her into a corner.
This judgment turns out true when Janice tries to manipulate Harry, his wife, Mary, and their son, Ben. Everything she does has an ulterior motive, which leaves the viewers stumped. The couple almost always underestimates her presence of mind, and she uses this as her biggest weapon. But, all these things could be a result of something else.
Under a different context, these things might seem like trauma responses. For instance, despite knowing Harry and Ben for a long time, she doesn’t trust either of them after finding child pornography on the flash drive. Besides this, she is uncomfortable talking to Beth when the investigative journalist asks for an interview. These things could be linked to her husband, who might be the reason behind her trauma. This is perhaps why she needs Grieff’s help in the mid-credits scene.
Read More: Is Inside Man Based on a True Story?
