Rectify Season 2 Ending Explained: Does Daniel Confess to Hanna’s Murder?

The second season of Sundance TV’s ‘Rectify’ continues the story of Daniel Holden, raising questions about his guilt and innocence. The ten-episode season extends the timeline by a few weeks, giving more space to the exploration of Hanna Dean’s case and the details that may or may not prove Daniel killed her. The personal relationships of the Holdens also become more complicated as they are all posed with questions whose answers are bound to change their lives forever. By the end, Daniel’s fate hangs in the balance as a major decision could put a stop to his short-lived freedom. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Rectify Season 2 Recap

Following the attack at the cemetery, Daniel Holden is in a medically induced coma. He dreams about his friend, Kerwin, who helps him hang on to life when Daniel is ready to let go. Eventually, he wakes up, and while his spark for life may not entirely be renewed, it shows he hasn’t entirely given up yet. Meanwhile, Sheriff Daggett arrests Bobby Dean for the attack, but when the time comes, Daniel decides not to incriminate him. This is the first sign of his desire to leave the whole thing behind. Meanwhile, Tawney and Teddy’s relationship continues to experience a rough patch.

He becomes even more convinced of the new business venture, which he believes could benefit them greatly. When his father refuses to sign off on it, he puts his own house as collateral to get a loan from the bank. On the other hand, Amantha and Jon’s relationship seems to get better. She gets a job at a store to stay in Paulie, even though her mother repeatedly advises her to leave the town and let Daniel be responsible for his own decisions. Jon gets a job offer which would take him to Boston, and he wonders if Amantha would like to come with him.

The chances of her saying yes decrease drastically over the season as she starts to feel she is being pushed out by him and Daniel, especially regarding the plea deal the prosecution has offered. In the end, she decides to distance herself from Daniel’s decision and his fate, as well as from Jon. At the same time, Daniel also spends some time trying to get a better perspective on what happened the night of Hanna’s murder. The search for truth leads him to Trey’s doorstep, and the revelations eventually shape his decisions that could have a drastic effect on his future.

Does Daniel Take the Plea Deal? Did He Kill Hanna?

While Daniel may have been released from prison, the question of his guilt remains, even in his own mind. In the second season, more details about what happened to Hanna come to light, and it becomes clear that Daniel’s confession bordered on the line of coercion. Even the part about him sexually assaulting her was a story that the then-sheriff and prosecutor pulled out of the crime scene photos. The eighteen-year-old Daniel, who didn’t have a lawyer by his side and wasn’t allowed to call his father for several hours, was fed the narrative that eventually led to his confession. Still, his memories of that day remain hazy, so even he cannot say with absolute certainty that he didn’t do it.

Still, some things do become clearer. His tryst with Lezley, consuming mushrooms, and later a night out with Trey at George’s house partly lift the fog. That night, he met Hanna in the woods, and they tried to have sex, but it didn’t go as expected on his end. She laughed at his reaction, which made him run away and into the woods. He got lost and circled back to the spot where he’d left Hanna, but she wasn’t alone anymore. Trey, George, Christopher, and other guys were there, and from afar, Daniel saw Hanna indulging in sexual acts with them. It wasn’t until later that he realized that she was on the mushrooms that he had given to her earlier.

When this was happening, Trey saw Daniel looking at them, but he didn’t do anything to stop things. From here, things get a bit blurrier. Daniel knows he went to Hanna. He knows that when he found her dead, he covered her with wildflowers and stayed holding her hand the entire night until the sheriff found them the next day. The gaps in between, however, are not entirely answered by his memory. He remembers that when he was being interrogated, the sheriff paused the recording, and the prosecutor showed him the pictures. So, whether he confessed to strangling her of his own accord or was nudged towards it by the men interrogating him remains unclear. Still, when the time comes, he confesses to the whole thing all over again when he agrees to take the plea deal.

Is Daniel’s Plea Deal Accepted? Does Teddy Press Charges Against Daniel?

In preparation for the second trial, the new prosecutor knows there is a good chance the previous confession will be excluded. Without that, on top of the DNA evidence which proves Daniel didn’t sexually assault Hanna and the mysterious absence of their core witness, George, it would be more difficult to prove Daniel’s guilt this time. Moreover, since his release, public sentiment has shifted, which means some of the jury members might enter the trial thinking the accused has already been wronged for so long that it might become impossible to convince them otherwise. So she offers Daniel a plea deal.

The negotiations lead to a set of rules for the deal. Daniel must confess he strangled Hanna. The sexual assault charge against him will be thrown out. He will not serve any more time, but he will be banished from the state of Georgia, barring one county. After much thought, Daniel decides to accept these terms. In the end, when a debrief is added to the mix, he agrees to that too. During the debrief, he mentions everything he now remembers, implying that his previous confession was coerced. However, in the end, he accepts on tape that he did kill Hanna, and the confession wasn’t coerced. He doesn’t reveal whether he is saying this to get it over with or if he really means it. In any case, the ball is in the prosecution’s court now.

The next step is for the prosecution to present the deal to the judge, who may or may not sign off on it. The chances for the sign-off are good, but Jon starts to worry that it may be taking them too long to decide. It turns out that the prosecution has found a reason to reconsider the plea deal because Teddy has finally decided to press charges against Daniel for the sexual assault that happened last season. While Hanna’s assault and murder could have been seen as a one-off thing, Teddy’s assault lays down the beginnings of a violent pattern.

Because it happened within a week of Daniel’s release from prison, the prosecution could use it against him to show that not only did he commit those crimes eighteen years ago, but he is capable of doing worse if he is allowed to go free. Teddy’s testimony would solidify their case, especially since Daniel is not going to contest it. With that in mind, the plea deal seems redundant now that the prosecution knows they can win the case all over again. It is not good news for Daniel, but it remains to be seen whether the odds might yet be in his favor, especially with the discovery of George’s body and the sheriff’s growing interest in Trey as a suspect.

Do Tawney and Teddy Get Divorced? Does She Get Together With Daniel?

A major part of the second season focuses on the crumbling relationship between Tawney and Teddy. In Season 1, meeting Daniel and feeling things for him makes her doubt her bond with Teddy. Meanwhile, her husband is so rattled by what Daniel does to him that it starts to affect his behavior at home. Tawney thinks it’s because of her, and Teddy lets her believe that. But then, she gets pregnant, and for a minute, it seems they can finally put their differences behind them and start anew. Teddy is over the moon about it, but he is still jealous of the bond between Daniel and his wife.

When Tawney miscarries, Teddy is devastated, but he feels that his wife is not grieving the same way, or at all. He thinks it’s because she never wanted to have his baby in the first place. This accusation makes her leave the house and temporarily move to a motel. Despite Teddy’s accusations about her emotional attachment to Daniel, the latter is the only person she feels she can talk to. They spend the night sharing their sorrows, and the next morning, Daniel reveals he assaulted Teddy. He also tells her that he is taking the plea deal, which means he might have to leave Georgia forever, and this may be the last time he and Tawney see each other.

Tawney is not entirely happy about not seeing Daniel again, but she also knows they cannot be together. And despite all his feelings for her, he knows it too. The news of the assault shakes her a bit, because not only does it make her question her knowledge of Daniel as a person, but it also explains Teddy’s behavior for the past few weeks. Still, it doesn’t change the fact that things are broken between them. While Daniel may have been the catalyst, the cracks in their marriage had started to appear before his arrival. This is why Tawney decides to take a longer break from her husband.

She comes home to get her things, and Teddy hopes it might still be temporary. And then, she says how sorry she is for what Daniel did to him, which makes him realize that she was Daniel at the motel. It angers him all over again, and he resents Daniel even more for taking away everything from him. This is what leads him to the police station to report the assault, even though he knows what it means for his stepbrother. Earlier, he had refrained from reporting it for his stepmother’s sake. But now, he feels Daniel’s intrusion in his life needs to be punished. It will not bring Tawney back to him, but seeing Daniel back in prison and maybe even on death row might give him some contentment.

Why does Jared go to Hanna’s House?

While the entire Holden-Talbot household is caught up in Daniel’s case, Jared is pushed to the sidelines so much that no one even seems to notice what is going on with him. Because he is still a teenager, the adults don’t feel the need to include him, especially as the situation gets more complicated. Still, Jared feels drawn to Daniel and Hanna’s relationship, and even more so since he gets hold of the mixtape she made professing her love for his half-brother. Jared had been interested in Daniel’s case for a while. In Season 1, Daniel finds a file with newspaper clippings about him in Jared’s room.

Upon Daniel’s return from prison, Jared shows great interest in helping him reconnect with the world. In Season 2, he finds himself out of the loop with the family, but his interest in the case remains. He feels deeply after listening to Hanna’s mixtape, and it makes him wonder what she was really like. He questions how Daniel could have killed her if they loved each other. In the end, he sneaks into Hanna’s room when her mother and brother are away. Since the room is preserved as it was when she was alive, she gets a glimpse of her personality.

He is found by Bobby Dean, who is not exactly surprised to see him there. Jared fears Bobby will beat him up like he did Daniel, but Hanna’s brother seems to have given up in some ways. He tells Jared to take whatever he likes, adding that they don’t exactly need all of this stuff. Jared keeps Hanna’s bracelet before leaving, suggesting that his obsession with her continues. Due to the neglect, no other family member, except perhaps Daniel, gets a hint of it. Daniel knows Jared kept his Walkman, and he honestly answers his brother’s question about the relationship with Hanna. But he sees it as a harmless curiosity, though it remains to be seen whether it will remain so.

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