ITV Protection viewers left feeling ‘slightly lost’ during ‘complex’ series finale: ‘What’s going on?”
ITV Protection viewers were left disappointed on Monday night as the final instalment of the series left them with more questions than answers.
During the final episode, Siobhan Finneran’s character Liz Nyles was seen piecing together the conspiracy while fleeing many obstacles that came her way.
Picking up from the cliffhanger at the end of the last episode, DS Raj Kohli (played by Chaneil Kular) tracked down Liz and informed her that Edward Crowther (Alec Newman) had died, shortly after her visit to him in prison.
The pair go looking for evidence and discover divorce papers signed by DS Paul Brandice (Barry Ward) prior to his death but not his wife Gemma (Nichola Burley).
Meeting with Soran Ahmadi (Waj Ali), who is also in Witness Protection, Liz got the name of a person to meet with – Yaran Nouri (Phillip Ardetti) who explained how he provided heroin to Crowther in exchange for weapons for the fight in Kurdistan.
While speaking with Yaran, she noticed she was being watched by someone out on the street and was soon overheard on the phone to Raj – who ended up taking them both at gunpoint.
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After driving to a woodland area, the gunman threatened Liz to give up what she had on Brandice’s “insurance” against the shadowy Nigel Frankton (Jonathan Cake).
Despite getting away by flagging a lorry driver, Liz received a video from a withheld number showing her daughter and father being filmed in hospital and was told what she had found was to be brought to the McLennan safehouse from the first episode.
Liz was confronted by Frankton at gunpoint before he implied he was going to kill her and make it look like a suicide – before DCI Hannah Wheatley (Katherine Kelly) arrived with armed police and saved her.
Liz was rescued but was once again arrested by Wheatley for breach of bail, and after she was released again she confronted DCI Amanda Kelman (Nadine Marshall), who attempted to explain her reasons for being the “leak”.
Whilst the thrilling series came to an end and the storyline was closed off, many fans were left feeling deflated and struggling to follow along.
Taking to their X account, one penned: “Slightly lost a bit now #Protection.”
Someone else added: “I don’t know if I’m really that bothered to know what’s occurring, it’s a bit all over the place…#Protection.”
A third noted: “So now the Kurds are involved? It’s all getting a bit too unnecessarily complex.”
“Anybody following this, I keep getting lost #Protection” another user asked before a fifth expressed: “#protection what’s going on?”
Another lost viewer said: “When they have to explain the plot it’s not great… #Protection.” (sic)
Speaking about the show, Finneran explained: “I loved filming in Liverpool, it’s a great place to potter about and look at buildings.
“It was great to work with Katherine again, and working with Nadine was great as well—I’d not done so before, but we’ve got some great scenes together.
“I just enjoy being on set with good actors and being able to play with the scenes. Although, I’ve never done a job this intense.
“I was in every day and pretty much every scene, so it was exhausting. Your day starts at five and doesn’t finish till ten. But I loved it.”