However, writer Chris Chibnall revealed that this wasn’t originally how the finale was meant to play out, having initially conceived a different culprit when first penning the show’s scripts.
The two detectives reflected on having solved the season’s central case, unveiling the identity of Trish’s rapist as lonely, impressionable schoolboy Michael Lucas (Deon Lee-Williams), groomed by Leo Humphries (Chris Mason) to attack her.
“It changed slightly, but then from the second draft of episode one, [it was] always the same.”