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Baffled viewers beg for help understanding dumbfounding ending of BBC drama Paula

If you thought The Replacement was confusing

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Remember The Replacement and how confusing – not to mention infuriating – the final episode was?

Well, the BBC drama department has surpassed itself with new thriller Paula.

The three-parter – which concluded on BBC Two last night – had been a little baffling from the outset.

If you missed it, here’s a wee recap:

Teacher Paula had vermin in her house, so enlisted the services of odd-job man James.

He was rather hot, she was a little drunk and they ended up having a one-night stand.

Hard-up James discovered that Paula was having an affair with a married man and proceeded to blackmail him – before killing him.

Paula then ended up bedding the handsome policeman in charge of investigating the murder.

Meanwhile, James set light to a garage with Paula’s alcoholic brother inside – and then stabbed the cop in the eye.

A proper psycho, we know, but he’s haunted by the apparent death of his sister when they were kids – and he keeps having visions.

Then, in last night’s final episode, Paula killed her brother – who was on life support.

James killed her dog and then broke into her house – whereupon it looked like Paula would bed him again.

But then she stabbed him in the neck with a syringe. Next thing we saw he was being held captive in her cellar, in a coffin, and being fed through a tube.

And Paula popped out for dinner with the policeman, announcing she was pregnant…

We told you! Weird. Warped. And a little bit unfathomable. Although, don’t get us wrong – it was also an excellent piece of televisual drama, with some top-drawer acting.

Twitter had plenty to say.

If any ED! readers managed to figure it out, drop us a line, we’d love to know – and will share the wealth with the rest of the head-scratching audience.


Kaggie Hyland
Editor-in-Chief