Criminal Record ending explained

Criminal Record is a new police drama that just aired on Apple TV+ – here’s how the story of corrupt cops concluded.

Criminal Record came about due to friends Cush Jumbo and Peter Capaldi wanting to work together. They teamed up with writer Paul Rutman, and the result is Criminal Record, which aired on Apple for the last seven weeks.

Jumbo plays DS June Lenker, investigating the case of Errol Mathis, who might have been wrongly incarcerated for the murder of his girlfriend. While Capaldi is DC Daniel Hegarty, who appears to be responsible for that wrongful incarceration, with the show putting both officers on a collision course.

Criminal Record launched on Apple TV+ on January 10, 2024, and ended today, with the following details of how that storyline played out. So beware of SPOILERS AHEAD…

Criminal Record ending explained

Through the eight episodes of Criminal Record, it becomes clear that Errol didn’t murder his partner Abigail. While during the finale, we discover that Stefan Ash stabbed her to death – a local property landlord who now moonlights as an informant for the cops.

Lenker and Hegarty track him down to an abandoned London flat, where Ash attacks Lenker, but she fights him off, and police arrest the killer. Lenker also finds Ash’s missing girlfriend and her baby hiding in the same property.

While being driven away, Ash is executed by a local gang, while Hegarty is shot in the stomach, but survives his injuries. Physical evidence – including the knife that killed Abigail – is then found at Ash’s house, thereby exonerating Errol. And putting racist cop Tony Gilfoyle in the firing line for fitting Errol up.

A sting in the tale

In the show’s penultimate scene, Lenker and Hegarty have a heart-to-heart on a rooftop, with the latter endeavouring to take responsibility for what he has done. Though we learn that an outside expert declares there was no indication that he had led suspect Errol during his interrogation. Meaning Hegarty effectively gets off.

But then there’s a sting in the tale, as Lenker listens to the recording Hegarty took of Errol’s son in the hospital. And realises that Hegarty made it sound like the boy said something he hadn’t to manipulate his father into confessing.

Lenker phones Hegarty and says: “He wasn’t talking about Errol – he was quoting some cartoon off the telly. And you knew that. You poisoned him. You poisoned his whole life with that, didn’t you?”

The final shot is of Hegarty on the other end of that phone. He doesn’t respond, smirks, hangs up, and looks directly into camera, which is where the series ends.