The House Across the Street ended with its fourth episode tonight and it had a LOT of twists and turns – if you need that ending explained, we’ve got it covered!
The final episode saw Claudia move into the Winters’ home after Owen’s arrest and she tried to find out the truth.
Here’s the ending of The House Across the Street explained that you need…
What happened with Simon and Emily?
The Channel 5 drama revealed that Simon really didn’t have anything to do with Emily’s disappearance or murder.
He did bite Emily and Joanne explained that after it happened she just left Emily back at the house with Sabine.
So, Joanne and her son were innocent after all and really didn’t have anything to do with Emily’s murder.
Did Sabine kill Emily?
When Joanne left back some photos of Emily, it caused Sabine (Lisa Dwyer Hogg) to reminisce about the day the one photo taken – the day Emily died.
Sabine explained that Emily begged for a lollipop and she let her have it. But when Emily got home, she refused to eat her dinner and Sabine got frustrated.
Emily kept screaming so Sabine grabbed her mouth to get some quiet and said she “didn’t realise she couldn’t breathe”.
But then Dean, Emily’s older brother, came into the room and Sabine finally let her go, so Sabine did not kill Emily.
Who killed Emily?
So, if it’s not George, Owen or Sabine, who really did kill Emily? Well, it turned out to be Emily’s older brother Dean who killed her in the end.
Dean told Emily to go to the park to give their mother some peace after the whole screaming and almost suffocation incident.
But he saw Emily leave the park and run into the woods. Dean followed her and was yelling at her to stop running away.
To catch up with her and stop her running, he pushed her down. Emily once again started screaming and Dean couldn’t get her to stop.
We saw a flashback where he covered Emily’s mouth to stop her from screaming but he just didn’t stop.
He told Claudia that he didn’t know why “but he just couldn’t stop”.
It wasn’t really clear what happened to Emily’s body but, presumably, Dean moved it further into the woods where the police later found it.
Why was Owen arrested?
Dean eventually told Sabine the truth about what happened with Emily.
In order to protect her son, Sabine called the police anonymously and lied to them that she saw Owen carrying Emily’s body into the woods.
That’s why the police arrested Owen, all while he presumably knew the truth that Dean actually did it.
Read more: The House Across the Street on Channel 5: Line of Duty star Craig Parkinson plays George
Why did Claudia take the blame for Emily’s murder?
At the end of the episode, we saw Claudia recreate the scene that Dean told her about. She held down a coat and shouted “stop screaming” into an area in the woods.
We next saw her at the police station, confessing to Emily’s murder. She told the police she did it because she got frustrated with Emily’s screaming and just “wanted to help” in giving Sabine some peace.
Claudia’s ex-husband Leon visited her in prison to ask her why she would lie. Claudia told him he never really knew her and she “should’ve never been anyone’s mother”.
A news broadcast at the end of the episode saw Owen return home after being released from prison, as both Joanne and George (Craig Parkinson) watched on in horror that Claudia was the murderer.
Claudia watched the broadcast with tears in her eyes and a smile on her face as the episode ended.
So, Claudia took the blame in order to make sure Dean wouldn’t get arrested and to get Owen out of prison.
She genuinely loved Owen and the family, who finally gave her the love and attention that her ex-husband and son never did.
That’s why Claudia lied for the family. Her confession and recreation at the scene of the crime seemed to be enough for the police.
But how terribly sad for Claudia.
All episodes of The House Across the Street are now available on My5.
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