'The Sister' Ending Explained: Will Elise's ghost haunt Nathan forever? Here's why loose ends justify a Season 2
Spoilers ahead for ‘The Sister’ Episode 4
The four-part British thriller series, ‘The Sister’, was an engaging watch. The death of a young woman. A man who was there with her and blamed himself for years for the death and kept the secret safely guarded. A secret that would have wreaked havoc for he’s married to the sister of the woman who died. And the arrival of an old acquaintance makes the whole thing unravel.
In episode 3, we saw that Nathan (Russell Tovey), was in fact, not the cause of Elise’s (Simone Ashley) death. It was Bob (Bertie Carvel), a crazed man, obscenely fascinated with the occult. Bob, in the guise of offering them cocaine after the New Year party, gave them both some cyanide. And while Elise snorted some, Nathan was spared this gruesome death because he and Elise began kissing.
As she choked and died because of the poison, Nathan was left blaming himself. And Bob let him suffer the blame. But why did Bob kill Elise? He didn’t even know her. The truth was revealed in episode 3 where Bob told Nathan that he wanted to “make” a ghost and he guessed that the supposedly haunted woods would make for a good spot for this. He, in fact, intended to kill both of them.
But it would seem that the incident (or maybe the actual ghost of Elise) haunted Bob for years, finally leading him to track Nathan down. And once Nathan realized what had happened, he launched his own plan. He poisoned Bob and made it look like a suicide. But not before he informed inspector Jacki Hadley (Nina Toussaint-White) that he suspected Bob may have had a bigger hand in the whole incident than he had let on. He fed her lies. Before the medics arrived at Bob’s place, he managed to hide any evidence of foul play and he even retrieved Elise’s clothes that Bob had kept hidden in the freezer.
Did Nathan actually get away with it?
For the moment, it seems as if he did. In the aftermath, we saw that while there was some bitterness from his wife Holly (Amrita Acharia) about him having kept this a secret all these years, things got better and the two even had a child eventually. But there are plenty of loose ends still.
For one, Jacki has not quite ruled out her suspicion for Nathan’s involvement in the whole story. Add to the fact that she’s Holly’s best friend, there is a possibility that she will be dogged in her pursuit here. And there is also the fact that Bob is not dead. Jacki told Nathan that Bob was in a coma -- and not the kinds from which people wake up. But as long as he is alive, there is the possibility that he will wake up and things will go south for Nathan.
And the biggest reveal of the final episode definitely suggests that there is more to the story. When Nathan is driving back from the hospital in the dark in the woods, we catch a glimpse of the ghost of Elise in the back of the car. So, there is definitely some retribution in the air.
Does that mean there will be a second season?
Speaking to RadioTimes.com, Amrita Acharia said she would “love” to be part of a second season. But so far, nothing is in the works. “I mean I would love that [a second season] purely because it’s one of the most fun jobs I’ve done, because it was such a fun team, and the writing is just so good. I’d love there to be a second season. That’s why they leave it open-ended, isn’t it? In my book [it is]. I don’t know, I know as much as you do,” she said. “I think with a writer like Neil [Cross], I think there’s scope for anything.”
‘The Sister’ is streaming on Hulu.
