Hostage ending explained: will there be series 2 on Netflix and how did show end? Full details
Hostage released on Netflix on August 21 and stars Suranne Jones 👀📺
- Hostage is Netflix’s latest British drama.
- Suranne Jones stars as a Prime Minister in peril.
- But how did the show end - and will it have a second season?
Spoilers for Hostage on Netflix up-to-and-including episode five.
A thrilling new British drama has debuted on Netflix this week and it includes TV royalty Suranne Jones.
Hostage, which feels a bit like a spiritual successor to BBC’s Bodyguard, premiered on the streaming service today (August 21). It follows a British Prime Minister who faces a moment of peril after her husband is taken hostage.
All five episodes are available to watch now, just in time for the bank holiday weekend. It is a very easy watch and runs for less than five hours combined.
But will the show return for more episodes in the future? Here’s all you need to know:
Will there be a second series of Hostage?
Netflix is billing the show as a limited series, which does seem to suggest it might be a one-and-done series. However, it is not unheard of for a miniseries to be turned into a returning programme, if successful enough.
Disney Plus renewed Shogun for multiple future seasons, following its blockbuster success last year. So, if Hostage does top the charts, Netflix might be quickly asking for more.
The show certainly leaves a little bit hanging at the end of episode five, the series finale.
What happened at the end of Hostage? Netflix ending explained
Full spoilers follow from this point. Don’t read any further if you haven’t finished Hostage.
The episode starts with a state of emergency being declared and the army taking control of the streets. It is confirmed that Vivienne Toussaint (Julie Delpy) had been killed in the bombing in the episode before.
General Livingstone is the man behind the plot, which involved necessitating a military coup of sorts to prompt an increase in defence funding. The people responsible for the kidnapping as well as the bombing of 10 Downing Street are revealed to be soldiers who were “abandoned” when Abigail Dalton, then a junior minister, gave the order to leave Belize before the evacuation was complete.
In the show, Belize had been invaded by Guatemala in a rather undefined conflict. The previous episode it was revealed that Saskia was secretly part of the plot, posing as Matheo’s girlfriend, and was one of the troops from the disbanded along with John Shagan (Martin McCann).
After a confidence motion had been passed against Dalton the previous episode, following her reveal of General Livingston’s plot, she is informed that it has been void and she remains Prime Minister.
However, that was not the end of it and following the failure to kill Dalton in the Downing Street bombing John and Saskia track her family to a country house. After taking down the security guards, they hold Max and Sylvie hostage (once again).
Matheo cleverly uses his phone to make a silent 999 call and alerts the authorities to the situation. After a scuffle with Saskia, Sylvie manages to escape and Dalton arrives at the house.
John reveals that his fiancée had been a translator who was left behind during the evacuation of Belize and was shot shortly afterwards. She had been carrying his child at the time.
As the armed police arrive, John accuses Dalton of breaking her word and Max attempts to disarm him but ends up badly injured by the knife. Sylvie, armed with Saskia’s gun, breaks up the fight and John tries to convince her to shoot him, including revealing he ordered the killing of her granddad.
Syvie shoots John and then is arrested by the armed police. The antagonist appears to die, having been shot in the chest.
The series ends with PM Dalton giving a speech outside 10 Downing Street to the nation. She calls a General Election, using the words of Vivienne, and aims to seek a “radical new mandate”.
A portrait of Vivienne can be seen hung-up inside Downing Street before she goes to give her speech. It certainly leaves a few things hanging, despite being billed as a “limited series”.
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