Grace season 4 reached a tense finale as Roy finally came face-to-face with his estranged wife Sandy, who's been missing for several years.
It was a scene millions of fans had been waiting to see since the show debuted in 2021 and the scene where the Brighton-based detective (John Simm) and his fiance Cleo Morey (Zoe Tapper) confronted Sandy (Clare Calbraith) didn’t disappoint.
Yet while the mystery of her disappearance was solved at last, the episode opened the door to some other questions, leaving us wondering if we’d seen the last of Sandy and whether he was the father of her son, Bruno?
Grace season 4 ending explained - why did Sandy disappear?
When Roy arrives to see Sandy after the best part of a decade, there are so many questions going through his mind. He’d long been tortured by the mystery around her disappearance, but after finding she’d been living in Germany under a false identity, he finally had a chance to get some answers.
"Was I really such a terrible husband that you actually wanted me to believe that you were dead?" he asked her. "I was accused of your murder, tell me where you’ve been!"
Sandy explained that she felt it had become impossible for her to stay in Brighton as their relationship broke down and she couldn’t talk to him about it because he was "never there".
"I was having panic attacks," she told him. "I would find myself just driving. I came to Munich and I just broke down. It was over!"
A furious Grace stormed out and told Cleo what happened had been Sandy’s choice and that she wanted him to believe she was dead, which was too much for his new fiance…
What happened when Cleo confronted Sandy?
The best part of the climactic face-off came when Roy’s pregnant fiance, Cleo, came into the hospital ward to confront Sandy.
"I really loved that scene," says Zoe Tapper. "She’s pregnant with Roy’s child and then this woman she thought was out of their lives is back! She puts on a strong and solid facade, but underneath it all she’s in a very vulnerable place.
“At the start, she's standing quietly at the back and letting her man get on with it," she continued when we spoke to her recently. "I was really pleased that Cleo got her moment to say 'Hang on a minute. This isn't okay. What you put Roy through has been horrendous!' She really does stand up for him and squares up to Sandy, which I think is brave, and means a lot to Roy as well.”"
Zoe also says that while Roy and Sandy’s marriage broke down, she’s confident that he and Cleo’s relationship will stand the test of time.
"They just seem right for each other," she explains. "You sense that all the things that were perhaps problematic about his relationship with Sandy, don't seem to cause an issue for them.”"
"It’s funny because Clare Calbraith (who plays Sandy) and I get on well off-screen," she continues. "Behind the scenes, we have a laugh together!"
Is Sandy’s son, Bruno, Roy’s child?
During that face-off with Sandy, Roy tells his ex-wife how grateful he is that they never had kids together — but we think there might be a bit of surprise for him in Grace season 5!
In the second episode of the series, we saw Sandy open up to another member of her commune, who tells her that when she was in Brighton she realized she was pregnant but she didn’t know who the father was.
She decided to flee to Germany, but explains that some years later "Bruno started asking who his father was and I didn’t have the answers".
We reckon there’s a good chance Roy is Bruno’s father, but we’re also wondering who Sandy was having an affair with when she got pregnant?
Yet as Sandy’s conversation with her counterpart continued, she explained that “someone saw me” when she secretly returned to Brighton recently. That person was ACC Cassian Pewe (Sam Hoare), but is that a hint from show bosses that Sandy had a fling with Roy’s boss?
Will Sandy be back in Grace season 5?
It seems clear that Sandy will survive the injuries she sustained when she was hit by a car in Germany and we reckon it’s a safe bet she’ll be back for Grace season 5.
Roy and Cleo had a happy ending at the end of this year’s series, but we doubt that will last too long and we wouldn’t be surprised if Sandy came back to Brighton to reveal the truth about Bruno, setting up a tense wait to find out who his father is.
“Cleo and Roy are very happy about starting a family together,” says Zoe Tapper, who plays Cleo. “But this is Grace and nothing’s ever straight-forward to the rug’s going to be pulled from under her feet obviously!”
