Ludwig episode 6 sees Lucy Betts-Taylor (Anna Maxwell Martin) being arrested for murder, while John "Ludwig" Taylor (David Mitchell) has to tell the truth. Here's the end of Ludwig explained (spoilers ahead)...
The episode opens outside Holly’s block of flats, the camera goes inside and we see Holly’s bloodied corpse! Then outside Lucy is found by the police carrying a knife dripping with blood!
The doorbell goes at Lucy's, John is stunned to find Shaw there and even more stunned when she says his wife has been arrested on suspicion of murder. At the station, John's told he can't see Lucy. Russell says he's sure it's a mistake.
Russell tells John that the neighbors reported a fight at Holly's and Lucy was picked up at the scene. She was found with the knife he says!
Russell interviews Lucy. She denies killing Holly (Sophie Willan). We flashback to the night of the killing and we see Lucy take a kitchen knife with her. Back in the interview, she explains Holly called her and that's why she went. She says she took the knife for protection and that Holly died in her arms when she got there.
Russell leaves the room and his phone giving Lucy a chance to call John. They speak and John is furious with Lucy for going. But she says she needs Ludwig to solve it. She wonders if it was even Holly on the phone. Lucy thinks she's been set up.
The post mortem says Lucy’s knife was the one that killed Holly. Simon says he has something to tell Russell — we assume the fact James kissed Holly thus giving Lucy a revenge motive. Henry arrives at the station. Poor lad looks like he's lost both parents.
Ziegler tells Shaw he wants a complete media blackout on what's happened. He also makes it clear they need Lucy charged quickly and John moved on.
Henry flags to John that soon the police will work out he's not James and when they search the house will find Holly’s face pinned up on the wall, which they both agree will look weird.
Russell says John needs to give a statement and they leave together. Henry quickly stuffs James's notebook in his pocket before Shaw steps into the room.
Shaw, Alice and Simon go to Holly's flat. Russell asks John if he's been involved with Holly and he replies he doesn't know. Holly's boyfriend, Adam, arrives and asks to be allowed in. Shaw breaks the news to Adam that Holly's dead. In the flat, they discover Holly's snooping.
John admits to Russell that he's not DCI Taylor, he’s his brother John! Now both John and Lucy are in a cell.
Shaw and the remaining team gather. Russell says Lucy says James vanished a few weeks ago and left a letter saying he was in danger and that she shouldn't try to contact him. He adds she's paranoid and he can understand that. Russell says Ludwig's only concern is proving Lucy is innocent and doesn't seem to realize how much trouble he's in. Simon chips in that he thinks Holly knew John wasn't James and that's why she said the thing about kissing him to test him and John failed the test. Alice says that all the murderers John has arrested might all walk free.
Shaw informs Henry she knows John isn't James and that he's in a cell voluntarily. The team looks at the suspects: the boyfriend and Lucy.
Russell goes to visit John in the cell and asks him if he truly believes Lucy is innocent, he says he does. Russell hands John the evidence they have and wishes him good night.
Shaw and Henry have a little chat in the lift. Meanwhile, in his cell, John looks over the evidence. We flashback to the night of the murder and we see Lucy approach the flat, finding the door wide open and then Holly dying.
"How did Lucy enter the flat?" John asks Russell the following morning. He says he has a strong theory about how Lucy didn't do it despite being in possession of the murder weapon. John pleads to be able to gather everyone at the flat, but Russell says he's not a detective and can't make those demands. Shaw though comes in and says she understands why John wants to say everything in front of lots of witnesses so what he says can't be swept under the carpet.
John's not allowed at the crime scene, but they reconstruct the crime scene in the office. John says the puzzle is how was a murder committed by a weapon that was only brought in after the murder had taken place. He says that's impossible. He goes on the murder was unplanned and so was the presence of Lucy who Holly telephoned supposedly about having information about her missing husband. The important factor he says is the killer had no idea Lucy was coming.
He says the killer bundled into the flat before Lucy got there and argued with the victim. The killer murdered Holly shortly before he heard Lucy enter the flat and quickly hid. Lucy then came through, saw the body and put the knife she brought with her down.
About to flee the scene, the hiding killer spotted Lucy's knife she'd just discarded and while Lucy was on the floor with Holly he simply swapped knives depositing Lucy’s knife in this knife block. The knife block from which minutes earlier he'd taken the murder weapon.
Ludwig solves another murder
Simon produces the knife block and John pleads with the boyfriend to confess. He then says his prints will be on Lucy's knife and how can he explain that? The boyfriend conviently makes it clear he's guilty and Simon cuffs him. Lucy is delighted and so is John until he remembers how much trouble he's in.
John asks if he’s going to a real prison now and his team says no, Shaw wants to see him — "I'm not sure if that’s better or worse," he retorts.
Shaw says the murderer wasn't actually Holly’s boyfriend and instead, she used him to sell information she'd gathered. Shaw says Holly tipped off people under investigation, extorted money from employees, and sold stories to the papers. She says the mysterious Roger Sinclair was one of her clients.
Everything Sinclair ever blogged has vanished. She says James was first on the scene when he was murdered. Within 24 hours, Shaw was told from above that James and his partner were off the case and a specialist team was taking over. James though kept investigating and said the report of it being a burglar was all lies and that he thought it was a professional hit. She told him to drop it. Holly knew he'd been removed from the case. She thinks Holly planned to blackmail James over his investigation but then he left and John arrived.
She says Holly had worked out John wasn't James and had set the meeting up with Lucy to blackmail them. But on that night the "boyfriend" worked out Holly was conning him out of money and killed her.
Shaw says that the contents of Sinclair's house were shipped off to Scotland Yard but when the van got there it was empty. She wanted James to drop it because she knew he couldn’t win the battle against the high-up forces controlling everything.
She hands John James's resignation letter and tells him to sign it and date it so the outside world will think James solved the cases.
John tells Russell he signed the letter and Russell says he's enjoyed working with him. He bumps into Ziegler outside the office, who asks him for his full report. John replies he's just quit and hands him his badge and gets a cab.
John has a voice message call from James! He says he'd gone through hundreds of scenarios of what would happen when he vanished but never imagined his brother going undercover and taking his identity. He said he didn't factor in John's deep friendship with Lucy.
"I need you to do something for her now John and that's tell her the truth because I've been lying, more to myself than anybody else." He adds something was rotten in Cambridge but that actually he wanted to escape a life he'd grown unhappy with. He says there's one major difference between them, he takes after their fleeing father while John takes after their mother.
John returns to Lucy's. Russell turns up and offers Ludwig a job at the police station as a crime consultant. "We don’t want to lose the best detective we've never had," says Russell.
Ludwig ending explained — the Bowerbird
John says back in the house he's not taking the job. He wants to escape the murders and conspiracies and says Lucy should come to live with him. John says to Lucy her husband has left her. He adds he's alive and well and leaving him answer phone messages. John says James said he was the Bowerbird, which Henry helpfully knows is a bird who leaves the nest the moment his mate lays its eggs.
But suddenly John realizes something crucial and rushes to get the bird book. He says his brother knew someone could be listening to his voice call. He says his brother was giving them a clue and Henry says the book is the source for cracking the code to his dad's notebook. John cracks the code and they have an address. They head to a security unit and inside is all of Sinclair’s research. John says inside all the rubbish about fake moon landings is something that's true and big enough to get Sinclair killed.
In the shadows is James! And then we see John back with the team investigating a new case setting up Ludwig season 2...
