Toxic Town ending explained: do the mothers of Corby get justice?

Toxic Town is a four-part limited Netflix series depicting the real-life story of one of the UK’s biggest environmental scandals.

In the Northamptonshire town of Corby, a cluster of birth defects affected the lives of many mothers and children born in the mid 1980s to 1990s. Dubbed as the “British Erin Brokovich,” it follows the mothers’ fight for justice against the council who spilled toxic waste across the town while trying to reclaim the area left behind by closed-down steelworks. The cast includes Jodie Whittaker, Aimee Lou Wood, Rory Kinnear, Robert Carlyle, Claudia Jessie, Joe Dempsie and many more.

Here's a recap of everything that happened in Toxic Town episode 4.

The final episode opens with everyone feeling happy - Roy, Tracey, Des and Dani as they ready the documents for the litigation case. It’s 2009. Des and Dani meet with Roy, the chief executive Mark, and a woman to say that they have compelling evidence and should reach a settlement. Roy immediately dismisses the terms without looking at them, saying they won’t be settling. He tells them all they’ve done is gather people who believe they’re right, but “Corby Council won’t buy your lies.”

Des goes to see Tracey and finally reveals that she has been excluded from the trial. He says in order to prove with 95% certainty, the pregnancies need to be the same and hers didn’t involve a limb deformity. Upset, she asks why he didn’t tell her sooner and he said he was hoping for a settlement. She tells him that Shelby died and now he's stopping her from getting justice.

At home, Susan is trying to pick an outfit for court and Peter gives her advice. She says she wouldn’t take advice from the babysitter but asks him when he was ever in court. He laughs. As she arrives with Connor to get on the bus to court with the other mothers and Des, he tells her Tracey isn’t coming but won’t explain why. She texts her, but she doesn’t reply. On the bus, Dani asks if Des is okay and he says he just found out the council haven’t taken out insurance on the possibility of them losing, meaning they think with quite certainty that they’re going to win.

As they arrive at court, there’s a lot of press outside. Susan’s nervous and Des tells her to just tell the truth about them and their children. During proceedings, Des steps out for a phone call and comes back to tell Dani that he now knows the council are hiding from them - an alternative equation for the spread of dust. This equation doesn’t reach the women affected and he says he needs to find the math they’re using and find fault with it, or they’re going to lose.

When they arrive back in Corby, Des explains to Susan why Tracey wasn’t there. She’s angry he didn’t tell her. Meanwhile, Dani returns to the scientist they used for their dust spread equation and asks him to find fault in the alternative findings from the council. Susan tries to see Tracey, but her husband turns her away.

Elsewhere, Derek and Maggie turn up at Pat’s new house. Maggie is shocked by how big it is and Derek assures her that Pat’s taking him with him and they’ll get money, too. Maggie says she can’t stay and Derek says she’s embarrassing him. She says that Des keeps asking if Derek will testify at the trial, but she doesn't want to ask him. Instead, she drives home.

Inside, Pat speaks to Roy about the trial. Pat says he’s worried, but Roy says it’s Corby Council on the stand not Rhodes and Miller. Pat says he’s not listening to him and that he doesn’t care if Corby Council win, he only care if he loses and pushes him to take the settlement. Roy is angry and says he’s going to fight them and he won’t be stopped.

In court again, the foetal medical specialist is explaining that animals have been affected in the same way by cadmium, but when the lawyer asks him where the human proof is, he says experiments can’t be carried out ethically to prove it. The lawyer says they have another doctor who disagrees with him and says maybe they’re both sure of their theories, but it doesn’t make one true. As Des goes to get into his car afterwards, Sam jumps in. He offers his help and Des says to really help, he needs to tell him where he got the papers in the first place so they can get testimony.

Des goes to see Susan and she’s frosty with him still. He says that Tracey is due on the stand the same day as Susan to speak on what happened at ElectraGen, where she worked close to the ponds, but he can’t get her to talk. He asks Susan to try.

Susan and Tracey meet in the park. Susan explains that while she’s heartbroken, she thought about what she’d have picked if Des had given her the choice - win without her or lose with her and she would’ve still chosen to win. While Tracey understands and holds her hand, Susan explains she still needs her to stand trial and explain about the dust and where it was.

It cuts to Tracey testifying in court and explaining that she worked in the office that backed onto the toxic pond site. She explains the dust was everywhere and that the open trucks would always pass by, spilling waste. She’s asked to speak about Shelby and she explains everything that was wrong with her, but despite her daughter not being involved in the case, she stands strong and explains that she’s there to fight for the ones that are.

Elsewhere, Sam stands outside Ted’s house hoping to talk, but can’t get through. Now, it's time for Susan to take the stand. She explains that the lorries went past continuously, covered in dirt and leaving sludge behind. She explains that while Connor is okay, he’s been affected every single year of his life by operations, infections, missing school and pain. The defense stands and asks Susan about her depression. She explains that while she took medication before, she didn’t when she was pregnant. He then asks about her drinking, but she says she didn’t drink or smoke while pregnant, but she feels judged.

At Derek and Maggie’s home, Maggie comes back from the trial and Derek asks her how it’s going. He asks her what if they lose? What if he gives evidence and they still lose? He says if he testifies, Pat will make sure he doesn’t get any other building job. He cries and says he’s sorry for hurting their boy, but Maggie reassures him that she'll speak for all of them.

Meanwhile, Susan’s sitting at home with a glass of wine and Peter comes down to leave. She asks him if she’s a good mother. He reassures her and they start kissing and he ends up staying over. At Ted’s, Sam catches him outside. Ted agrees to talk and explains that he feels like his dad would be ashamed of him. Sam tells him that the trial needs him, but Ted is worried that his dad wouldn’t have liked him betraying his friends. Sam tries to convince him to stand trial, but he refuses.

Back in court, the scientist they’ve asked to prove the council’s dust spread findings are flawed calls Des and says he thinks they are false and that, in fact, a digit is missing. But to prove it, he needs to get hold of a German paper that has been used, but he can’t find it anywhere. Meanwhile, Connor and Peter get fish and chips. Peter asks him what he’s going to do after school. Peter says he wants to open a small garage for repairing classic cars and he wants to use the money that Connor wins in the trial.

Toxic Town ending explained

Maggie takes the stand. She’s asked about Derek and his job. She explains he was paid extra to go fast and that covering the trucks would’ve taken too much time. At home, Connor tells Susan that Peter keeps telling him what to do with the money if they win. She’s upset and when he comes down, she asks him to leave. Daniel comes downstairs and tells him to leave as well, and Peter is aggressive. As he tries to square up to Susan, Daniel stands in the way. Eventually, he goes.

At the office, Dani tries to track down the German paper. While at court, Sam hands over Ted’s address to Des and says you can force him to be a witness. He says they can summon him, but a risky witness might jeopardize the case. He says while Ted doesn’t want to be on their side, he’ll still tell the truth. Dani calls him, she’s got the paper.

It cuts to the scientist explaining that the council’s equation on the dust spread was from a government-sponsored report on the coal industry. The council’s expert used a series of graphs looking at how far different dust particle sizes can travel. In her equation, she missed a digit, proving her findings wrong. While they celebrate the blow afterwards, the lawyer says that if they don’t show knowledge of negligence from the council still, they can’t win. Des explains about Ted and how he could help them, but they need to decide whether to take the risk.

It cuts back to court and the lawyer calls Edward Jenkins to the stand. The prosecution stands and asks Ted about his job working as an engineer on the reclaiming of the steelworks. He explains he was brought in to make sure the land was fit for redevelopment, but when asked whether he thought it had been made fit he said he doesn’t think anyone knows. He begins to explain that the council’s documents are lies and that he flagged health and safety concerns at numerous sites and whenever he did, they took the report from him. He accuses them of manipulating pH numbers in the soil reports, using poorly made membranes that were supposed to be fitted over the waste, noxious leachate that was supposed to be treated instead was drained into nearby brooks and streams, as well as no covers on the trucks or wheels washed. He says he raised his concerns with every level of the council and they told him he didn’t understand how Corby works.

The defence stands. He asks Ted about his firing from the council. He says, yes, he was fired but he’d been leaking documents to Sam Hagen for six months by then. When asked why he was fired, he said because he was accused of fiddling his car expenses. He said they just wanted him out, but when asked if he did fiddle with them, he tells the truth again. He says he did, but only because he was young and they told him to. But he stands by everything he said and gave to Sam Hagen as truth.

In court, the judge says the report shows there was a cluster of birth defects in Corby and that the toxicology report confirms that there were contaminants from the site that could cause these birth defects. The foetal medicine evidence also shows it was feasible for those toxins to cause most of the birth defects. With all the facts in place, the judge rules in favour of the claimant. The court full of Corby mothers breaks out in celebration, while Roy and the defence sit in silence.

After court, Roy approaches Des. Roy again tries to explain that he did what he did to save Corby and Des is furious. Des explains that in taking on this case, it was never about the money and he never even claimed legal aid for his part in the trial. He says he did it all because it mattered and he asks Roy, "When did you forget that?"

At the pub, they celebrate. Susan steps outside for a cigarette and Connor comes to meet her. She explains she can’t find Tracey and she’s not answering her phone, but she thinks she knows where to look. She tells him that the money they won, it’s just for him when he's older and leaves to find Tracey at Shelby’s grave. They sit on a bench and talk about the last 13 years. Susan tells Tracey she was vital in the case and they won. They hold hands and rejoice that they’re finally done.

Words come up on the screen revealing that in 2010, a settlement was finally agreed costing the Corby Borough Council £14.6 million. With this, it became the first case in the world to prove a link between airborne toxins and damage to unborn children. A 2021 study also shows there are at least 21,000 former landfill sites across England and Wales, of which up to 1,287 contain hazardous waste. 167 of these sites are under housing, shops and restaurants. At least 4 of them are under schools.

While no one faced criminal charges at Corby Borough Council, both Pat Miller and Bill Martin are entirely fictional characters. Roy Thomas though was based on a series of different men, none of which lived to see their plans for Corby ever fully realised.

All episodes of Toxic Town are available to stream on Netflix now.