Unforgotten season 6 sees Sinéad Keenan and Sanjeev Bhaskar back as Jess and Sunny for another baffling cold case - this time focusing on human remains that have been discovered on Whitney Marsh.
With Dr Leanne Balcombe’s expert analysis of the human spine that is found, it’s evident the remains are relatively recent, and her guess is the body was put there already dismembered. With this knowledge, Jess and Sunny begin to search the area, believing other body parts may not be too far away - but soon the case turns out to be more complex than they could have imagined, weaving the lives of characters from all walks of life.
Here's everything that happens in Unforgotten season 6 episode 6...
*Warning - full spoilers for season 6 below*
The final episode starts right where episode five left, with Marty breaking into Juliet and Taylor's house, and we soon see he intends to do harm as he is carrying a hammer. As he creeps up the stairs, the police and Jess come out of hiding, clearly knowing what he was planning and waiting to catch him in the act. As Marty is taken away by the police, he asks if his mum is dead. Fran tells him she is still alive but gravely ill.
Juliet and Taylor get out of a nearby police car and Juliet tells Jess that clearly Marty is the one who killed Gerrard and that they need to stop harassing her daughter now. But Jess says no one has been harassing anyone and that she still has questions for Taylor.
In Ireland, Sunny questions Melinda who has been arrested for murder and she finally opens up, admitting that she got pregnant with Gerrard's baby, but had a termination becasue she wasn't in the right place to bring a child into the world. Sunny points out she is a devout Catholic and pro-life, but Melinda says the only thing sadder than having an abortion is bringing a child into the world that you already know you don't want. Sunny asks why she told Father Ryan that she had the baby, and she says she couldn't admit that she had a termination.
Sunny asks her about the blood on her jacket and she says that Gerrard tried to blackmail her out of £30,000 by threatening to expose her termination which would lead to the end of her career. But, when she refused to pay, he hit her and so she retaliated by hitting him with a carving of a duck.
Melinda says Gerrard later lowered his demands to £5000 and to get him off her back, she agreed to meet him on February 24, 2021, the day he went missing, but he never showed up.
Melinda continues that she needed to get out of London after finding out he had gone missing and that is when she moved to Ireland. She also admits that she had spoken to Juliet once, but they had never met. Juliet called her about a year before Gerrard went missing and was very unpleasant after finding out about their affair.
Murray goes to find the Diwari family and the mother explains about the dampness and mould in the rental property that they were living in that belonged to Mr Cooper. She says that Asif was amazing and helped them a lot, but every time Mr Cooper said he would sort the damp, he simply painted over it. She says that her 18-month-old son, Jamal, was very poorly from the damp and ended up in hospital with a fungal infection in his lungs which eventually led to his death on February 22, 2021, just two days before his second birthday.
Mrs Diwari tells Murray that after their family, Asif was the first person they told about Jamil's tragic death. Murray realises they need to speak to Asif again as the date is too much of a coincidence.
As the team briefs Jess on their latest findings, Fran reveals they finally have the phone records back for Gerrard's mobile and it confirms he was in Bow working at the pub on the 23rd of February, but on the 24th his phone shows him in Ilford, where Marty's flat was. She also says she spoke to the brewery woman who got the voicemail from Gerrard canceling their meeting, but while it was definitely his voice, she said he called her babe, which is inappropriate for a work call and Fran admits all the timing, the fake numberplates and now the odd voicemail all seem off.
As the team meeting comes to an end, Jess's mum calls and says she is worried about Steve, who has been to collect his things and seems very depressed. Jess promises to check on him later, as Sunny returns back to the office fresh from Ireland.
They head straight in to speak with Asif now they have the new information about little Jamal's death. He still says 'no comment' to everything they ask, but gets upset and cries as they talk about the day Jamal died. They tell Asif that Sam has taken full responsibility for having illegal immigrant Hassam in the house and he seems shocked, especially when Jess and Sunny tell him they can see he is a good man and simply want to eliminate him from their investigation. Finally, he opens up, telling the police that he went to show Gerrard a photo of Jamal on a drip in the hospital, hoping it would shame him into sorting out the damp problem in the flat, but instead, he lashed out at Asif, and Asif admits that he hit him back, overpowering him in two punches becasue he was fitter than Gerrard, but that when he left him, he was very much alive.
Next, Sunny and Jess interview Marty and he tells them he never saw Gerrard in Ilford and when they ask him what he was doing on both the 23rd and 24th of February 2021 he gives a minute-by-minute description of what he was up to, including watching planes at City Airport. They are shocked by the level of detail and ask why he hasn't told them this before, and he replies that they have never asked.
Susan finds her father's diaries in the garage and sends them to Fran, who tells Sunny and Jess that the entry in the diary about seeing someone throw things in the marsh at 3 am the previous night was on 24th February 2021, suggesting that Gerrard Cooper was definitely killed on 23rd February, making it impossible that he left a voicemail for the brewery worker on the 24th.
Kaz tells the team that the person who was seen driving into the marsh carpark at 3am on the 23rd altered their own numberplates... the team look at all the number plates of the cars all the suspects were driving at the time of the murder and the one that matches - with a few homemade alterations - is Juliet Cooper's car.
As Kaz gets off the phone to the hospital, she tells Jess that Marty's mum, Dot, has told nurses that she put the pills in her own drink as she believed that Marty would get better help without her. With nothing to now charge Marty with apart from breaking into Juliet's house, they decide to let Marty go. Asif is also released and he calls Hassam to check he is okay, but he is in a detention centre.
Sunny meets with Leanne after she finally returns his call, and she tells him she has something big to tell him. She explains she was in an abusive relationship 24 years ago, and one day she went out to get cigarettes and never went back, which in itself isn't bad. However, she reveals she also had a daughter, who she left there and for many complicated reasons, she hasn't seen since. Leanne admits there have been court cases and mental health issues since, but will leave that with Sunny to digest and asks him to call her if he still wants to.
Juliet is brought to the police station and Jess and Sunny grill her. They say they know about the fake numberplates and the false voicemail that was made to the brewery, and that the fact she really doesn't want them talking to Taylor is likely becasue she saw something that night.
Juliet keeps quiet until they give her the chance to reveal her story otherwise they will call Taylor, and eventually she talks. Juliet tells Jess and Sunny that her marriage had been broken for many years and when she was cooking on the night of the 22nd of February Gerrard came home drunk at 11pm and told her that he would be out on the evening of the 24th. She reminded him it was their wedding anniversary but they argued and he got physical. Juliet tells them that she was chopping food at the table when Gerrard punched her hard in the back of her head, which was painful and a huge shock, so she spun around in her chair and punched him back in the top of his leg, but she had a little kitchen knife in her hand and stabbed him.
She says he was surprised and she bolted out of the room and hid in the bathroom until she thought he had calmed down, but when she went back out she found him dead on the kitchen floor in a pool of blood.
Juliet goes on to say she didn't want Taylor with a dead father and a mother in prison so she knew she had to act fast and be clever about it if she wasn't going to get caught. She tells them how she locked his body in his office overnight, took Taylor to school the next morning and then later googled how to get rid of a body at an internet cafe before going to a hardware store and paying for carving knives, bin liners and gaffa tape with cash.
She then explains how she dismembered his body and wrapped the bits in bin liners and then that night when Taylor was asleep she went to the marshes and dumped the bits of her dead husband. She is upset as she tells them, but Jess is staring at her intently, and clearly something not sitting right with her.
Only later when the interview is over does Jess admit to Sunny that she thinks Juliet's timeline is all wrong.
They look at Gerrard's phone records and see he called for a takeaway on the night he died at around 7pm and it was delivered not long afterward, meaning that Juliet has lied about what time he got home. Jess says there is only one reason you would lie about the timing when you have just confessed to a murder, and that is because you didn't do it.
Jess and Sunny go and see Taylor, and ask about the night her father died. She tells them that she came down one night and found them arguing, but her mum was on the floor and her dad was stamping on her ribs with his boots on. She tells them that she thought her dad was going to kill her mum, so she wanted to stop him and got the little cooking knife from the table and she jabbed him in his leg. Taylor explains that her dad was shocked by what she had done, but while he was distracted Juliet grabbed her hand and got her upstairs, ran her a bath, and stroked her head until she went to sleep after a story.
Taylor says the next morning there was a chocolate bar by her bed, and so she knew that her dad had forgiven her for what she did. That day she had a playdate and when she got home her mum told her that her dad was on a call in his office, and she wasn't to disturb him. Then Taylor went to bed and the next day was when he went missing.
Jess and Sunny get back in the car and are in shock, knowing that 14-year-old Taylor has absolutely no idea that she killed her own dad.
Jess is confused about what they do with this information and Sunny points out they only have two options, pretend they never spoke to Taylor and let Juliet go down for the murder, but claim self-defense and she would be out of prison in 2 to 4 years, or they have to tell the CPS what happened, and they are likely not to press charges on Taylor, however, she will find out that she unwittingly killed her father and will have to live with that for the rest of her life.
Sunny says it isn't their decision to make, and that it is Juliet's choice. Jess doesn't agree, but Sunny points out they don't want the weight of this on her shoulders.
Jess and Sunny go and see Juliet in her cell and tell her they know everything now and that she has to decide what she wants to do. Juliet is heartbroken that her plan to protect her daughter has gone so wrong and she is torn over what to do, so asks Jess what she would do in her situation.
In the next scene, we see Juliet going into a police room to talk to her daughter and it is later revealed that she has told her the whole truth and that the CPS has decided it isn't in the public interest to charge either of them, as it was self-defense.
At the end of the episode, we see Melinda record her last Mel's Minute now she has been fired, but instead of lashing out at the company that sacked her, she wishes her viewers love and peace.
Marty visits his mum in hospital and is thrilled when the carer tells him that as soon as Dot can walk again by herself they can both go home.
Sam and Asif talk about the fact Sam has lost his job after the immigration charge, and he says it was worth it to keep Asif in the UK. He then proposes to Asif, and he happily accepts.
Melinda goes back to the hospital to see Patrick for the first time since she walked out and tells his doctor that she is feeling much more positive and she's back for good.
Later, Jess goes to check on her estranged husband, Steve, like she promised her mum and from afar she sees him having a drink with another woman in a pub garden, clearly not as depressed as he made out.
Sunny calls Leanne and tells her that they all have secrets and regrets, including him, so they should meet, talk more and drink more and see what happens. Could this be the start of a new romance for Sunny?
The end of the episode sees Taylor and Juliet leaving the police station. As they leave, Juliet sees Sunny and gives him the faintest of acknowledgments before getting in the car with her daughter ready to go home.
Unforgotten season 6 airs on ITV1 on Sunday and Monday evenings at 9pm. All six episodes are also available as a box set on ITVX now.
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