Unforgotten season 6 episode 5 recap: what devastating secret is Melinda hiding from her past?

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 5...

*Warning - full spoilers for the fifth episode of season 6 below*

The penultimate episode opens with Jess telling her husband, Steve, that she knows everything about his affair with her sister and that they need to talk that night after work. Meanwhile Sunny calls Leanne from Ireland where he is for work and leaves another voicemail for him when she doesn't answer.

The local Garda officer, Joseph, arrives to see Melinda and says that the British police have arrived and want to talk to her in person at the station that afternoon. He says she needs to make sure she turns up and he doesn't want any issues, and she promises to be there. Before going for her interview Melinda goes to visit Patrick in the hospital and tells him that she has done something truly terrible and she can't be with him anymore, before walking out of the hospital as he calls after her.

Back in London Fran tells Jess they have a match from DNA found on Gerrard's hoodie that was worn the night of the attack, and it matches Asif, which no one was expecting.

The team has a catch-up about their findings in the Gerrard murder case and while Fran has found a storage container that Melinda rented, Kas is starting to wonder if Gerrard was killed the day before Juliet reported him missing because of a suspicious car that was seen arriving at the marsh carpark in the middle of the night the day before he was allegedly murdered. Murray relays the information that Marty's mum, Dot, is in intensive care after taking an overdose of pills that were crushed into her tea, and Marty has gone missing, with the police searching for him.

In Kent, Marty wakes up after spending the night on a bench by the beach. He heads to the top of a cliff where a dog walker stops him from jumping off.

Jess arrives at Juliet's work to ask if there is any possibility that Gerrard might have gone missing the day before she originally reported him missing. Juliet isn't helpful and gets cross when Jess says she has spoken to Taylor's school and knows she has been expelled for being violent. Jess also says she will need to speak to Taylor, which infuriates Juliet and she ends their conversation and throws her out of her office.

Later, Juliet's boss, Paul, asks her for a chat and tells her that as she has turned down early retirement the board has decided they are going to suspend her pending an investigation into her misconduct. But Juliet sees red and throws a cup of coffee at him, telling him that she will fight him every step of the way.

Fran calls Jess to tell her that Asif has arrived at the station for his interview, while she also has spoken to Brianna West, the pub employee who is traveling, and she confirmed that she saw Gerrard hitting Juliet.

Later, Jess tells Sunny over Zoom about the domestic abuse in the Coopers' marriage. He is surprised because he says Juliet doesn't seem like the kind of woman to put up with that sort of thing, which makes Jess cross as she says men don't do it because a woman is weak, they do it because they can, and Sunny is apologetic while Jess tries to explain she has a lot on her plate at home.

Murray goes to find the Dawalli family, who are Gerrard's tenants he clashed with but finds their home empty and post building up on their doorstep. He calls the rental company to see if they have left a forwarding address.

In Ireland, Melinda is upset when Father Ryan, who she has been having an affair with, tells her people are talking in their little town and he wants her to find somewhere else to worship.

Later, Sunny interviews Melinda and she admits she lied in her previous interview and their relationship was much longer than she said. Sunny tells her that they have evidence that Gerrard hit Juliet, assaulted his best friend and also threatened his tenants, but Melinda is adamant that he never hit her. She pretends not to remember threatening text messages that Gerrard sent her and then confirms that she moved to Cork on March 2 - just days after Gerrard's murder - bringing forward a flight that she had originally booked for two months later.

Melinda also denies ever meeting Juliet and tells Sunny if the police want to search her storage unit then they have to get a warrant before storming out. As she goes, Joseph from the Garda, who has been sitting in on the interview, tells Sunny there is something he should know. He explains about their town being little and everyone knowing one another's secrets, and if the police want the dirt on Melinda then Sunny should speak to Father Ryan as he has been keeping her 'very good company' since Patrick got injured.

Back in London, a woman called Susan has come to see Kaz after seeing the police witness request boards at the marsh. She tells her that her father worked nights at a service station and was cycling home at 3am around the date Gerrard was killed and disturbed someone heaving something into the water.

At the storage depot, Fran asks to be let into Melinda's container. Soon the police are searching her belongings and find a jacket with blood on it.

Meanwhile, Jess interviews Asif and when she asks how he thinks his DNA got onto Gerrard's hoodie he answers no comment to everything. She asks again about the Dawalli family and he says the last time he saw them was when he stopped working for the council in September 2020. But she knows he is lying becasue of a witness statement that says he was still helping the family in 2021 but when she asks if he got angry about how Gerrard was treating the Dawalli family and he attacked him, Asif clams up.

Kaz is interviewing Susan's father, the man who saw someone throwing something into the marsh around the time Gerrard went missing. He is in a home after having a stroke, and his memory is hazy, but says there was just one person throwing things into the marsh, however as it was night, it was raining, they had their hood up and were wearing a covid mask, he couldn't even tell if it was a man or woman. However, Kaz gets a breakthrough when he tells her that before his stroke he kept a diary and so he will be able to tell her the exact date this happened.

While Melinda is being sacked from her TV job becasue of the murder investigation and her affair with Father Ryan, Jess is in the pub talking with Steve where he finally admits to his affair with Debbie. He also admits there were other women and that he has been getting therapy for a sex addiction. She thanks him for making this very easy for her, and takes off her wedding ring, telling him she is done, it is over, and that she wants him out of the house immediately.

Juliet tells Taylor she needs to control her anger following her suspension from school, but Taylor just says she learned everything from her. Juliet warns her daughter that the police are going to want to speak to her again and she needs to say what they agreed, but Taylor is not happy about lying to the police.

Sunny goes to see Father Ryan and asks about Melinda. He tells Sunny that she admitted to having a long affair with a married man before coming to Ireland and they had a baby together. Sunny tells Jess and they decide to talk to Melinda again, but before they do, they want to see who the blood belongs to on the jacket they found in the storage container.

It doesn't take long for the results to come back and it is Gerrard's blood on the jacket, so Sunny and Joseph track her down at home and arrest her for murder.

Back in London, Marty has found where Juliet and Taylor live but a local woman asks if he needs help and he dashes off. However, at the end of the episode, someone is seen breaking into their house in the middle of the night. Is it Marty or someone else entirely?

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.