ITV’s Joan is the latest drama series to take over our Sunday evenings, telling the true story of Joan Hannington, one of the UK’s most notorious thieves in the 1980s.
Played by Sophie Turner, the series sees Joan go from a young mother struggling to look after her young daughter Kelly, to becoming a world-class jewellery thief who falls in love with an antique dealer/thief Boisie Hannington.
The six-part series debuted last weekend (29th September) and is showing weekly on Sunday evenings, however the whole series is also available to stream on ITVX. And if you are anything like us then you’re likely unable to wait an entire six weeks to wait to see what happens to Joan, Kelly and Boisie, and will have binged the entire season over one weekend.
And if you’re still a little confused as to how the series wrapped up, then here’s what you need to know about the final episode of Joan.
The ending of ITV’s Joan explained
The penultimate episode of Joan saw Joan and Boisie plan to pull of the biggest heist of their careers by robbing the entirety of Bernard’s shop, so that they could get away once and for all and move to Spain. Joan is also planning to get Kelly back from care, too. So how does the heist go? Well, not exactly to plan.
At the beginning of the episode Joan goes to visit Kelly at her school, while pretending to be an American reporter (honestly the amount of disguises at this point is pretty iconic). Val finally brings up her suspicions with Boisie that something is going on between Albie and Joan, but Boisie reassures her it’s just for work, which annoys her.
Joan then meets up with Albie who provides her with a passport for Kelly and suggests she tells Boisie about Kelly being part of the plan. Obviously, Joan ignores this and continues to keep Boisie in the dark.
The group (minus Val) meet up later at the pub to go over the plan again, where Albie reveals he’s booked Boisie and Joan a ferry to escape on after the heist. The undercover cop Tom is outside Bernard’s, clearly looking for any signs of Joan and monitoring her behaviour while she works.
One evening back at the flat, Boisie discovers Joan’s plan to take Kelly with them and confronts her about it. The pair argue and he threatens to call off the plan, saying it isn’t good for Kelly to be on the run.
Later, however, he confides to Joan about his own upbringing and how his own mother wasn’t there for him as a child, always picking men over him and using the money meant for Boisie on herself. Boisie eventually agrees to carry on with the plan, including getting Kelly back.
The day of the robbery comes around and Joan heads to work, while Boisie feels something is off. That day he tries to call her at work, but Bernard doesn’t allow for personal calls and so Boisie comes into the shop and tells her Paul has pulled out of the plan. Joan is insistent on getting the job done and asks for Albie to find someone else to help.
Later, as Albie and Boisie are getting the van ready for the heist, Paul’s stand-in arrives and is none other than Gary aka Joan’s abusive ex-partner. Great, just who we want to see.
Never one to be trusted, as they go into rob the shop, Gary goes off on his own agenda and starts smashing the shop to pieces. Honestly, what is with this guy? He reveals himself to Joan and shows her his gun. Then Gary and Boisie get into a fight, and Gary reveals exactly who Joan is to Bernard.
During the fight Boisie’s gun drops and Gary picks it up and tries to shoot Joan and misses. On his second attempt Boisie jumps in front of Joan and gets shot in the back of the leg. Gary runs out with the jewels and into the van, instructing Albie to drive off.
Joan is distraught as Boisie bleeds to death on the floor of the jewellery shop, but he tells her to go and get Kelly, and she soon hears sirens and sadly has to leave Boisie alone and make a run for it.
Do Joan and Kelly get reunited?
After Boisie’s death, Joan somehow manages to get changed into her American journalist disguise and head for Kelly’s school. She meets up with her daughter and tells her to come to the school gate after their meeting, rather than going back to lessons.
Kelly arrives and the pair drive off to the pre-arranged caravan that was meant to be their hiding spot before Boisie and Joan got the ferry. While she’s trying to keep Kelly happy, the impact of everything that’s just happened is slowly hitting Joan and she struggles to keep her cool and soon Kelly finds the gun in Joan’s bag. Luckily, Joan manages to stop Kelly before she pulls the trigger.
This is the final sign Joan needs that she can’t look after Kelly right now and returns her to her foster family. With no Kelly or Boisie, Joan decides to turn herself into the police.
How does Joan conclude?
After turning herself into the police, we next catchup with Joan four years later. She’s in Spain at the cliffs we originally saw her with Boisie at. She’s wearing a backless top with her childhood scars now covered in tattoos.
At the cliffs she meets with Albie where she reveals she was let out of prison early on good behaviour. Albie presents her with a suitcase of cash and asks if she wants to start working together again. She rejects his offer and says she’s going to go and work honestly, not in the criminal world.
The series ends with Albie walking away and Joan calling out after him, “And you. Watch your f**king back.”
Joan is available on ITV1 and ITVX now
Senior Entertainment and Lifestyle Writer
Lydia Venn is Cosmopolitan UK’s Senior Entertainment and Lifestyle Writer. She covers everything from , to the latest celebrity news. She also writes across our work/life section regularly creating , covering exciting new releases and sharing the latest must-haves. In her role she’s interviewed everyone from Margot Robbie to Niall Horan, and her work has appeared on an episode of . After completing a degree in English at the University of Exeter, Lydia moved into journalism, writing for the , before working as Features Editor at , where she spoke on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour and Talk Radio. She has an encyclopedic knowledge of Gilmore Girls and 00s teen movies, and in her free time can be found with a margarita in hand watching the Real Housewives on repeat. Find her on .
