Betrayal on ITV ending: What key player died, if John stopped the sarin attack and kept his job, and news on series 2
It was explosive - without the explosion
Betrayal, the latest bombastic spy thriller from ITV, came to a dramatic ending after four action-packed episodes following MI5 agent John Hughes as he attempted to stop a mass casualty terrorist attack.
The writers threw everything at this thriller – marriage breakdowns, drug gangs, suspected bent coppers – or rather corrupt spies – Iranian politics, even haemorrhoids. But one thing it lacked was a charming leading man.
John Hughes was probably the least likeable leading man we’ve seen on our TV screens in a while. Reckless, willy-waving, and a crap husband. He consistently put himself and others in danger. Never mind the fact the super-suspicious spy didn’t guess his work partner Mehreen was working with Iranian Oasem Asadi. But, eventually, he did get results and saved the day. (Mostly because of his dogged pigheadedness.)
Here’s the ending of ITV thriller Betrayal unpacked, and news on a possible series 2.
***Warning: spoilers from the ending of Betrayal on ITV ahead***
ITV thriller Betrayal ending explained
At the end of the penultimate episode we learnt that intelligence operative Mehreen Askari-Evans wasn’t a corrupt spy. In fact, Oasem ‘The General’ Asadi was working for her – or rather he was an MI6 asset. Asadi had been working undercover with a hardline faction in Iran for two decades. And the regular intelligence he’d provided had proven to be “gold”.
Now, those Iranian hardliners wanted to use Asadi’s connections to the UK drug trade to organise the assassination of Fatemah Feyzi with as many civilian casualties as possible. An Iranian woman outspoken about Iran’s “tyrannical regime”, the prominent Iranian dissident Fatemah planned to give a talk at an Iranian university in the UK.
Ehsan, the man in the very first scene of the four-part series, had been following Fatemah for Craig Beeston. Knowing of the deadly plan, he’d tipped John off about the “threat to national security”.
Of course, viewers knew that Oasem Asadi was ‘working’ with Stockport gangland’s Craig Beeston. They were providing the toxic nerve agent sarin to be used in the attack against Fatemah.
And, at the end of episode 5, they had captured John Hughes – who they thought was a journalist – after finding him snooping in their headquarters (a crusty disused car park). But it wasn’t long before he managed to escape.
What happened in the final episode?
John did not trust Oasem Asadi and believed he’d been compromised. He was convinced the sarin attack against Fatemah Feyzi would still go ahead. Having failed to convince her to cancel the event, a possessed John staked the venue out for anything suspicious.
Of course, by this time, Craig Beeston had discovered that John had escaped and was on the loose. He called Oasem Asadi to tell him. At this point, we still weren’t sure whose side he was on.
The attack at Fatema’s talk did NOT happen. The target had been changed. But, of course, it wasn’t over yet! John believed that Oasem Asadi’s wife and family were being threatened. As a result, Asadi was being coerced to go through with an attack on the UK. John suspected Mehreen had either lost control of her agent, or was colluding with him. Turns out there was another target – and Oasem Asadi had been compromised.
Whose side was Oasem Asadi on?
The Iranian revolutionaries had Oasem Asadi’s family, and were blackmailing him to carry out a fatal attack in the UK – first on Fatema, but then another venue targeting many civilians. Realising John knew the truth and was going to try to stop his plan, Asadi in turn took John’s own wife and childminder hostage to stop him from interfering.
Oasem Asadi had to carry out the deadly attack, or his wife and three children would be killed. He felt he had no choice. The hostage situation came to a bloody conclusion when Mehreen arrived at John’s house having realised Asadi had been compromised. When Hossein, the man making sure Asadi did what he was told, realised that Asadi knew Mehreen and was a “traitor” Asadi has no choice but to kill him.
With a gun to his head, Mehreen ordered Asadi to reveal the real target of the attack. Asadi said: “Fatema is not the only Iranian dissident in the UK. The regime is planning a big splash against its critics in the UK.”
It was the biggest day of the year for Iranians – Nowruz, the Iranian/Persian New Year (usually around March 20/21).
Asadi also revealed that he’d begged MI6 to get him and his family out or Iran for years. But the intelligence he was giving them “was just so good”. He “despised the regime”, but had been forced to work with them for two decades.
What happened to Mehreen in the Betrayal ending on ITV?
John was disgusting to discover that Mehreen had given Asadi “her blessing” to kill Ehsan. She had also organised five kilos of heroin to be planted on his property to throw MI5 off the scent.
In shocking scenes, Mehreen shot Asadi in the head to save Claire’s life, but it also worked quite nicely at silencing him, too.
At the end of the ITV thriller, Mehreen’s future was confirmed. Although she’d done everything to protect mass casualties in the UK, she had also done some morally ambiguous things. But perhaps that’s the cost of working for MI6. The death of Ehsan compared to the death of hundreds or thousands… As Mehreen said: “It’s the game.”
Having been rapped on the knuckles by her bosses, Mehreen’s job at MI6 was over. She told John: “I’m not going back to MI6. Now Asadi’s gone, MI6 won’t touch me with a bargepole. So that’s why I’m staying at Thames House in State Threats.”
Yep, she’d be working with John!
What was the target, and was the attack stopped?
The Nowruz – Iranian/Persian New Year – celebration in South Manchester’s Persian Centre was the new target of the mass-casualty sarin terrorist attack. The venue was the main meeting place in Stockport for the critics of the Iranian regime.
It was a critical threat with a potential serious threat to life. CCTV footage showed Craig Beeston and his heavies arriving at the Persian Centre in a white van and carrying out the sarin. As armed police arrived, a shoot out took out one of the baddies. But Craig Beeston hurriedly tried to complete the mission as police evacuated the building. Although the police managed to evacuate all innocent Iranians, and kill Craig and his criminal gang, the sarin had already been released.
The hazmat team arrived to seal and contain the sarin and minimise the threat. As for Iran’s hardliners who plotted the attack, the Iranian PM was told of the plot and promised to “make a move against them”.
Meanwhile, Asadi’s wife and children had left Iran’s capital Tehran and were on their way to the UK where they would be safe.
Betrayal ending on ITV: Did John and Claire stay together?
Betrayal was just as much about a marriage imploding as it was a spy thriller about national security.
John Hughes’ job gave him a “suspicious and paranoid mindset”. How could Claire trust her husband when he lied for a living? He can’t talk about his job as he’d be breaking the Official Secrets Act. John was also “routinely dishonest”, and had admitted to more than one affair.
In the Betrayal ending, Claire and John had separated after “hitting rock bottom”. Claire told John: “I just don’t think we can come back from here.”
However, after the threat on their lives, they realised they still had love for each other. And Claire realised how important his job was. She told him: “I feel like I understand you now.”
In the closing seconds of Betrayal, Claire and John were back with their marriage counsellor trying to make it work.
Did John Hughes keep his job?
Due to his insubordination and refusal to do things by the book, John had previously been offered voluntary redundancy. Having refused, he was offered a security detail protecting the royal family at Windsor. The offer did not fill him with enthusiasm.
However, by the ending of Betrayal, John’s job at MI5 looked secure. His boss Simone Grant told him: “I haven’t had the chance to talk to senior management yet, but I think you’re staying at State Threats. And, by the way, there are conditions to you staying at State Threats. You need to retake units 1 to 3 of basic agent handling. You need to do a refresher on anti-encounter surveillance protocol, and a course on personal and security devices, and ethical counselling.”
Basically he was being “sent back to school”.
What else happened in the Betrayal ending on ITV?
- Were John’s piles (haemorrhoids) treated? Guess we’ll never know. But I think we can live without hearing about them ever again. Although a more serious illness was hinted at, the ITV thriller did not reveal what was wrong.
- We learnt that John had actually killed an MI6 agent. The man who had killed Ehsan – and subsequently been shot by John in a struggle – had been an MI6 agent. Although John hadn’t known, he’d killed “one of his own”. It didn’t hugely impact the ending of the series, but it added another layer of moral ambiguity. Would you kill one person to save 100?
Is there a series 2 of Betrayal?
ITV has not yet confirmed a series 2 of Betrayal, but we expect there to be another series. Although it worked as a stand-alone, there were plenty of loose ends left hanging.
John kept his job in State Threats at MI5, and his working partnership with Mehreen might continue with her joining the team, too. And there was that simmering sexual tension…
John’s marriage and potential illness are all possible storylines for a Betrayal series 2. And, of course, there’s always a threat to national security lurking around every corner…
