The Curfew on Channel 5 ending: Who really killed Helen Jones, if it was a man, and series 2 news
Just when you thought you knew who the murderer was...
The Curfew took viewers to a near-future dystopian society where women had all the rights, and men had their freedom taken away – and the ending left a huge question mark on whether the system was right or wrong.
The twisty six-part crime thriller was set in a parallel-universe where all men in the UK lived under The Women’s Safety Act. The law protected women by forcing men to abide by a strict curfew from 7pm to 7am every night. The police tracked their movements 24 hours a day with an ankle tag. Viewers learnt within minutes of the series starting that “you don’t [bleep] with curfew”.
However, when a dead woman was found on the steps of the Women’s Safety Centre during curfew hours – a provocative place to leave a dead body – officer Pamela Green was convinced “only a man was capable of that amount of rage”. But was she right about the system being flawed? Here’s the ending of The Curfew unpacked.
***Warning: spoilers from the ending of The Curfew on Channel 5 ahead***
The Curfew ending: Who really killed Helen Jones?
At the end of episode 5, viewers learnt the shocking truth that Ben Williams – the cocky American who had been having an affair with Sarah Jackson – was the villain. Or one of them at least.
Knowing that Sarah had access to a coder, he blackmailed her into handing one over. His leverage? He had abducted Sarah’s daughter Cass and threatened to kill her.
But why did he want a coder so desperately? All was revealed in the ending of The Curfew. Ben Williams was desperately trying to get this son Max out of the UK. It was Max who had violently killed Helen Jones. In episode 1 of The Curfew, the dead body of teacher Helen was found having been smashed over the head repeatedly with force. The perpetually-vaping police officer DI Pamela Green was convinced the killer was a man. Even though the crime had been committed during curfew – so strictly wasn’t possibly.
However, Pamela was right all along. A man had killed Helen Jones.
How and why did Max Williams kill Helen Jones?
Teenager Max Williams killed Helen Jones because he was in love with her – and she didn’t feel the same. Of course, she was his teacher and a relationship would have been wildly inappropriate.
Viewers knew that Max did not have a functioning ankle tag. When Sarah was tagging him, she was distracted by the commotion caused by Paul in reception. Without a tag, Max was free to move around freely after curfew. He turned up at the school after curfew, and tried to kiss Helen. When she refused him, he felt humiliated and lashed out. As she walked away, he picked up a stone from the field and hit her over the head with it.
We know that Max had grown up around his father’s violent ways. He’d also been introduced to misogynist “terrorist” groups like Alpha that tried to empower men.
Max’s mum Sian helped move the body. But, instead of putting Helen’s body in her car before pushing the car into the lake, she had left her body outside the Women’s Safety Centre. Of course, If she’d followed dad Ben’s instruction, it would have meant that Helen’s body might never have been found. Sian’s decision to leave Helen’s body in a very public place changed everything and turned it into a major investigation. It was a cry for help from Sian, who had seen too much violence in her life.
We learnt that Sian had been living under Ben’s strict, coercive control for 20 years. Love-bombing one minute, telling her she was worthless the next. And she was horrified to discover her son was violent too.
Why did Sarah Jackson confess to killing Helen Jones?
When police arrested Sarah Jackson after multiple witness statements, Pamela refused to believe the ‘evidence’ – that it was not possible for a man to break curfew undetected. And breaking curfew came with a minimum two year prison sentence.
Pamela’s suspicions were further roused when she discovered that prime suspect Sarah was a ‘tagger’ who worked at the Women’s Safety Centre. Oh and their CCTV was mysteriously broken on the night in question.
But Sarah confessed to a crime she didn’t commit, claiming the best friends had had an argument. Max’s dad Ben Williams was actually blackmailing Sarah to protect his killer son. He had kidnapped Sarah’s daughter Cass, and threatened to “slit her throat” if she didn’t give him a coder.
Once in possession of a coder, he could take the tags off himself and his sons and they could all flee the country. But Cass, having previously stolen a coder from her mum’s workplace, didn’t have the coder at this point. Her dad Greg did.
The Curfew ending explained on Channel 5
Much of the final episode centred on Ben Williams trying to get the coder – first from Cass, then from Cass’ dad Greg.
Of course, Pamela had already discovered Cass had stolen a coder from her mum Sarah’s work. It had subsequently been deactivated. So Ben blackmailed Sarah to go back to the Women’s Safety Centre, get a new coder that worked. Otherwise he would kill Cass.
Sarah had no choice but to help him, and do as he said. In possession of the coder at last, he detagged himself. However, by the time he’d returned home to detag his sons, the new coder had been deactivated as well.
As the police arrived at his house to arrest him, a panicked and desperate Ben Williams took his wife Sian’s infirm dad Rhys hostage. Wielding a knife, he climbed up on the roof and demanded a coder so he could detag his two sons. Or else, he would hurt his father-in-law.
When Pamela told him they would not be giving him a coder, Ben threw his father-in-law Rhys from the roof, killing him instantly.
What happened to killer Max at the end?
In the tense high-stakes finale, police encircled the Williams household. Ben desperately tried to remove the ankle tags from his sons using any means possible, and even suggested breaking their ankle in a bid to slip the ankle tag off. Pamela, outside his house, phoned him to reason with him and persuade him to give himself up – and release Cass.
The situation got more and more heated, and Ben ordered Sian to continue speaking to Pamela on the phone “to keep her talking”. This was when Pamela finally admitted the abuse Ben had put her through.
Moments later, Ben held his wife’s face in his hands and told her he’d get them out of the situation. That was when his youngest son grabbed his chance. Noah grabbed a knife – the very one his dad had been using to try to prise open the ankle tag – and stabbed his dad in the back. Sian then hit her husband over the head to keep him down, and legged it outside into the safety of the police protection.
Ben had nothing else to do apart from untie Cass and use her as a hostage. With a knife to her neck, he tried to leave the house. But Cass managed to escape by elbowing him and running away. Of course, Noah had already seriously injured him with a knife, so Pamela was able to bring him down.
Police arrested Max for the murder of Helen. They also took his mum Sian away for aiding and abetting her son’s crimes, as well as tampering with evidence, and perverting the course of justice. Ben was still a bloody heap on the floor at that point, but the police would be dealing with him too. Poor Noah was left without any family.
The Curfew ending: Was segregation the answer?
We’re stating the obvious here but, of course, a curfew was not the solution to the problems faced by women every day in the UK and worldwide. From the very first scene, viewers saw that (some) women became as bad as the men they thought they needed protecting from –taunting them and ridiculing them. And all men were being punished for the crimes of the few. It also gave (some) women the opportunity to manipulate the law to their own advantage. Like Sarah tampering with her husband Greg’s car so it wouldn’t start. That meant he broke curfew, and subsequently got arrested and thrown in jail for two years.
Sarah had also tasered a man in the Women’s Safety Centre, which resulted in him dying. Yes, he’d been aggressive. But he hadn’t hurt her. She later lied about it, saying he’d been reaching for the taser. In fact, he’d been reaching for his phone. Women weren’t innocent by any means.
No wonder men felt discriminated against, and resentful. As one student said in Helen’s class: “The whole thing is a self-perpetuating system. How can we get over toxic gender norms if we build our lives around them?”
The system was flawed on a number of levels. Not least the fact that it didn’t actually work. A man HAD killed Helen Jones, after all. And women were still being killed. Men also had to ask the government “permission” to be able to live with a woman. And these draconian measure? They didn’t stop men and boys from being misogynist. In fact, it seemed to fuel this behaviour.
What had happened to Pamela’s daughter?
For Pamela, it was very personal. Pam’s daughter Jane had been killed three years ago. She’d been walking home through the park, 48 hours before they introduced curfew. It was the last recorded stranger femicide (the intentional murder of women or girls because of their gender). It was a last-chance-saloon violent act from a man about to have his freedom taken from him.
The final episode provided a flashback to the night in question three years before. Viewers saw a devastated Pamela crying out in emotional pain as she saw her daughter’s dead body lying on the ground.
The Curfew ending: What else happened in the dramatic finale?
Twelve woman had been killed since curfew came into effect – all when men were under curfew. But, someone within the police force was deleting all records of it. All the files were sealed, and all pinned on women. But, as Pamela pointed out, there was “no way women committed all of those crimes”.
Pamela’s boss Sue Ferguson had been complicit in covering up the crimes. She admitted that Westminster didn’t want anything “potentially controversial coming out this close to the vote” on a permanent curfew. But it was actually Becki Sutton who had been the police administrator on all the murders and had pinned them all on women. She had been “protecting curfew by any means necessary”. So how were women being protected if they were being thrown in jail for crimes they didn’t commit?
It was also Becki who had broken into Pamela’s house in a bid to stop her digging too deep into the murder of Helen Jones. She wanted the crime to be pinned on Sarah Jackson, even if she wasn’t guilty. Becki believed more women would be dead without curfew and was desperate to keep curfew in place – even if it meant doctoring results.
Becki said: “What happened to your [daughter] Jane wouldn’t have happened if curfew had been bought in just two days sooner.”
In the final seconds of The Curfew, DI Pamela Green walked towards the journalists who were calling out questions about the efficiency of the curfew. With her dead daughter very much at the forefront of her mind, would she tell the journalists the truth about the problems with curfew? Or lie to ‘protect’ curfew and perhaps protect more women. We didn’t find out.
Is there a series 2 of The Curfew?
Although there were a few loose ends left dangling in The Curfew, there has been no news on a series 2. Despite a few ambiguities in the ending, the crime drama worked as a six-episode series, although that’s not to say we wouldn’t love to see more episodes.
Why did Pamela have bruises on her body? That wasn’t really explained either. And what Pamela did with her moral dilemma was up to the viewer to decide.
The thriller was adapted from the novel After Dark by Jayne Cowie. The 2022 book introduced a world where women hold all the power. They dominate workplaces, public spaces and government. It has no sequel, so a series 2 of The Curfew would have to be written with new material.
Watch this space for more information on a series 2 of Curfew, if and when we get it.
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