Winter on ITV: Dr Ethan Winter's dark secret about Simone Edwards revealed in shocking episode 1 ending
What is the significance of the bloody triangle?
Winter, Richard Armitage’s atmospheric new crime drama, arrived on ITV this week – and the big reveal at the end of episode 1 left us with so many questions.
ITV describe the six-part series as a “stylish, dark and original forensic crime drama with an incredibly unusual personal story”.
Alongside a complex stand-alone crime in each episode, there also runs a deeply personal unsolved historical murder… And it’s one that blights Dr Ethan Winter’s existence.
Here’s everything we learnt about Winter episode 1 on ITV. Including Ethan’s dark past, the brutal murder of his girlfriend Simone Edwards, and what that gruesome bloody triangle means…
***Warning: spoilers from Winter on ITV episode 1 ahead***
Winter on ITV episode 1 recap
ITV crime drama Winter introduced “brilliant” forensic pathologist Dr Ethan Winter as he works alongside DI Lauren Bell and DS Ellis Daldry. [Side note, Daldry is already one of our favourite characters to appear on our screens this year.]
Together, the team need to crack a series of twisted and compelling murder cases. With his unflinching eye for detail and deep knowledge of the human body, Ethan Winter sees what others miss. He is able to find the secrets the dead leave behind.
In Winter episode 1, viewers discovered that beneath Ethan’s charm and cool exterior, a violent death 10 years earlier still torments him.
ITV told us: “The case was closed, and a man put behind bars. But, when a recent suicide arrives in the lab bearing a chilling clue that echoes the earlier death, Winter is shaken to the core.
“Gradually his conviction grows that the wrong man is in prison and the killer must still be at large. So Winter begins to investigate. Despite her doubts and instincts to keep her distance, Bell is reluctantly drawn into a case that threatens to unravel everything the pair thought they knew.”
Who is Simone Edwards?
In episode 1 of ITV1’s Winter, Dr Ethan Winter teamed up with astute DI Lauren Bell after police found a frozen body in the back of an articulated lorry in Bristol.
Although Ethan and Lauren solved the troubling case by the end of the episode, viewers discovered that Ethan was hiding a secret of his own.
Throughout the first instalment, we’d seen Ethan share romantic moments with a beautiful woman. Of course, we assumed this was his girlfriend, although there seemed to be an unusual tension in the air.
At the end of the episode, Ethan came home to his stunning Bristol flat and found Pet Shop Boys’ Always on my Mind blaring from the stereo. As he and the mystery women began the dance together, it was a rare insight into Ethan being silly and having fun. However, in a shocking reveal, we discovered that the woman was actually dead, and living only in Ethan’s memory.
ITV told us: “A deep and traumatic event changed Dr Ethan Winter’s life 10 years ago – the violent death of someone close to him. This event still shapes his life and, as he pushes for answers in the cases he investigates he is never far from a deep yearning loneliness.”
What does the bloodied triangle mean?
At home, DI Lauren Bell – also seemingly lonely in her own way although married with kids – searched up her new enigmatic colleague. And she discovered that Dr Ethan Winter had links to the “brutal murder of 34-year-old photojournalist Simone Edwards” 10 years earlier.
Simone was his fiancée, and he found her murdered in their Bristol home. Subsequent flashback images showed Simone bloodied on the floor of their apartment, before a devastated Ethan cradled her dead body in his arms.
And the killer left a clue… They had etched a triangle on her thumb. At the end of Winter episode 1, Ethan was called about a new case. It was a suicide with “something really odd” about it. Again, the pathologist saw the marking of a triangle cut into the thumb.
What does this mean? Well, for starters, it probably means it wasn’t a suicide. And secondly, it is undoubtedly linked to the murder of Simone Edwards… However, a man was convicted of Simone’s death, and is in prison for the murder. So do they have the wrong man?
A triangle symbolises strength, balance, and the power of the number three across various spiritual, cultural, and mathematical traditions. It can also represent the Holy Trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And Mind, Body, and Spirit.
Winter on ITV episode 1: ‘There may be a serial killer out there’
Talking about his new drama Winter, Richard Armitage – who also executive produced the series – told us: “A woman who died by suicide is brought into his lab with an unusual triangle symbol cut into her thumb. He recognises it as something quite specific… But initially dismisses it, because this person had shown signs of self-harm.
“However, when another body comes in with the same marking on their thumb, he realises there may be a serial killer out there. The person close to him whose death he is investigating had the same symbol on their thumb. So, this becomes the story arc for the season, because there’s somebody in prison who should have had the door slammed on them forever. But as these new cases come in, he realises that the wrong man might be locked up. My tip to viewers is to follow the triangle.”
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