The Sister: Fans react to ‘diabolical’ finale in series starring Russell Tovey

Viewers were frustrated over lack of proper twist in ITV drama

Russell Tovey’s new drama, The Sister, came to an end on ITV last night (29 October) – and many fans were left unimpressed with the series finale.  

The show, based on the book Burial by Luther creator Neil Cross, stars Tovey as Nathan, a man involved in the past death of his wife Holly’s (Amrita Acharia) sister Elise (Simone Ashley).  

The final episode saw Nathan – in a flashback – turning on Bob (Bertie Carvel), after realising that he had purposely killed Elise in order to “create” a ghost.

Viewers saw Nathan feeding Bob with a lethal cocktail of sleeping pills to make it appear as though he had killed himself.

But before he died, Bob managed to ring 999 and Nathan decided to make it look as though he had intentionally called for an ambulance.

Towards the end of the episode, back in the present day, Nathan was seen driving his car along the road of the woods, with Elise's ghost sitting in the back.

Many ITV viewers, who had expected a bigger twist, expressed their disappointment on Twitter.

“I hung on hoping for an epic twist and it was the most low budget diabolical shamble that you could conjure in what’s already a s*** show of 2020,” tweeted one viewer. “What a waste of time!!”

A second wrote: “Just watched episode4 ... #TheSister load of pants ...  no twist .... this was v v poor.”

“This was so bad I had to watch until the end and it didn’t disappoint,” added another. “The twist was that it was as bad as we thought.”

A fourth said: “Some real moments of suspense. But there was potential for the twists to be more thrilling. Felt like the ending was rushed and the last scene in the car was ridiculous.”

The Independent’s critic Sean O’Grady gave the first episode a fairly positive review, writing: "The entire proceedings are filmed in horror-movie cliche – dark, rainy nights in shadowy woods with ghoulish dialogue, all ideal for near-Halloween viewing. They forgot to put a pumpkin in the window, but that’s about it. 

“What stops it being risible is the strength of the cast and the very clever, subtle way Neil Cross gets us to believe – not necessarily that poor dead Elise is a ghost, but that Bob thinks she is, and that his convictions are dangerous.”