A thrilling finale to the second series of The Missing has left fans on the edge of their seats and wanting more – but will French investigator Julien Baptiste return for a third series?
The BBC's crime drama, written by brothers Harry and Jack Williams and starring Tcheky Karyo as Baptiste, explores the emotional fallout of child abduction.
The second series focused on the kidnapping of the daughter of a British Army family based in Germany. The multi-stranded narrative, which flashed between timeframes and shifted between Europe and the Middle East, was criticised as unnecessarily complex. But all was forgiven as the story culminated in a gripping final episode.
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"I'm not going to lie, there have been times when I've been a bit muddled," says Sam Wollaston at The Guardian, but it all came together in "a fabulous final episode that builds and builds in stomach-clenching tension".
The ending - "cat's cradle complete, loose ends tied up, redemption" - was satisfying, and seeing detective Baptiste going in for his brain tumour operation added "a nice touch", added the journalist.
Michael Hogan at the Daily Telegraph also had doubts, but says the "fast-paced, powerful denouement satisfied both heart and head" making it "fiendishly plotted, stylishly delivered television".
Ultimately, it offered a "saner, more psychologically realistic ending" than the first series, says the critic. What's more, says Hogan, the door was also left "tantalisingly ajar for a third series".
Viewers are desperate for a third series, says Radio Times, "but only if Julien Baptiste survives". The French detective's legions of fans were left wondering if he would succumb to the brain tumour he has been battling the entire series.
Rebecca Nicholson in The Guardian, thinks he will survive. The anaesthetic for his operation didn't knock him out at first because "this is a man so tough he can divine locations from old photographs and will travel to Isis-held territory with an advanced brain tumour to get the answers he seeks", she says.
She suspects Baptiste will make it out alive as "there are plenty more bad guys to catch, after all".
According to Radio Times, the Williams brothers are open to a third series if the idea is right.
"It would have to be very different, it would have to not be cynical, and it would have to be saying something new," said Harry William. "Never say never."
