In BBC’s Dead and Buried, the central mystery gets derailed, and you eventually figure out what really happened. The past keeps haunting the present in the four-part miniseries, but in the end, it all comes down to the outcome of the decisions made by the two main characters, Cathy and Michael. The equation between these two is fascinating enough to keep you glued to the screen and questioning the ending. In this article, we’re going to try to analyze that ending. For a detailed recap and our opinion about Dead and Buried please go here.
Spoilers Ahead
Does Cathy Kill Michael?
Don’t you think we’re in murky waters here? We do see Michael putting a knife into his own neck, admitting that he killed both Sally in the present and Cathy’s brother in the past. That essentially means Michael killed himself, but it would be inaccurate if we said Cathy had no part to play in that. Cathy wanted revenge from the very beginning, and even in the climax, she is the one who picks up the knife, and the two of them have quite a scuffle before he starts sobbing and almost hugs her. He keeps screaming he didn’t kill Cathy’s brother, but moments later, he confesses his crimes to Cathy and stabs himself with the knife. Michael also mentions that he deserves punishment for what he has done. Cathy, as we see, is visibly shocked by the whole thing, but she also strangely laughs, which can only mean one thing; this is what she’s always wanted. Michael doesn’t die right away, though. He bleeds out slowly as Cathy calmly drinks a glass of wine, and while it seems like Michael wants to say something in the middle, he’s never able to. Cathy’s husband Raymie walks in the moment before the scene cuts to the next one (between Sullivan and Cooper), and we never get to witness the confrontation between Cathy and Raymie. But from the look of Raymie afterwards, it doesn’t seem like he’s doing okay. If you think about it, everyone, dead or alive, is pretty much doomed in this story, isn’t it?
Coming back to the original question, a simple yes or no cannot suffice here, but I guess I’ve given you enough context to reach a conclusion of your own. Does Cathy kill Michael in the end? The answer is both yes and no. And she does bury the dead body, justifying the name of the show.
Did Michael deserve to die?
The most straightforward answer here is no. The show is at fault as it doesn’t quite clarify what really happened in the past, but even if we consider Michael killing Cathy’s brother Terry, he was most likely a minor (or at most, eighteen), and he paid for the crime already. However, Cathy’s trauma is also something that can’t be neglected, and whether Michael was truly responsible for Terry’s death or not is immaterial in that context. Cathy has lived all these years believing Michael was responsible, and from the moment she bumps into Michael at the supermarket, her actions have been a combination of both obsession and trauma response. It’s really unfortunate that Michael had to pay the price for that. There’s not a single moment in the show where it seems like Michael is evil, and even though he does give in to the temptation of having an affair with Molly Bloom (an alias set by Cathy only in order to destroy his life), that doesn’t warrant a death.
Who Is The Real Killer of Sally Bowman?
You really thought it was Andrew, didn’t you? This is where Dead and Buried has toyed with the audience, tricking them into believing something while it’s a whole other thing. Andrew is most certainly a troubled kid, but like his father, he’s also not a killer (I remember Michael labeling Terry’s death in the past as manslaughter, and there’s no reason not to believe him). Watching Lena find Andrew’s phone outside of Sally’s house gives you all the more reason to think that Andrew attacked the poor woman and later went to the hospital to smother her to death. Come to think of it, Andrew had strong motives too, as he actually believed that his father was having an affair with Sally Bowman.
But it was not Andrew who killed Sally after all. Y’all should have realized that the moment detective Cooper’s character was introduced in the narrative as a new member of Sullivan’s cult (yes, that’s what I’m going to call that thing, and I don’t care what you think about it). Anyone who’s joining a cult that claims to wash away all your sins is deranged enough to commit murder. Michael was unfortunate enough to be a part of it, but his heart was never in it. Cooper, on the other hand, was a staunch supporter of the cult, and he would have done anything for it. Although Sullivan only asked him to look into the matter and just scare Sally off a bit, the detective lost control when Sally attacked him. None of this would have happened if Sally hadn’t gone over to see Cathy while she was on the stakeout outside of the cult HQ anyway. Cathy got away, but Michael and everyone else saw Sally and also thought it was Sally who had vandalized Michael’s car. Sally was probably the most unfortunate person in the entire show, who had no business in anything but had to die only because of her association with Cathy. Fate really dealt her the worst hands!
Was There Anything Romantic Going On Between Michael and Cathy?
Surely I’m not the only one who saw the sexual tension between the two lead characters (even though they don’t see each other too often) right from the time Cathy picked up the phone and pinged Michael (as Molly Bloom though). Even Sally and Raymie have floated the question of Cathy having something with Michael. Of course, Cathy denied it completely to everyone, but it did feel like she was actually enjoying their conversations, if we go by the expression. From Michael’s side, it was more evident. Although he didn’t actively plan to do anything or cheat on his wife, it was pretty clear that he was, after all, into this random woman he met on the internet.
