Bodkin follows a trio of podcasters who arrive at the titular idyllic town in Ireland to investigate the truth behind the mysterious disappearances of three people 25 years ago. The series is available to stream on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Dove was working on the NHS corruption case, wherein the whistleblower, was her informant.
When he hangs himself from the rafters, she is pulled from the story and sent off to Bodkin to help (consult) true-crime podcaster Gilbert and researcher Emmy with a story of 25-year-old disappearance cases in a rural town of Ireland, called Bodkin.
The trio has a hard time navigating this hush-hush town where they’re told at every turn that their snooping around is not welcome at all. Still, they move on as they dig further into the truth.
Fiona, Malachy, and Teddy, the three who disappeared in the Samhain festival over two decades ago, become their central subjects of investigation. They visit Teddy, the only one who turned up after he disappeared.
They also run in on Seamus Gallagher, a resident of the town, who turns out to be the infamous violent smuggler who used to go by the name of “the Badger.”
The team gets into one danger after another as they find the dead body of Malachy in a dump, and then learn that Teddy has killed him in a fit of rage, and forgot all about the traumatic incident.
They also find Fiona’s grave, as well as the reason for her death, her alive child, and his connection to Seamus, as the dangerous smuggler also comes to learn the truth.
The finale of Bodkin sees the trio, Seamus, the Interpol, and Seamus’s enemies McArdles all come together during the Samhain festival to face off against each other.
The trio somehow survives all this and head off to their new beginnings, as credits roll on Bodkin.
Ending explained:
Seamus’s fate
Seamus Gallagher learns that Sean is his son, and he confronts him with the truth.
Sean doesn’t want to embrace this truth, as his adoptive mother makes Seamus reckon with the harsh truth about his violent tendencies that ultimately led to all that happened to him.
Seamus can’t reckon with the truth and as the Interpol agents come to detain him, he grabs Gilbert to make him a shield and runs off.
He goes to his underground spot where he had stashed the semtex stock he stole from the McArdles.
He rigs up a bomb and leaves Gilbert tied up there to die. Dove and Emmy arrive and help Gilbert. Dove chases Seamus and prevents him from boarding his boat to escape the town.
She tells him of his two choices that he can pick from; either go with the Interpol agents and live on, or go with the McArdles, and die. He chooses the hard way and blows up the explosives via his remote.
As Dove runs off to see what became of Gilbert, the camera lands to show Seamus and the McArdles have all fled the scene. His fate is kept ambiguous but if the McArdles have him, it’s pretty much sealed and he’s dead.
That night in Bodkin
The Samhain festival 25 years ago saw Fiona and Malachy try to get out of the town. Malachy got into a fight over Fiona with little Teddy, who ended up killing Malachy.
Malachy was dumped in the bog by Teddy’s father, Sergeant Ruairi Power. Fiona was about to be sailed to Wales by Maeve, but that didn’t come to happen when Teddy surprised them and got knocked out by Maeve.
She took him to the island of Inish Mac Tire, where nun and nurse Edna O’Shea nursed Teddy, and then he was sent home, with a whole new personality shift and a beyond fuzzy memory of the traumatic events that happened to him.
Fiona stayed at Inish Mac Tire and delivered Seamus’s baby, but she didn’t want the son Sean to ever meet him, which is what she said before dying, and was buried there in the churchyard.
New beginnings
Gilbert ended up with a treasure trove of audio for a story that would more than sweep the world of podcasting and end his financial troubles.
However, his conscience which had been collecting dust and becoming marred with unconscionable choices, is wiped clean once again as he throws the recorder into the water, refusing to do anything with this story that involved so much of his ethical code to be compromised.
He doesn’t know what he’s going to do next but he’s looking for a story that doesn’t involve any deaths, at least.
Emmy Sizergh impresses Dove who puts a word in with her editor Damien. Emmy wants more than just an acknowledgment, she wants a position at the Investigation Desk, and she takes it by shutting Damien and his doubts.
She’s morphed into her own version of her idol Dove. Meanwhile, Dubheasa quits her job, as part of the deal to rid herself of the legal complications that arose from her previous work.
She wants to do a story on the convent where she grew up and she has all the time in the world to create it. She looks ahead with a brighter disposition and optimism, as Bodkin rolls the credits.