The first episode ended on quite the cliffhanger, as we saw Tony take matters into his own hands in order to protect Rosa (Suzanne Packer) and run over her abusive ex-boyfriend Ste (Anthony Brophy) to prevent him from attacking her.
But things only got worse for Tony, as he was left to deal with the impact of that hit-and-run, being beaten up by Ste’s gang, having his home ransacked by them, finding out Ste is dead and then also realising that radio DJ Lawrence (Sean Pertwee) is far from the friendly face he purports to be.
While we’ve usually flitted about throughout the series in terms of setting, the final episode was primarily based within Lawrence’s home as Tony breaks in and confronts him about his lies.
But what happened to Tony and Lawrence at the end of The Night Caller? Scroll on to find out.
The Night Caller ending explained: Why Tony’s final showdown was so important
Throughout the series, we’ve been left to wonder exactly why Tony has found himself in the position he’s in.
Going from a respected science teacher clearly loved by many to now driving cabs late at night around Liverpool begs the question: How did this happen?
In the later episodes of the series, we see Tony wrestle with memories of the past, but it’s only in the finale that we get answers to questions about his story, as well as see Tony take matters into his own hands in a tense confrontation with Lawrence.
Having picked up Lawrence on the way to his birthday dinner just by coincidence in the penultimate episode, Tony was overjoyed to meet his idol.
But really, Lawrence was anything like his radio persona. Calling Tony “stupid” for believing they were friends and urging him to get a life, Tony was left hurt by what Lawrence had to say.
And so, after Lawrence’s birthday dinner, Tony follows his taxi home to find out where he lives.
Once there, Tony sneaks in via the back door, and is in for quite the surprise as he goes looking through Lawrence’s home. Having found Lawrence’s home studio where he records NightTalk, Tony soon finds a hospital letter which boils his blood.
Telling Lawrence that he trusted him, Tony confronts Lawrence over his deceit, mainly the fact that he’s lied to all his listeners about having cancer.
Lawrence tells Tony that he did have a cancer scare but was given the all-clear, feeling as though it was too late to backtrack once he’d told people he had cancer.
But it’s in their heart-to-heart that the pair demonstrate that they have more similarities than they’d care to admit.
While Lawrence may seem smooth-talking and as though he has it all, he talks of being lonely when he was waiting for his test results. His descriptions of rattling round in his house echo Tony’s own life and Lawrence admits that they’re both “loners, creatures of the night”, just in different ways.
But actually, while the pair may seem like they have a lot in common, Tony’s own journey is one rooted in truth rather than Lawrence’s, whose aim is to lie, manipulate and deceive.
While Lawrence may seemingly be helping people on his radio station, his complete lack of respect for his audience shows that he really doesn’t care at all. On the other hand, Tony very clearly cares about those he comes into contact with, from Rosa to his past students and even Lawrence.
In their showdown, Tony comes clean to Lawrence about running Ste over, and it’s then that Lawrence clearly starts to fear for his life, not least because Tony is holding a knife up towards him.
Trying to call for help from his bathroom, Tony attacks Lawrence and stops him. But it’s after their violent altercation that we finally start to get a window into Tony’s past.
Although Lawrence can’t seem to comprehend how important Tony’s job was to him, Tony starts to open up about his past as a science teacher bit by bit.
He says that he was the teacher that everyone counted on, but soon those sentiments were replaced by his colleagues telling him that he needs to take some time off, that the door’s always open for him – but really, they weren’t there for him in the end.
Wanting to expose Lawrence for his lies, Tony tells him they’re going to go live on air.
Although Lawrence doesn’t want to, the pair go live on the radio as Lawrence answers calls from listeners. Tony tells Lawrence that they’ll stay live on air all night until Lawrence comes clean about his major lie, but they’re interrupted by a new caller, Rosa.
Rosa’s at the cafe with a police officer who’s looking for Tony, but on the phone, she and Tony have a heartfelt conversation and Rosa gets him to promise that he won’t hurt himself or anyone else.
But it’s on the phone call that Tony admits that Ste wasn’t “the first”, and it’s then that we start to get flashbacks of a boy drowning in a pool.
Why did Tony lose his job as a teacher?
While the police have tracked Rosa’s phone call back to Lawrence’s home and know where Tony is, Tony and Lawrence remain live on air for their one-off episode talking about trust and betrayal.
The next call to come through is from Sarah Hall, who refers to Tony as Mr Conroy and says she is Joe’s mother. She’s also the mother of the young girl, Siobhan, who Tony saw previously on the bus.
It’s then that Tony tells Sarah that he should’ve been “there for him” but she tells him that he shouldn’t blame himself.
From Tony’s tearful admission, we come to find out that he was the pastoral carer of Joe, and Joe called him one evening after school. Inundated with work, Tony deliberately missed the call, and we see that Joe was left angry by being ignored by Tony and jumps into the school pool.
Tony tried calling Joe back and when it rang out, Tony gets up and runs down the school halls looking for him. The next thing we see in the flashback is that Tony had rescued Joe from the pool – but it’s too late, and Joe is dead.
On the phone call to Sarah, she also admits that she didn’t hear Joe’s calls for help either, and tells Tony that Joe’s death isn’t his fault. From what Tony has said, the death of Joe was too much for him to bare and impacted his entire life, including stepping away from the career he loved.
Although the episode’s final showdown was one between Lawrence and Tony, really it was an important one for the series and the viewers to understand the context of Tony’s life and how he has found himself in such a vulnerable position, depending on Lawrence’s radio show.
What happens to Tony and Lawrence at the end of The Night Caller?
The last thing we see in that radio studio is that Tony is looking at the knife in his hands and the armed squad of police officers are on their way in to intercept him.
Going forwards three months, we then see that Lawrence is in a shiny, new studio in the heart of London (not his basement), where newspaper frontals of him being labelled as the “hero DJ” that survived a home terror are plastered on the walls.
He is also surrounded by industry and charity awards, and seems to be using his same technique and same lines to get listeners to open up to him live on radio.
It’s as Lawrence is repeating almost the exact same line he used on Tony that we see where Tony has ended up. Sitting by himself in a mental health facility, he is visited by Rosa and tells her that it’s good to see her.
The Night Caller is available to stream on My5.
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