Editor's note: The below contains spoilers for the finale of Netflix's Bodkin.

The Big Picture

• A trio consisting of a podcaster, a journalist, and a research assistant investigates mysterious disappearances in Bodkin, Ireland, uncovering dark secrets and twists.
• Shocking revelations reveal the truth behind the disappearance, involving love triangles and hidden crimes.
• Gilbert, Dove, and Emmy navigate danger and come together, hinting at future adventures in a possible Season 2.

The new Netflix series, Bodkin, looks familiar on the surface, with the story of a group of podcasters off to solve a mystery, and while the first scripted series from the Obamas' Higher Ground Productions, created by Jez Scharf, can't help but draw comparisons to Hulu's Only Murders in the Building, it differs in every way, from its plot to its characters. Whereas the first three seasons of Only Murders in the Building take place in New York City, Bodkin is set in the small seaside village of Bodkin, Ireland, a picturesque location of beautiful, old buildings, narrow streets, and impossibly bright green rolling hills, but there is no peace or safety to be found here. Three people disappeared from a Samhain festival in Bodkin decades ago and some of the townsfolk know more than they're letting on. Brought in to solve the mystery are three distinctly unique characters: Gilbert (Will Forte), the American podcaster fascinated with storytelling, Emmy (Robyn Cara), his go-getter research assistant, and Dove (Siobhán Cullen), the sullen investigative journalist who'd rather work the case by herself. They are in for several twists and turns to the mystery's end — that is if their attitude and buried trauma doesn't get them killed first.

After Several Shocking Revelations, the Mystery of Bodkin Is Solved

There are pros and cons to being a podcaster, as Gilbert quickly finds out. Some people are excited, treating you like a minor celebrity, and eager to tell their story. If you have something to hide, however, like many people in the town of Bodkin, Ireland do, then a prying podcaster asking questions is the last person you want to come across. Gilbert, Dove, and Emmy have lots of questions, unfortunately. Two decades ago three young people went missing during a Samhain festival, and they're going to get to the bottom of it.

We discover that one of the missing people is Teddy (Ger Kelly), who has been alive and well in Bodkin the whole time, having returned home just a couple of days after he vanished, but his father, police Sergeant Power (Denis Conway), covered it up and never spoke about where his son was. Does that mean he had something to do with it? The other two people missing are named Fiona and Malachy, and when Seamus' old car is pulled from a pond with the mummified remains of two corpses in the trunk, it appears that we know what happened to them. The only problem is that while one of the bodies is Malachy, the other is not Fiona. One of Bodkin's best characters is Seamus Gallagher (David Wilmot), an angry man who is both friend and foe to our heroes. He has respect for them, especially Gilbert, but there is also a darkness in him that can snap at any moment. Perhaps he is involved somehow, especially since Malachy is his brother and Fiona his brother's girlfriend.

Sergeant Power and Seamus are indeed involved, but not in the way we might think. Seamus is an eel smuggler called the Badger, who has dealings with the evil McArdle family. When he learns that the McArdles are after him and the people he loves, he sends Malachy and Fiona into hiding, but in the process, everything goes wrong. We have ourselves a love triangle, with Teddy having feelings for Fiona. In a rage, he hits Malachy over the head with a rock, killing him. His father witnessed all of this and wanted to hide his son's crime, so he put Malachy's body in the trunk. On the way to the pond, he hit a woman, Greta, not part of any of this, which meant another crime to clean up and another body for the trunk. Teddy then went after Fiona, who attacked him with a rock and fled Bodkin. She ended up taking refuge with nuns and giving birth to a baby boy, but died while doing so. When Seamus is given all of this information, he doesn't handle it well. He was having an affair with Fiona and the baby is his, a young man we've already met, the driver for our podcast heroes, Sean (Chris Walley).

Do Gilbert, Emmy, and Dove Make It to the End of 'Bodkin'?

Sean's adopted mother, Mrs. O'Shea (Pom Boyd), is revealed to be the one who has been trying to scare Gilbert, Dove, and Emmy off in an attempt to protect her son, but they end up having bigger worries. Before the revelation to Seamus about his son, Gilbert and Dove are caught by Interpol, who are out to stop the eel smuggling, and Dove makes a deal to get information on Seamus. When she meets with him, things go south fast, as the McArdles show up to kill Seamus. They manage to hide, but then Dove is off to find Gilbert, who will be their next target.

Seamus has bigger fish (or eels to fry), as Sean is out to sell eels for big money to a group who turns out to be undercover Interpol agents. Dove wants Sean arrested to protect him, but Seamus gets to his son and reveals that he's his father. Seamus points a gun at Edna O'Shea, wanting to shoot her for the pain she's caused, but when Sean goes to stop him, the gun accidentally fires and blows Sean's thumb off. These people cannot catch a break! When Interpol shows up to arrest Seamus, his master plan for escape is to take Gilbert hostage at gunpoint. What could go wrong?!

Seamus takes his sometimes friend to a cave where he ties Gilbert up and shoves his phone in his mouth to shut him up. His rage now having driven him to madness, he's going to blow up the cave, Gilbert, and the Samhain festival being held that day above. Thankfully, Dove and Emmy manage to save Gilbert in the nick of time and stop Seamus from escaping, but Dove is unable to convince Seamus to not set off the explosives. He does so, and by luck, Emmy has gotten most of the people to run off as the bombs send the eel supply in a van to go flying up in the air. For a moment, they fear that Gilbert is dead, until he walks into frame with barely a scratch on him.

What's Next for the Characters of 'Bodkin'?

This would all make for a great podcast, but knowing that the story they've gathered is too painful for those involved, Gilbert chucks his tape recorder into the lake. Everything that's happened here is a sad reminder of his own past, where he talked about his wife's cancer in a podcast, his stupidity at leaking her private life leading to their divorce.

Gilbert, Dove, and Emmy have spent most of Bodkin clashing with each other, with Dove even calling Gilbert a pornographer because of his podcast, but by the end, they come together. Emmy has confessed to wanting to be an investigative journalist like Dove, and we see her starting a job doing just that. Dove shows relief at Gilbert being alive, which she gets teased for, but it's a sweet moment between the two, one that's not romantic, but that does hint at the beginning of a partnership. Dove is a broken woman, the pain of a past assignment that led to a man's suicide having broken her spirit. Now, some semblance of feeling alive is returning to her.

In an interview with Netflix, Will Forte, Robyn Cara, and Siobhán Cullen talked about where they think their characters are now. Forte spoke of Gilbert questioning his methods for making a podcast and the need to be honest with himself. Cara thought that Dove has pushed Emmy to be a better journalist, and for Dove, who grows the most in Bodkin, Cullen said:

“It was so painful for her to spend so much time with two people who are so endlessly positive and happy. And then by the end I think she cracked. I suppose the light got in a bit, and I think it shifted her for the better.”

With Gilbert, Emmy, and Dove having found themselves, along with a way to succeed with each other, it opens the trio up for more adventures for a possible Season 2 of Bodkin, which has yet to be announced. If we get it, here's hoping that there are no eels this time.

Bodkin is available to stream on Netflix.

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