But what if those Jewish prisoners had been let free for a period of time, and during that time were looked after and spoken to by people who had been trying to rescue them, and later, from that place of safety chose to go back to the prison camp and help to inflict torture and death upon fellow Jews? There would surely have to be some sort of judicial hearing to formally decide how culpable they were of collusion with the nazis. I agree that the outcome the public may feel most comfortable with is that they were found not guilty by reason of - some sort of mental state - or that the mental state was a good mitigation for a lenient sentence. But for goodness sake you cant just have the police deciding "oh thats ok cos we were worried about you before when you were taken against your will". Remember that there was no real evidence Sophie was actually taken against her will other than it being technically abduction since she was a minor at the time (I think? I know Alice was a minor when she was taken)

One thing that puzzled me was why wasn't Stone surprised how much Sophie knew about Alice? When did he find out that Gettrick had also abducted Alice?
Somehow, I can't accept that Stone would go along with the deception. I think the writers have made a huge mistake.

I think Stone didn't know Gettrick had Alice and assumed she had died long ago at the hands of some random other abductor. I think his little pep talk to her in the garden was meant to be saying "Look these decent people want a daughter back, and you want a family (or should do). Don't go back to that monster, stay here and make a new life"

Remembering that Sophie's mother is dead, and her father is/was deemed to be no good. I missed why but I guess there was a reason. I never worked out why the mother killed herself, either.

In the UK the CPS decide whether it's in the public interest to prosecute and also whether they are likely to secure a conviction. The police put the information before the CPS and let them decide. In addition, had this been real life, Sophie would have had to undergo psychological assessment to establish whether she could be held responsible for her own actions and whether there was any case to answer. There are cases, for example, where a person helps another person to die risking prosecution, but often the CPS decides not to pursue the case.

We do know (thanks to interviews with the writers) that Sophie was abducted. She didn't know Gettrick. We know she was kept underground for about 11 years. I think it would be difficult to argue she was there by choice.

You could compare Sophie to an abused spouse. Many, many women (men too) stay with physically abusive or controlling partners for years on end because they think they're protecting their children, or because they're so cowed they can see no alternative, while the rest of us wonder why they don't just walk out of the door.

Sophie wasn't really free (and her child was still captive and under threat).


There were hints Gettrick had something on Stone to do with girls in Iraq as well as the two murders back in 1991. There's also the small matter of Reed's murder. I'm not suggesting Gettrick could have implicated him for that (he had an alibi anyway), but I'm sure he could have muddied the waters. Once he'd covered for Gettrick over that, there's really not much left he wouldn't cover for. His good name did seem very important to him. His choices were heartless and self-serving, but I do find them credible.

*We* know what Sophie went through, as viewers. But at this time the police only have her word for it. And the police now know she went back of her own accord and continued to support him in keeping Alice prisoner. I think for now - even if she didn't end up being charged - even in the UK she would be treated as a suspect for many hours of questioning and investigation.

We don't know this process didn't or wouldn't take place - that part of the story wasn't told.

For all we know, Sophie may have been instrumental in keeping Alice alive. Alice seemed to be pretty strong and recovering well from her ordeal. She would be able to corroborate (or dispute) Sophie's version of some things.

We're mostly left in the dark as to Sophie's state of mind at the end of the series. Part of me would like to have known more, but leaving things open is probably more interesting.

Sophie's father's life and reputation had been ruined by Baptiste implying that he was involved in the disappearance of his daughter.

Thus the mother had lost her daughter, and had her husband more or less accused of being complicit in the disappearance.

I was going by "She won't see her father" which assumed she had been given the opportunity to. In a criminal investigation I wouldn't have thought a potential suspect would have been offered the chance to speak to another person other than a lawyer before a full interrogation had taken place, thats why I got the idea she was going to be treated as a victim only.

She was a victim! No jury would convict her of anything as she did what she had to do to survive and keep her child safe.

As far as I could see the woman she was talking to in the room next to Baptiste and her Father was the hospital psychologist. So she was obviously being de-briefed in some way.

Don't really follow your thinking at all.

A potential suspect of what crime she was a victim and speaking out would have potentially put both Alice and Lucy in danger. I doubt she was thinking straight in any case - initially near deaths door and having been locked up and abused for 11 years.

The only person who committed a crime here was Gettrick in kidnapping the girls!

So at least one of the paedophile ring was still active at the end, getting their revenge by switching the Baptiste's operation anaesthetic for something else that killed him.

What evidence is there of that?

I thought it was obvious. The anaesthetist was confused by how long it was taking him to under, saying they'd never known anyone to stay awake for so long. Then the screen went blank abruptly as the poison killed him.

Or he just became unconscious.

This is a made up story.

In real life I doubt Gettrrick would let Sophie out into the world on her owneven if she did have appendicitis let her pretend she was someone else's daughter, and then for Sophie to return to Gettrick and Lucy.

In the USA, one of the girls who was abducted by Ariel Castro? and had his child, managed to escape but had no desire to remain with him.

No, that wasn't my interpretation.

It showed that Baptiste was strong enough to get through the operation.

So why the doctors' comments abount the never having known anyone to take so long to become unconcious? I could sense that something was clearly going wrong and that it wasn't a standard anaesthetic that was being delivered to him. There would have been no point to that scene at all otherwise.

As with any scene in The Missing, there are many different things that can be interpreted because of how clever the writers are. In this case I think the writers deliberately made it ambiguous to leave open the possibility of a third series. Personally I saw it like many others - that Baptiste was a particularly strong individual whose body was resisting the anaesthetic more than the average person would.

I agree.

I read somewhere that two endings were filmed for the Series (concerning Baptiste's operation) and in the one that was left on the cutting room floor he woke up after the operation and spoke to his wife. The ending they finally decided upon was, in my opinion, better as it left the viewer with just a niggling doubt about what might happen and, as you say, left the options open.

WE knew that, but the police didn't know that at the stage the story ended. All they know is she was reported missing when she was younger. She could have left home willingly to live with Gettrick. This would have been a technical offence of abduction of a minor or whatever their equivalent was but they at this time only had the word of about two witnesses that she was mistreated or kept prisoner. What they DO know is that she chose of her own free choice, as an adult, to go back to Gettrick who was continuing to keep a girl prisoner, with Sophie's knowledge, and Sophie chose not to seek help for Alice when she was perfectly able and safe to do so. As a free adult. Tell me how she did NOT collude in a crime?

Now that is certainly true, but when this sort of thing happens in real life, that is used as mitigation at the trial, and they have an expert witness, a psychiatrist, to explain to the jury the effects of the abuse. But she DID collude in a crime, for whatever good reason. She has to be initially investigated as a suspect and a full questioning and statement taken. I reckon it would take quite some time for the police to really know enough to decide not to press charges. I mean, they needed to talk to Alice a lot too and find out if Sophie was individually cruel to her.

Yep. We have to worry about him now!


barbeler - I'm confuzzled by your reading of the final scene. Why would an anaesthetist want to end Julien's life?

We know from the early episodes that if he doesn't have the op he might die. And if he does have the op he might die. If the writers want him to die, they don't need dodgy doings to get there.

You left off the two most relevant bits from my post- the bits about free will and the CPS- but fridgesoup has covered what I was going to say. Thanks soupie But essentially, the CPS are there for precisely that- the difficult grey areas which the writers were so good at highlighting.

And it's testament to them wanting Sophie to be an interesting, layered character -rather than 100% damsel in distress- that people can argue over her in the first place.

I can see a problem here.

When they finally discover that Lena's body was in the shed, Lena's mother will want some answers. Sophie was happy to place flowers on Reed grave but thought nothing of burning Lena's (dead) body.

This is why I think the writers didn't think it through.

He was more resilient than others?

The point of the scene was that Baptiste finally had to go into surgery otherwise it might have been too late. He'd solved the mystery so need to waste anymore time.