This is how ‘Luther: Night Falls’ connects to the series finale

It’s always hard to continue any saga after it’s finished, be it with another TV series or a movie, especially if the climax is pretty final. “Luther” may not have ended its five seasons and a death of John Luther (Idris Elba), but his imprisonment for various petty crimes over the years felt like a full stop. Luther might have a death wish, but that would never happen, so prison was the next best satisfying ending for the character.

However, when there was talk of continuing the series with a movie, creator Neil Cross had a puzzle to solve. It’s not like they could just start by having Luther serve his time and go back to work as DCI. ‘Luther’ doesn’t appreciate logic much, but it has its limits.

So what do you do to organically continue the ‘Luther’ story without completely ruining the series finale? It turns out that Cross may have had one eye on James Bond and ‘Spectre’ when he had to find a reason to continue his story. Minor spoilers for ‘Luther: Night Falls’ below.

If your memory needs a refresh, let’s do a quick recap of how ‘Luther’ ended. Luther manages to stop the husband and wife serial killer duo of Jeremy and Vivian Lake, but his achievements don’t come without great cost. Along the way, the innocent Benny and DS Halliday were murdered (one by an assassin and one by Alice Morgan) with Luther being partly responsible for both deaths.

Martin Schenk had given Luther a lot of leeway over the years, but this was the last straw (or drops) that broke the camel’s back. This was especially the case as Halliday’s body was found near where Jeremy Lake was tied up, so Schenk knew it was Luther, linking him directly to the crime scene.

When Schenk caught up with Luther, he had a final showdown with Alice that led to her (potentially) death. While Schenk would not publicly disgrace Luther, he knew he had no choice but to arrest him because he had broken the law too many times.

We thought that was exactly why Luther ended up in prison, but it turns out it was due to a totally different case. In a very similar reference to when we see that Blofeld is the “author” of all James Bond’s pain in ‘Spectre’, it is revealed that Luther’s prison sentence is all thanks to David Robey (Andy Serkis).

At the beginning of ‘Luther: Night Falls’, Luther is investigating the kidnapping of teenager Callum Aldrich, which was apparently occurring at the same time that ‘Luther’ was tracking down the Lakes killers.

Luther doesn’t know that it was Robey who kidnapped the teenager, but Robey knows that Luther is on the case. Unfortunately for tech-savvy Robey, Luther lives a “very analog” life and has no online presence. Luckily for Robey though, he has a long list of blackmail victims and he asks one of them to give him everything about Luther.

“Every little sneaky secret, every intimate misfortune. I want your corruption. I want evidence of any misstep. Any wrongdoing. Any line you’ve crossed. I want your shame,” he tells this unknown victim. (Since we see later in the movie that Robey is blackmailing Archie Woodward, it might as well have been him.)

Robey clearly got what he wanted, as it is later revealed in a news report that an “apparently incriminating dossier” on Luther’s misdeeds was leaked to the media.

“He is now charged with a shocking catalog of crimes including trespassing, intimidation of suspects, tampering with evidence, bribery. A litany of alleged vigilante activity that critics say attest to a man who felt entitled to take justice into their own hands”. explains the reporter.

We’re sure being involved in the death of a fellow detective was probably on Luther’s (long) list of crimes. It’s still a rewrite of the series finale, though, which, while not making it totally pointless, does lessen Schenk’s heartbreaking decision to arrest his friend.

Clearly, he should have let Luther run and then Robey would have leaked the dossier anyway, which is what actually led to Luther’s incarceration.

‘Luther: Night Falls’ is now available to watch on Netflix Spain.