The Capture: Ending Explained Breakdown + Season Two Predictions

With The Capture just wrapping up its first season I thought I’d take a closer look at the show and it’s ending to break down if everything is as it appears or if there has been some corrections.

Throughout this, I’ll be recapping the entire first season of The Capture as well as discussing the true meaning behind it’s ending and where the show could go in the future.

There will be heavy spoilers here so if you haven’t had a chance to watch all six episodes yet and don’t want to know what happens then I highly recommend that you turn off now.

With that out the way I just wanna give a huge thank you for clicking this video, now let’s get into our breakdown of The Capture.

The Capture Season 1 Plot Recap

The capture follows Shaun Emery, an ex-soldier who was jailed after apparently shooting an enemy combatant in cold blood during an excursion in Afghanistan. Though Shaun denied this, he was found guilty because of video and audio evidence that was submitted in his trial that apparently showcased him carrying out the act. However, Shaun was later acquitted during his appeal due to the fact that the video and audio may have been victim to a technical fault that causes audio over time to unsync from a source.

At its heart The Capture is about how in the modern age we really can’t trust our technology. The show is laced with the subtext that deep fakes, photoshop, and video editing have all grown to a point where we really can no longer say that ‘the camera never lies.’

Shaun once more finds himself victim to this when CCTV footage emerges of him attacking his barrister Hannah Roberts and when her body turns up, things look bad for the character.

Season one of The Capture follows Shaun as he tries to unearth the truth behind who framed him and there are some awesome twists and turns at every point that really keep the narrative engaging.

Rachel Carey

Throughout season one Shaun is aided by Detective Inspector Rachel Carey who slowly begins to uncover the conspiracy behind it all and we discover that there is a government organization known as Correction that can doctor live CCTV footage in order to plant evidence that will eventually lead to convictions.

Correction move in a morally grey area where they state that they only do it to people that they know are guilty but can’t use the evidence such as wiretaps and surveillance in court so they are forced to provide some that will. It’s the modern-day version of policemen putting the murder weapon in a suspects home and even by the close of the show, the audience will be questioning if they are really helping or hindering people. The show examines our own society and asks the question ‘is it wrong to frame someone if you know they’re guilty?’ Making for a fascinating watch.

They’re basically Mysterio in Far From Home but with a less cool cape.

Correction

Anyway, when Shaun comes face to face with Correction, they deny all knowledge of their involvement and it actually turns out that Hannah Roberts and her team had faked the abduction and did this in the hopes that once people learned the truth about Correction and their ability to alter evidence that those who were wrongly convicted would finally get a free trial.

Correction learned of this and were forced to kill Hannah in order to make it look like Shaun really did it so that their processes would remain a secret.

It’s a really complex storyline that will definitely keep you on your toes and the show actually avoided a lot of cliches that I was expecting as we eventually got to the final episode.

The Capture Ending Explained

It all came to a head in episode six when both British and American Intelligence finally caught up to Shaun and blackmailed him into taking the blame for Hannah’s murder. He didn’t really have a choice and the government groups stated that if he didn’t take the fall willingly then they would use their technology, which had advanced to the point of 3D modeling, to make him look far worse.

At his trial Shaun pleaded Guilty and was convicted for the murder with diminished responsibility. Though footage made it’s way to the web, like many other things that appear to show the truth it was labeled as a conspiracy theory and brushed to the side meaning that Shaun will indeed be spending a large chunk of his life behind bars.

It’s a real gut punch, however, we do discover in the finale that the portrayal of Shaun himself had been edited by the character due to his admission that he did indeed kill the soldier in Afghanistan and was, therefore, a war criminal.

Rache’s Future

Rachel who, similar to Shaun, had learned the truth of Correction was stuck in a moral quandary as she herself discovered that one of the convictions that lead to her promotion was due to the software. She, like Shaun, was morally blackmailed into keeping it to herself as she realised that should the truth be unearthed, many criminals would be able to launch appeals and all video evidence in every trial ever could be put under closer scrutiny, thus killers may walk free and so on.

She eventually joined Anti-Terrorism aware of what would be going on and the wrongful convictions and corrections that she would be a part of and whilst many may believe that she took a full turn to the dark side due to her ambition, there is the possibility that she may be working with them in order to expose them. Rachel takes a copy of the real footage of Shaun and Hannah, perhaps to overturn his conviction should she need to.

Season 2 Predictions

This was backed up by series writer Ben Chanen, who when speaking to Metro on the character’s decision said the following:

‘I think Carey joining them at the end is a moral tragedy. She’s deciding it’s best for her in every sense, to go along with it. It could be life-threatening to her but it could also enhance her need to know the truth about things and this is where the truth is revealed. There is ambiguity about what she’s going in there for and I’m going to leave that there…’

So there is definitely a possibility that she could be getting close to Correction in order to expose it.

Even Correction though didn’t get away from the series scott free and we watched in the finale as Frank Napier, played by Ron Perlman, pretty much ostracised after his superiors sent Jessica, played by Famke Janssen, so clean up his mess. Going forward I think that he may have been embitterned by the entire process, especially after he’s pretty much given up his life to do the job and to be cast aside like this would put anyone in a bad mood.

Perhaps in Season Two, he will join Rachel to reveal the truth behind Correction as the season finale heavily teases that they are lining him up in the crosshairs too. I guess we will see going forward but with a Season Two now rumored to be greenlit, things could get a whole lot more complex in the future.