Warning: this article contains spoilers for ITV’s Karen Pirie.

If you’ve been tuning in for the past few weeks, you’ll understand the turmoil and confusion we’ve all felt while watching Karen Pirie. The detective drama has not only mastered the art of an impressive murder mystery, but each episode manages to drum up burning questions we didn’t even know we had.

Essentially, it’s the kind of crime drama that kept us guessing to the very bitter end and, along with an amazing cast, stellar writing and the kind of tension we love, the three-part series has cemented itself as one of the best of the year.

Tasked with a 25-year-old case, you would think Pirie (Lauren Lyle) would be faced with multiple dead ends. And while she has had to weather a fair share of frosty exchanges, decades-long secrets and a police force that has completely tokenised her gender, Pirie managed to crack the cold case in the series’ highly anticipated final episode. Airing last night (Sunday 9 October), viewers watched on as Pirie had to wrestle with a possibility that we at home were still trying to wrap our heads around.

While we’ve assumed that DCI Lawson (Stuart Bowman) was the lesser of two evils when it came to him and DI Simon Lees (Steve John Shepherd), Lawson revealed himself to be the perpetrator all along. 

In the tense finale, we found out that Lawson murdered Rosie Duff in the 90s. We’ve always known Duff was having a romantic affair that has been but we’ve been left to ponder as to who this mystery man is. It turns out that the teenager was effectively abused by the older police officer and became pregnant.

We found out that Rosie secretly carried the child to term and, in the finale, she held Pirie hostage and demanded answers. It was the kind of showdown that had us holding our breath as revelations that we didn’t quite see coming unfolded. To us, it’s the perfect kind of crime drama and it looks like viewers were quick to agree. 

It’s safe to say that viewers want another bite of the Karen Pirie cherry and are already calling for a second series.

Many are basically demanding it at this point, and we totally understand why.

While it’s hard to pinpoint one drama that should take the crown for the best drama of the year, Karen Pirie is certainly up there with some of our favourites.

Here’s to crossing our fingers for a second instalment, complete with the same brilliant cast, writing and tense plotlines.

It was an effective change to the beloved crime drama genre and one that has paid off in the biggest (and best) way, we say.

All episodes of Karen Pirie are available to watch on ITV Hub now.

Images: ITV