Little Disasters ending explained: Who really hurt Betsey in the Channel 5 thriller?
Plus, we look at changes made from Sarah Vaughan's original book
Little Disasters first aired on Paramount+ last year, and has now been introduced to hordes of new fans by being shown on Channel 5.
Based on the 2020 novel of the same name by Sarah Vaughan, the six-part psychological thriller tells the story of Jess (Diane Kruger,) whose life falls apart when she takes her baby daughter Betsey to hospital with an unexplained head injury.
Once there, Betsey is treated by Liz (Jo Joyner), who isn't only the doctor on duty, but also happens to be a long-time friend of Jess. Liz is left torn between their friendship and notifying social services of the baby's injury.
As a result of social services getting involved, Jess ends up having supervised visits with her older sons Frankie and Kit, while Betsey recovers in hospital.
Suffering from postnatal OCD and intrusive thoughts, Jess becomes terrified that something terrible will happen to Betsey while she's under hospital care, and tries to abduct her.
Heading into the show's finale, Jess is on trial for abduction and child cruelty, and viewers remain unclear about who really hurt her baby. Who was really responsible for Betsey's head injury, and when Frankie was left alone with her while Jess went to the shop, who was the person that came to the door?
Little Disasters ending explained
The Little Disasters finale begins with Jess looking at jail time for mistreating her children, and also deep in a mental health crisis.
During the hearing, Liz acts as character witness, delivering a heartfelt speech about Jess being a great mother and the sort of person others go to for parenting advice because she's so brilliant at it.
Because of this, the judge grants Jess bail with a condition attached - she has to live with Liz, and can only have two supervised visits with her three children each week.
Jess is later seen with Ed (JJ Field), having a visit with her children at the school’s summer fair. There's a sombre feeling in the air as the controlling Rob (Stephen Campbell Moore) wants to move with Mel (Emily Taaffe) out of London.
Mel is unhappy about this, but as he's in charge of their finances, she's powerless to stop him. However, when Frankie (Jax James) sees Rob at the fair, he reacts strangely to him and runs away.
When Jess finds Frankie, he's clearly distressed, but then starts screaming when Ed passes Betsey to Rob to hold, so he can offer Frankie some comfort.
Who hurt Betsey?
The story's central mystery is now solved - Frankie reveals that Rob was the one to cause Betsey's injury.
While Jess had gone out to pick up some medicine, leaving Frankie in charge of Betsey for a short while, Rob had turned up at the house looking to discuss a business opportunity with Ed.
He entered the house anyway, even with Ed not there. When Frankie mentions Betsey needs changing, Rob says he'll help, because he's looking for an chance to snoop around Rob's private documents.
Leaving Betsey alone on the changing mat that he's put on the kitchen island, Rob heads upstairs to look through Ed's things, eventually finding a credit card he can use to forge Ed’s signature for a contract.
While left alone, Betsey rolls from the island top and onto the floor. Rob had then convinced Frankie that Betsey's injury was his fault, telling him he's never to reveal to anyone he was at the house.
Frankie finally being able to share his secret means he can finally feel free of the turmoil keeping it had caused him, and allows Jess to realise she hadn't hurt her baby after all - held hostage by intrusive thoughts, she'd allowed herself to believe she'd injured Betsey and just couldn't remember.
The police are called on Rob, and viewers find out that the CPS are likely go after him for perverting the course of justice and wasting police time. This could see him face up to two years in prison.
This is a change to Sarah Vaughan's original novel, that saw Charlotte be the person responsible for Betsey's accident. Struggling with her IVF, Charlotte had gone to see Jess, arriving to find she'd gone to the shop and being invited inside by Frankie.
Picking Betsey up to change her nappy, an altercation took place between her and Frankie, ending with him pushing her. During the incident, Charlotte dropped the infant, blaming Frankie in the same way Rob did in the show.
The series' creators decided it wasn't realistic for Charlotte to be the one to hurt Betsey, and changed the storyline to instead make Rob responsible.
What happens to everyone else?
All charges against Jess are dropped, and she's reunited with her children.
Charlotte (Shelley Conn) and Andrew (Patrick Baladi) didn't have an easy time throughout the series, with Charlotte spending the evening with Ed at the pub on the night of Betsey's accident, eventually confessing she's in love with him.
Charlotte eventually reveals her own secret to Andrew - she hasn't been going through with the egg retrieval for the IVF they've been going through. Andrew comes to realise that Charlotte's feelings for him don't match the depth of his for her.
Jess is also able to move past Mel making moves on her husband while she going through one of the worst times of her life.
Mel decides she's has enough of being controlled by Rob and leaves him - it looks like he'll be facing jail time anyway. Along with their two children, they don't move out of London as Rob planned, but stay in Richmond.
One year later, Jess and her friends are seen together at the park with their children. While Jess appears to be in an improved mental state, she doesn't seem entirely at ease.
As the finale comes to a close, Jess's voiceover tells viewers, "Sometimes, we get it so right. And in those moments, whatever you do, hold on tight. Because in the blink of an eye, it can all be taken away."
Little Disasters is now streaming on 5.
