Time season 3 ending explained: Does Bobby tell the truth?

Warning, spoilers for all three episodes of Time season 3 ahead.

Time season 3 has been just as challenging yet important viewing as the previous outings of Jimmy McGovern's anthology series.

This time, the setting is a young offender institution full of boys locked up for hours a day, many under the "keep apart" system that stops inmates likely to be violent to each other leaving their cells at the same time.

David Tennant is brilliant as Bobby Bailey, worn down by his job as corrections officer, while still having compassion for the young boys in his care.

Siobhan Finneran, the only person to have appeared in all three seasons, has been equally incredible as prison chaplain Marie-Louise, a woman who has lost her faith and is no longer certain what she can bring to her role to help the incarcerated.

The young inmates offer an uncomfortable glimpse at the violence men and boys can be capable of, drawing parallels with Adolescence while forcing viewers to confront a broken prison system that needs a real world overhaul.

As viewers reach the final episode of season 3, we look at what happened to each of the characters by the time the credits roll, and whether Bobby eventually tells the truth about the big secret he's holding onto.

Time season 3 ending explained

At the start of the Time season 3 finale, Bobby is out to dinner with Nicola. At the start of the series his marriage to wife Erica was on the rocks, and she eventually left him.

Finding some semblance of happiness with Nicola while exhausted by his job at the young offender institute, viewers are quickly reminded during their date that Bobby is hiding multiple secrets.

When the pair are served by a former inmate who recognises Bobby, the youngster asks if the officer knows about Fred Jennings' tactic of punching the boys in the stomach so that people can't see their injuries. Bobby insists he knows nothing about it.

He's also been hiding the fact he knows Fred played a part in the death of Christopher/Ushindo. Despite being on the "keep apart" list and needing to be separated from the violent Patsy Flynn, Fred organised a meeting between the pair under the guise of helping them reconcile.

Coming from rival areas and with Patsy having a history of doing whatever he wanted without giving it a second thought, Bobby hadn't wanted the meeting to go ahead.

He was proved tragically correct when Fred left the boys unsupervised and Patsy stabbed and killed Ushindo. Bobby then made a promise to Fred that he'd keep what happened quiet, in exchange for a promotion.

However, the truth weighs heavily on Bobby, and he eventually confides in Nicola what really happened to Ushindo. Horrified, she ends their relationship and pushes for Ushindo’s mum to be given the truth about how her son had died.

Realising that his relationship with Nicola means more to him than a promotion and fed up with burying dreadful truths, Bobby confesses everything he knows during the inquest - he reveals how Fred made the serious error of leaving the boys alone, and how he'd been bribed to help cover up what had really happened to Ushindo.

However, while me might've been hoping that telling the truth would lead to a reconciliation with Nicola, she dies in a shocking car crash and any chance of a future for the pair comes to an abrupt and tragic end.

What happens to Marie-Louise?

Marie-Louise gets a much happier ending than Bobby. Things looked bleak for her at the start of the season, when she was broken-hearted after her relationship had come to an end.

The chaplain had fallen in love and started an affair with a Catholic priest named Michael. When their relationship was discovered by the Bishop, they were forced to end it and Michael was relocated.

Devastated and suffering a crisis of faith, Marie-Louise expected to lose her job when she admits how she's really feeling.

But an elder chaplain makes her realise how much the system needs her, and her woes continue into her work life as she struggles against the broken system.

However, right at the very end of the finale, Michael returns and the pair decide they can continue doing good things for those who need them the most, but on their own terms.

On that note, the couple head off to live in Toxteth, running a safe house for asylum seekers.

What happens to Peter and James?

While the likes of Patsy won't get a happy ending (deservedly, after his unrepentant demeanour in the aftermath of killing Ushindo and evident desire to "own the block" above all else,) Peter fares a little better. James still faces a level of uncertainty by the end of the episode.

Both youngsters had struggled with being locked up, and like Bobby, Peter had a secret weighing heavily on him.

He'd been involved in the death of an innocent man, but it was his cousin Toby who'd actually carried out the fatal stabbing that ended the man's life.

Loyalty and familial bonds stopped Peter from telling the truth, but this ended with the whole group going to prison, instead of the real perpetrator.

Ultimately, Peter also opted to tell the truth, and he was found not guilty at his trial and released. This meant he could resume his relationship with his partner and watch his young baby grow up.

James was incarcerated for killing his disabled brother, and the circumstances surrounding his motives were deliberately left murky and open to interpretation.

His brother was wheelchair and oxygen dependent, and James claims he wanted to end his suffering, and that his brother was in agreement with the plan to end his life.

He also admits to being jealous and resentful of the attention his brother received, which brings his real motive into question.

His mother finds it in herself to forgive James, but his father is unable to have the same grace, and is also dying from cancer.

In the finale, James is transferred to an adult prison to finish his sentence, knowing he'll never get the chance to repair his relationship with his father and having to face the consequences of what he did to his brother.

All three seasons of Time are available to view on BBC iPlayer.