BBC’s The Cage Ending Explained And Full Recap: What Happens To Matty And Leanne?

It takes a good ten minutes or so for you to grasp what’s going on in Tony Schumacher’s latest crime thriller miniseries, “The Cage,” but once that happens, you are rewarded with a magnificent, enthralling experience every single minute. The BBC series might seem a little trope-y initially, but its unbelievably emotional, rousing finale takes it to a whole other level for sure. I’m gonna dissect “The Cage” in this article, discussing the ending and the impact it had on its characters. If you’ve any doubts about the miniseries, then I’m hoping to clear that up too.

Spoilers Ahead

Matty and Leanne are both cooking 

Set in the heart of Liverpool, at the centre of “The Cage,” we have the Envoy Casino, where the manager, Matty, and cashier, Leanne, have been stealing money and cooking the books to make it seem okay. They both have lots of trouble going on in personal lives; Matty is a gambling addict and has lots of debts, he even struggles to pay child support for his teenage daughter, Emily. He also has a drug problem, but currently in recovery, trying his best to keep himself away from the coke. Leanne, on the other hand, is a single mother of two kids – Thomas, who’s seventeen and a bit of a rebel, and Ruby, about twelve and maybe a little more mature than her age would suggest. Leanne also has her dementia affected grandmother, whom everyone calls Nana (and that’s what I’m gonna do from this point), and their living situation strangely depends on her. Nana will soon be moving into a care facility, and when that happens, the house goes on auction, and unless Leanne can make any arrangements, she’ll be out on the street with her kids. Considering all that, taking the money from the casino makes sense for both Matty and Leanne, as much as wrong that might be. The real story kicks off when both sort of end up catching each other in the act, and decide to do it together, in a more systematic manner. Neither of them wants to do it, but they’re compelled to. 

The Gary Problem

The casino is owned by this old woman, Nancy, who’s unaware of the fact that it is actually a front for her son Gary’s (drug) money laundering. Gary has been using his parents’ business to legitimize his illegal money, without anyone knowing much about it. Upon realizing somebody has been stealing the money, Gary assigns his bagman, Alan, the job of finding out and (possibly) eradicating the problem. Gary’s solution is to fire most of the staff, including Alan’s nephew, Neil, a bumbling young man with a drug problem – yeah, that’s a pretty common thing in this tale. Alan, however, is able to save Neil and even bring Neil’s fiance into the fold. Their job is taking the drug money and losing it in small proportions at the casino, so that it goes through the book. But Neil’s eccentric fiancee chooses to not follow Gary’s instructions and keep winning, for the heck of it, resulting in Neil taking a beating from the villain. Gary is being closely watched by Ning, a police detective, who’s hellbent on putting him behind the bars, which has a lot to do with a personal vendetta she has against him.

Meanwhile, as Matty is still unable to clear his gambling debt – it’s a bit much for even what he’s doing – he is handed over a bag full of cocaine by his debt collector, Paul. The man is compassionate enough to threaten our guy with a calculated whack on the head, and even brings a cold press to minimize the damage. Paul clearly likes Matty, but his hands are tied by the job he’s in, so he has gotta play his part and force Matty to smuggle the drugs. That’s a huge problem for a recovering addict, but Matty still manages to find a way out by wrapping the cocaine with Christmas giftwrap. Unfortunately for him, while visiting her father, Emily finds the bag and does a reactionary thing by stealing it and then dumping it in the water. Emily clearly has her father’s best interest in mind, but obviously she doesn’t know the mess she’s putting him in! To make matters worse, Leanne’s ex, Danny, breaks into her house and steals the whole thirty four grand she saved for the house. With no money and more than one life threatening problem hovering over their heads, our protagonists find themselves in a desperate position where they’ve got to keep stealing the casino money, which ain’t gonna be easy at all, given how Gary has been sniffing around!

The unexpected plot thickening

While the central plot of “The Cage” is not earth-shatteringly original, two things that set it apart from the rest is, one – how brilliantly it manages every single character and binds their separate arcs together, so that nothing feels extra. Like for example, the whole plot of Thomas getting a bit too close with the local drug-addict teenagers initially seems to have zero connection with the main story, but how the makers bring it home is remarkable. The other impressive thing is the plot twists, and making them work. Gary finding a liking for Leanne was probably not on your cards, but that’s exactly how things go in the show. Turns out, Gary was into Leanne years ago, and they even went on a few dates, but things didn’t work out because he was pretty much a prick, by his own admission. Leanne, of course, went on to marry Chris, and was doing really well until he died and her life fell apart.

As Matty neither has the drugs nor the money to give Paul, Leanne comes up with the wild idea of bringing in Paul to help her with the “Daniel” problem. If she gets her money back, Matty can have some of it and give it to Paul, which will solve the matter for the time being. Unfortunately, by the time Paul, Matty, and Leanne barge into Daniel’s house, the man has already flown the coop with the money. Thanks to Emily taking Matty and Leanne to where she dumped the drug, they’re still able to find the bag of cocaine. Matty has to take Leanne’s help retrieving it from only two feet deep water, and he can’t thank her enough for it; our guy admits he’s scared of water – much later we get to know there’s a heartbreaking story behind it. Despite finding the bag of drugs, Matty finds himself in more trouble as Ning, who’s very much aware of his “druggies’” activities, pressures him to help her with Gary. Basically, if Matty doesn’t help, Ning is going to put him in jail. An already stressed Matty has no choice but to obey, because he can’t afford to go to jail ; he has an ailing mother to look after, and is in no mood to do more damage to his relationship with Emily. I should mention here that Matty’s ex (and Emily’s mother), Trace, appears to be genuinely understanding, and throughout the course of the show, she urges him to straighten himself out for their daughter.

Coming back to Gary and Leanne, he might be a drug dealer, but his interest in Leanne seems very genuine. Despite a lot of grim talk about her dead mother and a cancer scare – a tiny subplot this show could have done away with – the date goes really well, until Leanne candidly talks about how her boss, Matty, an otherwise nice guy, has a drug problem, and loan sharks keep haunting him. That leads Gary putting all of his suspicion on Matty, as he hands over a bag full of marked cash to Leanne, asking her to check if the casino manager takes it. That’s a risky proposition considering Leanne herself is complicit, but Gary brings him having lots of houses and flats to the table, and with her about to lose her house and still unable to find a place good enough for her kids and Nana, Leanne has no choice but to consider. 

Does Leanne throw Matty under the bus? 

As if Leanne’s life didn’t have enough problems in it, she has to deal with Thomas getting arrested thanks to a police raid. Paige, with whom Thomas is having a “will they/won’t they” thing saves him from Leanne by claiming he was only there to protect her taking the blame. That’s kind of cute, although Leanne later makes it clear that she’s aware of Thomas’ weed smoking. That said, you can’t hold Thomas accountable here; throughout the course of the show, he keeps telling Leanne that he’s just a kid and deserves better. Not to mention, the same is also true of Ruby, and it’s another great example the show has set. After rescuing her son from the police station – with the help of Gary’s lawyer who reminds Leanne about the job she has to do – Leanne returns to the casino, hands the envelope to Matty, citing a lame excuse, before dropping a text to Gary. Soon though, she changes her mind, as Thomas lets her know how Matty just told him about how great Leanne is, both as a mother and a friend. As she rushes to Matty’s office to save him, Garry arrives with his cavalry. Unbeknownst to both Leanne and Garry, Matty already knows something is up, as he saw Leanne getting out of Gary’s car with the envelope (yes, the same one she gave to him) in her hand. It is revealed that just before Gary barged in to ransack his office, Matty put the money in the trash, and made sure the cleaner took it away. Gary returns empty-handed, and expresses his disappointment in Leanne. She is more concerned about Matty though, who should ideally be very angry with her. While he is angry, he’d never betray someone he considers a friend. 

What is Gary’s high-roller game?

For those who are a bit lost at sea with the terms used in the show, a high-roller game is basically an arrangement of an extravagant night with a lot of wealthy people gambling competitively. In the context of the show, this is Gary’s opportunity to launder a huge chunk of his black money. So he decides to be the big man and apologizes to Matty for heckling him, and lets him know that he has arranged a high-roller event at the casino, where Matty and Leanne will be the only dealers. The reason Gary is speeding up the process is because he is also under threat from a drug dealer, who’s clearly bigger than him, who he needs to pay off. And as he has only about two days, he needs to find a way. Gary has thought about taking an exit from this life, and has asked Leanne to join him, after smoothening out their equation. Gary’s proposal, of moving to Tenerife, that too with her kids, to live a little life full of lavishness is too good to be true, but Leanne says she’ll consider it. Matty, who hasn’t dealt for a long time, takes help from Nancy in order to prepare for the event. Nancy’s relationship with Matty, who she treats like her own son, despite being just an employee of the company, is another unique aspect of the show, adding a layer of intrigue. The fact that Nancy is pretty disappointed in her own son, and sees Matty as her own further implies a fundamental difference between Gary and Matty. While the former does everything for his own gain, the latter, despite all of his personal demons, always puts the ones he cares about before himself. Neither Matty nor Gary are perfect in any way, yet, one of them betters the other one just by making the right choices when it counts. Despite Matty perfecting his card dealing skills, the high-roller turns out to be a facade, with only Gary, Alan, Leanne, Matty,  Neil and his fiance, being a part of it. And all they’ve to do is count Gary’s money into the book by counting them right. Nancy’s arrival startles Gary a little, but he makes it very clear to his mother that he feels no guilt for that he’s doing and he doesn’t think his parents were any saints either. Gary gets mad at Matty and (subsequently) everyone else when Ning knocks on the door. While Matty shuts her down by lying about what’s really happening, Ning is not gonna let it go this time around. She has had enough and doesn’t want Garry to get away. So she convinces her boss to bring in the police, knowing that’s the only way to apprehend Gary. While that happens, Matty and Leanne manage to get away, that too with a fair share of the money. 

What happens to Matty and Leanne in the end?

Is it realistic to get away in a Fiat with your teenage kids, dementia affected Nana, your friend/crime partner, and a stack full of money? No, right? But that’s exactly what Leanne attempts, and had there not been an unfortunate flat tyre, she probably would have gotten a little further too. But life obviously doesn’t work that way, so they get caught by the police and are dragged back to the city. Would things have been a little easier had Matty not put the drug bag in the car, which he was supposed to deliver to someone? Maybe, or maybe not; in Leanne’s defense, she was not aware of it, and understably gets mad at Matty for screwing her over like this. 

Matty does make up big time though, as in the court, he takes the entire blame on himself, be it the money or the drug, effectively freeing Leanne of all the charges, leaving her in tears. That’s the kind of unselfish act which sets apart a hero! Matty’s mother reads out a letter afterwards, revealing how he has always held himself responsible for the death of his elder brother Daniel, and never moved on from that. That effectively makes this show a tale of a broken man trying to fix everything, while struggling on the inside himself! Once the dust settles, Leanne is reinstated at her job by Nancy, while Matty remains inside prison. Gary manages to get away because he was only caught with a lot of money (and no drugs), but his mother shuns him forever. His attempt at apologizing to Leanne – asking her for another chance – also goes in vain. “The Cage” concludes with Emily and Leanne visiting Matty, with the former sneaking in a memory chip containing the new “The Cure” album. Matty also lets Leanne know that she doesn’t owe him anything. The final image that “The Cage” leaves us with is Matty listening to “Just Like Heaven,” and for the first time, his perpetually sad eyes are not looking sad. He may be in prison, but our man is finally out of the cage. That’s the best ending this show could have had for sure!

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