'A Tale Of Two Cities' Finale Recap And Ending Explained: Is Charles Dead?

Episode 3 of A Tale Of Two Cities had ended with both the storming of the Bastille (with Therese in the vanguard) and Lucie and Charles’ wedding, the latter of which came almost out of nowhere. Despite the episode already ending with a timeskip, at the start of episode 4, we find ourselves at the other end of an even bigger timeskip. It did feel last week like we weren’t remotely close to the end of what felt like it should be a much grander story, but the mini series’ finale manages to wrap things up neatly and send the characters down their individual paths into the future. It’s a tragedy, but it’s based on a novel written by an Englishman about the French Revolution, so how else was it going to end? Without further ado, let’s get into what goes down in episode 4.

Spoiler Alert

Why Does Charles Go To France?

At the start of episode 4, we find out that it’s now 1793, and we see Lucie laying down a bouquet of lilies on the grave of Matilda Darnay, who we soon find out is Lucie and Charles’ daughter, who died at the age of 8. This loss has left Charles barely functional, and he looks wild and untamed, with beard and hair unkempt. He’s apparently just received a letter from Theophile, the Evermondes’ steward in Paris, the only positive male figure Charles had in his life growing up. It seems Theophile has been imprisoned in Revolutionary France, accused of supporting the Evermondes in their crimes, and he’s now calling upon Charles to come to his aid. Even though Lucie begs him not to go, Charles can’t abandon the only man he ever called family, so he packs up and leaves.

As soon as he gets to Paris, we can see that it is not in the state that it once was, and revolutionary guards in red caps police the streets. There are notices posted that aristocrats who fled France and have now returned will be executed, and Charles glances nervously at one such notice as he presents his papers. Immediately, he’s arrested by revolutionary guards, since someone has apparently denounced him as a secret Evermonde (which he is), and he is taken to prison and thrown into a cell. There, he finds Theophile, who is in terrible health. However, as Charles starts talking about the letter, Theophile claims he never wrote to him. This means that the letter must have been forged with the intention of baiting Charles into coming to France and facing “justice” for his actions. After a couple weeks go by with no word from Charles, Lucie decides she has to go looking for him, but Hester says there’s no way she can go alone. So, who else would Lucie turn to but Sydney, who she’s not seen for nearly 10 years now. Initially, when Lucie goes to him and says she needs his help, he’s bitter and dismissive, but when he finds out she lost her daughter, named after her own dear mother, he softens and agrees to help her. They go to Paris, where Sydney makes her promise to use her maiden name, because anyone finding out that she married into aristocracy would risk exposing her to revolutionary violence. He also quickly finds out that she’s pregnant, meaning unless they can rescue Charles, the child is going to grow up fatherless.

What Happens At Charles’ Tribunal?

Sydney decides to go to Ernest and Therese’s bar to do some scouting, and when Therese sees him there, she almost thinks for a second that it’s Charles, harking back to that trial where Sydney saved Charles’ life. Later, Sydney meets Erneste outside the bar and has a chat with him, where he realizes that Ernest and his wife don’t necessarily see eye to eye about the revolution anymore. Sydney finds out that Charles is in prison, but he doesn’t yet know who denounced him or what the charges are, meaning it’s going to be impossible to plan a defence for him when he’s called up in front of the tribunal.

Though Lucie wants to meet her beloved, that can’t really be arranged, but Sydney does manage to let her get a look at him from a distance when Theophile dies of illness in prison, and Charles helps bring his body outside. He reveals to Lucie that the letter was a fabrication, and they prepare to attend his trial. When Charles is finally produced in front of the tribunal, he is amazed to see Lucie there, but he has no real defence to offer. Even though Charles states that he renounced his connection with the Evermondes ten years ago, and that he fought with the American revolutionaries in the name of liberty, he doesn’t necessarily support the revolution today, and he has no one to offer testimony to support his statement that he renounced his nobility, given Theophile is now dead. This is when a surprise player steps in, as it’s revealed that Alexandre Manette, Lucie’s father, has made the journey to Paris. He defends Charles, declaring that the man helped him escape the Bastille, and is now his son-in-law. Since Alexandre still has some credibility among the revolutionaries, it seems like this will help save Charles’ life. But then Therese reveals that the source of the denouncement was Alexandre himself, as she digs up the papers she found in his cell. In the papers, written ten years into his imprisonment, Alexandre had detailed the case of a girl he had seen, chained to a bed by the Evermondes and abused nearly to the point of death. 

Though he had tried to escape Paris with Lucie after witnessing this abuse, the Evermondes had caught up to him and imprisoned him, and, writing to record his testimony for posterity, Alexandre had denounced the Evermondes “to the last of their name,” signing the letter with a cross of his own blood, indicating a blood curse. Therese makes the sobbing Alexandre read out the last words of his letter himself, and then reveals that the girl described in the letter was her own sister, who died shortly after the incidents described. With that, Charles is taken away by the revolutionary guards, and his execution is scheduled for noon the next day. Sydney tells Lucie that she, Alexandre, and Hestor must leave Paris at noon, while the executions are happening, because that is the only time that Therese and the other revolutionaries will be busy, for the sake of Lucie’s soon to be born child, if nothing else.

How Does Sydney Help Charles Escape?

The next day, as Lucie and Hestor prepare to leave, they realize Alexandre is missing, and Lucie rushes to Ernest’s bar, remembering that’s where they hid him all those years ago just before they finally escaped to London. Lucie does find him there, nearly catatonic, but Therese is there too. She reveals that she’s been waiting for Lucie to show up, since the death of the child she carries in her womb is what it will take to truly see the Evermonde line brought to an end. Luckily, Hestor shows up just then, and in a struggle with Therese, the gun goes off, killing the revolutionary. Immediately, Lucie knows they have to make a run for it, otherwise their necks will be on the line, literally. Meanwhile, Sydney’s gone to visit Charles, and the Frenchman is flabbergasted at the sight of this ghost from his past. Last night, Sydney had told Lucie that Charles was a far better man than any of them, one willing to sacrifice anything to help a friend, someone of superior moral fiber. When he sees the Frenchman now, he immediately tells him to swap clothes with him, and though Charles initially refuses to let Sydney sacrifice himself, he changes his tune once he’s told that his life is owned by Lucie now, and that he is soon to be a father again. They swap outfits, Charles cuts Sydney’s hair to look like his, and then they part ways, Sydney staying back in the cell while Ernest walks Charles out dressed like the Englishman.

In A Tale Of Two Cities’ ending, as Lucie gets Hestor and Alexandre into their carriage out of Paris, she hears the clock tower chime the hour of noon and starts sobbing, imagining her lover being walked up the guillotine. Instead, it is Sydney who walks up to the chopping block, and Charles comes back to his loving wife. She is initially overjoyed, but we see the joy turn to sorrow in her eyes as she realizes he’s wearing Sydney’s ragged old coat, the one thing he could never bring himself to give up. For Lucie’s sake, he surrendered even this. As the carriage leaves Paris, Charles hands her a letter from Sydney, and we hear the famous words from the novel in his voice, “It is a far far better thing…”. The monologue has become synonymous with noble sacrifice, referenced and satirized and pastiched to hell and back. But we see it here at its purest, a message meant to reassure the woman he loved. It’s a heartbreaking sequence, as we see Sydney accept his fate and embrace death, all while Lucie and Charles leave to go back home, knowing their lives will forever be marked by the sacrifice Sydney made for them, finally proving himself to be a man of honor.

...