'Deadloch' Season 2 Ending Explained And Finale Recap: Who Killed Don Darrell?

The ending of Deadloch season 2 is quite a mess, which I suppose is the reason you are reading this article. So, I’ll try to keep this as simple as I can. After the events of season 1, Detective Eddie Redcliffe and her partner, Dulcie Collins, arrived in Darwin to investigate the death of Eddie’s former partner, Detective Michael Bushman (aka Bushy). However, as per the autopsy report, Bushy had apparently shot himself to death and left a note for Eddie to help her find some closure after he was gone. Now that the case was resolved, Eddie and Dulcie decided to part ways, but before Dulcie and Cath York could leave town, Superintendent Col. Culkin ordered Dulcie to investigate an amputated arm the locals of Barra Creek had found in the mouth of a dead crocodile. This arm belonged to Don Darrell, a local crocodile tour guide, who had been taken to pieces using a chainsaw. Okay, so the show complicated the mystery around Don Darrell’s death by suggesting that his murder was somehow connected to Bushy’s suicide, but as it turned out in the end, these two cases weren’t related. Though Darrell’s death did kickstart an investigation and bring our unconventional misfits to Barra Creek, where they went down the rabbit hole to solve both these cases. So, with a spoiler warning, allow me to dig deep and explain what went down. 

Don Darrell Was Killed by His Son

Okay, so this one was quite the shocker. Don Darrell’s death wasn’t motivated by a professional feud, but by a personal one. Don and his wife, Colleen, had spent their entire life in Barra Creek, trying to build Don’s dream tour company so he could call himself the “king of the river.” But what was in there for Colleen? She had to work day and night just to keep Don’s dream alive, but endured it all because Don had promised her that he would hand over their business to their son, DJ, and was going to travel around Australia in a camper van. However, Don’s plan changed when his competitor, Jason Wade, owner of Land of Crocs, paid him 300 grand to keep his mouth shut. Actually, Don had found out that Jason was organizing trophy-hunting safaris for rich dudes. I’ll come to this in a bit. So shortly after Don received the hush money, he cancelled his plans for retirement, which meant he wasn’t going to leave Barra Creek or hand over his business to his kin. This was when DJ Darrell devised a plan (a rookie one, to be precise) to get rid of his father. On Don’s 70th birthday, DJ poisoned his dad’s steak cake, but unfortunately, it didn’t kill him. So at night, after Don left the party, DJ ran him over with his boat, chopped him up, and chucked him in the river, believing the crocs would dispose of the evidence. But as Al, a guy who worked for Jason Wade, told the detectives, only a fool would expect the crocs to eat a dead fella when there was a fresh supply of barra in the river. For the Bashnaza festival, the organizers had released 4000 fish in the river, which was why the crocs didn’t eat Don, and his remains started showing up at different spots in the river.

In season 2’s ending, the NT Times reporter, Leo Lee, received a phone call from Angelo, the guy from the marketplace, who confirmed that it was DJ who had purchased a chainsaw a few weeks ago. And while Angelo was telling Leo all this, Leo’s phone got connected to the Bluetooth speaker at Don’s funeral, therefore informing his whole family about the identity of the person behind Don’s death. His eldest daughter, Amber, connected the dots and figured out that it was her brother, DJ, who killed their father. And as soon as these revelations came to light, Amber’s husband, Grent, pointed his rifle at DJ, but DJ shot him in the gut, along with Amber’s maid of honor, Tegan, with whom Amber was secretly in love (well, not that relevant to the story). Okay, so both DJ and Amber pointed guns at each other when suddenly Colleen picked up the third gun and pointed it at her daughter, asking her to let DJ go. Now the way Colleen had been protecting her husband’s killer, might suggest that she was either aware of DJ’s murder plot or might have helped him to get rid of Don. Well, whatever the case might be, neither of them survived to shed any light on the mystery. In the end, DJ accidentally shot himself, while Colleen was shot dead by Officer Pat Heffernan. As far as Grent and Tegan are concerned, I think they are going to survive the bullet wounds, though the important question here is, what’s Amber going to do next? Will she continue her father’s legacy, or leave Barra Creek to start over with Tegan? Well, if you ask me, I think that’s the best decision she could make. She spent her entire life protecting a man who wasn’t worth her love and respect, and now that she knows the truth about her dad, it’s best not to ignore it any further and accept that he was nothing but a bad man. But let me know in the comments: which life should Amber choose?

Culkin Got Bushy Killed

In the season 2 finale, we found out that TV host Jason Wade had started Land of Crocs, a crocodile-themed park and adventure tour safari, as a front for his illegal trophy hunting expeditions. I mean, why else would he choose Barra Creek, right? He was a popular TV star, and leaving that lifestyle to become a local tour guide doesn’t make any sense. The truth was, he owned another company called LISA (Luxury International Safari Adventures), through which he offered his rich clients the opportunity to hunt crocodiles in the area from a helicopter. These folks mostly hunted at night, which was why the locals often saw mysterious lights in the air. At first, they claimed they saw aliens flying over their heads, but it was Don Darrell who cracked the mystery and extorted Jason Wade. For a guy like Jason, it was better to pay the local to keep his mouth shut than have him murdered and open a whole can of worms. But unfortunately, Don’s stupid son got greedy, killed his father, and brought a bunch of misfit detectives sniffing around.

Okay, so Jason had a liaison so he didn’t have to deal with local and legal stuff by himself. He was working closely with Superintendent Col. Culkin, who assigned Detective Michael Bushman the job of overseeing Jason’s shady business so that no one would ever find out about LISA. However, things got messy when Bushy started blackmailing them for money. And to add to that, his partner, Eddie, suspected that Bushy was up to something. In short, Bushy had become a liability for Culkin and Jason, which was why Culkin ordered local sergeant Luke Ferguson to get rid of him and frame Eddie for his murder. But sadly, Luke wasn’t the best man to deal with such a situation. He made things messier. He did get Eddie drunk to the gills and stole her car to follow Bushy into the woods. Later, he shot Bushy in the head with his own service pistol, but while leaving Bushy’s car, he accidentally fired a second shot that hit him in the leg. Yes, that was a mess. His blood was all over the crime scene, which meant he could no longer frame Eddie for Bushy’s murder. So what Luke decided to do was bury the evidence instead. He burned Bushy’s car and threw his gun in the river (which was later recovered by Eddie’s father, Frank McCallister). Eddie was never framed for Bushy’s murder, but she knew that something was amiss. She wanted to investigate her partner’s death, but Culkin covered it up until Eddie and Dulcie showed up at Barra Creek and dug up the evidence that Luke had tried to bury before.

In the end, forensic officer Abby Matsuda found out Luke’s DNA was on the second bullet Dulcie had found in Bushy’s car, therefore confirming that he was the one who killed Eddie’s partner. And as soon as the truth came to light, Eddie went after Luke to find out who the mastermind behind such a complicated ploy was, and while Dulcie, Eddie, and Abby were searching for Luke in the woods, Culkin and Jason showed up to get rid of the witnesses and cover up their tracks. Culkin shot Luke in the head before he could tell Dulcie that he was just following orders. Next, Culkin tried to bring Dulcie to his side, but she refused to have anything to do with their evil business. Culkin was about to shoot Dulcie when she reminded him that the Swedish backpackers he had tried to hire for Jason’s LISA had confirmed his identity and, shortly, his face would be all over the newspaper. She told him that the world would eventually find out his true face, irrespective of the fact that he shot her or not. And as Dulcie turned to walk away, Culkin shot himself. Meanwhile, Jason, well, he was eaten by a crocodile while he was trying to escape. Good riddance.

Pat Heffernan Was Arrested

This one’s a bit tricky. We know that all small towns have their own stories, their culture, and their values, but even the most perfect towns aren’t without their flaws. From the very beginning, the second season established that the people of Barra Creek were racist and homophobic. I mean, you can better understand this from the fact that Amber was a lesbian, but she never came out as queer, probably because of her orthodox parents. So what did she do? She started cursing the homosexuals to make her folks believe that she was “perfectly normal,” but deep down, she knew that there was nothing wrong with loving a person of the same gender. However, things with Pat Heffernan were much more complicated than that. She portrayed herself as an independent woman who dedicated her entire life to the police service. She believed herself to be a good person, a good cop, specifically, but the thing is, she had her own demons. If I have to put this in simple terms, Pat Heffernan was the product of the society she grew up in. I mean, Australia has its own history, and I don’t want to go deeper into that, but folks like Pat grew up believing that Black people are always criminals. Secondly, we knew that Pat was retiring, and she didn’t know what she was going to do after her retirement. Her entire world revolved around this job. She left her husband for it. Furthermore, she had always been a good cop, but never a great cop. Well, a place like Barra Creek won’t give anyone many opportunities to shine as a police officer, right? So these were a few things that had been troubling Pat the entire time. Maybe by yelling at a Black kid and bossing him around, Pat was trying to make herself feel important. But stopped being deserving of any respect when she decided to dump her anger on an innocent Black kid. In the end, we found out that someone stole Cath’s camper van, and Pat believed Mav was responsible, because she had previously arrested him for a similar crime. The irony here is Mav was like 10 or 12 years old, and Pat knew that, because she pointed it out in the previous season, but giving in to her hatred against a Black kid, she pulled a gun on the person seated in the driver’s seat of the camper van and fired without giving a warning. It seemed like she had already made up her mind to kill that person. Does this young boy’s skin color bother her that much? Or was it her internal conflict that pushed her off the edge? Whatever the case might be, Pat, by the end, had turned herself into a monster, a criminal. Thankfully, it wasn’t Mav who had stolen the camper van. It was Amber’s mother, Colleen, who stole the vehicle, likely to travel around Australia, just as her former husband had promised her. But alas, it seemed she was cursed to remain in Barra Creek her entire life. She grew up there, she lived her whole life there, and the moment she tried to escape, she was shot dead. I guess Don, Darrell, and Colleen met a similar fate by the end of it all. Meanwhile, Pat realized that she had committed a blunder, but it was too late. Dulcie and the others arrived at the scene and arrested Pat for Colleen’s murder. She’ll likely spend the rest of her life in prison.

Eddie and Dulcie Have New Beginnings

Season 2’s ending suggested that Eddie decided to stay back at Barra Creek to spend some me-time with her new girlfriend, Miki Evans. She didn’t want to go back to the force; she wanted to hand her badge in, but couldn’t find it. She told Dulcie that if she ever found her badge, she would just toss it in the river, but that would also mean she hasn’t officially resigned from her post, right? Well, this means she can return as a cop in season 3, if the show gets renewed for another season. No official reports yet. Speaking of Dulcie, she finally handed in her badge so she could leave the life of a detective behind and go on a road trip around Australia, just the way she had promised her wife, Cath. In the end, she parted ways with Eddie and left Barra Creek to chase storms with Cath. Well, the only question is how long Dulcie’s going to do that. I mean, we know detective work is her thing, so will she be able to keep herself away from it for long? Well, we will get our answers if there is ever a season. 3. For now, this is a happy ending for everyone, except for Pat.

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