The ending of Wilderness explained, what happens to Liv and Will?
Contains spoilers for Wilderness
Prime Video's new series Wilderness has finally dropped, and we may or may not have binge-watched the whole series already. And get prepared, there's a whole lot of cheating, shocking surprises, and the occasional death to contend with.
The six-part series is based on B.E. Jones’ novel of the same name and sees British couple Liv (Jenna Coleman) and Will (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) travel to New York for Will's job. Everything appears to be going swimmingly in their brand new life, that is until Liv discovers Will is having an affair with his colleague Cara (Ashley Benson).
Swearing it's a one time thing Will proposes a once in a lifetime trip to the West Coast. Will the trip be just what the couple needs to repair their relationship? Or will things go south when Cara unexpectedly turns up? Yeah, we're going to go with the latter.
Over the course of six episodes a lot goes down for Liv and Will, including two murders. So who is killed in Wilderness? And who does the killing? And what happens in the final episode? Here's what you need to know.
Who is murdered in Wilderness?
Let's get the really shocking bits out of the way first, in the series two people are killed, both by Liv.
The first is Cara, who is pushed off the edge of the cliff at the end of episode two by Liv, who thinks she is pushing Will off after she reads the pair's text messages about meeting up at the bridge to run away together. Will mentions something about his red coat, and so Liv heads out to find the couple on the bridge in the pouring rain. She sees a figure wearing a red coat, presuming its Will, and runs and pushes them off the edge. It's not until episode three however that we discover it's actually Cara who was pushed by Liv. She is somehow found alive and lives long enough to be transported to hospital where she has lost her memory and then dies soon after.
The second person to be killed by Liv is Garth (Eric Balfour) at the end of episode five when he comes to Liv and Will's apartment after he is released from the police station. The police don't have enough evidence to charge him with Cara's murder, which is fair enough as he didn't do it. He has his suspicions about Liv and Will though, and he confronts them at their apartment, which results in Garth strangling Liv, but she gets free and ends up whacking him over the head with his gun, leaving him dead.
What happens in the final episode of Wilderness?
Episode six of Wilderness reveals Liv's fate following the killing of Garth. She is being questioned over his intrusion and her subsequent defence of herself and Will. Liv is not charged with Garth's death as it is ruled as self defence on Liv's part.
Will and Liv head home, but Will suggests they stay at the hotel, however Liv is determined to stay as she sees it as her home. The next day Will arrives home informing Liv he's transferred back to his old job in London and the couple are moving back, with movers coming to help them the next day. But Liv is not keen on that plan and tells him she wants a divorce.
Liv goes to hang out with her neighbour Ash (Morgana Van Peebles) and the pair hook up in Ash's apartment. When Liv returns to the flat Will demands they don't get divorced and tells him she's got with Ash. Will repeatedly says "you're my wife" (ok we get it) and reveals he wants to stay married because he doesn't want to face his family over a "failed" marriage.
Will then throws a glass at Liv and Liv says she regrets not leaving when she first found out about Cara. Will then blackmails her by saying it's her word against his over Garth's death and he could easily say it wasn't self-defence and Liv wanted to kill Garth. Liv realises she has then effectively been trapped.
The couple later attends Will's leaving do where Liv makes an interesting speech and speaks to Marissa (Natalie Sharp) the second woman Will has been having an affair with. Marissa apologises to her and the two are getting on when Will turns up and demands they leave. Will calls a cab and only Liv gets in it and arrives at Cara's grave, which she looks at with a determined stare.
Liv returns to the apartment and gets to work on something on her laptop, with a red flashing memory stick inserted into it. Later, she sets her phone up to record her conversation with Will, where he agrees it was self-defence killing Garth, and therefore ensuring Liv has her defence in tact.
The couple head to the airport where they are tracked down by the detectives who inform them Will and Cara's sex-tape was sent into them (three guesses who sent that in). Liv pretends as if she has no idea what the film is and Will is arrested for Cara's murder.
Will tries to go all hot-shot lawyer and says the video is defamatory and believes Marissa sent it in. Sorry pal, it was your wife. Will confesses to having an affair with Cara, but not her murder, which to be fair he didn't do.
Liv is then interviewed by the police and says she was surprised by Will's cheating and doesn't believe he killed her. The detective suggests she has been coercively controlled and Liv changes her story and says Will didn't actually come home the night of Cara's murder. She pretends she kept to his story because he asked her to.
During his next police interview the detectives showed him the red raincoat Cara was wearing when she was pushed and is being tested for his DNA. As Liv leaves the station she is told Will is looking at 25 years to life.
What happens at the end of Wilderness?
The last section of the episode sees the series jump forward by three months with Liv walking around Central Park with Ash, who tries to convince her to stay in New York. Liv receives a call from Will's prison and goes to visit him.
Will has a bizarre request - he wants Liv to wait for him to get out of jail. Erm, yeah we're going to go for a no on that one. Will then says he knows that Liv knows he didn't kill Cara, because she actually killed her. Ok, tbf he got that one right. He revealed he found out when he remembered what Liv said the night before Garth attacked them, which was "I'm sorry".
He asks her when Liv saw the video and she revealed it was when he was confessing his love for her and telling her Cara was a one off. Will then asks why Liv she "f***ed him" over now, and she confesses it was because he "hadn't learnt". Will goes on a tirade saying he can get Liv arrested for her crimes, to which she then reveals she's pregnant.
Will isn't sure if he believes her and to be honest neither are we, but it works really well and Will doesn't know what to do next.
As Liv leaves Will asks her why she killed Cara, to which Liv says: "Because I thought it was you." Will is taken away by guards after lunging at Liv.
The series wraps up with Liv writing her own story, calling it 'Wilderness' and dedicating the story to her mum, writing "for my mum - you were right it's never safe'.
She recreates the trip she went on with Will and ends it by going to where she pushed Cara and a man tells her to be careful as a "silly girl" fell there last year. Big mistake there.
Liv slowly turns around and tells him: "It would have to be her fault, wouldn't it? Too much makeup, too flirty, too available. No walking home without a man to protect her. Of course she was asking for trouble, haven't we always been? Does is ever occur to you, where any of this ends? It ends with us reaching the end, the end of our tether. And where does that leave us? We become the thing to be scared of. We become the f***ing wolves."
Talk about a mic-drop ending.
Wilderness is available on Prime Video now
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