Deadline is a Channel 5 thriller that follows Natalie Varga, played by Charlie Murphy from Peaky Blinders, who is accused of killing her husband in horrific ways. Disgraced investigative reporter James Alden becomes engrossed in the case. When he meets Natalie for his documentary movie, he learns he is becoming infatuated with the very mysterious, beautiful, and seductive woman he is meant to be analyzed objectively.
His obsession takes him down a perilous path, and his quest for a tale impairs his judgment. With the court of popular opinion declaring Natalie guilty until proven innocent, James must distinguish between fact and fiction.
Who Was Natalie and Oliver’s Real Dad?
Following a difficult upbringing that affected both Natalie and Oliver into adolescence, Natalie and Oliver were placed in the care of an adoptive mother. Oliver has addiction troubles and an explosive temper; during one of his episodes, he threw a man over a roof.
Natalie, despite her non-threatening, serene exterior, has a dark side. Their adoptive mother explained to James that Oliver was not only fleeing the gangsters who had threatened to murder him, but he was also eager to remove himself from his sister.
Originally, no information is provided about what the pair encountered when they were young, but we finally understand what kind of atmosphere they grew up in in the climax. Kurt Duvall was their father’s name. He had murdered and raped one of Natalie’s girlfriends, Lucy Gallagher, when she was 13 years old.
James, who was looking into the matter, felt Kurt was responsible and sneaked into his cell, hoping to find Lucy alive. But the harm had already been done. Kurt was not prosecuted for his crime, which was a sad turn of circumstances. James got to the lock-up before the cops and inadvertently destroyed critical evidence that would put Natalie’s dad in prison, freeing him to murder and rape afterward.
Who Killed George?
Natalie revealed to James in the season finale that she had murdered her husband. He was an incredibly aggressive man, she claimed, who subjected her to everyday humiliations, followed her every activity, and separated her from her fellow girlfriends. She also said that she had requested George to pay up her brother Oliver’s drug debt, but he declined, and instead laughed in her face.
Oliver had only been dead for four years by that point, having staged his death to escape meeting a gory end and renaming himself to Elliot Strand. Without George’s financial support, he’d be forced to remain hidden, unable to live a joyful life free of danger with his partner Shona and their daughter Leila. Natalie killed George without hesitation because she couldn’t take George’s brutality any longer.
What Happened to Kurt Duvall?
Natalie took it upon herself to put an end to her father’s evasion of justice as a result of James’ irresponsible behavior. She killed him when he was unconscious following a hard drinking binge, and he died as a result of his injuries. Kurt would have continued to abuse others if he had lived, but Natalie made sure Lucy was his final victim. Natalie was only thirteen when she killed her father.
Why Did James Go to Jail?
James said that he went into Kurt’s cell in the hopes of finding Lucy alive and rescuing her, but Natalie alleged that he was only looking for a narrative. It’s all about your want to be the best, the first she had added, her face flushed, before making comparisons between James and her father. You can’t go much further than he could.
Following her husband’s death, Natalie offered James an exclusive interview as part of her plan to end his life as retribution for his irresponsibility. In her eyes, she was compelled to kill Kurt because of James’s insatiable desire for the largest exclusives, even if it meant causing harm to others.
Natalie put crumbs that she knew James would not be able to ignore with the help of Mrs. Molnar to make it appear as if he had been infatuated with her since the first time he laid eyes on her two decades earlier.
All of the evidence gathered by the pair – the video footage of Natalie discovered in his flat; the repetitive tries to be near to her, even going to follow Natalie to Budapest; the case containing items such as Rohypnol, cable ties, and gaffer tape tried to point to one thing: James was planning to hunt down, rape, and kill her, just as he had done all those decades before.
According to the detective, Natalie was the one he had always desired, but he had to make do with Lucy instead. He also intentionally tainted the evidence in the Gallagher case because it was he who killed her.
James was presented as a monster who should spend his days in a cell by Natalie, who also claimed that James had murdered her father and her sibling. We saw James wiggle out of a lot of tough circumstances throughout four episodes, but by the end, he was done for.
