Summary
The heartwrenching finale shows Dexter’s struggles to come to terms with Em’s tragic loss.
One Day tells the story of two people, Emma and Dexter, who first met on July 15th, 1988, at their graduation party. Each episode of Season 1 catches up with them on that same day in subsequent years until the two finally admit their feelings for each other and get married. Episode 13 showed the couple’s love story reaching a devastating ending when Emma passes away in an accident. The finale, Episode 14, centers on how Dexter tries to cope with the loss on each anniversary of her death.
The episode opens in December 1988 when Emma and Dexter spent that infamous Christmas together at his parent’s house. She reads him a passage from Tom Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles, the same quote David Nicholls used as inspiration for his best-selling novel: “There was yet another date, of greater importance to her than those; that of her own death…a day which lay sly and unseen and among all the other days of the year, giving no sign or sound.”
July 15, 2003
On July 15th, 2003, it’s been a year since Em passed, and Dex isn’t doing well. He starts the day by getting wasted at a kids’ party he attended with his daughter. Then he gets kicked out of a couple of pubs. At a strip club, his attempts to open up about his bereavement to the uninterested dancer lead to him receiving a beating and being thrown out of the club.
Battered and bruised, Dexter makes his way to Sylvie’s house. Worried, she helps clean him up and calls Stephen, who drives him to his childhood home. As he’s recovering from his drinking session, Dexter recalls that fateful Christmas he spent as a young man with Emma.
On the sofa, Stephen advises his son to try and live his life as if Emma was still alive. But in his pained state, Dexter doesn’t know how. He ends the night crying in his childhood bed.
July 15th 2004
On the second anniversary of Emma’s death, Dexter is sober. And he’s spending the day at his new apartment with almost all of the characters we’ve met during the series, including his dad, Tilly, her husband Graham, and their newborn. Dexter’s ex Sylvie is also there along with Emma’s ex, Ian. Yes, the visit is as awkward as you might imagine.
Dexter walks into his garden for some fresh air when Ian approaches him. While Ian never quite liked Dex, he drove three hours for the day because he knew how much Emma loved him. And Ian wanted Dexter to know that he’s now married with three kids.
After everyone leaves, we find out that Sylvie has broken up with Callum, and she even makes a little joke about getting back together with Dexter.
You know that part I wrote about Dexter now being sober? Well, he’s not. As soon as his guests leave, he opens and downs a bottle of wine he’s been hiding in the cupboards.
Dexter heads upstairs, where he has an imaginary conversation with Emma’s ghost, followed by a flashback of the pair walking on the bank of the Thames.
Where is Dexter in 2007?
In 2007, Dexter is spending the sad anniversary in the place where it all started. He’s visiting Edinburgh with his father and Jasmine. The little girl is intrigued by Arthur’s Seat, the same hike Dexter and Emma did on their first day together all those years ago. He climbs the hill with Jasmine while reminiscing about the time he spent with Emma.
How does One Day Season 1 end?
As Dexter and Jasmine are climbing down Arthur’s Seat, he recalls a conversation with Emma in 1988. She was the one who suggested they stay friends after not sleeping together the previous night. Emma didn’t want to be just a “footnote” in Dexter’s life.
The series ends with a scene showing that Dex and Em did share a kiss at the end of their first day after exchanging phone numbers and promising to see each other again.
What did you think of One Day Season 1, Episode 14 and the ending? Comment below.
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