The Nest: 3 burning questions before The Nest finale

The Nest finale has us dying for the answers to these questions.

The final episode of The Nest arrives on Acorn TV this coming Monday, and there are so many things still to uncover for TV crime drama fans.

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains discussion about the first four episodes of The Nest. If you haven’t caught up, you can read our episode 4 recap.

It’s hard to believe that the series is almost over, because Nicole Taylor has written such a complex thriller. Viewers have become invested in Dan Docherty (Martin Compston), his wife Emily (Sophie Rundle), and their desperate gamble to start a family that’s backfired in ways that they never could have expected.

With just one more hour to go, how is it all going to end? And that’s just one of the things that we want to know…

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1) What will happen to the baby?

The obvious question that The Nest finale has to answer is about the fate of Kaya’s baby—is Kaya (Mirren Mack) really going to keep her, denying Dan and Emily their previously assured chance at parenthood?

It’s hard to tell, because Kaya has the moral fortitude of a paper airplane. She’s told Emily and Dan she had no interest in the child multiple times, yet her estranged mother Siobhan (Shirley Henderson) shows up on the scene and suddenly she wants to be a mom? This from the same girl who just extorted another £20,000 out of Emily just to find out if she was even the biological mother (which she isn’t)?

Legally, Kaya has every right to the child since she gave birth to her. But there can’t be any kind of protracted court battle unless The Nest does another time jump; it has to provide some kind of an ending. So will Kaya change her mind back? Will Dan and Emily be able to convince her that they are better equipped to parent the baby? Or is this going to be another show that goes for the easy, depressing ending?

To play devil’s advocate, Dan did seem to come around on the idea of adoption in “Clean Break,” so a possible alternate ending is that he and Emily adopt another child in some kind of flash-forward. But given Dan’s emotional attachment to Kaya’s baby, and everything that he and Emily have gone through just to get to this point, that would be a cop-out—and kind of a downer.

2) What has Dan done?

Viewers learned in the latest The Nest episode that Dan didn’t kill Kaya’s ex-boyfriend Kian Dodds. But the show has heavily implied that Dan has done Something Serious in his past, and the finale is the time to finally reveal what it is.

Audiences know that Dan came from a rough background before becoming a millionaire real estate developer. He’s clearly matured and worked hard to improve himself since then, but it would not be novel if the Nest finale revealed that Dan had built his business on some sort of ill-gotten gains or is connected to some shady people. After all, Souter (David Hayman) goes way back with Dan, and it’s clear he doesn’t have clean hands.

What has Dan been hiding, or at least, not making public? He hasn’t been panicked about anyone exposing him for anything other than Kaya’s pregnancy, so it’s unlikely that he’s hiding a body at his Glasgow development or something world-ending. It’s definitely not an affair or anything salacious; we know he’s devoted to Emily. But he fought hard to get to the top, and that usually means fallout.

Could it have to do with drugs, as that’s been a recurring theme in the show? A prior business partner that he burned? A youthful decision he regrets—remember the man in the locker room that asked about his father? Was that a clue?

Whatever The Nest pulls out of his backstory, let’s hope that it doesn’t completely ruin Dan, or ruin him for the audience. Martin Compston has given a brilliant performance showing his character as both ambitious but human, and it would be incredibly disappointing if the last episode turned him into another cliche shady businessman.

3) Will Dan and Emily’s marriage survive?

The Nest has never been just about the baby. It’s also been about Dan and Emily’s relationship, which has been under mounting pressure throughout the series, particularly in the last two hours as Emily has learned things Dan should have told her. Speaking of downers, it would certainly be one if they ended up with a baby and a divorce.

In the very first episode, Emily mentions that she accepted Dan’s marriage proposal after only three weeks of dating, so there’s some stuff that probably got glossed over during said courtship. Presumably, whatever we’re about to learn about Dan is also going to be news to Emily. But that goes both ways; does Dan know about the Ecstasy incident that Emily confessed to in the most recent episode? Is there anything else she didn’t tell him before they tied the knot?

Their communication isn’t perfect, but it’s clear that they both love each other and deserve to be together. Dan went against all his better judgment and entered into the original surrogacy plan to make Emily happy. Emily has been upset with Dan over his recent non-disclosures but she hasn’t up and left him either. It would be more believable, and more interesting, to see these two be able to work through whatever underlying issues there are in order to strengthen their marriage.

They’ve been through an incredibly emotional journey where they’ve both been out on a limb; how will they learn from this and be better?

The Nest finale streams Monday on Acorn TV; watch the previous episodes now with a 7-day free trial.