Secret Service gets pretty complicated by the end, even by spy thriller standards. So, if you’ve finished ITV’s new drama and need the ending untangled, you’re in the right place.
Based on a book by ITV News’ Tom Bradby, the series follows Kate (Gemma Arterton), an MI6 agent leading the SIS Russia desk.
After an operation in Malta throws up some worrying clues, Kate and her team begin to suspect there’s a Russian mole inside the UK Government. Their fears only grow when the Prime Minister announces he’s stepping down, clearing the path for their prime suspect, Foreign Secretary Ryan Walker (Mark Stanley), to take over.
Russian collusion, secret affairs, sex tapes, double-crosses… there’s a lot going on. So, let’s break it down.
***Warning: spoilers for Secret Service ahead***
How does Secret Service end?
Secret Service ends in rather bleak fashion, with Ryan Walker winning the leadership vote and becoming Prime Minister, despite suspicion still hanging over his links to Russia.
He also harps on about the “deep state” in his victory speech, a conspiracy theory often propagated by the far-right in real life.
At the start of the series, it’s revealed that Walker secretly met with the Russian foreign minister. That meeting was organised by Lev Amatov (Juris Zagars), an oligarch with serious Kremlin ties.
That leaves Kate with one huge question: is Walker working with the Russians, and if so, how deep does it go?
It’s also discovered that Walker received payments from Igor Borodin, the head of the Russian secret service, supposedly linked to land development.
Then there’s Imogen Conrad (Amaka Okafor), Walker’s rival in the leadership race. Throughout the series, she’s worried about a sex tape being leaked and used against her.
Eventually, it does leak, but the footage appears to have been altered to hide the man’s identity. Kate presses Imogen for answers, but she doesn’t know who he was. She’d met several supposed “hotel investors” at a cocktail party with Kyril Markov (Oleg Levin), one of Russia’s top intelligence operatives.
Kate later meets Igor’s son, Mikhail (Michael Tcherepashenets), and uses knowledge of his affair with a man to get leverage. She passes information to her Russian ally, Cyclops (Alexander Terentyev), who sneaks into the Russian secret service building and uncovers a crucial clue about when Igor recruited his mole.
Who was the Russian mole?
Stuart (Rafe Spall), Kate’s husband, is revealed as the Russian mole.
Kate realises the truth when Cyclops tells her Igor was in Prague in December 2024. That’s when she was there with Stuart.
She asks Stuart to fly to Finland and meet her at one of their favourite hotels, but the real meeting takes place at the Russian border.
There, Kate lays everything out. Stuart was recruited by Igor during their anniversary trip to Prague, and he was the man who slept with Imogen in Montenegro.
The Russians erased Stuart from the sex tape in return for information. According to him, they initially only wanted “cabinet gossip”, but things escalated.
Kate doesn’t want him tried for treason, and she doesn’t want to drag their children through even more pain. So, she lets him cross the Russian border as an escape route. After that, he disappears.
Who dies in Secret Service?
Two major characters die in Secret Service: Lena (Alma Prelec) and Rav (Avi Nash).
Lena is a Russian nanny recruited by Kate to spy on Igor, with the promise that MI6 will help both her and her brother. However, Kyril quickly works out that she’s informing.
Kate disobeys orders and tries to extract her. They nearly escape, but Lena is shot in the head by one of Igor’s snipers as they speed away on a boat.
Rav, one of Kate’s closest allies at MI6, is also killed. He goes undercover in Geneva to meet a Swiss banker connected to Igor, uncovering the payments between Igor and Walker.
He returns home and tells Kate what he’s found, but he’s murdered in his house before she can reach him.
What was going on with Zak and Julie?
Zak Hussein (Khalid Abdalla), the head of the SIS, is briefly suspected of being the Russian mole.
It would make sense. He’s effectively Igor’s British counterpart, with access to some of the country’s most sensitive intelligence.
However, his secretive behaviour has a much simpler explanation: he’s having an affair with Julie (Aoife Hinds), one of Kate’s agents.
By the end, Zak is firmly on Kate’s side and supports her decisions.
Is Ryan Walker working with the Russians?
That’s the biggest question left hanging over Secret Service.
The answer appears to be yes, but Walker may be more of a useful pawn than a committed Russian asset.
He did meet the Russian foreign minister. He does have links to Lev Amatov. His campaign was also partly funded by £1 million connected to the oligarch.
In the final scene, Walker learns that Kate has been seconded to the Cabinet Office to protect him from “hostile influences”. His reaction says a lot: he looks worried.
Zak also believes Igor may have got exactly what he wanted. Even if Walker isn’t a full-blown Russian agent, the chaos surrounding him is enough to destabilise the UK Government.
Will there be a Secret Service series 2?
ITV hasn’t confirmed Secret Service series 2 yet, but there’s definitely room for one.
Bradby has written three Kate Henderson books: Secret Service, Double Agent, and Triple Cross. That gives ITV two more novels to adapt if the first series performs well.
The second book follows Kate after she’s kidnapped in Venice by a Russian defector.
“But all is not as it seems,” its synopsis teases.
“The spy offers her conclusive evidence that the British Prime Minister is a live agent working for Moscow. Kate’s holiday quickly becomes the start of her next mission.”
Read more: The ‘iconic’ locations where ITV’s international spy drama Secret Service was filmed
Secret Service is available to stream on ITVX now. The first episode is on ITV1 at 9pm tonight (April 27).
Leave us a comment on our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix and let us know what you think?