'The Fall' of a Serial Killer: Can the Series Survive Without Jamie Dornan?

[Warning! Spoilers galore ahead for #TheFall Season3 ]

After binge-watching all six episodes of The Fall Season 3, I'm glad to say that, despite some shortcomings, the suspenseful psychological crime series which tells of a female detective superintendent hunting down a serial killer in Belfast, Northern Ireland wrapped up pretty well. Granted that the over-the-top violence in the finale episode was not pretty to look at, the acclaimed BBC Two series did provide the eagerly-awaited fall - pardon the pun - of the show's protagonist.

At the end of Season 2, we sees DSI #StellaGibson (The X-Files' #GillianAnderson) cradling the badly wounded #PaulSpector (50 Shades of Grey's #JamieDornan) and screaming, "We're losing him!" Of course, there was never any doubt that we would lose the yet-to-be-convicted murderer so soon just as the new season began. Yet there was a tinge of fear that the writers may just dragged the story further as the earlier episodes did not give much indication on whether the cunning psychopath would get his comeuppance by the end of the series.

More ER Than Criminal Minds

The first two episodes were more ER than Criminals Minds as the good doctors and nurses of Belfast General Hospital do all they can to save Spector's life, even though he is the suspected Belfast Strangler 'cos, as everyone knows, it is the professional thing to do. Then, as if the music and mood were not creepy enough, security in the hospital was shockingly lax. For a man who the police has indicated as a violent suspect, Spector is not handcuffed to his bed nor is there a police guard outside the door as he lies recovering in ICU. Add to that, a nurse also attended to him without any safety concern and who even started sympathizing with her patient, while his lawyers are allowed to speak to him without any doctor or cop in attendance. Most incredulous bit of all? Spector's latest victim Rose Stagg (played by Valene Kane), who was rescued from his clutches, is placed in the same ICU wing as he is, barely five metres away! Seriously, the series' shortfalls were as traumatizing for viewers as it was for poor Rose!

One Plotline Too Many

Having Spector suffering from amnesia due to the trauma of his wounds was an interesting twist to the story (is he really or is he acting?), but the other plotlines such as the Belfast police bigwigs questioning the renegade Gibson's unorthodox ways of handling a suspected criminal and that of Spector's defence lawyers trying to prove that Gibson's relentless pursuit of their client is primarily due to her obsession with him - which is, to be fair, true to a certain extent - were rather tedious to say the least. Arguably the only poignant moment in the early part of the chillingly cold series was when Spector's long-suffering wife Sally Ann (Bronagh Waugh) attempts to kill herself and their two children...

Justice Is Served

Thankfully, the series perked up in its final two hours. Realizing that Spector is claiming that he cannot remember everything in the past six years - conveniently covering all his hideous crimes in and around Belfast - Gibson and her task force ingeniously hunt down vital evidence of Spector's first kill that took place in London and even managed to convince the man who owned up to the crime to confess that he was covering up for his old pal Spector whom he feels he owed a life debt to.

That led to the much-awaited face-to-face confrontation between Gibson and Spector in the interrogation room where the former calls the latter's bluff on his amnesia and icily tells him to own up to his crimes "like a man". What happened thereafter was exactly how I imagined The Fall would result in - that Gibson would push Spector over the edge and be severely punished by him. Still, that did not prepare me for the brutal violence that followed as Spector savagely lands rock-hard punch after punch on the demure Gibson till she collapses into a heap, face battered and bloodied before prison guards finally arrive to restrain the snarling killer. Why was an alleged violent prisoner not handcuffed to the table in an interrogation room or have at least two guards beside him, may we ask?

The End is Nigh

The violence did not end there, oh no sirree. Sent back to the mental facility to meet with psychiatrist Dr Larson (Krister Henriksson) instead of being charged for beating up Gibson (and breaking Colin Morgan's DP Anderson's arm for that matter), Spector is once again left to his own devices - neither handcuffed nor accompanied by armed guards - resulting in the good doctor being beaten to a bloody pulp as well, before the unrelenting killer slaughters a fellow facility inmate and eventually takes his own life by asphyxiation.

Some may say Spector took the easy way out but just having the sadistic killer punished and sentenced in a court room, as what Gibson wanted, would not make good TV. The Fall has its flaws - all those lax security, seriously - but at least Paul Spector was found out and his evil rampage finally comes to a close.

Should There Be A Season 4?

So, should #TheFall venture towards a fourth season? Even without Jamie Dornan - who plays the cold-blooded killer-cum-loving-dad to perfection and rightly deserves his rapid rise to international fame - the ever versatile Gillian Anderson is more than capable to carry another new series of The Fall on her own star power. Smart, progressive, soft-spoken and sexy, Stella Gibson is Anderson's TV alter ego for the new millennium (even though she will forever bear the spirit of Agent Dana Scully for life). The Fall creators can give Gibson a new location (London, Edinburgh, et al) and new cases to work on. Anderson herself has said that she is open to a new season and another cast member reportedly said it is already a done deal. What say you?