Nicola Walker finally returned to our screens in season 3 of The Split – BBC One’s legal drama about the complicated professional and personal lives of the Defoe family.
Starring Walker as top divorce lawyer Hannah Stern, the Abi Morgan series follows the Noble & Hale law firm and its employees, from Nina Defoe (Annabel Scholey) and her secret relationship with Zander’s (Chukwudi Iwuji) husband Tyler (Damien Molony), to Rose Defoe (Fiona Button) and her husband James’s (Rudi Dharmalingam) decision to adopt.
The main focal point of The Split however is Hannah and the love triangle she finds herself in with her long-time husband Nathan (Stephen Mangan) and her former flame Christie (Barry Atsma).
Those who’ve been watching season 3 will know that the situation has become even more complicated with Nathan’s new girlfriend Kate (Lara Pulver) arriving on the scene – but what happened at the end of the series between Hannah, Nathan and Kate?
Read on for everything you need to know about the ending of The Split season 3 – and naturally, spoilers follow.
What happened at the end of The Split?
In the final episode of The Split, Hannah is visited by Goldie McKenzie (Meera Syal) – her client from season 1 – who is getting re-married to a wealthy boxer and needs Hannah’s help going over her pre-nup. She tells her not to be afraid of change and to embrace life despite being heartbroken over Nathan.
She’s then visited by Nathan, who thinks he might be having a heart attack but Hannah reassures him it’s a panic attack, caused by Kate discovering Nathan and Hannah sharing a bed in a camper van outside their house.
He explains that while he told Kate that they didn’t sleep together, he did reveal that he still has feelings for Hannah and worries that the divorce may be a mistake. While Hannah initially thought the same, she tells him that he’s just frightened and has confused that with thinking he still loves her. “We can’t fix this Nathan,” she says before walking away.
Nathan then goes to visit his divorce lawyer Melanie Aickman (Anna Chancellor) and after she spends the first few minutes speaking about how reuniting with the son she gave up for adoption has done wonders for her public profile, he tells her she’s a terrible person and fires her. “You’ve never asked me what I want. You just tell people what they’re going to get at whatever cost,” he says.
Meanwhile, Nina goes to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and thinks she sees Tyler (Damien Molony), who stole her life-savings and fled, but it’s actually somebody else. As she’s leaving, she bumps into Melanie, who reveals she’s an AA regular and tells Nina that she’ll need to put in the work to make amends for the self-destructive mistakes she’s made.
After hearing that Nathan has fired Melanie, Hannah visits Kate. She tells her that her marriage with Nathan is definitely over and because she loves him, she’s ready to let Kate and the new baby into their family life.
As for Lenny, she visits her husband Felix and tells him about her terminal condition. However he says that’s he won’t allow her to divorce him for that reason and that he wants to care for her until the very end.
Some time later, Nathan heads over to Hannah’s house and they finalise their divorce arrangements before tearfully but amicably ending their marriage. Their children then arrive back at the house and Liv tells Hannah that she’s not going to study law at university, but instead is going to study Spanish in Argentina with Gael (Alex Guersman), who she’s decided not to marry after all. Kate then stops by and reconciles with Nathan before appearing to get on well with their children.
Back at the office, Nina goes to see Zander, who tells her that she won’t be punishing her for stealing his husband as she has quite a lot of money to make back after Tyler ran off with her savings. Meanwhile, Rose (Fiona Button) visits the man who received James’s heart before laying flowers in the spot where he died. She also bumps into Glen (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith) whilst visiting James’s grave, with the vicar apologising for brushing her off a few days before and implying that he has feelings for her.
Whilst still at the office, Hannah calls Christie (Barry Atsma), who had invited Hannah to be with him in New York, and tells him that as her family is in London, that’s where she must be. “I love you Christie, I do, but I want life not a fantasy,” she says before telling him that if he wants to be with her, he needs to move back to the UK.
Later on, Ruth (Deborah Findlay) and Ronnie (Ian McElhinney) tie the knot and the Defoe family dance together at the wedding reception, before Hannah and Nathan record an episode of Ruth’s podcast together, talking about their divorce.
Do Hannah and Nathan get back together?
While many fans of the show were hoping that Hannah and Nathan would reunite and decide not to go through with their divorce, the long-time couple did in fact separate at the end of the series.
Despite still loving one another, they both understood that their marriage wasn’t fixable after their respective betrayals (Hannah’s affair with Christie and Nathan’s relationship with a woman from an extra-marital affair website). There was also the added factor of Nathan’s new girlfriend Kate, who had become pregnant with his baby.
The Split is available to stream on BBC iPlayer now. Take a look at what else is on with our TV guide.
