| "Rise: Part 2" | |
| Series 7, Episode 6 | |
 | |
| Centric Character(s): | James Cook |
| Original Airdate: | August 5 2013 |
| Written by: | Jamie Brittain |
| Directed by: | Jack Clough |
| Episode chronology | |
| previous "Rise: Part 1" |
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"Rise: Part 2" is the sixth and final episode of Series 7 and the 61st episode overall. It is also the show's final episode.
It shows James Cook as a young adult, taking place around four years after the events of Roundview College.
It focuses on Cook and how he deals with the fallout of running away with his boss Louis' girlfriend Charlie and his friend-with-benefit Emma, Louis stalking them, and how death has shaped his life.
Plot[]
After having fled Manchester, Cook, Emma and Charlie have been driving for hours in silence, and eventually arrive at a country manor owned by Emma's middle class parents in the Midlands. They manage to get in with the spare key, but are confronted by Emma's temperamental father and level-headed mother, who have mixed reactions at seeing her, implying she may have had a falling out with her father. Nevertheless, they agree that they may stay for a couple of days. As they are about to go to sleep, Emma has an argument with Charlie, realising she had sex with Cook, and goes to confront him, demanding that he tell her exactly what happened. He simply tells her that he messed up, and initiates sex with her. However, she realises that he is more attracted to Charlie than her and leaves. The next day, Emma's parents leave after Cook causes a scene at their local pub. Before they do so, however, Louie unexpectedly turns up, having tracked Cook's car with an app on his phone. He tries to persuade Charlie to come home with him, but she coldly refuses, reminding him that he killed a man in front of her. Seemingly dejected, he returns to his car and drives off. Cook is not convinced he will give up, though, and orders the girls to pack up, and tells them they are walking, even though it is snowing outside.
As they walk, Emma and Charlie continue to clash, but Cook silences them when he spots something in the distance - it is Emma's parents' car, which has been pushed off the road. They discover it empty of Emma's parents, and the shotgun Emma's father had brought with him. Cook realises that Louie has taken it, and quickly urges them to run off into the woods. When there are three gunshots, most likely the sound of Louie shooting Emma's parents and Rob. He sees Louie's car and approaches, when there are two gunshots, most likely the sound of Louie executing Emma's parents. Sensing danger, Cook quickly returns to the girls, and they flee. Eventually, they find an abandoned wooden bunker, and shelter there. Worried that Emma's screaming will give them away, Charlie eventually gives her some sedatives she had in her purse. As they wait for morning, Charlie and Cook debate what to do, and Charlie concludes that the only way to resolve everything is to kill Louie. Cook refuses, as killing a man is the worst thing that he ever did, and he lives with it every day. Charlie urges him to choose her over Emma, and they kiss. Unbeknownst to them, however, Emma wakes up and sees them.
In the early hours of the morning, Cook wakes up and discovers that Emma has left. Abandoning all effort at hiding, he goes out and shouts her name, to Charlie's fright. Their search eventually takes them to an empty field where Louie is waiting for them, with Emma's dead body hanging by a noose from a nearby tree (whether Louie killed her himself, helped her commit suicide or merely decided to wait by her body is not specified). As Charlie falls to her knees and begins crying, Cook, filled with rage, calmly approaches. Louie draws the gun, and tells Cook that he is going to shoot him. Cook demands that, after he has killed him, Louie must not kill Charlie, or anyone else, before revealing he had had sex with Charlie, and will always have that over him. Louie, who had not known about their dalliance, and thought that Cook was only assisting her, is profoundly hurt by this revelation, and momentarily lowers his guard. Seeing an opportunity, Cook tricks him into thinking Charlie is about to ambush him from behind, and then quickly attacks, knocking the gun out of his hands and wrestling with him. Cook eventually gains the upper hand, and knocks Louie unconscious, before picking the gun up and taking aim. Charlie demands that he pull the trigger, but, after a moment's thought, Cook decides he hasn't got it in him to kill another person, and simply fires the last shot into the air.
Later, Cook wakes Louie up and informs him that the police are on their way, and he will face a very long prison sentence when he is arrested. He then goes to Louie's car, where Charlie is in the drivers' seat, and tells her to drive as far as she can, ditch the car and disappear forever. She asks if she will ever see him again, and he says that they will not. After Charlie drives off, Cook approaches Emma's body, which he has covered with a jacket, and crouches over it mournfully, in a moment of silence. Now on the run again, having witnessed more death, and his life in tatters once more, Cook walks off into the distance, ending the episode, and the series.