Vigil season 3 ending explained: Does Amy Silva survive?

While the first season of Vigil was mainly set on the submarine HMS Vigil (hence the police drama’s name) and the second had Suranne Jones's DCI Amy Silva investigating a murder linked to the Persian Gulf, season 3 is set mainly at an Arctic research station in Svalbard, where a British special forces officer has been murdered and a woman has gone missing.

Initially it is Amy’s partner, DI Kirsten Longacre (Rose Leslie) who is sent to Svalbard to find out who killed the soldier, who was working covertly with a team in a neutral area where army operations are not allowed.

Her investigation has to be discreet to avoid an international upset, so she is supervised by Henrik Becken (Jeppe Beck Laursen), Svalbard’s Chief of Police, and is reluctantly forced to work with Russian colonel Fyodor (Tornike Gogrichiani) since the soldier’s body was found dumped in Russian territory.

It’s not long before Kirsten realises that the murder is linked to a microbiologist named Shen Jia (Naomi Yang), who has uncovered something in the ice that the Russians and everyone else is after, and who disappeared after an attack on the British soldiers who were trying to evacuate her.

Back in Scotland, Amy is looking into how it connects to the kidnap of local politician Gordon Laity and a bombing that took the life of research scientist Vincent Mair, but it isn’t long before she’s hopping on a plane to help Kirsten as another woman is murdered and the mystery deepens even further.

By the end of the penultimate episode, many of the truths in Svalbard have come to light.

Shen Jia has revealed that her research is not a bioweapon as Kirsten and Amy had initially suspected, but a fossil fuel alternative that certain countries would prefer didn’t exist, putting Shen Jia’s life in danger. While one of the samples of her work has been smashed, she revealed that she had hidden the other in a gift for murdered Vincent Mair.

Becken has been arrested for his involvement in a conspiracy that involved the murdered soldier selling information about the research to the Russians, and while Kirsten remains in Svalbard to try and sort that mess out, Amy is back in Scotland attempting to get Shen Jia and her boyfriend, Mark Cunningham, to safety.

However, the episode ends with their car being run off the road, and gunmen heading towards it. Do Amy, Shen Jia and Mark survive the attack?

Here’s how the finale of Vigil season 3 plays out.

The final episode starts back in Glasgow as world leaders gather for a climate conference, Cop 31. Kirsten is informed that Amy and Shen Jia managed to escape the ambush but no one knows where they are.

When Amy contacts her superiors, she learns that the Chinese want Shen Jia back and the UK has agreed. Determined to protect Shen Jia, Amy refuses to bring her in and goes rogue, so Chief Superintendent Robertson issues a warrant for Amy’s arrest. He’s not all bad, though, as he reveals to Kirsten that he thinks there could be a conspiracy involving Chloe, the climate protestor implicated in the bombing that killed Vincent Mair.

Amy manages to make contact with Kirsten, and they work out that Shen Jia’s second sample, hidden in the gift to Vincent, has ended up in the possession of Gordon Laity. Amy and Shen Jia go to see him, while Kirsten goes to interview Chloe in hospital.

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After a man dressed as a policeman tries to kill her, Chloe reveals to Kirsten that she used to sell secrets to the Chinese, and when she was caught, she was forced to work as a double agent for the British Intelligence Services. The fake police officer is Scott, her handler, who now wants her dead to tie up loose ends.

Amy, Shen Jia and Mark head to a Glasgow lab to find out if Shen Jia’s stolen research is being developed there. Mercenaries arrive and open fire and while Mark and Shen Jia flee, Amy is cornered under fire until Kirsten arrives and rescues her.

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At the Cop 31 conference, Shen Jia arrives, wanting to share her research with the world, but is surrounded by armed men under the instruction of Sir Ian Downing, the Home Office agent who originally sent Kirsten to Svalbard.

Kirsten and Amy manage to stop them taking her, and after a lot of exposition it is revealed that Downing was involved all along, the mercenaries are under his instruction, and he wants Shen Jia’s research so that the UK can have energy autonomy over the rest of the world.

Implicated in the murder of Mair and the attack on Chloe, Sir Ian is arrested, as is politician Laity, who was also involved in the scheme. Shen Jia takes to the stage at the conference to share her research with everyone in the hope that countries can come together to work on it.

While Shen Jia is safe and can claim asylum in the UK, it’s a bittersweet ending for Amy. She faces charges for refusing to hand Shen Jia over to the authorities, and in the final scene, her boss suggests Amy resigns from the police force to avoid charges that could send her to prison.

With no fourth season as yet commissioned by the BBC, this looks like it could be Amy Silva’s final investigation.

Vigil season 3 is available to watch in full on BBC iPlayer now.

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