The HBO series ‘Landscapers,’ developed by Ed Sinclair, is based on the 1998 assassination of William and Patricia Wycherley. Susan and Christopher Edwards are at the center of the episode; as the police examine this mild-mannered British couple, shocking details about the Mansfield killings emerge. Will Sharpe directs the true-crime show, which stars Olivia Colman, David Thewlis, Kate O’Flynn, Samuel Anderson, and Dipo Ola in prominent parts.
Throughout the series, we witness the Edwardses cling to their story despite the fact that the police uncover devastating evidence against them. We know that things are going to get difficult for Susan and Christopher as they prepare for their trial. So, how interested are you in the outcome of their court battle? We’ve got you covered, don’t worry. Here’s all you need to know about the season 1 finale of ‘Landscapers.’ WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.
Landscapers Finale Recap
Susan and Christopher Edwards, who are shy, are living in misery in France. Susan is soon revealed to be unable to stop spending on old Hollywood mementos, despite their poverty. After being turned down for a job, Christopher contacts his stepmother, Dr. Tabitha Edwards, for financial aid. However, he eventually confesses to his sins and discloses the reason for their exile.
Tabitha immediately contacts the cops and informs them that William and Patricia Wycherley’s bodies are buried in the back garden of their previous Mansfield home. As a result, DC Emma and DC Paul visit the Mansfield house and gather enough suspicious evidence to request an excavation. The police discover two skeletal bodies covered in a duvet after digging up the back garden.
The Edwardses eventually travel to England to face the authorities and defend themselves. Strange details about Susan and Christopher are revealed through black-and-white fl ashbacks and police interrogations. While Susan retains the services of a lawyer, Douglas Hylton, during the interrogations, Christopher does not. Douglas soon knows Susan and Christopher are head over heels in love.
The Edwardses began collecting the Wycherleys’ funds and pensions immediately after their murder, according to the authorities. They’re also taken aback by the discovery of Gérard Depardieu’s letters to Christopher. We learn about Christopher’s expertise with guns and Susan’s strained connection with her parents as DC Emma and DC Paul individually put the heat on the couple.
Susan maintains that Patricia shot William following an altercation, and that the mother then “provoked” her daughter. Susan claims that she killed her mother because Patricia knew about William’s sexual abuse of her. She also states that when they went to the Mansfield residence a week later, Christopher learned about the murders. He then dug a hole in the garden and buried the remains, according to reports.
Susan and Christopher believe the Wycherleys “took” from them, and the police soon discover this. Susan’s grandfather’s inheritance was used to purchase the Wycherleys’ old Edgware home. Patricia, on the other hand, quickly forced Susan to sign up the house’s rights to her parents. The Wycherleys then made a profit on their Edgware house and acquired the Mansfield house without paying Susan any money. As a result, the police department believes that the Edwardses murdered the Wycherleys for monetary gain, and the Mansfield murders are solved. Susan and Christopher, meantime, prepare to go to court and face a judge and jury.
Surreal, fourth-wall-breaking graphics are used throughout the show to highlight the Edwardses’ and police’s conflicting views of the crime. The final episode is considerably stranger, with images of jails, cameras, and green rooms as the opening sequence. The Edwardses are then brought to the courtroom. We cut away briefly to a memory of a young Susan riding a white horse.
A narrator narrates a letter Susan penned to Christopher as the press takes images of the Edwardses. Susan acknowledges in it that, while she “never worried about being cut off from the actual world,” her husband had a place in it. The picture then shifts to an old Hollywood/Western-style scene in which Susan and Christopher, dressed in period clothing, dump the Wycherleys’ bodies in the back of a horse-drawn carriage. Before the Edwardses escape, Christopher affixes a letter to Tabitha’s door with a knife.
Susan and Christopher are described as “audacious and unrepentant liars” and “cold-blooded murders” by the prosecutor in court. We cut to the old Western and see Tabitha delivering the letter to the cops (DCI Collier, DC Emma, and DC Paul); the cops then begin pursuing the Edwardses. A doctor explains how bodies decay and smell in court, claiming that the Edwardses could not have missed the stench of rotting carcasses when they visited the Mansfield house over a week after the murder.
The Edwardses are chased by the cops in old Western scenarios. Meanwhile, it is pointed out in court that the.38 caliber commando gun used to kill the elderly couple requires effort to pull the trigger and so cannot be utilized in a hurry. The court believes both Wycherleys were shot by the same perpetrator.
When asked about Gary Cooper, Christopher explains that Susan is his biggest fan. Later, he is forced to discuss his firearms knowledge and his friendship with Susan. Susan is then asked to comment on the murder. The prosecutor then finds a difference in Susan’s story and begins to cry. She talks about how bad her relationship with her parents was, and how her mother used to tell her that she was “difficult to love.”
“I’m not flimsy.” I’m shattered. So you won’t be able to harm me,” she sobs. Susan is next seen in her detention cell conversing with Douglas. The truth of Gérard Depardieu’s letters is subsequently revealed by Susan. When Douglas sees Susan’s hardship, he recognizes how fortunate he is and tells her that her parents should have treated her better. Susan and Douglas exchange handshakes and form a bond.
Landscapers Ending: Who Shot the Wycherleys — Susan or Christopher?
The court subsequently decides that the Edwardses conspired to murder the Wycherleys and that they will receive the same penalty. After that, we see DC. Emma conversing with DC Paul asks her about her own father, and she says that when she was 12, she threatened to hack off her father’s head with an ax because he abused her mother. He left after that, she explains. The two police officers start flirting and walk away when Paul shows pity for her. The title card states, after we watch scenes from Susan’s fantasies: “In 2014 Susan & Christopher Edwards were convicted of murder and sentenced to a minimum of 25 years in prison. To this day they maintain their innocence.”
The Edwardses’ meticulously constructed case about the Wycherleys’ murders falls apart during the trial. We witness how the doctor comes to the conclusion that the Edwardses must have buried the Wycherleys within three days of the murder since the couple claims that the bodies were stiff, and rigor mortis causes stiffness that lasts three days.
Susan says she bought 20 cans of air freshener to get rid of the smell of decay, smoking, and nicotine from her parents’ house immediately following, during her turn. Susan added the information after hearing the doctor’s conclusions, which the prosecutor notes she has never addressed previously.
Susan is also questioned about how she got rid of the murder weapon and any signs of it. She describes picking up the bullet casings and wrapping them in cloth, as well as the gun, before throwing everything into an empty bin somewhere in town. The prosecutor then points out that the.38 revolver used to murder the Wycherleys does not fire casings, implying that Susan failed to double-check the gun’s specifications with her husband. Susan’s panic merely reinforces the prosecutor’s conclusion.
We also get a look at how the court decides who shot the Wycherleys. We witness Christopher being questioned about his gun experience. He denies shooting the Wycherleys and states that despite owning a.38 pistol, he sold it in September 1995. The prosecutor points out that Christopher has publicly indicated that his wife is afraid of guns (making her unlikely to be the actual shooter).
Christopher then discusses his passion for military history and firearms. He used to go for shooting practice but stopped once he got married, he claims. When questioned why, Christopher reveals that the shooting range was far away from his home and that he had to change two trains to get there. Susan didn’t appreciate him being gone from home (and from her) for too long after she moved in with him. As a result, it’s clear that he sacrificed his pastime for his wife.
When the prosecutor asks if he or Susan made the decision to cease the shooting, Christopher responds it was a joint decision. When the judge inquires about who made the choice to bury the Wycherleys, Christopher pauses before responding that it was a joint decision. It becomes evident that Christopher is doing everything he can to protect Susan, even though his resolve is fraying.
The prosecutor’s final straw comes when he points out that Christopher chose to phone Tabitha knowing Susan would be upset, and that he must have been suffering in France. Indirectly, the prosecutor indicates that Christopher called his stepmother because he knew she would contact the police and ruin his quasi-fugitive life with Susan abroad, which was making him unhappy.
Christopher’s resolve begins to fray after this. As his wife sobs, he continues, “I’ve been living Susan’s life with her.” As a result, it becomes clear that, after marrying Susan, Christopher put his own aspirations and ideas aside and did whatever was necessary to protect her. This reminds me of an old conversation between DC Emma and DC Paul, in which the former claims that the “fragile” partner is also the one in charge. Tabitha also mentioned Christopher’s proclivity to go to great lengths to be the savior of the weak.
Then Christopher is requested to show how to operate a.38 caliber pistol. Because he is comfortable with firearms, his mood immediately changes. He lifts his arm to point at the judge, explaining that his training was in precision target shooting. Despite the fact that both the Edwardses planned the murder jointly, the court eventually determines that Christopher was the one who shot the Wycherleys.
The Wycherleys were also shot in a precise manner, according to the post mortem examination; officials believe that all four shots were fired by someone who was familiar with weapons. Given Susan’s phobia of firearms, obvious lack of gun knowledge, and the fact that the.38 is too stiff to be used quickly, the court declares Christopher to be the one who shot the Wycherleys.
What Is the Meaning of the Black and White Scenes? What Do Colored Old Western Scenes Mean?
The current is depicted in color in the first three episodes, while Susan’s old Hollywood fancies and flashbacks are shown in black and white. However, in the fourth and last episode, the present is depicted in black and white, while Susan’s fantasies are depicted in color. As a result, it’s clear that we’re now looking at the world through Susan’s eyes.
Susan and Christopher are on the run from the cops in Susan’s fantasy. The Edwardses are dressed in gowns, breeches, and hats, and they are riding in a horse-drawn carriage to transport the Wycherleys’ bodies. In addition, there are police officers on horseback. Susan utilizes the shelter of an outdated Western film format to hide her thoughts because it is too traumatic for her to remember the killings as they happened.
Susan is equally infatuated with Gary Cooper and John Wayne, so she imagines Christopher as a brave cowboy and her as his pretty maiden. Furthermore, we don’t see the killings take place, which is consistent with the Edwardses’ insistence on their innocence, even after being condemned to life in prison. Furthermore, the Edwardses burn the bodies of the Wycherleys, which Susan now recognizes would have been a preferable alternative.
Susan also feeds information from the current into her fantasy, which unfolds like a movie. When the doctor mentions the scent of decaying bodies, the carriage in the fantasy is soon coated in flies, prompting Susan to wrinkle her nose in disgust. Susan, on the other hand, had shown no outward reaction to any foul odor when pulling her parents’ bodies out of their house in the fantasy.
We see Douglas in her hallucination analyzing the cops through a long, old-fashioned telescope when Susan stares at her lawyer in court. As she makes fresh observations and learns new information, she incorporates it into her imagination in order to better comprehend it. When Christopher says that he has given up his life for Susan, we observe that he mysteriously vanishes from Susan’s fantasy for a period of time, prompting her to scream and search for him.
Susan is shown alone in her cell near the end of the film. She reads Christopher’s letter to her, in which he blames himself for feeling “stuck” and admits that he may have told Tabitha the truth because he wanted “help.” He also expresses his affection for Susan, saying that she made the world feel genuine to him. The deceased police officers rise from their graves and vanish in Susan’s fantasy. Christopher returns to Susan, who is unharmed, and takes off his wig. Susan then imagines her cell opening up to a movie set, complete with a white horse and a crew.
Christopher grabs her hand and leads her up to the horse. The Edwardses ride away into the wind as the cameras begin to roll, and the scene returns to black and white, as the first Western films did not contain color. Susan recalls a prior moment in which she tells Christopher about a horse she named after herself and her dreams about the two of them riding away together. It becomes clear that, despite spending the remainder of their lives apart in separate prisons, the Edwardses’ love for one another would never diminish.
Furthermore, they continue to feel that they are innocent. Susan will also use her fantasies to pass the time in prison because she has never enjoyed the actual world. She’s also at ease because her husband appears to have forgiven her for forging Depardieu’s letters (he signs his own letter to her as ‘Gerard Depardieu’); Christopher is well aware that she lied to make him happy.
