‘Trespasses‘ Penultimate Episode Turns Up the Heat
"We're doomed. Other than that, we're grand."
The penultimate episode of Trespasses is not subtle. To be fair, not much about this show has been subtle, from its constant hints of ever-present violence to the increasingly star-crossed vibes of its central forbidden romance. But the third episode turns things up to eleven, as multiple news reports detail increasingly brutal clashes between sectarian forces and repeatedly remind us that while Michael Agnew may be a good lawyer trying to do the right thing, he’s also regularly pissing off both the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and the IRA.
The show doesn’t pull any punches about the threat he’s living under, either. Multiple people — including both Cushla’s mother, Gina, and Michael’s irritating friend, Victor — point out how much danger he’s inviting into his life by essentially telling both sides to go [expletive] themselves. Not content to simply defend three local boys accused of IRA involvement, he’s also suing the RUC for police brutality (a crime of which they are almost certainly guilty). But as well-intentioned as this all undoubtedly is, his choices come with dark consequences.
Strange cars lurk outside the flat he and Cushla are using as their love nest. Michael wonders whether Constable Peters (Frank Blake), who flirted with Cushla at the school dance, has some ulterior motive for following her around. (By the end of the hour, it certainly seems as though he does.) Even Michael’s posh Protestant friend Penny (Lisa Dwyer Hogg) wants to know if Cushla’s really thought this whole thing through. There’s real risk here, and not just for Michael.
“This is going to end really badly, isn’t it?” Cushla asks Michael at one point. It would be so nice to say she’s wrong. But she really, really isn’t.
Cushla bribes her mother with the promise of a fancy lunch if she can manage to spend one night without getting blackout drunk in their living room while she attends a wedding with Gerry and some friends. Gina manages this, somehow, but the lunch is unsurprisingly disastrous anyway.
They run into Eamonn and his wife out celebrating Marian’s mother’s birthday, and it’s all big happy families in a way the Laverys haven’t managed since Cushla’s father died. Gina’s fuming about it, because... she loves being miserable, maybe? She wants everyone to be as trapped in her grief as she is? She can’t stand other people being happy? Your guess is as good as ours. Despite having Gillian Anderson in the role, Trespasses has actually done very little with Gina as a character, whose entire personality is essentially being varying degrees of drunk, sad, or cruel. (It’s a waste of her talent, is what I’m saying.)
Trying to play off her obvious fuming about not being included in Eamonn’s lunch party, Gina forces an introduction with Michael, who happens to be there with his wife, Joanna, and their son, Dermot. (Is this the only nice restaurant in town?!) It’s peak awkward, as everyone gets introduced to Cushla as though she’s someone who isn’t regularly seeing Michael naked, and she tries to mentally put a face to the nebulous idea of her lover’s wife.
Cushla, of course, insists she’s in this relationship with her eyes wide open; to be fair, that’s actually somewhat true. She knows Michael’s married, and she knows that if the truth about their relationship gets out — or even if her dreams come true and he somehow leaves his wife for her — it’s her reputation that will be destroyed, not his. She’s choosing this impossible situation of her own free will.
But there’s a real difference between knowing something in an abstract sense, and knowing it because it’s put directly in front of her face. Seeing Joanna, albeit briefly, seems to shake something loose in Cushla, who tries once more to call things off with Michael. But, despite her best efforts, she loves him, even after they finally have the cards-on-the-table conversation someone should have initiated weeks ago.
Michael, for his part, insists he truly loves Cushla and this relationship is different from all his previous affairs. (He’s had three, including one with a woman named Marjorie, who Cushla herself met at one of their friend Jim’s parties.) He insists he no longer has sex with his wife, but that Joanna’s unwell and he can’t leave her. She’s depressed, in treatment, and he refuses to dump her care on his son. (The reason that Michael’s been able to see so much of Cushla recently is that Joanna has been hospitalized, receiving electroshock treatments for depression.)
It’s an impasse, really, and one that confirms that a happy ending really can never be in the cards for these two. Michael cries over how much he loves Cushla and what an amazing wife and mother she’d make, even as he admits he can’t give her those things. His teary love confession certainly feels legitimate, even if his reasons for leaving his wife come off like a litany of excuses he’s probably recited to other women before. (I’m also just a sucker for any man who cries, so I’m inclined to believe he’s sincere here. Cushla deserves that.)
Cushla admits she wants to be with Michael no matter what. They’ll figure it out—go on long weekend trips, rent a cottage in the country where no one knows them. Michael promises (...again?) to stop lying to her, and things are back on track between them. She returns to working shifts at the bar; he tells her he loves her when no patrons are near, and asks her to bring more of her stuff to their shared flat. Things are looking up.
And then Michael is shot in the head and killed.
Trespasses will conclude Sunday, October 11, 2026, at 10 p.m. ET on most local stations, the PBS app, and the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel. Members can stream all episodes via PBS Passport.
