A 33-year-old man has a full weekend alone while his girlfriend attends a bachelorette experience. What exactly does the man get up to? Boozing it up? Gaming until all hours of the night?

The reality, dear reader, is likely the furthest thing from the image you were picturing, unless, of course, you'd misunderstood the 33-year-old man to be a grandmother in her 70s.

I spent the lion's share of my Saturday with around a half dozen cups of tea and my "Programs." I decided to binge the concluding series of Grantchester to bring my "trinity" of reviews to a finale of its own. The show finished airing while I was still watching Series 1. I'll say up front that I was down on the final series compared to the rest of the show.

I gave a bit of background on our final resident of the vicarage in my previous article, so I'll start with the back half of Series 9 and Series 10 for context, following three threads: Alphy, the Keatings, and Leonard.

Series 9 introduces Alphy Kottaram (Rishi Nair) as the "swarthy" new vicar of Grantchester, and his arrival is met with exactly the skepticism you'd expect from a rural English community in the 1960s. He makes waves, or at least attempts to make some that aren't dependent on his race. It quickly becomes apparent that his appointment is part of a scheme none too dissimilar to that of Ted Lasso's first season. He's been set up to fail so the parish can be consolidated with another. The plan doesn't come to pass, but Alphy's standing with the Church comes back several times as his storyline progresses.

Series 10 vindicates Geordie's earlier accurate, if inappropriate, assumption that Alphy was hiding something. Alphy is a foundling, a term I'd honestly not heard until The Mandalorian some seven years back. When the orphanage that raised him closes in episode four, he's given a letter his mother left with him. He's terrified to open it for fear of rejection, but when he finally does, he finds solace in the fact that she did hope for the best for him. Geordie then tracks down her address, which causes a rift between the two for the rest of the series. Series 10 closes with Alphy making the trip to visit her, cutting away before the audience has a chance to meet her.

Meanwhile, Alphy meets Meg Gray (Christie Russel-Brown), who plays hard to get before softening to his charms. As always, it's the parents that make things complicated: Meg is the daughter of the Bishop who set Alphy up for failure. Alphy feels betrayed at first, and despite a few attempts to spark some romance, the pair end the series as "friends."

Geordie and Cathy have their own arc across these series, for better and so, so much worse. In Series 9, their eldest daughter, Esme, wants to enter the workforce. Geordie respects her decision, but Cathy is vehemently opposed. Cathy, whose mother struggled with her mental health, fears she is turning out just like her. She's moody and short-tempered, medicating herself with mood stabilizers that sap every bit of life from her, and Mrs. C, now the Keatings' maid, is told to leave at Cathy's behest. It's Mrs. C who ultimately clears things up: Cathy is going through menopause, "The Change," which her own mother never explained to her. Her fears of psychosis are allayed, and the Keatings are back in a good position, albeit with one less member of the family once Esme moves out. By the end of Series 10, Cathy and Mrs. C are starting CeCe's Boutique together.

Series 10 turns to their son, John. Geordie is deathly afraid that John might be gay, and when John dresses up in women's clothing, Geordie lashes out. I find it mildly amusing that I'd been considering the Keating children around this point, realizing that most of them had either A) never spoken or B) hardly played a role in the show. If you put a gun to my head, I couldn't tell you their names, aside from John. Geordie softens over time but can't bring himself to open up, and Alphy tells him to let John know he loves him, which for Geordie is like disrobing in public. The series ends with Geordie taking John fishing and finally drumming up the courage to say it. And then he was never seen again. No, seriously, the Keating kids, not counting Esme, are NEVER seen again.

Leonard is still here, but he is given a jar of pickles to deal with. After leaving the poetry cafe in Series 8 to work with the unhoused and recently released convicts, Leonard has a well-established halfway house by Series 9. The trouble is, a "street preacher" named Sam is catching the ear of the residents… including Daniel. Sam's contemporary psychological ideas seem admirable at first, but hints of manipulation start to show. Daniel grows distant from Leonard, opening up to Sam instead and confronting his parents' disdain at the thought of him being gay. Sam pulls in so many youths that Leonard is ostracized from what was supposed to be his own operation.

Now, say it with me: IT'S A CULT! Sam, whose real name I don't care to look up, is a con man and murderer turned cult leader with a veritable army he calls his "flock." The Series 9 finale sees Geordie and Alphy caught in a tense hostage situation where Sam shoots Leonard and holds Alphy et al. at gunpoint. Daniel comes to his senses, and Geordie and Larry come to their aid, with Larry heroically taking a bullet. His heroism begins a chain of events that builds Larry into one of my favorites, in a way the early series made seem impossible.

Leonard continues to take his lumps in Series 10. His father dies, and his will explicitly bars Leonard from attending. Leonard learns this when his father's effects, flask included, are delivered to him. He starts drinking to numb the pain, and with Daniel busy reconciling with his own parents, Leonard doesn't want to burden him. The downward spiral into alcoholism lands him in a jail cell and mixed up in a convoluted murder of one of Cambridge's finest, until Alphy gives him some tough love and Mrs. C answers his plea for help.

And now, FINALLY, we come to the last and least series. It isn't all bad. I was actually crying at the end, as much for the simple fact there was no more as for the individual characters' conclusions. I'll follow the same three threads, then the finale, and save my favorite part for last.

Alphy is all over the place this series, both literally and as a character. His mother is not Christian; in fact, she is very against Christianity for its ties to colonialism, and she holds his faith against him. She eventually explains that she was 15, smitten with a 16-year-old boy who wanted nothing to do with the baby. Ashamed, she left Alphy at a church on a rainy night because it was the closest place, not out of a belief they would provide him sanctuary. She stops speaking to him, and when he reaches out again, he discovers she's been hiding a family from him. Their confrontation in a park, where she lashes out about her disappointment in his being a Christian, hurts him deeply. On the train home, he lands in the middle of yet another murder, this time a rather on-the-nose Agatha Christie reference where a character briefly does a Poirot impression, little grey cells and all.

Alphy goes off the deep end, drinking and gambling, and lashes out at Leonard. I have a bone to pick with the writers here. Leonard went through the same spiral one series earlier, and they missed a great opportunity to have him recognize what Alphy is doing. Even a couple of lines of "I've been through this" from Leonard would have been warranted. The writers gloss over that arc and its relevance, to the detriment of their relationship.

Cathy and Mrs. C have started CeCe's Boutique to flex their entrepreneurial spirits, but they're at loggerheads. "Thankfully," Geordie's investigation in episode one surfaces an accountant to help manage the business. Thus begins Cathy's downfall in my enjoyment.

I think the idea of the CeCe's arc is fine. I was glad Mrs. C would be getting some fresh things to do rather than freshening up other people's homes. My problems stem specifically from Cathy's storyline, which feels very forced, as though the writers had no real material left. The accountant keeps talking up the boutique, effectively gaslighting Cathy into thinking the store is more successful than it is. She becomes more and more "involved" in the world of fashion, leaving Mrs. C in the lurch and getting awfully cozy with the accountant.

Meanwhile, Geordie is headed for a promotion to Chief Inspector, with a promotion for Larry in tow. Don't worry, we'll get to Larry; it will be worth the wait. Things come to a head when Cathy skips Geordie's ball to get drunk with the accountant. It seriously hurts Geordie, and she's too drunk to care. In the end, CeCe's only serves to hurt Geordie on the most important night of his career and to set up the situation where he nearly dies. It's my single biggest frustration with the final series.

Leonard closes the halfway house after his last resident commits a crime mere hours after release. Having been defrocked, he looks into becoming a lay minister, but Alphy is too caught up with his birth mother to help. Leonard instead becomes a guardian of sorts to a young man whose father is dying. Daniel is opposed at first, but the three begin to bond, and when the boy's father gives guardianship to Daniel, they become a family of their own.

This is it, the final stretch. For once, nearly all the storylines converge in the penultimate episode. The accountant, whose activities had already piqued Mrs. C's curiosity, has been laundering stolen money through the CeCe's bank account. Cathy is on the verge of spending a night in London with him when a robbery turns into a hostage situation, and during negotiations, Geordie gets shot.

Geordie is near death, and Alphy's recurring nightmare about reading someone their last rites comes true. Geordie has a real come-to-Jesus moment. Finally, after years of working with vicars, he becomes a believer; out of fear and desperation, yes, but I don't think Jesus is too picky… well, unless sin is involved, but I'm pretty sure he took care of that too. The near-death experience brings Esme back to see her father, and all's well that ends well… except for Alphy's sudden revenge plot.

The young shooter asks a barely convalescent Geordie for forgiveness, then seeks sanctuary in the church, and Alphy goes after him. In what is likely the second darkest moment in the show (after the hanging back in Series 2), Alphy nearly leaves the man to die out of spite. Geordie, who should still be in his hospital bed, makes it to the church just in time for Alphy to do the right thing, and Larry arrives with the cavalry.

On that note, we can end on a high note. Larry Peters (Bradley Hall) has been around since Series 4, where he was introduced as an absolute twerp. That little punk galled me on many occasions, and I decried his very existence. When I briefly hopped onto the Masterpiece PBS Reddit (yes, you read that correctly), everyone said Larry would improve. I didn't believe them. Imagine my surprise when I found myself heavily invested in his story across the last three series.

Larry is head over heels for Miss Jennifer Scott (Melissa Johns), who has worked alongside him and Geordie since Series 6, proving herself competent, capable, and an integral part of the Cambridge police. She rebuffs his puppy-dog affection at first, but after his heroics in Series 9, a "romantic evening" soon becomes something more. Larry is ready to tie the knot. Miss Scott is not.

The show calls the contemporary treatment of women into question time and again, from their mental health to their reproductive rights to their right to hold a job while married. That last one is the key concern for Miss Scott, who would have to quit the department. She also doesn't feel worthy of Larry's love, after years of her parents refusing to accept her for who she is. Melissa Johns is missing her right forearm and has been a disability rights activist for many years. I have to applaud Grantchester for the representation, and for treating the character as a person rather than a token. Larry loves her all the same, and the pair tie the knot.

Geordie keeps their marriage a secret and even comes to appreciate Larry, whose confidence has grown alongside the relationship. Geordie praising him hit me like the moment Ted Lasso praised Jamie Tartt for his extra pass. Before long, Mrs. Peters finds herself in the family way. Geordie notices first, having watched Cathy go through it several times, but she waits to tell Larry so she won't distract him from his exams. His reaction is absolutely heartwarming, if bittersweet for his wife, who needs new employment now that the marriage is known.

The highlight of the final series is the arrival of their child and its baptism, with Geordie and Cathy as godparents. Once again, the Keating kids aren't in attendance. Mrs. Peters joins CeCe's, where her administrative experience proves exceptionally helpful to the growing business.

Everything ties up neatly, not as endings, but as new beginnings. Alphy reconciles with his mother, meets his half-brother, and rekindles his romance with Meg, proclaiming that he will most certainly marry her. Geordie turns down his promotion to retire and spend more time with Cathy and the missing children. Leonard and his family even get a dog named, wait for it, Dostoevsky!

I wish we had a few more callbacks to the earlier series. FINALLY we get another mention of backgammon… and that's about as close to a Sidney cameo as we get. Heck, we don't even get Will and his family coming to visit.

Ultimately, Alphys series were a bit all over the place, and it's really the side characters that shine… except Cathy in the last one. Series 9 was passable, with some good moments. Series 10 had some good romance, but I was sad for Leonard and his struggles. Series 11 is mostly frustration, but Larry and Jennifer are the best things in the final episodes.

Was it all worth it? Absolutely. I think Grantchester will go down as a top 20 show, and the soundtrack fills the silences between most of my daily tasks. I will always have a soft spot for my vicars, and I shall Endeavour to discuss my next Masterpiece show in due time. In the meantime, more Maigret is absolutely on its way, and I cannot wait.