Sky Atlantic's Patrick Melrose has deftly handled the weighty issues of drug, sex and child abuse, avoiding melodrama and over-sentimentality.
It came as little surprise then, that the mini-series was left with a somewhat open and indefinite ending.
In a final flashback, we see a young Patrick go to the bathroom to try and escape his father's sexual abuse, even if only for a minute longer.
However, he then defiantly opens the door and responds to his father's beckoning: "No, I won't do what you say anymore. It's wrong, you're wrong, nobody should do that to anybody else."
Those who have read the Edward St Aubyn books on which the series is based may be able to shed more light on this, but I think we were to assume that this was the older Patrick overwriting his memories.
We heard him say the exact same words - "nobody should do that to anybody else" - after breaking down at his mother's funeral, and it seems, after turning a corner and deciding to visit his family instead of holing up with a bottle, he decided to take the scarring memories that consumed him and give them the ending he would have liked. His father's reaction in the flashback backs this up, it showing a guilt that seemed beyond the character's capacity for humanity.
As older Patrick leaves his apartment the final shot is of him closing the door behind him - hopefully the door to the past.
It was an upbeat ending to the excellent series, but one tinged with sadness. Painting over his memories might help Patrick in the short term, but this denial is very possibly what led to the relapse that saw him admitted to rehab (though this timeline had a hopeful ending too, Patrick deciding against meeting up with an unstable fellow patient and returning to a meeting).
You can read our review of episode 5, 'At Last', here.
