Grantchester season 3 finale: The Sidney and Amanda struggle

Did Sidney finally get what he wanted on the Grantchester season 3 finale? This is a show that brings you mystery, but also romance. Through much of it, we’ve seen Sidney toil over his feelings for Amanda, trying to overcome every single roadblock in his way. At the start of the finale tonight, the latest roadblock was a little something otherwise known as the church.

In the opening minutes of the episode, Sidney offered to turn in his resignation, but sooner after that found himself distracted by the story and the case at large playing out in this hour. A young boy found himself the victim of a shocking incident, and Sidney and Geordie were tasked with figuring out what happened to him — provided, of course, that anything happened at all given that from Geordie’s standpoint, he may have simply made it all up.

If only the story ended so innocently and Geordie was right, as the story eventually evolved into the case of a missing child in Jacob, one who could be dead or so much worse. The investigation then came into trying to figure out what happened to the boy, and how it happened. Was it possible that the father had multiple mistresses, and this person was out to take the child as a form of revenge? The more the episode went along, and the more that his own philandering was made clear. Consider this a sad case where each woman thought that they “were the only one” and that eventually, he would be theirs and theirs alone.

Then, Sidney begged another question: What if Jacob had been “rescued” from a chaotic life instead by people certain that they could do more, and do right, by the child?

How far will anyone go?

The biggest problem with Sidney’s resignation is the mere fact that he’s more than just a priest — he’s a source of hope more so than just a member of the church. This is what made his decision with Amanda all the more difficult. He loves her, and wants that to be enough. It’s unfortunate that it’s just not, since he could not turn away his job and the responsibility that he felt as a result of that. Amanda was understandably upset; how could she not be given the circumstances?

For Geordie, meanwhile, the question became how far he would go for the sake of getting justice for the child. There is doing the right thing, and then there’s getting violent and punishing yourself. The problem Geordie had was that when looking at the story of the affairs, it cast a shadow and a reflection on his own life.

The good news when it comes to the resolution of this case was that it felt different. The person responsible for the kidnapping was not someone doing it with a malicious intent. Yet, it doesn’t quite matter when the crime is still the crime.

The aftermath

The one part of Sidney’s struggle here was that he had to be involved in a wedding right after realizing that he and Amanda weren’t going to get past what they had already.

There may be people out there who prefer Grantchester when the stories have a tendency to be more about the case than personal matters, but this is what effectively drives the series more than anything else. It motivates them, and helps to form an attachment to these characters you don’t get elsewhere.

Now, let’s just hope that Sidney finds himself in a position in the future where he can have a love that is not so challenging to every aspect of his and her life.

Oh, and who doesn’t want to smile at Leonard?

Want some further news in regards to Grantchester?

If you head over here, you can read some further discussion on the subject as to whether or not Grantchester could return with more new episodes in the future.