One Night on ITV ending explained: What happened to Tess, who was responsible and why Simone wrote the book
Natasha Rigler | 4:31pm Mon 18 Aug | Updated 5:06pm Mon 18 AugOne Night had all the hallmarks of a gritty drama and, by the ending of the Jodie Whittaker series, it was hard not to feel emotionally drained.
The six-parter followed the story of three friends, forever linked by the awful events of one night in Australia 20 years ago.
While Tess and Hat tried their best to move on, Simone felt compelled to use what happened as the plot for her debut novel.
The truth was revealed in the ending of One Night [Credit: ITV]
But what did happen to Tess, played by British actress Jodie, that night? Who was responsible and did they finally face punishment? Here’s everything you need to know about the ending of ITV’s One Night.
***Warning: spoilers from the ending of One Night on ITV ahead***
One Night ending explained on ITV: What happened in the final episode?
The penultimate episode of One Night had seen Hat, played by Yael Stone, coming face-to-face with Trevor (Erroll Shand). He’d worked out she was responsible for shopping him to the police for heading up a major drug importation 20 years earlier. Only his arrest and incarceration wasn’t down to her…
Hat tracked down an old officer in the case and discovered her statement was never used by prosecutors. Hat furiously accused the officer of dumping both her statement and the rape allegation. But she was swiftly told to start questioning why only Trevor was arrested in the drugs bust, and not her and Joey (George Mason).
Meanwhile, Tess had come up with the wild idea to buy the Calleys’ pub so she could burn it to the ground in revenge. An idea that did NOT go down well with her wife Vicki (Kat Stewart).
In episode 6 of One Night, it became clear it was Joey who had been working with the police in 2002 – not Hat. Showing no allegiance to his brother Trevor, Joey had told cops about the drug haul and gone along with a surveillance operation on the pub.
This meant Joey was wired up to officers that night, meaning he never would have got involved in the rape of Tess. But Joey did hold the key as to what happened. Hat told Joey to finally tell Tess or she would tell Trevor his own brother was the snitch.
What actually happened to Tess?
Tess finally found out the truth about what happened to her in a very hard-to-watch scene. Joey arranged for her to meet one of the senior detectives involved in the drugs bust and she was handed a dictaphone and headphones.
With a glass of wine for Dutch courage, Tess listened back to the recording from that night. Viewers never got to hear it but, as Tess recoiled repeatedly in anguish, it was confirmation she had been sexually assaulted.
Tess was then seen screaming and lashing out at Joey, yelling: “How could you let me go in there?!” This also told viewers that Joey was not in the room at the time of the assault, but outside.
Tess is played by British actress Jodie Whittaker [Credit: ITV]
Tess’s rapist unmasked
Even though viewers didn’t hear the recording from Tess’s sexual assault, Joey later confirmed his brother Trevor was her rapist.
In episode 6, Joey told Trevor he had ‘sung like his canary’. This saying means to give the authorities information about illegal activities. A massive fight then broke out between the brothers in the pub garden, as their mother looked on.
“Tell ma what you did. Tell her it was you!” Joey yelled at Trevor, as he held a knife to his neck. Trevor spat back: “Guess, you’re going to have to kill me first.”
Joey didn’t kill Trevor but he warned his mother that Trevor ‘had to go’ or he would. She broke down in tears as she realised Trevor was the rapist from Simone’s book.
Why did Trevor get away with it?
Given that Tess’s rape was caught on tape, it seems bizarre that Trevor was never punished for it at the time. But the senior detective explained why it was dismissed as he handed the recording to Tess.
He told her: “You may listen to this on the understanding that it may otherwise not exist. The warrant for the surveillance was obtained only for the specific reason of capturing a major drug importation and for no other purpose.
“When we heard the recording, we had a moral dilemma. We took it upstairs to the boss who made the call that, unfortunately, it would have interfered with a major prosecution and potentially put our informant’s life at risk.”
In plain speaking, the rape was dismissed to ensure the case against Trevor was not jeopardised. Officers also believed Joey’s life would have been at risk if it was exposed. The recording would have been used in evidence. This would have alerted Trevor to the fact the pub was under surveillance following a tip off from an insider – with the most obvious source being Joey.
Tess and Vicki’s eldest child is a daughter called Lily, far right [Credit: ITV]
One Night ending explained: Is Trevor Lily’s dad?
In another icky scene, Trevor was seen following Tess and Vicki’s teenage daughter Lily (Harper Simon) into the hills. Viewers were on the edge of their seats, waiting to see if history was about to repeat itself.
Thankfully, it didn’t. But Trevor himself admitted to raping Tess during an exchange with Lily – although she was none the wiser.
“How old are you?” he asked Lily. When she replied “16”, he said: “No, you’re not. You must be 20.” Lily again insisted she was 16, but he said: “I don’t believe you. You look just like Tess.”
Lily told him she looks like “her mother Vicki”. This confirmed Trevor is not Lily’s dad. Earlier in the series, Tess had also commented that Vicki had carried Lily and her brother.
No justice
One Night ended with no one being brought to justice for Tess’s sexual assault. Despite Trevor being unmasked as the rapist, he seemingly got away with it.
At the end of the episode, Trevor was handed a roll of money by his mother and told to “never come back”.
Why did Simone write the book?
Simone (Nicole da Silva) was seen in a flashback scene in episode 5 as a child in her bed. She was assaulted by a mystery man. In the final episode, Simone – aka Mon – admitted to Hat that it had happened at her mother’s wake.
This explained why the lead character in Simone’s book was both the victim and an on-looker of Tess’s assault. Simone told Hat what happened to her as a child had ‘put her in Tess’s’ position’ and that she understood what she’d gone through.
One Night ended with Tess, Simone and Hat all friends again. Simone was still caring for her father, while Hat and her family were finally leaving town. Tess, meanwhile, had relocated to Sydney with Vicki and their children.
The final scene was Tess sitting on the sand with a copy of One Night next to her…despite previously vowing to never read it.
Simone revealed in the One Night ending that she was also a victim of sexual abuse [Credit: ITV]
Will there be a series 2 of One Night on ITV?
One Night was originally filmed for Paramount+. It landed on the streaming giant in November 2023 but it was pulled three months later. Find out why here!
At the time, fans were left frustrated and demanded a second series. But sadly, there has been no word of a season two since.
Although Trevor appeared to escape without punishment, all the other loose ends were tied up in the ending of One Night. Unfortunately, this makes it unlikely there will ever be a second series.
