Broadchurch: Season One Finale: Recap and Reaction

This is a great, chilling British murder mystery.
Broadchurch is a quiet town, small where everyone knows everyone else.
The morning begins like any other, with Mark Latimer (Andrew Buchan), a plumber, going about his day. The best shot in the whole series is a long shot following Mark around, greeting all the townsfolk, one of which is not what they seem. It doesn't take long for the body to be discovered. Danny Latimer (Oskar McNamara), only eleven, was found dead on the beach. Detective Inspector Alec Hardy (David Tennant) is on the job. He is brand new to the town and has a botched up murder case in his past. Detective Sergeant Ellie Miller (the magnificent Olivia Colman) is furious having just come back from vacation and the promotion she wanted and coveted has gone to someone else. But she has lived in the town for some time and knows everyone and trusts them. Hardy encourages her strongly not to do that. She should have listened to him.
Danny's mother, Beth (Jodie Whitaker) is devastated and it is understandable. He was her baby and she wasn't finished raising him.
Though the show is about finding out who killed Danny Latimer, there is so much more than that. Many people in the town have secrets, some of which are more disturbing than others.
The other characters:
Chloe Latimer (Charlotte Beaumont) is the fifteen-year-old sister of Danny. She is secretly dating a seventeen-year-old, Dean (Jacob Anderson) who is supportive of her during the devastating incident. She is mostly your typical teenage though she is one who first contacts the press.
Liz Roper (Susan Brown) is Beth's mother and thus Danny's grandmother. She is still rather religious and is almost the bond that keeps the family together throughout the series.
Jack Marshall (David Bradley, Filch from the Harry Potter series) is Danny's boss at the news shop where Danny delivers papers in the morning.
Nigel Carter (Joe Sims) is Mark's partner in the plumbing partner and is a friend of the family.
Susan Wright (Pauline Quirke) is the odd lady who walks her dog around town.
Olly Stevens (Jonathan Bailey) is Ellie's nephew and a fledgling journalist but he doesn't always follow protocol. 
Maggie Radcliffe (Carolyn Pickles) is Olly's boss at the small town paper. She is not pleased with Olly's actions and like the family, just wants the truth about everything.
Karen White (Vicky McClure) is the big shot journalist who ditches her job to follow what's going on in Broadchurch as she knows the truth about Hardy's blotched case in Sandbrooke.
Father Paul Coates (Arthur Davill) is the town priest who also teaches computer classes at the local middle school.
Becca Fisher (Simone McAullay) owns the inn in town where Hardy is living. 
Lastly, the psychic Steve (Will Mellon) who does provide some information that turns out to be true but is my least favorite character.
The twists and turns keep coming. And the evidence is heartbreaking. Danny was strangled and it occurred face to face with the killer. His mobile is also missing. But the most interesting thing is that Tom (Adam Wilson), Ellie's son deletes many emails from his lab top and later destroys his lab top altogether. Many people in the town have flimsy excuses. Mark doesn't even have an alibi. He was cheating on his wife with Becca. And it was the only time. When Beth finds out, she is furious snapping at him that she also had her offers but didn't act upon them because she is a human being not an animal. That was probably Whitaker's finest acting moment in the whole series. There are also red herrings, including Danny's argument with a mailman, which turns out to be nothing. 
But there is another mystery that drives the series. What happened to Hardy in Sandbrooke? We find that out. We also learn that Hardy is divorced and has a daughter. I was very surprised to find that out. In Sandbrooke, a vital piece of evidence is stolen while the DS meets up with her lover at a hotel. Hardy covers it up because that DS happens to be his wife.
Jack Marshall burns pictures of Danny. Turns out his past isn't that great. He married a young girl that he had slept with while she was underage but his life turned tragic as she and their young son were killed in a car accident and he moved to Broadchurch to start over but he has been made a scapegoat by the press. 
Evidence is also found in Susan's trailer house, namely Danny's skateboard and she just hands it to Tom who fortunately gives it to his mother who then interviews Susan. Susan's past is even worse, way worse than Jack's. Her husband sexually abused their oldest daughter and then she tries to protect the younger girl so he kills her. And he tells the cops that Susan knew the whole time though she didn't. Her younger daughter is taken away from her as is the baby she is pregnant with. That baby turns out to be Nigel and she fears that he inherited his father's nasty streak. Though Nigel almost kills Susan's beloved dog, he is not the man his father was. Ellie is shocked saying to Susan, "You lived in the same house with him, how did you not know?" Ironically, that line will be said to her soon.
The killer is living among the townsfolk. Hardy finally figures out who it is. Paul turns in the damaged lab top despite the threat Tom made to him saying that Paul had abused Danny, which is also not true. The damaged lab top reveals that Danny had a second mobile and Danny had communicated with only two people: Tom and Joe. Yes, you read that right.
Joe and Danny had a secret relationship. Joe informs Hardy that they were in love. The whole thing made me sick, I could barely eat my breakfast while watching the show. Though abuse had not happened, the two had met secretly and held each other but Danny wanted to tell someone and Joe got scared. The murder was an accident but the cover-up was not. Joe couldn't live with the guilt anymore so he admits everything to Hardy and he actually makes it clear that Ellie had no knowledge of any wrongdoing. She had no idea, the man the witnesses Susan and Lucy (Ellie's sister) had seen was really Joe, who does look similar to Nigel.
Ellie is furious and begs her husband to tell her the truth. She kicks him and then is taken off the case, leaving Hardy to tell the Latimers the horrific truth, which leads Beth to ask Ellie the same question Ellie had asked Susan, "How did you not know?"
Life in the town will move on, though Ellie wants to leave and take her two children, Tom and the baby Fred (who finally gets named in the finale) away though Hardy doesn't believe that she will do that.
The whole series is great, leaving everyone guessing for some time. The acting is truly magnificent, with everyone turning in top-notch performances. David Tennant is great though Olivia Colman and Jodie Whitaker are better, with every emotion etched into their faces. The music is haunting and the editing and cinematography are all fantastic. The only problem I had with the show is with the psychic character whom I feel is unnecessary. Still, I can't wait for more, and am not pleased that FOX wants to do a remake. Grade: A-
Side Notes:
-Beth is pregnant and struggles with what to do, though Mark tells her she needs to keep it. Beth says that she hates it and just wants Danny back. Paul informs her that God may not give them what they want but what they need. Yet, neither of them want to change Danny's room to make room for the new baby. Chloe is also fairly excited about everything.
-Beth and Mark were mere teenagers when Chloe was conceived but they have still stayed together. Despite Mark's infidelity, they look to be doing okay.
-The bickering between Hardy and Ellie is fantastic. Hardy also doesn't like first names and until the final episode, calls Ellie Miller and then when he finally changes and calls her Ellie, she doesn't like it.
-Throughout the whole series, Hardy is also battling a heart murmur and after finishing up this case, is fired from his job because he can't handle the stress.