'Lockerbie: A Search for Truth' Ending Explained: Will We Ever Know the Truth?

Editor's note: The below contains spoilers for Lockerbie: A Search for Truth.

When Jim Swire (Colin Firth) is asked by a young barista what Lockerbie is in one of the final scenes in Lockerbie: A Search for Truth, the look on his face is one of the saddest moments of the show because of how ironic the question is. Not only is there a sorrow that the next generation is beginning to forget about the worst air disaster in British history, but how does one even begin to fully answer that question when almost no one knows the entire truth? This is where Lockerbie: A Search for Truth leaves us when it comes to the "search" and it is a poignant message about just how frustrating and secretive governments can be, as well as how it affects the people they treat as pawns.

There is a fair argument that Lockerbie: A Search for Truth is not as much of an exposé as Chernobyl or Mr. Bates vs The Post Office was, as those shows truly felt like they revealed exactly what happened in each tragedy, yet that’s what makes Lockerbie's ending such a good one. Just like Jim Swire, no matter how much time we put in, we will most likely never know the truth, and there lies the issue. However, Lockerbie also leaves us with a degree of hope, challenging us to be "with the living" around us, rather than being stuck in a dreadful past.

Al-Megrahi Seemingly Proves His Innocence in 'Lockerbie: A Search for Truth'

In the finale, it is first revealed that Al-Megrahi (Ardalan Esmaili) has given up his appeal and flown back to Libya on compassionate grounds due to his terminal cancer. It is believed he was pressured into this decision as there was no need to drop his appeal in order to qualify for compassionate grounds, like he would have in order to achieve a prisoner transfer. However, Jim is mocked as the public views Megrahi's release as a joke, and that only gets worse when Megrahi continues to outlive the life expectancy he was given and doesn't reply to any of Jim's calls or emails.

Later on, with the brutal Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi’s fall, Libyan ministers begin to claim that Gaddafi did in fact order Megrahi to carry out the bombing and, desperate to know the truth, with his wife, Jane's (Catherine McCormack), approval, Jim flies to a war-torn Libya and meets Megrahi. Megrahi is weak and clearly going to die soon, yet he uses some of his last strength to give Jim a file that seemingly proves that evidence PT/35b, the fragment of a timer believed to have been a part of the bomb, was planted, as the evidence was made out of different components to the MEBO timers sent to Libya. Rather than being pure tin, it was a mixture of copper and tin. As Megrahi and his daughter point out to Jim, it essentially destroys the prosecution's case against Megrahi, yet he admits he will never see justice while alive because it is more important to the international players that he be seen as guilty.

Murray Guthrie Posits His Own Theory in 'Lockerbie: A Search for Truth'

One character who was completely fictionalized was the journalist Murray Guthrie (Sam Troughton), most likely to dramatize scenes of Colin Firth's Jim discovering new information. Guthrie reveals that there are classified files that say that the King of Jordan told then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that it wasn’t the Libyans, though no newspaper will print the information after the government ordered a block on that information getting out. After Jim staunchly defends Megrahi, Guthrie then points out to Jim that it is possible they were all involved, the Palestinians, Iranians, and Libyans, as we don’t realize how much the Middle East truly hates the West, and he rightly adds they have good reason to.

Guthrie uses the analogy of the West kicking the Middle East around like a football, and we may be able to view Guthrie as a mouthpiece for the show's greater argument. The world leaders, the people we are supposed to trust, are the people who are hiding the most secrets. Ultimately, Guthrie argues, they'll probably never know, yet Jim cannot accept not knowing — until Megrahi dies, that is.

'Lockerbie: A Search For Truth's Finale Offers a Sad Yet Uplifting Message

When Megrahi dies, there seems to be a kind of release for Jim, almost like an inevitability that, now it has occurred, Jim can move on from. It doesn't mean giving up on Megrahi's case for innocence, but Jim remembers Megrahi’s words that, while we cannot forget our dead, it is “so sweet to be with the living” and Jim agrees with Jane to move out of the house that they have lived in since Flora (Rosanna Adams) died. When Jim takes down his investigation wall, he flashes back through the events of the series and remembers Flora most. Perhaps the most heartbreaking detail was the fact that nearly every other piece of paper or picture had a pin sticking it to the wall, leaving lots of dots behind. But not Flora's. We see that Jim used blue-tac for Flora's picture, refusing to damage any piece of his daughter that is left. It prompts us to cling to love, rather than obsess over those who harmed us.

In the end, the screen fades to black, and we are told the government still keeps classified documents that supposedly point to Libya’s innocence, though it releases documents that blame Libya. What this all shows is that, while we don’t know the truth, the very people we are supposed to trust to protect us might, and won’t tell us. That is the most frightening aspect of the show. Not that we may be attacked, but that our governments will let it happen or turn a blind eye to it when it fits their own agenda. But the only thing we can do every day is be present with the ones we love, as that is what everything is all for.

All episodes of Lockerbie: A Search For Truth are available to stream on Peacock in the U.S.

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