Final Answer
The third and final episode of Quiz sees the shocking conclusion to this engrossing ITV drama come to fruition, as the Ingram court case gets underway and we’re graced with some thought provoking ideas around confirmation bias, along with compelling evidence on both sides of the argument. Quiz has been one of the bigger surprises this year and ends just as effective and absorbing as it did during its first episode. Charles Ingram starts episode 3 of Quiz by taking the Mensa test and passing, before we jump forward and see the court case take place. Before we get there though, we see Charles and Diana taken into the police station in September 2001 where Charles is seemingly oblivious to the coughing and Diana’s phone call to Tecwen. On the back of this, they head back to their house and are immediately hounded by reporters and press that wait outside. Closing the curtains, Charles and Diana fight over what happened, with Charles telling her he was just sucked into the game and given the police perception surrounding what’s happened before, the future does not look good for them. Needing legal help, they enlist the help of Sonia Woodley, a high profile barrister who tells them she’s happy to represent them as she suspects something fishy about their case. The court trial begins and the prosecution deliver their case. On paper, it does not look for the Ingram’s. Thankfully they have a strong defence lawyer in Sonia and she matches the prosecution blow for blow as the different witnesses are interviewed, including the police officer who allowed ITV to keep hold of the TV footage and edit it together in their own way. After a coughing outbreak suspends the trial temporarily, the Ingrams find their home life crumble around them, with their dog shot and Charles spat at while out for a run. As court adjourns, Tarrant tells them all he didn’t see any suspicious coughing while Paul Smith gets summoned into court too. Before he goes, Paul does his homework and finds Paddy Spooner. In the familiar set-up of the pub, Paddy spills the truth to Paul and reveals he spent 2 months tracking down the answer to less than 7 seconds during the phone interviews. Paddy admits to getting hundreds of people in the hot seat through this method and as the truth of this comes crashing down, he tells Paul he managed to take 10% of the total prize money through exposing flaws in the system. Only, Paddy senses the bottom falling out of the truth market thanks to Google, prompting him to cash in his bets while the going is good. He also reveals Charles and Diana Ingram were not part of the syndicate or the program, prompting Paul to look in utter shock at what’s been told. Charles takes to the stand next and tells the court he wanted to be entertaining and do his wife proud. He changed his answer from A1 to Craig David because the crowd gasped when he chose that initial answer. It’s certainly compelling stuff and next up is Paul Smith who takes to the stand and is grilled by the defence, ending with him defiantly telling the court that he knew Charles was cheating. The defence rips a big hole in the flaws of the prosecution, with Sonia going on to mention the confirmation bias between the studio producers, justifying why Ingram was found to be guilty. It’s a really compelling closing argument but not enough to sway the jury. Charles, Diana and Tecwen are all found guilty but manage to avoid jail time. As the episode closes out, ITV celebrate their documentary on the coughing scandal while Charles Ingram maintains his innocence to this very day. Was Charles Ingram guilty or not? It’s something that should be pretty straight forward given the evidence but as this episode proves, nothing is ever as black an white as it first seems. The episode does a great job capturing all of this and planting seeds of doubt in a narrative that has you feel empathy for Charles Ingram. With plenty of questions around confirmation bias and decent acting right the way through with the majority of the cast, Quiz bows out its weekly event with an equally compelling final episode, making for a really well written and absorbing drama worth watching.
