I didn't guess who 6620 was either, though as Alex was digging I had an inkling that she might find Gene's younger body. I'd guessed Gene's larger role in things (in that he was somehow there as something of a guide for Sam/Alex with respect to laying past demons to rest), but didn't for a moment suspect that he'd got there in the same way. Neither did I expect the rest of them to have arrived by way of an untimely and unfair death.

What I loved most about the episode (and the rest of the serieseses) was that it assumed that we are intelligent viewers. We got the gist that Keats was some kind of devil figure without having it shoved down our throats. Nothing was explicit; it was all hinted at but ultimately left to our own imaginations and thoughts, and from what I've read everyone has feelings about the roles of Gene, Keats and Nelson that agree on the main points but differ wildly and go all fuzzy around the edges. That's the way it should be! I've been tweeting the odd question to see where opinions differ from my own, and there's a pleasing spread.

In my opinion, this was an excellent ending for Ashes to Ashes and for the Life on Mars franchise as a whole. It tied everything important up whilst leaving plenty for fans to go on talking about for some time. It did it in a clever, imaginative, original and intelligent way and avoided a preachiness which could so easily have sneaked in.

If the extra 20-minutes thing is true, I'd love to see that version. Maybe it'll appear on the DVD? I agree that it should have been longer- a feature-length finale would have been a fitting way to end the series.

I disagree that it beat the crap out of LoM: I prefer the two LoM series, but only just. I don't think Ashes would have achieved the cult following that it did on the strength of the first series alone (without LoM to back it up), but it has become progressively better with each series, and this final one has been nothing short of brilliant.