'Shades of Blue' Series Finale Ending Explained

Cop drama Shades of Blue aired its series finale on NBC on Sunday, Aug. 19, and things didn't [...]

Cop drama Shades of Blue aired its series finale on NBC on Sunday, Aug. 19, and things didn't exactly end well for Jennifer Lopez's Det. Harlee Santos.

Warning — serious spoilers ahead for the show's finale.

The episode opens with Santos heading to face the police commission, but unfortunately for her, Anthony Cole (Nick Wechsler) hasn't shown up to testify as her witness.

Santos is forced to begin without her witness, eventually managing to score a delay and leaving to track down Cole.

Unfortunately for Santos, Cole had no plans of testifying, with Santos finding him on a ferry getting ready to leave the city. Cole offers to wait for Santos to leave with him, but she remains and ends up facing Intelligence Unit chief Jordan Ramsey (Bruce McGill) herself.

In the end, Santos turned herself in, telling her daughter, Christina (Sarah Jeffrey), that she needs to "face the music." During her testimony, Santos owns up to her own legal wrongdoings and plays a recording of Ramsey speaking to the cartel.

As a result, viewers later see Santos tell Matt Wozniak (Ray Liotta) that Ramsey has been arrested and that she herself is going to take a plea deal. During an emotional exchange, Santos explains that she sees her decision as her second chance, with Wozniak telling her that she was his own second chance.

Ramsey is later shown on a bus heading to prison, but before he gets there, Wozniak arrives and strangles him to death. He later drops Santos off at prison, and the episode ends with Christina reading a letter her mom had left in her suitcase for her.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Lopez called the show's final episode "tragic," but "poetic and beautiful."

"We finished [shooting Shades of Blue] last season, and where she winds up is so tragically, poetically Harlee. It's perfect," she said. "This is where it needs to be, and this is the end of that journey."

Though Lopez noted that she "knew [the show' would always be kind of a limited thing" and "not something I'd do for seven or 10 years," she shared that playing Santos has changed her as a person.

"I felt like I got to explore a different side of myself with Harlee: A tougher side, a more forgiving side, and a more tortured side that I have never really tapped into," the World of Dance judge said. "She helped me grow in so many ways, helped me become more independent."

Photo Credit: NBC

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