Sleeping Dog – Season 1 Episode 6 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

Confessions

Episode 6 of Sleeping Dog begins with Zaric warning Atlas and heading outside, demanding he stop what he’s about to do. Atlas is a man possessed though and he’s definitely going to oust everything. He has nothing to lose. He visits Tinka outside the gym and admits he’s going to go back to the clinic.

What happened at the Christmas Market?

He knows he’s done wrong and admits that he was on drugs back when their team received an alert about a terror attack in the Christmas market. As Zaric had been drinking, Atlas was also stoned but the latter ended up driving.

Zaric’s pills are called Ponnexzin, which is for trauma patients and it’s supposed to take away anxiety. Only, it also has a side effect of making you feel numb and dulling the senses. With Zaric driving, he ended up hitting Polyphemus on the road.

The guy died on impact, but Zaric was so out of it he didn’t compute what they’d done. With no one around, Zaric organized traffic and decided to bundle him in the trunk and dump him in the market like collateral damage. Atlas, however, wanted to phone the authorities. He didn’t call it in, but they instead bundled him inside one of the burning buildings.

Atlas knows he could go to jail for this but it’s something he’s willing to do in order to set things right. This explains why he’s been spiraling all this time and punishing himself, which is interestingly very similar to what’s happening with Zaric. It also explains why the latter is on the pills too, trying to hide the guilt he’s feeling.

What happens to Tom? Does Jule discover the truth?

While Tom is speaking to Jule on the phone, he admits that Atlas is approaching. However, gunshots pierce the air, as whoever this guy is, seemingly posing as Atlas, he’s shot through the heart. Jule arrives and is shocked, demanding that someone phone an ambulance.

When the authorities arrive, Jule realizes that Tom showed up at the 49th earlier on and realizes that Zaric is linked to all of this. Putting two and two together, she believes that he’s the murderer that they’re after.

Zaric phones Lenni and confesses that he loves her, but also wants to know when Atlas arrives. Well, he shows up just then with Tinka, with the latter admitting that he’s going to the clinic once this is over.

Jule rings Atlas to let him know what’s going on, and the latter confirms that Zari was part of their squad in the past. She sifts through the documents in her office, but Corinna has taken the ones that could incriminate Zaric. When Jule realizes, she curses her luck.

As for Corinna, she rings Zaric and asks what he’s up to, given the murder weapon was just magically found by him in borth cases. Corinna wants answers, but Zaric is on the verge of confessing. After taking a whole bunch of pills, he downs some alcohol and records a confession. After, he points a gun at his neck and prepares to fire.

Does Zaric kill himself? What does he confess?

When Atlas shows up at Zaric’s boat that night, he finds the guy passed out. He also finds the confession too but instead of listening to it, he calls in the authorities. He also knows how to detox from this stuff, and forces Zaric to drink a nasty cocktail and throw up all the pills. When an ambulance shows, Atlas listens to the confession in the hospital.

Within this, Zaric admits that everything at the Christmas market is on him and he covered it all up because he was blinded by greed. He wanted his promotion to go through and knew that if they told the truth, then all of that would be for nothing. He was also jealous of Atlas’ perfect life which is why he slept with Lenni, as he wanted a piece of what he had.

Zaric claims that he did all of this to protect Atlas, and he played the tough guy and dealt with Herres as he was becoming a problem, thanks to the witness that knew what they did. He wanted the judge to stop sniffing around the team and then one thing led to another.

How does the hair strand tie into this?

Atlas races back to the canal, where he finds people working and all of his gear gone. Canal girl is also gone too. Thankfully, he still has the stray hair, which he fishes out from the trash and it could be crucial clue here. As for Jule, she heads to the prison and speaks to Abou, pointing out the deal on the table. Only… she doesn’t want him to take it.

In fact, Jule admits she knows he didn’t shoot Mussa either. She points out the conspiracy currently working here, as Hartloff shifts uncomfortably. Jule wants Abou to make the confession but in reality, she’s about to stitch up Corinna completely for her part to play in stitching up her team.

Atlas takes the hair sample over to see Gerry, a scientist he used to run with. In his office, there’s evidence that the hair hasd come from a groundhog. However, as we know there are three men in the team and that groundhog belongs to Roland Sokowski. It now becomes clear that Zaric may actually be a red herring after all. Sokowski, the third man, is our killer.

Who is the killer?

Although Zaric killed the judge, Sokowski killed everyone else, and even showed up in Jurgen’s apartment that time too. This time though, he has his sights set on Jule, whom he’s been tracking all this time using her lipstick, which is bugged.

Jule manages to pepper spray Sokowski when he bursts through into her apartment, and while he puts milk in his eyes, it buys valuable time for Atlas to show up. That’s just as well, given Sokowski was on the verge of shooting her in the head. When Atlas notices Socke in the room, he admits that he’s been messed up since what happened at the market.

While Zaric buried himself in guilt, Socke needed to do something about the loose ends, which was proving to be a problem. With Idris Kouri back from Algeria, he wanted to give Mussa an alibi to the Judge’s death. He also brings up Jurgen and how he was investigating, before admitting that he’s “got rid of every problem” except for one, which comes from Jule.

So it now becomes clear that despite Zaric killing Judge Herres, it was Sokowski who continued killing to clear everything up, having planted evidence at the crime scenes and killing the others. He did Corinna’s dirty work for her, given she wanted to put an end to the Basher family, with her clear racism showing across the course of the season.

While he’s talking, Zaric also shows up as well and together, the two men take Sokowski’s gun and decide they should all take a photo like old times. After, Jule stands up and manages to knock Socke out, smashing a glass bottle over his head.

How does Sleeping Dog end?

Abou is let go from prison and is reunited with his friends and family, while Corinna feels the heat over what’s happened. In fact, she’s in the firing line for pressuring the team and has to face the media for her role in being prejudiced toward the Basher family. Zaric helps a little, given his confession and he also voluntarily resigns from being a cop too. Much like Atlas, the pair miraculously avoid jail time and instead are served with doing probation work.

And if that wasn’t enough, Jule decides to leave and quit her job too, leaving Corinna to face the media on her own. With Socke incriminated, Zaric decides to tidy up his life. In fact, he and Corinna and Zaric decide to sail away, although how that ties into the job and Zaric’s probation terms, remains to be seen.

As for Atlas, he pays homage to Polyphemus and holds a memorial service for him with all the other homeless people at the clinic. This is a nice way of tying it back into Herres too, given the judge used to put lots of money into this homeless refuge. Atlas is certainly not going back to being a cop, but as the episode closes out, we see that he does get his family back, having earlier admitted that he’s made peace with Lenni for sleeping with Zaric.

The Episode Review

So the ending to Sleeping Dog ties everything up again and shows that Zaric is really a red herring, at least for most of the killings, as Sokowski was the one responsible for all the other murders. This is a nice little twist but it also resolves everything a little too quick at the end, especially given the ending scenes feel rushed and there’s not really much in the way of retribution or justice.

I mean, we don’t even see what happened to Corinna in front of the media or how Sokowski gets on in prison. Given the latter is a police office, I’d imagine he won’t do very well behind bars!

The entire subplot involving Adebayo was pointless in the end and is one of the biggest points of contention in this series. It’s a shame too because there’s definitely potential here for her to see the true reflection of the KDD team through her eyes and how she deals with her teammates being so messed up but instead, she’s just kinda… here.

Atlas does get a nice arc though and the series at least wraps everything up with the case, leaving no stone unturned when it comes to solving the crimes and explaining the murders. It’s definitely not perfect but the ending is good enough to make for a solid crime drama all the same.