Please explain the ending (Obvious Spoilers)

Yes, I must say it was convoluted to say the least, as well as having appalling sound (mentioned elsewhere), but what I understood is that they killed Paula and were setting up Eddie for her murder including giving him the gun that she was shot with. I think they wanted him to be found and then charged with the murder to stop him snooping around. Then he goes to Dawson and the reason for him being shot is (not only because of Paula) but because as Dawson said 'children were a weakness of his'. So it seems to me that Dawson was behind the child killings.
Although I haven't yet seen the next 2 installments of this, I'm yet to discover if I'm right or not, if it ever does explain what has really happend in this 1st part.

I actually had a different take on the ending. It seemed that the police were going to frame him until they discovered the illicit photos that implicated several high ranking police officials. My theory was that once they found out about the photos the police realized that Dawson was double-crossing them by leaking the photos to the press. So, they let Eddie go with the revolver with the hope that he would kill Dawson to avenge Paula's death. That way the police would be rid of Dawson without getting their own hands dirty.

I may not be right. It wasn't that clear.

@kcdee, you're mostly right. But I just watched the second installment and, without giving anything away, it does clear up at least one thing that you may have had a false understanding of.

Dawson tells Eddie that he killed Paula by having sex with her. Appreantly, she was killed out of jealousy. I feel strongly that the Bobbies WANTED Eddie to kill Dawson....their parting words were "Go do our work for us" or something like that.
Excellent movie!

The Price of Freedom is Eternal Vigilance

How exactly could you miss when he literally says that killing children is one of his weaknesses? Clean out your ears before you post on imdb.

You have to see all three movies to have your questions answered (especially the last one).

For the person who asked how there could be a sequel if Eddie dies, there are a lot more deaths in the subsequent movies (especially anyone who is honest, aka "good guys"), but the story continues. Eddie is not the central character, but he does make an appearance in the other two movies in flashbacks. So does Sean Bean, and other characters who die in the first one.



I need my 1987 DG20 Casio electric guitar set to mandolin, yeah...

You need to watch all three stories to understand what happened. Although the second two episodes are equally bleak as the first it's worth staying with it as there is some final redemption. The story telling is excellent throughout, the way the threads of the episodes is tied at the end is satisfying. The third episode is often played out in flashback referring to earlier events.
The dialogue is difficult at times due the Yorkshire accent and slang used (I'm from the North of England but as times had to listen very carefully to understand).