The BBC One series Waiting for the Out concludes with its main character, Dan Steward, facing the very prison sentence he has spent his life fearing. In a surprising final act, Dan’s search for answers about his family leads him not to a cell, but to a hard-won sense of peace.
This psychological drama, based on Andy West’s memoir The Life Inside, follows Dan, a university philosophy teacher who makes a confusing career change to work as an instructor inside a local prison. His journey is a quiet exploration of fear, family, and the desire to understand a traumatic past.
Dan’s Decision to Work in Prison
Dan’s choice to leave a safe university job for a prison seems strange to everyone around him, including his brother Lee. On the surface, he tells a friend he was simply bored with teaching philosophy. However, his true motivation is deeply personal and rooted in family history.
Dan comes from a family with extensive experience behind bars. His estranged father, his brother, and his uncle have all spent significant time in prison. This history leaves Dan with complex, conflicting feelings. He feels shame about his family’s actions, but also a strange sense of alienation for not having “inherited” their criminal behavior. His new job is an attempt to bridge that gapโto understand the world that shaped his father and to see if he is inherently different from the inmates he now teaches.
โDan is a tormented man who has bouts of hallucinations that disturb his daily lifestyle. He also experiences OCD; for instance, he keeps on checking whether he has turned off his gas cooker or not. Almost always living in a constant state of dilemma.โ
The Crippling Fear of the Gas Oven
One of Dan’s most visible struggles is an obsessive fear that he has left the gas oven on in his home. This goes beyond simple worry. He takes photos of the oven knob before leaving to reassure himself, and sometimes returns home specifically to check, making him late for appointments. He even pays technicians to repeatedly inspect the appliance, though they never find a fault.
This compulsion is a physical sign of his internal anxiety. His brother Lee reveals he has dealt with similar compulsive behaviors, linking them to the trauma of witnessing crime and punishment from a young age. The oven represents Dan’s overwhelming fear of losing control and making a catastrophic mistake that could ruin his life, mirroring the fear that he will inevitably follow his family’s path to prison.
Dan’s Search for His Father
Driven by a need for closure, Dan becomes determined to find his estranged father, Martin. His family, including his mother and brother, strongly advise against this, viewing Martin as a destructive force. Dan persists, using his new prison connections to track down information.
He meets an inmate, Keith, who connects him with a former cellmate of Martin’s named Matthew Hall. After his release, Matthew agrees to meet with Dan. From this conversation, Dan learns a painful but liberating truth. Matthew describes Martin as a man who loved Dan’s mother and brother and often spoke of them while in prison. The crushing detail for Dan is that his father never spoke about him.
This revelation is a turning point. Dan realizes his desperate search for a father who never acknowledged him is futile. He stops looking for Martin and decides to focus on the family that has always been there for himโhis mother and brother.
The Final Test and a Choice for Truth
In the series finale, Dan’s deepest fear is realized. His obsession with the gas oven overwhelms him while he is at work. He breaks a major prison rule by sneaking his phone inside to check the oven via a nanny cam feed. He is caught by the authorities.
The prison director informs Dan that the offense could carry a two-year sentence. For a moment, it seems Dan is about to fulfill his own prophecy. He chooses not to hire a lawyer. Instead, he tells the complete truth about his anxiety and compulsion. Faced with Dan’s honesty and clear lack of criminal intent, the director makes a compassionate decision: Dan is not prosecuted.
This moment is the climax of Dan’s journey from fear to freedom. By facing the consequence with honesty instead of running, he breaks the cycle of shame and avoidance that has defined his life.
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Understanding the Ending
The ending of Waiting for the Out provides resolution for Dan on two fronts. Professionally, he avoids the prison sentence he always feared, but only by confronting the mistake directly. Personally, he finds closure by letting go of the ghost of his father. He understands that Martin’s silence is not a puzzle to be solved, but an answer in itself.
The series ends on a note of quiet progress. Dan is seen leaving his house after checking the oven just once, actively fighting the urge to return and check again. This small act shows he is learning to manage his fears. His journey concludes not with a dramatic escape from his past, but with a gradual acceptance of it and a decision to build a life with the family he has.
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