The Artful Dodger ending explained: what happened to Jack Dawkins, Lady Belle, and Fagin in season finale

The full season of The Artful Dodger landed on Disney+ on Wednesday (January 17), two months after it was released on the platform in the US.

The series is a sequel to the classic Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist, and follows former pickpocket Dodger, now known as Jack Dawkins, played by Thomas Brodie-Sangster, as he makes a life for himself as a surgeon in an Australian penal colony.

There, he reunites with his former mentor in crime Fagin (David Thewlis), and falls in love with aspiring surgeon Lady Belle (Maia Mitchell), the governor’s daughter, who knows more about medicine than anyone else on the colony but is unable to put her knowledge to practice because she is woman.

Jack and Belle are unable to make their relationship public because Jack is below her social class, and has frequent run-ins with the law, specifically with Captain Gaines (Damon Herriman), but things come to a head in the series finale when Jack is tasked with saving Belle’s life, and avoiding the gallows.

*Major spoilers for The Artful Dodger*

What happened in the final episode of The Artful Dodger?

In the finale of The Artful Dodger, Jack Dawkins is caught in Belle’s bed by her mother, Lady Jane, who confines Belle to her room and orders Jack never to see her again. 

Belle has self-diagnosed an aortic aneurysm, which will kill her if not treated, but a successful procedure has never been documented. Belle’s parents and Sneed refuse to believe she is ill, and Jack fears that operating will kill her.

Meanwhile, Captain Gaines offers Fagin a pardon for his crimes if he delivers Dawkins to him, which will almost certainly lead to Dawkins being hanged.

Fagin learns that Oliver Twist stole the governor’s gold, and devises a plan to steal it back by organising a religious procession with Father Cruikshanks, which he uses as a cover and stealthily chest of gold from Oliver’s carriage. Oliver is furious and Fanny is caught in the middle.

Jack is eventually convinced to operate on Belle, realising that if he does nothing she will certainly die. Just as he has begun the surgery Gaines, Sneed, and Lady Jane burst into the operating room - Lady Jane orders Gaines to arrest him but Sneed tells her that the surgery must continue.

Jack operates as Gaines holds a pistol to his head - he completes the surgery but Lady Belle is still unconscious and it is not clear if it has worked - Lady Jane tells Gaines to arrest him, and Sneed tells her that Jack is the best surgeon he has ever seen.

Gaines plans to execute Jack and meets Fagin on his way - he believes Fagin has betrayed his friend by exchanging Jack’s London arrest warrant for his own pardon. However, Fagin shoots Gaines dead and the pair flee. 

Jack runs to find Belle, and sees that she is conscious and that he has saved her life - he is then arrested and put in a cell with Fagin, who has also been caught. The pair reconcile as they talk in their shared cell, and Fagin jokes that he will use his pardon to free himself and take Jack on as his convict servant.

What does The Artful Dodger ending mean?

The ending of the Disney+ series is somewhat ambiguous - Fagin has a signed pardon which should guarantee his freedom. His promise to take Dawkins on as his personal servant, may have been tongue in cheek, but if he’s serious then that really is a sorry ending for the character.

Lady Jane was furious with Dawkins and ordered his arrest, however, with Doctor Sneed telling her that he is the best surgeon he has ever seen, and the fact that Belle survived an incredibly dangerous surgery, it is possible that she will free him from prison herself.

It’s unlikely that Dawkins and Belle will end up together, at least publicly, given the clear class boundaries of the time, and the fact that Lady Jane was so opposed to their relationship. However, if Dawkins is promoted to chief surgeon, following the success of his surgery, he may then be considered of proper standing to marry Belle, but this too is left as an open question.

It’s also uncertain what will happen to Oliver Twist, who attempted to steal the colony’s gold but was himself robbed of the loot which was then returned to the governor, minus one gold bar purloined by Fagin.

Will there be another season of The Artful Dodger?

Currently a second season of The Artful Dodger has not been confirmed. The show was originally conceived as a limited series, and whilst some aspects of the ending remain ambiguous, most of the main threads are resolved.

With Gaines dead, Oliver now out of the picture, Fagin a free man, and Jack now respected among his medical peers (even if he is still in prison), there’s no clear direction for a second season to go in.