If you’re ever having a bad day at work, just remember it’s nowhere near as bad as the one Zara (Sophie Turner) has in the Prime Video thriller series Steal. What starts as a typical day at the London financial investment firm Lochmill Capital turns terrifying when armed thieves burst in and force Zara and her friend/coworker, Luke (Archie Madekwe), to help them steal a massive £4 billion—money that comes from everyday workers’s pension funds.
Why would someone steal the pensions of doctors, policemen, and social workers? And where did the money go? These questions are just the tip of the iceberg, and there’s more to this robbery than initially meets the eye—including who was involved in the crime. Read on for a breakdown of the ending of Steal.
Lochmill employees, including Zara (Sophie Turner) and Luke (Archie Madekwe), amid the robbery in Steal.
Who was behind the heist in 'Steal?'
When the group of thieves raided Lochmill, forced all the employees into a conference room at gunpoint, and forced Luke and Zara to their desks to execute the staggering trade of billions of dollars, it wasn’t clear who they were working for or what their motivations were. Greed? Terrorism? Conspiracy? The reasons were a mystery—especially after finding out Luke and Zara were both paid £5 million in crypto in the aftermath.
Even more curious is what happens to the money after it’s moved. As DCI Rhys Covac (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd) and his colleagues investigate the case, and the intelligence agents at MI5 conduct their own surveillance, the funds keep moving across various offshore accounts tied to prominent people—politicians, celebrities, and moguls—and major corporations. As soon as it’s in one of those accounts, it moves again, taking money belonging to those individuals along with it. So the already massive heist also includes several others—continuing to draw attention to the less-than-ethical ways people in power hold onto their money.
Then, surprisingly, the original £4 billion was returned to Lochmill. So, who would do such a thing? The answer was right in front of us from almost the very beginning: Darren Yoshida (Andrew Koji), the financial investigator who’d been working with the cops on the case. He hired the thieves and then arranged his schedule so he’d be assigned to the case after the robbery, allowing him to keep an eye on the investigation and speed up or impede their progress.
After Rhys realizes that he was the true mastermind, he and Zara confront him together at the Lochmill office. It’s there that Yoshida admits his involvement and motivations: The heist was meant to “change the world,” exposing the corrupt financial systems that leave millions struggling and starving while the rich enjoy lives of luxury with their money stored in offshore accounts.
It soon becomes revealed that Luke and Zara were involved with the robbery.
How did Luke and Zara become involved in the robbery in 'Steal?'
While Yoshida masterminded the plan and the thieves executed it, the Lochmill heist also turns out to be an inside job. The thieves recruited Luke and, when they said they needed a second person for their plan to work, he convinced Zara to take part too. Still, they didn’t know the extent of what was being planned—the friends and colleagues were under the impression that the criminals just needed their login credentials to facilitate a hack and that money would only be taken from more ethically questionable sources like tobacco executives. (They were also promised a £100,000 payout, which seemed more relative to the scale of theft they thought was taking place.)
The reason they said yes? For Luke, it was money: He had credit card debt to pay off. Zara, meanwhile, wasn’t as easily swayed until she was passed over for a promotion at work because she’s “too good” at the low-level job she’s currently doing. The dissatisfaction with her job—and, frankly, the state of her life—is what pushes her to meet with the thieves and join the plot.
It also turns out a third Lochmill employee was involved: Milo (Harry Michell), a more senior employee who was already well-off but wanted the payout so he could retire early. The thieves contacted him online, he directed them to Luke, and then they chose Zara because her displeasure with her job made her an easy target to blame.
Just about everyone involved in the case has a secret motive, including the detective (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd) on it.
What was Rhys hiding in 'Steal?'
Luke and Zara weren’t the only ones carrying a secret in Steal. Rhys, the detective investigating the Lochmill heist, is a gambling addict whose luck has come up short. He owes just under £100,000, and if he doesn’t pay up soon, his debts will be sold from people he knows to ones he doesn't, which would be very bad for him (to say nothing of loan sharks having potential leverage over a cop).
As the investigation into the heist continues, his superiors keep stalling him as MI5 gets more involved in surveilling Zara and tracking the case—and his personal problems make his involvement more complicated. At one point, after he begins his own rogue investigation into the robbery, Zara (who has slept with Rhys amid these covert ops) flat-out asks if he’s trying to track down the money to pay off his own debts, which he swears isn’t the case.
After being shot during the final confrontation with the thieves at the Lochmill office, he survives but is forced to resign from his job and sells his house to clear out his debts. It’s a dire turn of events, but it’s also not where his story ends.
The events of Steal culminate in a dramatic and dangerous shoot-out.
What happens to Luke at the end of 'Steal?'
While Luke knew more about what the Lochmill heist would entail than Zara did—he was aware thieves would be entering the office, but not the extent or intensity of it—being threatened at gunpoint is another thing entirely. He panics when the bank calls to approve the trade, forcing Zara to step in and finish the deal, and continues spiraling at home when he thinks (correctly) that he’s being watched.
After he calls Zara in a panic, the thieves break into his apartment building to kidnap him, getting past cops who are stationed outside to keep an eye on him. While being held at their safe house in the countryside, he tries to appeal to one of the thugs by offering him some of his money if he helps him escape. That man ultimately turns against his compatriots and takes Luke back to London. There, they confront Zara at her apartment, and she convinces the man to let them go if they can take him to Milo to steal his larger payout. Milo is killed when he tries to resist, but the codes to open his crypto wallet are at the Lochmill office, which is why the three of them head there for that final confrontation with the other thieves, MI5 agents, and finally the police.
By the end of the series, Rhys and Zara have a secret of their own.
What happens to Zara at the end of 'Steal?'
After what can only be described as a hellish few days (including but not limited to being held at gunpoint and being forced to participate in a massive robbery, going on the run after your accomplice in said heist is kidnapped, being pursued relentlessly by intelligence agents, and your mom trying to steal your windfall from the crime you’re complicit in), Zara survives the gunfire at the office.
After she and Luke sign the witness statements, MI5 asks them to hand over their crypto wallets with the stolen money, and it seems like they can put this whole mess behind them. Indeed, they’re both preparing to go on a trip together, but before she departs, she has that final meeting with Rhys—prompting him to realize Darren Yoshida was the real mastermind. When they confront him at the Lochmill office, where police had been on the scene after the money was returned, he explains his motivations for the scheme. He also makes them a final offer: another crypto wallet with £10 million stolen from the tax haven accounts, which they can take if they let him go. Rhys could certainly use the money—couldn’t anyone use an extra few million dollars?—but Zara turns it down, because accepting it would have tied them to him forever.
How does 'Steal' end?
Steal ends with Zara and Rhys walking out of Lochmill for what’s presumably the last time. She has a box of odds and ends she packed for her and Luke, and he’s incredulous that they just said no to a cool £10 million. But this is when Zara reveals one last twist: In the box of random office junk, hidden inside a desk trophy, is Milo’s crypto wallet, with the clean £20 million he’d already been paid. The money isn’t tied to Lochmill, so they can take it with a clean conscience. And Zara knew she’d be searched after the shootout, so she’d left her wallet for the cops to find and hoped Milo’s would be in the box when she collected it. Lucky for both of them, it was a bet that paid off.
So, Rhys asks, what will she do now? For the first time, Zara has a world of options. “I don’t know,” she responds. “Something exciting.” And the show ends with the two of them walking off together towards whatever’s next.