* This After The Flood episode 1 recap contains spoilers *
After a thrilling opening set piece, we follow PC Jo Marshall as she becomes embroiled in the case of an unidentified man found dead in a lift — aka "Lift Man". At first, everyone assumes he drowned in the flood, until forensics report that he actually died days before the rising water engulfed Waterside. Here's how the opening episode played out...
We open in the driving rain as the river in the Yorkshire town of Waterside bursts its banks. A woman and her baby are trapped by the rising flood waters and as PC Jo Marshall and PC Deepa Das arrive on the scene, the infant is washed away in its car seat. Luckily a passing stranger bravely saves the baby and passes her to Jo, before being swept away himself.
It’s a heroic act, although Jo also deserves plenty of praise as she's six-months pregnant (!!) As such her husband, local detective Pat Holman, isn’t too pleased to hear about her antics. There’s not much time to worry about that though, because Jo and Deepa are soon evacuating people from nearby Colliery Road, which is completely submerged.
Another road being evacuated is the one Pat’s sister Kelly lives on and Jo doesn’t want her and her family coming to their house. Unfortunately for Jo, her in-laws are already on her sofa watching football.
Down at the local school, which has been turned into an evacuation centre, we get our first glimpse of Jo’s mum, Molly Marshall, who's clearly not a big fan of local councillor, Chair of Planning, Sarah Mackie. It seems she holds her responsible for Waterside’s sub-standard flood defences. We also get a glimpse of local businessman and tractor owner Jack Radcliffe.. but more of him later.
Later on we see the mysterious hero who saved the baby climb from the river as darkness falls, but who is this mysterious hero and why is he so eager to avoid the police?
Who is Lift Man?
The following day, Jo makes a devastating discovery on Colliery Road when she visits the Allens. The elderly couple stayed behind when the street was evacuated and died after inhaling noxious fumes from a generator they were using to pump water out of their home.
She’s then called to Riverside Court, where a body has been discovered in the lift of an underground car park. It’s assumed this poor bloke was trapped in the lift and drowned as the flood waters rose, but he has no ID on him at all, which is quite unusual — and dare we say it, a little suspicious.
The plot then thickens nicely when forensics suggests the man actually died three days before the flood. But who is he, how did he die and who put his body in the lift? Jo has questions and so do we!
How did Jo's dad die?
Later on, Sgt Mackie insists that Jo goes to A&E to get herself checked as she’s been near contaminated water. “We lost your dad because he wouldn’t go to hospital” he says, in a useful piece of exposition. But how did Jo’s dad die?
The following day is Jo’s first as a Trainee Detective and her first port of call is to find out all she can about Lift Man, who it seems died of blunt force trauma to the head. Her colleague thinks he’s probably “just some homeless guy”. Nice!
Yet before Jo can say “Just one more thing” she collapses and is taken to hospital, where she’s forced to confess to her husband that she’s actually seven months — and not six months — pregnant. She lied about it so she could start the Detective Training programme.
The next day Jo goes into work to find that Pat has told everyone she’s on maternity leave (WTF mate!) but her resolve to work on the investigation is undimmed and she sneakily steals a copy of Lift Man’s case files.
Did Lift Man fake his own death?
When Jo gets back to her mum’s house she fills her in on all the details and mentions how frustrating it is that she can’t upload Lift Man's DNA on to one of those genealogy sites, in the hope of finding out who he is. It’s completely illegal, but “who’s going to know?” says Molly.
Meanwhile, Jo suggests that if her mum is serious about helping the people of Waterside, maybe she should run to become a councillor. We’d vote for her! The next day Molly clashes with her old pal, Sarah Mackie, who’s dumbfounded to hear she’ll be running in the next election.
Later that evening, Jo does upload Lift Man’s DNA online and he gets a sibling match the next day. It’s Lift Man’s sister and her name is Tasha Eden, she’s 24, she lives in France and when she calls Jo the next day she says her brother died five years ago! Crikey!
