After a fairly exposition-heavy first episode of the new Netflix crime show Bodies, the investigation is now well underway for several of our detectives, with new twists and turns, allies and enemies.
The show follows identical murder cases across 1890, 1941, 2023 and 2053, as detectives in each time period investigate the same case of a naked gunshot victim showing up in a London alleyway. You can also meet the Bodies cast to get to know these detectives and what drives them.
In Bodies episode two, called "Do You Know Who I Am", we get more time with our 2053 investigation, after the sole scene in the first episode, plus we follow the 2023 investigation as it picks up plenty of clues, and also witness the beginning of the first investigation back in 1890.
So here's our Bodies episode 2 recap, and we've re-ordered all the events of the episode into a chronological format, unlike the show itself which jumps about all the time. Hopefully, this will make it easier to understand!
Hillinghead enlists a close ally in 1890
When we return to our Victorian sleuth Alfred Hillinghead (Kyle Soller), he's being debriefed by the police commissioner, and he decides not to give up the commissioner's son's secret as to his love affair, as Alfred's boss asked.
He goes home to his wife, who's teaching his daughter the piano, and attempts to burn the photo evidence to avoid trouble. He has a last-minute change of heart though.
The next morning, as Alfred is enjoying breakfast, troublesome journalist Henry Ashe (George Parker) arrives at his front door. His photo lab has been destroyed by the police, and now the only evidence of the photographed individual from the crime scene is with Alfred. However, Hillinghead lies to Ashe, telling the man that he burned the photo.
Sometime later, Ashe's story is in the papers, though missing the photo. It causes a stir at the police headquarters, and Hillingshead smells opportunity. He meets Ashe in the park, and they decide to team up. After revealing that he never burned the photo, the police detective has some prints he lifted from the crime scene, and can also tell from the photo that the suspect has a cane and a limp.
Whiteman's red herring fails in 1941
Our wiley yet corrupt detective Charles Whiteman (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd) visits a man called Cozen, who's just got out of prison for some bad deeds. Whiteman tells him to hold a car gear stick but then shoots him. Whiteman returns the fingerprint-laden gear stick to his car, setting up Cozen as the body smuggler, not him.
Whiteman calls the mystery woman, and assures her that their issues are gone. Then he asks her on a date, but she simply says their catchphrase "know you are loved" and hangs up.
At some point in the next few days, Whiteman is at a pub when everyone is singing a Vera Lynn song after a day of work. The man's boss tells him that the dead inspector (from episode 1) was actually following Whiteman before he died, and that he finds the crime's resolution too convenient.
He's drawn away, though, when he's told that a witness for the alleyway body has been found. This is the little girl from episode 1 who saw Whiteman standing over the naked body. The mystery woman calls Whiteman, asking if this child can identify him, and the detective confirms that she can.
Shahara discovers Elias Mannix in 2023
Shahara Hasan (Amaka Okafor) is with her team hunting down Elias Mannix, the boy whom gunman Tahir met before seeing Shahara in the last episode, who knew him from their care home. Hasan and her team go to the house of the boy's foster family, but say that he disappeared some days ago.
On social media, Hasan sees a picture of a camper van that the foster family own, which wasn't at home when they visited, and she gets her team member to run the plates. They find CCTV footage of Mannix being driven somewhere by his foster father. Plus, a video is shared around the team of Mannix at his foster home where he recounts a recurring dream in which he shoots a child in the head before telling him that "he was loved".
The police arrest Mannix's foster family, however they refuse to talk, insisting on seeing a lawyer... that is, until Shahara cracks the mother. She tells the team that Elias is staying at a Crabapple Campsite.
Shahara stays to continue to interrogate the mother while her team investigates the camper van, which has no sign of Elias.
The foster mom starts to reveal lots of information. She tells Shahara that it's the detective's turn with Elias now and that the inspector needs to tell Elias that he is loved. Then, she cackles and says "I just can't anymore", admitting that she doubted the cause until lots of predictions were correct. She also thanks Shahara for what she's going to do for Elias, and gives her condolences for what's about to happen to the detective's son.
After hinting that the campsite is a trap, the mother bites her own tongue off. The information is too late though, and one of the police members sets off a trap in the camper van, which makes it blow up. They presumably die.
Iris, The Authority and Gabriel Defoe in 2053
In this episode, we get a lot more time with future detective Iris Maplewood (Shira Haas). She returns home and her neighbor comes over to cheer her up from her lousy day. They share a bottle of gin together and watch a televised memorial to a tragedy that happened 30 years prior, in 2023. Iris admits that her father died "in the blast" and her mother passed shortly after.
We also learn about The Authority, an evidently well-known group that was founded by... Elias Mannix (Stephen Graham), and also that Iris has some kind of spine implant tech.
The next day at work, Iris asks about the person she rescued the day before but is told that it's above her pay grade. Instead, she goes to her wheelchair-bound brother Alby, and his wife Marina. She gets Alby to track the DNA from a bloodstain on her top.
As they wait Iris tells Alby that technology could help him walk again, but he refuses to use tech from "the man", showing a distrust in the authorities Iris works for. The DNA eventually comes back and it's for someone called Gabriel Defoe.
Iris tries to return home but her smart car instead takes her to The Authority's base. She sees Gabriel's body as surgeons try to save him, and also Elias Mannix who asks her about her past. Then, he gives her some information on the case. This is Gabriel Defoe, a professor of quantum gravity theory at Greenwich Park University, who he thinks has founded a terrorist organization called 'Chapel Perilous'.
Mannix even entrusts Iris with a gun, seemingly a rarity in these days, before sending her on her way. She goes to GPU and tells them that their professor was shot days prior... before he walks in himself, surprised by the intrusion. She arrests him for the attempted murder on his own life.
