You'd be forgiven for thinking that Bodies episode 6 is the final entry in the Netflix-made crime sci-fi TV show, because a lot happens and all the puzzle pieces fall into place with a big 'boom'.
The show was originally about four detectives in different time periods who were investigating the appearance of the exact same dead body into the same alleyway. But over the past five episodes we've seen various characters straddle the gaps, but now the time-jumping is going backwards too in an explosive episode.
If you need to remember what happened in this action-packed episode, firstly catch up with our Bodies cast guide to remember who everyone is, then let's dig in. A note on how we're presenting this: previously, we've split out the point points based on the time period. But since Bodies episode 6 focuses so much on the 2023 timeline, we've re-arranged it a little bit, to focus on that.
So let's dive into our recap of Bodies episode 6, entitled 'The World Is Yours', to see what all our detectives are up to.
The past, present and future
Our episode begins in 1941, where an aging Elias Mannix (Stephen Graham) is recording the various vinyl messages we've seen through the series. He's being helped by his manservant and scripts he's already written, but he better hurry up...
The detective in this time period Charles Whiteman (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd) is brought into the police station by his corrupt chief, who empties out all the staff. He gets ready to explain the plot of the TV show to the detective, but Whiteman doesn't care. Instead, he kills the chief and his assistant with a broken bottle, before heading over to Harker House.
There, Whiteman kills Polly straight away, and barges in to see Mannix. Before Mannix can give his deathbed speech, Whiteman kills him. too, ignoring the phone which mysteriously begins ringing afterward. The detective doesn't flee the scene, and stays to be arrested. The last thing we see of the man is his being led to the gallows.
Death looks near for our Victorian police detective Alfred Hillinghead (Kyle Soller) too. He goes to his lover and friend Henry Ashe (George Parker), telling the journalist that he's being made to set him up. He begs his friend to flee the city to escape the murder charges.
Later, Alfred signs some papers and deposits them on the desk of his boss, telling the man that the envelope contains all the information required to catch the killer. He then returns home, and tells his wife and daughter about his affair: he's been gay for the whole marriage. Just as this happens the police show up and arrest Alfred — the man didn't set up Ashe but instead signed a confession saying that he did the murders.
We know who did make the same body show up thanks to the 2053 events, with detective Iris Maplewood (Shira Haas) witnessing Gabriel Defoe (Tom Mothersdale) and an elderly Shahara Hasan (Amaka Okafor) getting arrested. The latter tries to escape and shoots Elias Mannix in the leg, but he shoots her straight back. Then the injured man tells Defoe to set the time travel portal to 1890, or he'll kill Hasan. Defoe does so, and after Mannix tells Maplewood that the bomb is for the greater good, he jumps through it.
Defoe steals a gun and kills his guard, but Maplewood stops him, and he surrenders. However, the man insists that he needs to stop the events and he wants to go back in time to do so. He tries to escape through the portal but Iris shoots him, with her bullet going through his eye. He falls backward into the portal, becoming the body that we see various times throughout history.
We finally see Elias Mannix wake up in 1890. He has the markings on his wrist that Defoe's body did, but Defoe didn't before jumping into the portal: where did these marks come from?
The future and past are set in stone in 2023
Shahara Hasan begins the episode by telling some Counter-Terrorism Unit workers about the vinyl she found at Barber's flat: it states the day of the blast as July 14 (the day that the episode takes place!) and says that the blast will kill 800,000. We learn from Hasan in the future that the actual toll was closer to 500,000.
While the CTU worker is skeptical, one comes with her to Harker Bank, and they discover that the key she found in episode 5 is for a vault that's been in her name since 1941. They open the vault, and find a giant bomb in it. Not good!
Danny Barber calls Hasan and tells her to drive away from London so they can meet — he tells her to go alone, though a CTU worker goes with her. En route she calls her father, telling him to take her son away from London. They end up visiting Wells Pier, where a ferry pulls up. After being patted down Hasan gets on it.
On the ferry are Barber and the young Elias Mannix, and the former has been trying to convince the latter that the bomb will help him achieve his true plan. He gives him a slip of paper and the detonator. When Hasan arrives the man plays a recording from the older Mannix, which affects the younger man, even though Hasan tells him that it's fake.
This goes on until we discover that the CTU lady snuck onto the boat: she shoots and kills Barber, and Mannix gives up the detonator to Hasan. Bomb threat foiled! Hasan agrees to drive Mannix home, and on the journey, he says he wants to see his mother.
Hasan takes Mannix to his mum's house, however, the woman completely refuses to see her son, which upsets him. He unravels the piece of paper, which reveals a phone number, and at the same time, the bomb disposal team in the vault finds a hidden backup detonator.
Elias escapes from the car and steals a phone from a local child. Hasan chases him through an alleyway, but it's too late: he calls the number on the piece of paper, which causes a nuclear weapon to explode in central London.
