If you've seen the trailer for Prime Target, you'll be expecting the Apple TV Plus conspiracy thriller to be full of gunfights, chases and action scenes; they may come later but as of episode 2, we're definitely in slow-burn, build-up territory.
Prime Target episode 2, which released alongside the first episode on the show's premiere date of Wednesday, January 22, could best be considered like the second half of a two-parter alongside the first episode. Together they get the ball rolling for the real story to begin, setting up important characters and details.
The show is about a mathematics student at the University of Cambridge who stumbles upon a conspiracy bent on covering up a formula based on prime numbers, and has to go on the run alongside an NSA agent ally to bring down these mysterious opponents.
In introducing our second main character, Prime Target episode 2 includes a few time jumps as well as some overlapping timelines, so hopefully this episode recap will help you understand what happens. Spoilers ensue, and I've re-ordered some of the events of the episode so it's easier for you to follow.
Finding the missing research
We pick up several days after the death at the end of episode one as Professor Andrea Lavin (Sidse Babett Knudsen) is visited by her colleague to offer her condolences. She asks him to take her stead in the trip to Baghdad.
Our protagonist Edward (Leo Woodall) wants to get into Professor Mallinder's office to retrieve his research which Mallinder took before his death, however security won't let him in. He breaks in at night instead, but finds the burnt remains of his research in Mallinder's bin, which prompts him to become enraged and get detected by security. All he has left, then, is a strange note bearing a sketched shape that Mallinder left in his dorm.
At a hearing Edward insists that Mallinder stole his work but no-one believes him. He's given a chance to remain at the university if he apologizes for his claims but he refuses, and is thus kicked out. He opts not to tell his father and he moves into a flat somewhere else in Cambridge.
Edward visits his friend, the Alzheimers-afflicted Professor Raymond, and informs him that he plans to appeal the decision... as soon as he works out why Mallinder destroyed his work. He shows the old man a note, and also notices that the paper it was written on has a strange watermark.
Mysterious mathematicians and a strange institution
The one person who believes Edward in his claims against Mallinder is his wife, Lavin, who also tells the boy how Mallinder burnt the table cloth with the formula. She gives him access to Mallinder's home office where he finds documents with the same watermark, indicating the professor receiving large sums of money. Lavin also tells Edward about someone called Safiya, a mathematician Mallinder used to work with, but she refuses to say more.
Edward goes to the university library to research Safiya, and discovers that she worked in number theory. He gets a librarian to send her his contact information, and also learns from Raymond that the old professor used to teach her, but due to his Alzheimer's he can't remember more. Edward retrieves her paper from the university and finds, doodled in the margin, the same shape that Mallinder's note bore.
Edward is visited by the bartender he started dating, and over a drink he explains his predicament. He thinks Mallinder was in love with Safiya. However later, at the library, he learns that this mysterious woman actually died 30 years ago, from an apparently suicide.
That night Edward is suspicious that someone is following him. He goes home and looks into the watermark, finding that it belongs to something called the Kaplar Institute. Someone knocks at his door, and this person explains that he's a representative of this Kaplar Institute and they want to help Edward develop his work. Edward doesn't let this man in, and the mysterious figure claims he'll come back soon.
The French connection
Throughout the episode, we keep cutting to a harbor town in France, where we meet Taylah (Quintessa Swindell). When we first visit the scene it's four days prior to the rest of the events of the series, though we quickly catch up.
Taylah is getting a coffee and a local boy is trying to ask her out, but she rejects him. She goes to her apartment where we learn she's part of an NSA team in Europe, and she's the person we've been seeing monitor academics, with the team working out of this apartment.
Taylah is tasked with introducing a new guy to the team, and we learn that the group travels around Europe, moving every few months. She explains they're spying on academics in research institutes by tapping into security cameras, and have to send pictures of any formulae they work on to their higher-ups, as mathematicians have the potential to write code that can break modern computer systems.
As Prof. Mallinder starts acting odd (as in episode 1), Taylah watches with concern. She sees him burn Edward's research and then she watches him as he drives into a parking garage. The door shuts and she can't see any more.
Later, Taylah hears about Mallinder's death, which is supposedly a suicide. She hacks into the MI5's files to look at footage and photos and also listens to the voice note Mallinder left to Lavin. She also sees through her cameras as Edward trashes Mallinder's office, which makes her realize that Edward, not Mallinder, was the person she should have been monitoring.
Investigating more, Taylah notices that the footage of Mallinder's car driving into the parking garage has been hacked to remove some, and also that the voice note is artificially generated. She tells her boss who downplays it but does inform his higher-ups.
Later, sitting by the sea, Taylah's boss informs her that their higher-ups aren't going to look into the matter further. She tries to persuade him that they need to... until he's shot by a sniper. She runs away, pursued by a man on a motorbike with a gun and also being watched by the sniper, and to escape she has to jump into the quay.
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