Showtrial season 2 follows the story of a high-profile climate activist named Marcus Calderwood, who names a serving police officer as his killer just moments before he dies. Soon a quest for the truth gets underway as the trial of the decade begins, but not everyone is being entirely honest about what really happened the night of Marcus's hit and run.
The second episode opens with Sam struggling to sleep, while Justin paces around his cell waiting for the morning to come. The next day at the police station Southgate is fuming to see his car has been vandalised, and although it was made to look like SGC were responsible for the graffiti, he knows it was the police officers who are part of the D4 group chat in retaliation for him suspending Nick Taylor. PC Becky Hollis offers to drive Southgate around now that his car is out of action and he thanks her.
Inside, Sam continues to grill Justin, wanting to know more about D4. He claims the group chat was named after a pressure washer as they all talk about DIY. He also says Nick Taylor didn't message him to say that Marcus had named him before he died, but he did call someone else who then told Justin, which is annoying as it makes him look guilty.
Southgate tells Leila that he has bad news, the paint flecks on the pedal don't match the paint on Justin's car, but this is mainly down to the fact the wrong paint name was given by the manufacturers. He reveals they are being tested again, but they've been told that the pedal is in such a bad state that getting conclusive results will be hard.
Southgate leads a press conference where he tells reporters about the fact they have been granted an arrest extension and he names Officer X as Justin Mitchell. The press aren't happy with how much information is being held back and soon the questions get awkward to answer for the police.
Meanwhile, Packham finds CCTV footage of Justin's girlfriend, Sandra, clipping her car in the gym car park, just like Justin said in his bizarre interview with the police the night before.
Southgate asks Becky for a lift so that he can go and pay a visit to Marcus's neighbour. He asks her for the name of the officer who was near his car that had been vandalized and she identifies him as Kyle Jones and asks her about D4... she tries to avoid the question by talking about football.
Sam asks Justin about Patrick Norris, Marcus's neighbour, who he had a dispute with that Justin was called out to deal with. He tells Sam that they had a big fight over a tree protection order. Justin calls Patrick 'Patch' and reveals they are friends.
Southgate and Becky go to see Patrick at home, and his wife says he is working in the vineyard and calls him to come back to the house. They have fancy cars sitting outside and a huge house and while they wait, Becky tells Southgate that Nick shouldn't be taking all the wrap for the D4 trouble. However, before she can reveal who should be held responsible, Patrick turns up. Patrick confirms he has a watertight alibi for the time that Marcus was killed, claiming he was at a clay pigeon shooting club, which he went to in his jaguar - it is clear that Southgate doesn't trust him.
After being bullied by some of the men on D4 in the locker room, Becky bumps into Leila in the ladies, and it turns out they are friends after working on a past case together. Becky asks what Leila thinks about Southgate and she tells her she thinks he is good at his job. Becky admits she knows about D4, but when Leila asks who Nick Taylor called to get advice on what Marcus had said about Justin, she clams up. All she will say is that he is close to Justin and turns his bodycam off when he's on a visit...
Sam is worried when his son, Emanuel, tells him that he has been getting abuse from people on social media about him taking on Justin's case. Elsewhere, Leila gets home and finds her sister leaving a bag of her things and announcing that she has cut ties with her.
Nick Taylor is being brought back in to talk about his call to Kyle Jones after Marcus mentioned Justin's name at the crime scene, but he is refusing to divulge any more information. Meanwhile, Becky picks up Southgate from the train station and he thanks her by bringing a bonsi olive tree for her, which they spoke about being his hobby the previous day. She is bemused and says her mum will love it. In the car she tells Southgate that she has the transcript of the deleted D4 group chat and he is surprised that she is part of it. She claims she wasn't really involved and promises there is nothing on there that can get her fired, but she doesn't want Southgate to think anything less of her. She gives him a USB with the files on it and he promises her a cherry blossom tree next time.
At the office, Sam is awkward with Claudia after he admitted to stalking her on social media while he couldn't sleep the night before. He apologises and she accepts, and he admits that he is finding his insomnia hard to deal with.
Sam goes to see Justin, who is still in custody but has managed to get his hands on a fast food takeaway thanks to Dawn, one of his police friends. Justin promises there was nothing incriminating on the D4 chat, but it is clear Sam doesn't believe him.
As Southgate is going through the group chat transcript that Becky gave him, Packham arrives and says he has CCTV footage of Kyle Jones 6 doors down from Justin's house 20 minutes after Nick Taylor called him. They bring Kyle in for questioning and grill him and he eventually agrees that he did warn Justin about what Marcus said before he died but he replied: 'Thanks for the heads up. I didn't do it, but I am glad somebody did'.
With Justin back in questioning, the episode then flashes forward 6 hours. The SCG are protesting once again from outside the police station where we hear a reporter say that time is running out for the police as the detention period comes to a close.
With an hour to go Sam and Leila are getting stressed. Leila tells her boss about the delay in the forensics from the car paint, however, they have worked out that not only were Marcus's bike and helmet removed from the site, but that his body was moved from the side of the road and into the ditch.
We then see a flashback to Justin in his interview with the police and he claims that he went to see his sister in the hours before he handed himself in, but then Southgate drops a bombshell when he tells Justin that they have found the bike pedal. Justin doesn't seem too bothered at first, but soon they catch him out when they show him a printout of the D4 chat and it clearly shows he missed a day out with his friends because he had a job to do, which he described to his friends on the chat by posting an emoji of a giraffe and a target. Southgate tells Justin that he knows he often mocked Marcus because of his height and that they have a witness who is willing to go under oath and tell the court that they have heard Justin calling Marcus a 'giraffe' on numerous occasions.
As time closes in on the police they are struggling to get enough hard evidence against Justin to formally charge him. But, then we see Sandra at the ferry port and she has, in fact, come home with a dog - meaning Justin's bonkers story about her going to Serbia could be true. As she gets to passport control the police corner her and sieze her car, while back at the police station Justin is formally charged with murder and he led away.
All five episodes of Showtrial season 2 are now available on BBC iPlayer. The series will also air on Sundays at 9pm on BBC One.
