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 fourth episode opens with the start of the trial and as everyone arrives at court, the Stop Climate Change protestors are outside in full force. After the jury is sworn in, Philip Holmes KC is introduced for the prosecution and Grainne Westwood KC for the defense.
As each of them makes their opening statement to the jury, we see the court take a break and in a private room Justin goes through the jury, belittling them to Sam and Grainne. Sam tells him the running order of the day and Justin tells him he would like to put PC Nick Taylor through a car crusher, to which Justin tells him to keep his violent fantasies to himself.
The paramedic at the scene of the hit and run, Grace, is the first to take to the witness stand, she relays what happened when Marcus named Justin as the driver of the car that hit him. Next is PC Nick Taylor, who tells the court that he wishes he had acted on the information from the paramedic sooner, however, the defense questions whether he is just saying this now to keep himself out of jail.
While Mani tells his dad that people on social media are convinced Justin is guilty, Felix is meeting Helen McGuire in a side alley where she tells him that senior management has denied that Patrick Norris is a police informant. Felix doesn't believe a word of it and tells Helen if she gets more information on Patrick's links to the police and the Crawley drugs trial, he will do a story on Chief Superintendant Whitley.
Back in court the next day the jury is shown the footage from Marcus's headcam of Justin threatening him after pulling him over for using his phone while cycling, which doesn't paint him in a good light for the jurors.
Next Southwood takes to the witness stand, talking about the investigation first he is questioned by the prosecution and next by Sam for the defense. The lack of forensic evidence and confusion over the bike pedals goes in Sam's favour.
Leila goes to see PC Becky Hollis, who is trying to get her life back on track after the D4 group found out she was the one who gave Southgate transcripts of their chats. Leila tells Becky they really need her to make a witness statement and write down everything she told Southgate, but she is reluctant.
Claudia goes to see Sam at home with new keys for the office after the FCG gang's attack. He is grateful and offers her a drink, which she accepts. She asks about how he is doing and he says he is worried that if these pills don't work then he doesn't know what to do. She encourages him to go back to his therapist, which he agrees to do. Mani says he is going out to a party and makes a joke about turning his phone off so his dad can't track him, and Claudia tells Sam what a lovely son he has.
Meanwhile, Leila has a call from her mum, Harriet, who is unwell and is in hospital with a pulmonary embolism. She sees her sister, Tamara, while they are waiting for more information but she won't talk to her. The next morning Leila tells Sam that she was at the hospital all night and that Tamara still won't talk to her, he offers his sympathy and encourages her to get back into court and face the day.
Becky arrives to take to the witness stand, she tells Southgate she will talk about Justin, but won't dish dirt on the rest of the D4 group because although they are all idiots, they have faced tough times in the jobs and have done lots of brave things. On the stand, Becky tells the jury she has left the police and now works at her sister's hair salon. She spills the beans on D4 group chat telling the prosecution that the giraffe emoji meant Marcus Calderwood and that in previous times Justin had joked that if he was ever going to bump someone off it would be in a hit-and-run.
Next, the defense grill Becky, and she tells them about how she reported Justin to senior police staff but nothing happened because Chief Superintendent Whitley was a fan of Justin's.
During a break, Justin says he didn't have Becky down as a grass, while he also admits that people tried to get him to have counselling after Daniella's death in the car accident, but he didn't go. Sam is cross that Justin hasn't told him about these missed counselling sessions and he says he should have told him about mental health issues. Justin says he didn't tell him because it is a weakness, and the fact that Sam can't sleep is because he is weak. Sam replies that the reason he can't sleep is because he keeps imagining his wife, who took her own life, being sliced in half by a train. At first, it looks like Justin might feel some remorse for what he has said, but then he just laughs and tells Sam if he doesn't want to keep reliving it, he should just stop imagining it. Sam sees red and shouts at Justin, finally having enough of his games just as Grainne walks in to see what all the shouting is about.
Sam tells Justin that he has treated this whole murder case as a joke from the start, including his dealings with him. Justin apologises, but it doesn't seem like he means it.
At the police station, Southgate tells Chief Superintendant Whitley that he should resign following the allegations against him in court. He also states that he believes Whitley has a relationship with Patrick Norris that goes beyond what is professionally appropriate. Whitley is fuming.
Meanwhile, Sandra corners Sam outside the court and he tells her he can't talk to her because he could be struck off. She is adamant that he has to know the whole truth about what it was like to live with Justin after the thing with the pregnant lady, referring to Daniella, and gives him a letter. He asks why she wants him to know, and she replies becasue he is a good man and it is complicated. Sam takes the letter and walks off.
At home, he reads the letter and it is clear it is playing on his mind. The following day Sam tells Justin about the letter and all the things Sandra wrote in it. Sam won't tell Justin what exactly she has said, but says it’ll come out in cross-examination. In trying to help Justin, he said Sandra has handed them a gun to shoot her and they’re going to take all the things Justin did to her and use them to kill her in court. Sam says it’s their only hope.
Sandra takes to the witness stand and is questioned by the prosecution and tells them that the damage to her car that she got fixed by her uncle in Slovenia was different from the gym accident damage and that she lied to the police for Justin. Next up is the defense and Grainne grills Sandra. As she uses everything in her letter against her in court, it is revealed that Sandra loved Justin and wanted to make him happy and for them to have a family. But when she became pregnant he wasn't happy. She then lost the baby and he was cruel, telling her it was for the best. As they are talking, Sandra is upset and Justin is squirming in his seat, unable to listen to it all. Soon he shouts at them to stop grilling Sandra and that he is sorry for causing her so much pain.
As the judge adjourns the court until the next day, Sam and Grainne go to see Justin, who says that everything that Sanrda said is true. When Grainne asks where the damage came from on the car if he wasn't the hit-and-run driver, Justin asks to speak to Sam alone.
Once alone, Sam asks if Sandra losing the baby reminded him of Daniella and Justin loses his call, grabbing Sam by the collar and shouting in his face, As he calms down, Justin tells Sam he did it - he ran Marcus off the road - but that he thinks Sam has known that all along, deep down.
Stunned for a moment, Sam explains that they now need to change Justin's plea to guilty to a charge of manslaughter. Justin refuses saying that Sam is just as bad as everyone else, and that he killed Marcus because he is responsible for the death of a woman and her unborn baby. While Justin says he will take whatever is coming his way Sam gives him Sandra's letter, telling him that maybe it will help him understand how other people see him.
Sam gets home that evening ready to offload to Mani, but when he gets back he finds that his son has found his computer search history on painless suicide and that he knows he was considering taking his own life. Mani is fuming after what happened to his mum and throws the laptop at the wall before storming out of the house and leaving Sam begging him to come back.
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.
