The Responder season 2 episode 2 recap contains spoilers... Chris is desperate to stop making bad decisions, yet circumstances keep getting in the way and he soon finds himself breaking the rules yet again. Meanwhile Marco, Casey and the embattled response officer share a memorable reunion, in a scene that feels like a beautiful oasis of comedy in a sea of tension...
At the book group, Chris is getting impatient for results. “When does this work?” he asks, before finally opening up about his father and how that relationship has shaped his life. “What if I’m just a t**t?” he says, as self-loathing threatens to take him over.
That afternoon he goes to watch Tilly play football, where his Kate tells him she got the London job and is going to say no, for the sake of him and their daughter. “She was made up when she heard you got the day job,” says Kate. It’s clear Kate still cares deeply for Chris, even if she can’t stay with him, although we fear the worst when she finds he’s lied about the day job and has let her down again.
Afterwards, Jodie Sweeney approaches him and asks him to get past the port police and pick up her drugs. Desperate not to keep making the same mistakes, he says no — yet we fear circumstances might force his hand.
Later on, Franny ambushes Chris and Rachel and wants to know where his gun is. "You owe me £10,000" he says, explaining that he had to hire someone to ‘deal with’ Hodgkin. To make matters worse, he filmed them entering Hodgkin’s garage. “That’s £15,000 now”.
'I wanna be a good dad...'
Marco’s looking after his daughter when her mother, Moira, calls to let him know she was sentenced to eight weeks in prison, which means he’s left holding the baby, literally. It’s an overwhelming prospect for him, yet if he fails his daughter faces being taken away by social services.
"I wanna be a good dad," he tells his neighbor when she agrees to help him out and we’re confident he would be, if he were born in more fortunate circumstances.
Meanwhile, Rachel struggles with her guilt over not pressing charges against her ex-boyfriend and things don’t get any better when watches his new flame, Lorna, work at a restaurant. It’s an excellent portrait of the regret, confusion and the other painful whirlwind of emotions that can come with such abuse.
Yet when Chris tells her he’s going to the dock to earn that £15,000 in a bid to keep their heads above the water, she insists upon coming with him. On the way, they stop for a chap called Neil, who’s confused by the dark and suffering from serious memory issues.
'It's now or never and if it's never, it's never forever'
Across town, his old pal Casey goes with Jodie to cut a deal with the owner of the club, meaning they can sell drugs on his dance floor. But for that plan to work, Chris needs to get to the port before the ship sails away. “It’s now or never Chris,” Jodie tells him. “And if it’s never, it’s never forever.” Terrified that Neil will harm himself if they leave him, Chris and Rachel decide to take him along. Like most of the decisions Chris makes, it’s a bad one, but made with the best intentions.
However when he gets to the pick-up, he finds Casey has beaten him to it and she jumps in the car with Neil for a peculiar ride home. Except Chris isn’t going home, he’s off to bail Marco who’s been caught stealing nappies. “Why should my daughter have a sore arse because I’m poor?” he asks, before squeezing in Chris’ car.
“Have you seen the sun?” asks Neil. “I don’t read that shite,” replies Marco, in what’s comfortably the stand-out line from the stand-out scene of a brilliantly written episode. Yet despite the black comedy, Chris is very much on the edge and his situation isn’t helped when he drops off Jodie’s drugs and receives drugs in return, not the cash he was expecting.
When they drop Neil off at home they find his wife has returned. She tells Rachel she feels trapped by her circumstances, which is a running theme in the series. At Jodie’s, Casey thought she’d found a bit of freedom, until her henchmen start threatening to tell Jodie she's the reason her husband is dead. Trapped once again.
Yet worse is to follow for Chris, when he receives a text from Kate to explain that she’s moving to London because he lied to her about the day job. He persuades her there’s another job with Debs on the table and she wants to believe him so much. It’s another great scene, loaded with the struggle between old love and new beginnings.
Chris then drops off the drugs for Franny, who says they're square, yet has another task for Chris if he wants to get hold of that day job...
