This The Way episode 1 recap contains spoilers.... acclaimed actor Michael Sheen invites us into his community to share a story of social and political upheaval in this dystopian BBC One drama.
Set in Port Talbot, a town built upon the local steel industry for many generations, the three-part series tells the fictional tale of the Driscoll family, who face losing everything when they’re caught up in a civil uprising.
Here's our breakdown of the first episode, which was directed by Michael Sheen and co-created by Sherwood writer, James Graham, and acclaimed documentary-maker, Adam Curtis.
'I can't see where I'm going...'
We descend through clouds into Port Talbot, with Owen Driscoll telling the tragic tale of Lewis Jeffries, who slipped into a vat of molten slag while working at the steelworks. His father, Alwyn, was working the same shift and saw it all. “He just had to stand there and watch it happen,” Owen explains.
It must have been an unimaginable experience, yet Owen admits he doesn’t feel anything about it. “I can’t see where I’m going… I just want something to happen and change everything!”
Meanwhile in the centre of town, Alwyn Jeffries douses himself in petrol and sets himself on fire, as Geoff Driscoll watches on helplessly. It’s a shocking scene that really shows the agony he’s been feeling since the terrible event Owen described.
Day One
At the doctors, Owen receives a repeat prescription for benzodiazepine. It’s a medication that “stops his brain going,” yet he clearly has some concerns. “I can’t remember the last time I felt anything, is that normal?” he asks.
Across town, Thea Driscoll is hosting a fourth birthday party for her son Rhys, but her brother Owen hasn’t turned up. “He knows how to hold a grudge,” she says, yet she gives her father, Geoff, a very frosty reception when he turns up.
It seems Thea's parents, Geoff and Dee, are going through a break-up, yet as they discuss what happened to Alwyn, Dee doesn’t seem that surprised. “There are a lot of desperate people out there feeling angry and alone,” she says, as Thea heads off for work.
At the steelworks, Geoff welcomes a group of bored children to the plant’s museum. They are considerably less enthusiastic about their town’s history than he is, although we think that ancient sword is pretty cool. “If the pilot light over the works was ever to go out then the town will fall,” he says ominously.
He also explains how the town was once the site of an old abbey and the last monk who departed centuries ago warned a part of the abbey must always remain or a curse will fall on Port Talbot. Luckily there’s still a bit of it propped up with girders. “We need stories to remind us who we are,” he tells the kids.
Alwyn’s death is a hot topic in a meeting between the steelworks’ foreign owners and union leader Glynn, where the future of the plant is also discussed. Shop steward Geoff is keen to accept the offers the management are handing down, yet Glynn isn’t and invokes the memory of Geoff’s father, Denny. More on him later.
'We always just lurch...'
Thea is out on the beat and comes across an eccentric old chap named Simon, who’s running around underneath the flyover without many clothes on. He gives a dark warning of the future. “What is it that rises up the same moment that it falls?” he asks. “You will..” Cripes!
That evening, Owen meets Anna, a Polish student who works at the cafe, and they're just getting down to business when the pilot light over the steelworks goes out and alarms start ringing out across town.
Day Two
The steelworks management claim the siren was an accidental repercussion of shutting down part of the works for renovations and promise the pilot light will be relit as soon as possible. But Glynn clearly suspects it’s part of a plan to shut the steelworks down.
Later on Owen meets Thea, who correctly suspects him of dealing drugs again. “I’m asking as a sister, not a copper,” she explains. “There’s no difference — as you made clear when you arrested me!” he replies, as we get our first glimpse of the Driscolls’ troubled past.
Day Five
After initially saying that a relationship with a drug dealer who’s in recovery was too complicated, Anna has now decided to start seeing Owen. Although it’s clear he’s still struggling with the weight of his own life.
That evening, there’s a meeting at a packed out club, with the entire community in attendance. “We always just lurch, the fate of the steelworks is forever in the balance,” says Dee Driscoll in a speech that rouses the group. “I’m sick of feeling we haven’t got any power.”
Glynn is advocating for a moment “like the strikes of old”, yet Geoff believes the miners’ strike, which was led by his father Denny Driscoll, was nothing but a trap that left the community broken. “Denny Driscoll was a hero!” comes the retort. Yet Geoff reminds them that his father killed himself after losing the disppite. “I saw that light leave him,” he says. Yet it’s clear Dee doesn’t share his outlook.
“Those historic struggles were launched from structures that have all vanished,” says local MP Jack Price, who suggests the steelworks management might not have sinister plans. Yet when the crowd hear the Abbey Wall has been knocked down, it’s clear the meeting is only going in one direction and a strike is voted through, as a mysterious red monk watches on.
'You don't DO anything!'
Back at home, Geoff discusses the past with his father’s ghost. “I’m trying to be rational and learn from you”. He seems to think that despite his father’s rhetoric, the message he left was not to follow in his footsteps. “What’s your alternative then? In a choice between all or nothing, is your answer nothing?” says his late father.
“That’s the problem with you dad, you don’t try or do anything,” says Owen, in Geoff’s memory. To make matters worse, later on Dee serves him with divorce papers. He accuses his wife of fanning the flames that will engulf the town. "People will get hurt!" he predicts and he's not wrong.
Day Seven
The strike begins and images of Dee ‘The Warrior’ Driscoll telling people to stop paying their bills begins to spread on social media — as does the red monk. Yet it’s clear the movement in Port Talbot has captured the national mood and in the coming days others across Wales are up in arms.
Day 16
The skinheads, Antifa and lots of other groups have descended on the town. “How is any of this related to a steel strike,” says one officer as a private contractor brought in by the government to oversee things rolls into town. It’s clear many in the police don’t trust them and when they try to bring workers into the steelworks from outside, there’s trouble on the cards.
Day 17
Thea takes her son Rhys to her husband’s parents in a bid to keep him safe, while local MP Jack Price heads back to Westminster. When the army arrives it’s not long before the rioting begins, with Thea Driscoll part of the police presence and Owen on the frontline of the disaffected workers. Elsewhere, Anna tries to leave town, but it’s clear no one is coming in or out and a lockdown is in place. “Save our steel!” shout the marchers, yet when Owen lobs an iron bar at the police, violence erupts.
Later that evening, Dee calls Geoff to let him know Owen is in deep trouble, so he picks up the ancient sword and rushes to the scene. With carnage, chaos and fire all around him, he sees Owen being taken away by the police.
