Toxic Town episode 2 recap: leaked files and building a legal case against Corby Borough Council

Toxic Town is a four-part limited Netflix series depicting the real-life story of one of the UK’s biggest environmental scandals.

In the Northamptonshire town of Corby, a cluster of birth defects affected the lives of many mothers and children born in the mid-1980s to 1990s. Dubbed as the “British Erin Brokovich,” it follows the mothers’ fight for justice against the council who spilled toxic waste across the town while trying to reclaim the area left behind by closed-down steelworks. The cast includes Jodie Whittaker, Aimee Lou Wood, Rory Kinnear, Robert Carlyle, Claudia Jessie, Joe Dempsie and many more.

Here's a recap of everything that happened in Toxic Town episode 2.

The second episode opens on 1999 and Susan and her sons are building a go-kart while elsewhere a group of men sing in chorus. At Derek’s house, his son crawls along the floor with a deformity in his foot. Ted is at his house in a suit and he looks out the window at his father’s coffin in the back of the hearse. The group of men singing is made up of councilors, including Sam and Roy.

Elsewhere, Susan answers her phone to a man who introduces himself as Graham Hind, an investigative journalist. He’s looking into a cluster of birth defects in Corby, but she’s dismissive and hangs up on him. At the plant site, there’s now a sign up for the Wonderworld Theme Park, coming soon. Bill and Ted are sitting in a car. Bill tells him to open the glove box and Ted pulls out an envelope full of money that Bill tells him is from a whip round for his dad. He says he won’t take it, as it’ll just be for when Pat wants something.

At the pub, Susan asks Pattie, the barmaid, why she gave a journalist her number. She says she’s already found three women in Corby, including Susan, with children born with birth defects, but she says she doesn’t want to get involved. A man, Max, gets her attention and she takes him home. They’re kissing, but they're interrupted by Connor shouting for her. He says his hand is hurting. While she gets the cream, Connor walks into her room and sees Max there, so she takes him back to his bedroom. When she comes back, Max asks what’s up with his hand. She tells him to leave. Connor comes back to see her and she begins to tell him that she’s heard from someone about his birth and that person thinks this is all someone else's fault.

At home, Ted pulls the photocopies out from under his dad’s mattress and puts them in an envelope. He goes to Sam’s house and posts them through the door. Elsewhere, Tracey throws up on the pavement unexpectedly - realising she’s pregnant again.

At the doctors, Susan is not sure about having a third operation on Connor’s hand as it keeps getting infected. The doctor wants to do another skin graft and move a toe up to give him grip. He tells her he can help Connor.

At Corby Borough Council, Sam turns up wanting to speak to Roy. He says he’s got some files and he’s concerned about Pat. He shows him the files and says they were posted through his door. He said it shows that the tenders given to Pat should never have been given to him. He says he doesn’t think Roy has anything to do with it, but that these are potential crimes. Roy tells him to leave it with him. Before he leaves, Sam reveals that the copies he’s given him are not the originals he received, and that he has more.

Tracey and her husband visit Shelby’s grave. She tells him she’s pregnant again, but she’s sad. At the hospital, Connor goes in for another surgery and Susan steps outside to get some fresh air. Here, she bumps into Tracey. She recognises her from the labour ward and asks about her daughter. Tracey says that she died. She goes to explain what was wrong with her and Susan reveals that her son was also born with health problems. Tracey reveals she’s pregnant again and this time, it’s twins. As Susan goes to leave after their chat, she stops herself and instead tells Tracey about the journalist who thinks there’s something happening, like poison in the water, that’s affecting their kids. She says she might call him and Tracey says she’d love to do that, too. Back at home, Susan makes the phone call and starts to ask questions.

At the council, Roy and the chief executive call Sam in and say they’ve been looking into the files. They say they want to speak to the person that gave him them, but he explains that he doesn’t know who that is. Sam worries they're accusing him of lying. Sam tells the chief executive that he needs to look deeper into what’s going on, not at him, and he walks out.

That night, Ted posts more documents through Sam’s door, but this time he catches Ted doing it and starts to chase him down the street. He shouts his name and gets him to come inside. Sam reveals he handed the documents over to Roy, but Ted says he’s no good, though Sam won’t believe him. He says he doesn’t want to take them anywhere else because he’ll lose his job.

It cuts to the councillors singing in chorus again and then chatting merrily in the pub. Sam walks to the loo and Roy follows him. Roy starts to recall how 11,000 lost their jobs when British Steel closed down and that he’s proud of what they’ve achieved now. He says he’s got enough hassle with the Wonderworld theme park sinking, but he’s sorted it. He says he’s going for leadership and he’ll take Sam with him, push the railway campaign forward. But first, Roy needs to clean up the mess. Roy then threatens Sam about the documents and when Sam tries to leave, he pushes him over. He wants the name of the person who gave him the files.

The next day, Susan buys The Sunday Times and finds the article Graham wrote about the birth defects found near the toxic dump in Corby. At Derek’s home, his wife passes him the paper, too. He reads it and asks if this is about Samuel, their son, and she says she thinks so. He immediately rejects it and hands her the paper back. Meanwhile, a woman approaches Susan on the streets and accuses Susan of using it for pity and to explain why her child is the way he is. She punches the woman and they start fighting.

Elsewhere, Tracey comes down the stairs heavily pregnant and her waters break. Later on at home, Susan’s face is beaten up and Derek’s wife, Maggie, comes to visit with her son. Susan dismisses her thinking she’s trying to sell something until she notices Samuel’s foot in a cast. Maggie explains that she’s grateful to learn she isn’t the only mother going through this and Susan invites her in to talk.

At the hospital, Tracey’s twins are born via c-section. She waits to find out if they’re okay and luckily, both children are completely fine. Elsewhere, Ted leaves the offices and Bill, his boss, is waiting outside. Bill tells him he’s been suspended. He reveals his dad died too, ten years ago from pancreatic cancer and he’d been working at the plant. He threatens him and says unless you bow to the right people, you won’t be okay and that they’ve done something to Ted that will stick.

At the park, Susan meets up with Tracey. She reveals since the article came out, five different mothers have turned up and lawyers are getting involved. She wants to know if there’s a legal case to be fought. They both reveal they thought it was something they’d done that had made their children poorly, and the other mothers who have come to see her thought the same. Susan asks Tracey to help her pick a lawyer.

Later, a lawyer, Des Collins (Rory Kinnear), turns up at Susan’s home. She reveals to him she’s meeting three different lawyers and asks him outright why he wants the case. He says he wants to work out if there’s a case and then work out how to help, but that he liked that she said she’s doing it for justice. He then mentions she knew his dad, Larry Collins, her headteacher. He said he grew up in Corby and worked in the steelworks as a summer job. He asks how many mothers she knows of and she reveals it’s seven now. He says the names are good, but she’ll need to prove where they live and what risk factors they shared. That they’ll also need to prove negligence. He says he won’t take any money until they win.

At the council offices, Ted opens a letter and reads it. It cuts to Roy and the chief executive practicing what they’ll say around the backlash of the newspaper article. Ted walks in, angry, and asks why he’s being fired. The chief executive pulls out Ted’s mileage expenses and he says he only round up the numbers because he was told to, like everybody else. Roy says his father would be ashamed of him. Elsewhere though, Sam turns up with all the documents Ted has given him to the Northamptonshire Police Station.

At the pub that night, Des is helping Susan and Pattie set up for a meeting. As she waits nervously, mothers start turning up - and there's a lot more than just the seven. Elsewhere, Bill Martin’s office has been set on fire, as well as Pat’s offices at the Wonderworld theme park site. The police turn up, but all the documents are burning to the ground. At the same time, Susan introduces Des to the mothers and says they’re going to set up a case.

All episodes of Toxic Town are available to stream on Netflix now.