Trigger Point season 2 episode 2 follows on from a dramatic opener and this episode moves the plot along nicely — if rather ruthlessly (spoilers ahead)! Note the whole series is available now as a box set on ITVX. First, we meet Alex, who seems to have got involved with the terrorists after a painful family trauma and Nicholas Hood, who seems like a bit of a sociopath. Elsewhere we witnessed a horrific collar bomb and had our hearts broken in the episode's devastating finale..
The suspected drone operator flees, but is caught by armed police and wrestled to the ground by DCI Youngblood. He didn’t seem that bothered about being shot though. Elsewhere, Lana comes home to find that her dad, Jeff, has been staying at her place. It seems Lana’s parents’ marriage is struggling in the aftermath of their son’s death. “She’s so angry and bitter,” he says.
Meanwhile, a man called Alex lights a candle for his deceased daughter, as he watches a news report about the attack on the power station on TV. Someone calls him up and thanks him for erasing the power station’s CCTV, but tells him it’s now time to “get his hands dirty”. Oh dear. But who is Alex and how did his daughter die?
Who is Nick Hood working for?
At Met Police HQ, Lana is reunited with her old pal, Sonya Reeves, an expert in the chemicals and equipment used to manufacture explosives. She’s examined the drone bomb and pressure plates and says they’re sophisticated work. Getting beyond the power station’s security would also have been no mean feat.
She then reveals that someone on the inside would have needed to turn off the fail safe to allow the transformer to be turned into an explosive device. We know this was Joe Hansen.
Elsewhere DCI Youngblood leads a briefing on the previous night’s terrorist attack and says the suspect they have in custody is called Nicholas Hood, who has no criminal record or terrorist connections. “An attack of this kind is unprecedented on British soil,” says Commander Francis. “We can’t afford another.”
DS Morgan questions Hood, who denies even being in the tower block, but does go on a rambling rant about inequality of society, meanwhile Alex is picked up by a grey van and the terrorist group takes some of his blood for “insurance”.
Could Lana have saved Zara?
In New Cross, armed police storm Hood’s address and find a young couple with a baby inside. They check out his room and find absolutely nothing, which Lana finds very suspicious. DCI Youngblood won’t discuss the case with her and when she pulls him up on that he asks if she meant it when she told him she loved him in the car park. She can’t answer.
The couple tell the police Hood keeps to himself, although has been doing some babysitting for them! Lo and behold, underneath the cot, Lana finds a load of old dismantled phones.
At the hospital, DS Morgan speaks to Joe Hansen. If he was in on the attack, then he certainly regrets it, because he’s in a very bad way. She asks if he deactivated the fail safes and despite barely being able to speak, he gives her an address.
Lana heads straight there and sees a woman lying on the floor through the window, wearing an explosive device. Is it a trap? Probably. Lana gains access through an upstairs window and finds the homeowner — Zara Baxter — tied to a towel rail in the bathroom, with a device around her neck. When Lana moves her hair to take a better look, she activates it and is unable to remove the device before it blows up, killing Zara. Horrifying!
DCI Thom Youngblood tells Commander Francis he believes there’s a connection between Zara Baxter and Joe Hansen, suggesting the bombers may have threatened her to force the power station worker to turn off the fail safe. The bomb was set off by a Light Dependent Resistor, which is activated when the light increases or decreases. Terrifying stuff.
In the van later on, Lana tells Thom she could have saved Zara and blames herself for her death, but he tells her there was nothing she could have done. She responds by telling him she DOES still love him and she’d love to have another go at their relationship. He says he’ll talk to Helen. Yet Sonya Reeves spoils the moment somewhat when she brings Thom circuitry from the collar bomb, which suggests someone knew Hansen was having an affair.
Back at Met Police HQ, Thom accuses Hood of discovering just that and using that knowledge to blackmail Hansen into helping them attack the power plant. When he refused, the terrorists rigged his partner with a collar bomb. He remains silent, but there’s a load of evidence linking him to the collar bomb. “I don’t recognise your laws, I’m no longer a pawn” he replies.
Is Thom dead?
Meanwhile the terrorists are streaming again and their latest broadcast starts with the preface “Let’s pull the plug on big tech”. It seems there’s a device in a lift in a building belonging to Ratea Global Analytics, with six people trapped inside. Lana gets access through the roof of the lift, examines the device and evacuates all the passengers, except for one, who’s a conspiracy theorist that refuses to leave the lift. “Mate, have you got a death wish or something?” says Danny.
Lana is forced to deal with the bomb while he’s in the lift cowering beneath a bomb blanket. Oh mate. She finds the device is “just a jammer”, which stopped the lift from operating. They head down to the ground floor “soft furnishing and men’s wear.. You can pick up some new pants,” she says to her not-so-courageous companion.
But as DCI Youngblood evacuates the other passengers he hears a deafening blast. A firefighter opens the lift shaft for him, inviting him to take a look, before pushing him down through the open door to land far below on the roof of Lana’s lift. Is he dead?
