The season begins at the local Trading Post with Simon shopping for groceries while speaking on the phone with wife, Beth Henderson (Claire Skinner). Her suggestion to grab a few bottles of wine leads to a joke about them becoming middle-aged drunkards. Returning to his vehicle with her purchase, he encounters what appears to be a gaggle of rambunctious teens playing ‘keep away’ with a homeless man’s (Ralph Berkin) cap. Simon attempts to intervene but is immediately backed down by the boy Jordan Franklin (Joe Barber), who gives the impression of being the group’s ringleader.

Simon returns to an average flat where he finds Beth and Sophie (Matilda Firth) well into their dinner. Beth spends several seconds reminiscing about the day when nursing was considered a respectable career before confirming his wine purchase. Once he does, she suggests he have a glass before opening the letter from the mortgage company. He casually assures her that he’ll handle it tomorrow.

The following morning on his way to work, Simon greets his elderly neighbor, Harry (David Bradley), who apparently has gotten the trash pickup days mixed up. Simon spends several seconds pondering the new horizontal key scratch along the side of the driver’s door. Things immediately go from bad to worse when he learns from Jimmy (David Mumeni) that he’s being let go because of cutbacks. Jimmy refers all of Simon’s questions and concerns to HR while rushing him out of the office.

Albeit over a bottle of wine, Beth takes Simon’s firing extremely well. Their short discussion on the matter reveals that she’s already been looking for ways to earn more money, despite Simon’s known opinion about women in the workplace. Her later reminder that a successful marriage is a partnership suggests that Simon’s parents don’t have the best relationship. The discussion ends with the shared agreement of more wine and the potential for a roll in the sac.

Much later that evening, Simon is stirred out of his sleep by distant noises that turn out to be Jordan and another boy breaking into a car. Simon’s arrival initially scares them away until Jordan recognizes him from their earlier meeting. From inside the house, Sophie sees Jordan intimidate her father and overhears his threats to return every night if Simon causes problems.

The next morning, Simon hears a similar thudding that turns out to be Sophie trying to launder her bed linens. Once he realizes she’s wet the bed, he comforts her over breakfast and assures her that her reaction is normal. He ultimately chalks it up to a silly boy playing silly games while at the same time suggesting they keep the news from Beth.

Simon attempts to report the incident over the phone but apparently has trouble getting in touch with an actual person. This leads to him installing a camera by the front door, but that doesn’t go so well either. The installation is not only by Sophie but by a call from Beth as well. Although Beth’s call is good news about getting hours at a local clinic, Simon starts to show signs of frustration.

After ending the call with Beth, Simon takes Sophie to the local park where she falls off the merry-go-round and cuts her knee on a broken bottle. It doesn’t take him long to trace the bottle back to a group of rowdy youths on the jungle gym. He yells at them and encourages them to ‘go ruin their lives elsewhere,’ but they only respond by laughing at him.

He rushes Sophie home in his arms to patch up her knee. Her comments about not telling Beth about the accident appear to make him worse. He attempts but fails to explain why he told her not to tell Beth about his confrontation with Jordan.

After getting Sophie to bed for the evening, Simon enjoys a glass of wine while reading several e-mails alluding to him being declined for employment. The doorbell interrupts him but no one is there when he goes outside. The doorbell rings again but this time he discovers Jordan waiting on him in the street. Jordan begins with his typical intimidation but goes too far when he gets in Simon’s face and calls him a paedo. Although Simon only hits him once, he apparently takes a bad tumble because he goes into a coma. After a few seconds of panic, Simon immediately begins CPR and is still right in the middle of the procedure when patrol officers arrive.

After noting the professional job Simon is doing, one of the officers takes over while the other questions him. Simon attributes his knowledge of his CPR technique to Beth’s being a burse. He also learns that the officers were on their way to investigate a vandalism claim at the park when they spotted him. Simon not only claims to have found Jordan in the injured state but mentions seeing someone running off. He virtually tells DS Kelly Evans (Kayla Meikle) the same when she shows up to question him. Although she asks about the camera, she apparently believes his claims that it isn’t yet operable. That’s later proven to be a lie when he is shown deleting the footage.

After a phone call to the hospital doesn’t reveal anything more telling about Jordan’s condition, he decides to visit the hospital. He not only has another awkward run-in with DS Evans, but he meets Jordan’s parents, Paul (Jonas Armstrong) and Anna Franklin (Adrienn Reti). Trying to uncover more about the investigative process, Simon learns that Jordan is a habitual offender. He likely takes it after her pushy father. Simon later begins to have nightmares about Jordan waking up and revealing the truth. One particular incident nearly leads to him revealing the truth to Beth but he changes his mind at the last second.

Simon also has an awkward run-in with Paul one morning while on his way to work. Paul not only notices and asks about the camera, but he appears to believe Simon’s claims that it doesn’t work. Simon tries to rush off, using the excuse that he’s late for work, but Paul practically invites himself in. Much to Simon’s surprise, Paul is extremely grateful for Simon’s intervention and attributes his quick action to saving Jordan’s life.

Although he finally escapes Paul’s overbearing charisma, Simon is unable to find any peace at work. He soon finds himself being interviewed by Juliet Grayson (Shila Bentley). It isn’t until he’s given her the entire story that he learns she isn’t with the police, instead is a reporter with the Haverbridge Green Gazette. At attempts to retract his statement, but it later ends up on the front pages, resulting in more unwanted attention.

Seemingly sometime later, Paul shows up at Simon’s work and insists on buying him that pint. Simon is shocked once again when he learns that Paul is quite the wine connoisseur with extensive knowledge. When employment becomes the topic of discussion, Simon learns that Paul owns and manages his own security firm.

Elsewhere, DS Evans causes problems for Simon when she shows up at his flat to warn him about speaking with the media. Instead, she finds Beth and reveals that Simon used picking her up from a shift as an excuse for being at the hospital on the night of the assault. Despite this, Beth confirms his story.

After several glasses of wine, it becomes clear that Paul brought Simon to this particular pub because he suspects one of the patrons is responsible for Jordan’s condition. Although Simon tells Paul that the patron wasn’t Jordan’s attacker, Paul later assaults him in the bathroom. Jarred by the incident, Simon flees the pub immediately and goes home to research Paul. He learns that his security was suspected of being involved in a local drug bust.

The episode ends with Jordan flat-lining at the hospital while Harry calls the cops, claiming to have information about the assault.

 

Coma Review

The plot for this series, in my opinion, is near genius. It’s not like is a groundbreaking original idea, but it’s more about the timing. Personally, I can’t think of a more realistic or serious societal issue. That said, it’s just too bad that it wasn’t executed better. Don’t get me wrong, this one episode was much better than a lot of stuff I’ve seen lately, but it was far from mind-blowing.

Although the episode was only 45, I constantly felt like I was being dragged along. I wouldn’t say the acting was great, but it wasn’t entirely horrible. All the actors felt like they fit their roles and I thought Paul did an especially good job.

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