The second episode of Passenger begins by revealing a bit more of Riya Ajunwa’s (Wunmi Mosaku) mysterious and eerie supernatural dream/memory. Things only get stranger from there when she wakes to find Sue Goodheart (Clare Burt) mere inches from her face asking about Yolanda Sanchez (Alejandra Bacelar Pereira). Riya reminds her that Yolanda hasn’t been around since she ran away with Nick Goodheart (Tom Lister), nearly a year ago. Riya doesn’t appear to have a response when Sue asks about the missing girl and indicates that she is referring to Nina Karlsson (Synnove Karlsen) rather than Katie Wells (Rowan Robinson).
Eddie Wells (Barry Sloane) realizes how much things have changed in his absence when he mistakes Katie (Rowan Robinson) for Lilly (Matilda Freeman). Joanne’s (Natalie Gavin) giving up tea is a big shocker as well but he’s most disturbed to learn that he’s no longer welcome at the garage.
Dina Dawson (Shelley Williams) and Bev Broadbent (Sophi Ellicott) swoon over Eddie’s new prison physique at the Carvery when Lynn Hargreaves (Terri-Ann Brumby) arrives to seat them. Despite the early morning hour, Derek Jackson (Daniel Ryan) shows up in a new shirt and in the mood to celebrate his nomination for Lancashire Businessman of the Year.
Riya attempts to question Katie about her absence when she returns her phone. Katie offers nothing useful.
Nish Chowdry (Arian Nik) and Ali Day (Ella Bruccoleri) appear to discuss the deer carcass when Riya joins them with the offer of breakfast. It immediately becomes clear that Riya wants to discuss possible connections between Nina and Katie’s disappearances. Riya also attempts to learn more about the oil sample from Terry Jackson (Debbie Rush) at the adjoining table but only gets a frustrated response.
Elsewhere on a hillside, Katie expresses a similar frustration when John Trowbridge (Jack James Ryan) joins her pries from information about her and Mehmet Shah’s (Shervin Alenabi) relationship.
With most of the town at the Carvery, Eddie becomes the topic of conversation. Much to the town’s credit, many of them defend Eddie, including Jim Bracknell (David Threlfall) while Tony Corrigan (Saen Gilder) makes threats. Things only get more awkward when Eddie shows up and gets into an argument with Riya.
Jordan Miller (Richard McIver) arrives in town and has a spirited discussion with a very cynic cab driver as he drives him to ‘The Tree Of Good Faith.’ The cabbie mentions driving a Swedish girl to the very same attraction. This segues into a short prayer/worship scene at the tree.
A quick discussion between Riya and Jim suggests that whatever crime Eddie was convicted of had something to do with him. Jim says that although everyone thinks Eddie is the monster, he sees himself as the monster. At the same time, Eddie returns home to find the words, ‘MONSTER’ spray painted on the window of his home.
Nearby, Katie and Lilly share a joint where they discuss Katie’s disappearance and Katie’s troubles with John. Although their conversation doesn’t shed any light on Katie’s disappearance, Katie does attempt to tell Lilly that she’s wasting her time pining after Mehmet. Lilly claims to know that Mehmet has a crush on Katie and not her.
Elsewhere, Eddie’s neighbor, Nan Whittaker (Pam Shaw), accuses him of stealing her garbage bins, while he tries to clean graffitied window. Riya’s investigation into Nina leads her to a small bed and breakfast near ‘The Tree Of Good Faith.’ There she meets Cath Benjamin-Dale (Karen Henthorn) and Jordan. Cath not only confirms that Nina stayed at her place but she never officially checked out.
Terry is shocked to return to her lab to discover that the oil sample appears to have developed a mind of its own.
Looking much worse for wear, Kane Jackson (Nico Mirallegro) shows up at the bread factory to learn that he’s been volunteered for a shift that night. Derek immediately realizes Kane is about to debate the order and is intimidated into submission. For some reason, this inspires Kane to return to the woods when he has a weird/eerie/supernatural encounter. A gutted deer not only appears to fall out of the top of a tree, but a pothole seemingly forms out of nowhere.
Nish and Ali mindlessly waste time at the office when Chief Constable Linda Markel (Jo Hartley) arrives and puts them on the case of Ms. Whittaker’s missing garbage bins. Riya soon phones the office to ask Nish to look into why people visiting ‘The Tree’ book ahead for two days. Riya soon rushes off the call when she hits the pothole that just formed in the last scene and gets a flat tire.
As Riya changes her tire, Mehmet makes a 6000.00-pound online payment to Starlight ECO LLC. Riya’s repair efforts are interrupted by a call from Terry with the news of the destroyed sample. After the call, Riya discovers her spare is awol.
Inaya Shah (Anna Tymoshenko) confronts Mehmet when she learns about the missing money from her account. He never denies taking it or reveals what it’s for but promises that he will pay it back. She appears more disappointed than upset as she leaves. Elsewhere, while Katie visits the pharmacy to get something for her cough Mehmet shows up. He asks her about her disappearance but all she offers is that it was weird. Their conversation proceeds with her expressing her desire to get out of the small town and achieve grander things. She encourages him to do the same. After claiming that his mother needs him at the shop, he also claims that there is something he has to do. When he is drawn away by a phone call, a background shot of the kid on the wall (Luke Ayres) suggests that he’s overheard their conversation.
Jakub Makowski (Hubert Hanowicz) is shown coming to the aid of Riya while Katie returns home and delves back into her Melissa Dean (Nadia Albina) podcast. Her coughing appears to only be getting worse as she now coughing up blood or black oil. With the tire repaired, Riya returns to her eerie/supernatural dream from the opening before a call from Nish snaps her back to reality.
Much later that night, Jim is shown sleeping with a shotgun while Mehmet meets Jordan with what appears to be a loaded backpack. Jordan asks if he’s ready and Mehmet claims he is. Seemingly the following day, Katie receives an e-mail while working in the Jumbo Bread’s office, confirming that she has been chosen for a trial position in Manchester. Jordan not only stops by to leave a box of chocolates that she later throws away, but she answers a call from someone at the head office, looking to speak with Derek about waste management.
Against Joanne’s earlier advice, Eddie visits the garage to collect the damaged vehicle where he learns that Jakub has removed his name. Eddie expresses an interest in returning to the business but Jakub doesn’t waste much time claiming Eddie’s presence would put them both out of business. Jakub does give Eddie some tools and even offers money as he speeds away in the damaged vehicle.
Linda reprimands Riya when she learns that she’s still looking into the disappearance of Nina Karlsson. Linda discounts Riya’s evidence as conspiracy theories.
Joanne becomes frustrated with Eddie when he embarrasses her at work with a sandwich. After she attempts to shine some light on how hard life was for her and the girls after his arrest, he claims he basically tells her that he doesn’t know how to begin fixing things because he doesn’t remember what he did. The scene ends with her telling him to speak to Jim or anyone in town because they certainly remember.
Derek becomes frantic and races over to Kane’s house in a rage after learning about the call from the head office. As heated as their confrontation is, the only things revealed are that Kane wants out, which Derek claims isn’t possible, and they both greatly fear the head office.
John continues to attempt to mend his relationship with Katie by admitting that he is jealous of her relationship with Mehmet. Her response to that is that Mehmet is supposed to be their best friend. The conversation eventually segues into her asking him how he would feel about moving. Despite his answer not being definitive, he gives the impression that he isn’t interested. She tells him about the trial shift before walking off.
A very short scene with Jim buying supplies from Jill Haleford (Lisa Allen) alludes to him growing more paranoid and schizophrenic by the second. Elsewhere at the pub, Riya begins to sound a bit paranoid herself as unloads her day on Jakub. He basically encourages her to focus on what’s in front of her when she receives an urgent call from Sue that sends her on her way.
Jim returns to the fracking site where he sees someone fleeing from what looks like a corpse. He immediately races over to Riya’s flat with news of his discovery. Riya appears to already have her hands full with Sue’s rants about someone trying to steal her memories.
The episode ends with Katie leaving a voicemail, offering Mehmet to join her in Manchester while Riya investigates the fracking site. She not only finds evidence of a breached gate it leads her to Mehmet’s lifeless body.
Passenger Review
While I find this series incredibly intriguing, it’s almost as if the writers have gone the roundabout way to explain everything. Despite each episode so far only being a little over 40 minutes each, there is so much information coming out at once that it would be incredibly easy to miss something important. You throw that in with the mysterious/supernatural experiences and at times, some of the scenes feel like trying to look through mud.
I can appreciate the throwbacks to both Vera and Broadchurch. As far as the dialogue and acting go, I don’t have too much to complain about. I’m still surprisingly interested in discovering how all this wraps up. I’d have to give the series a 4.5 out of 10 based on the mere fact that the majority of the episode felt like recap/fluff/filler.
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