As the second episode of Desperate Measures begins, Rowan Taylor (Amanda Abbington) flees the gas station after Finn was abducted. She receives a call from Kristof (Gabor Nagypal) who blames her because he told her not to run. He insists she’ll get Finn back once he gets his money. Rowan approaches Patrick (Warren Brown) to see if he can help her get Finn back. He reminds her that she got righteous with him when he considered breaking the law. Patrick says she’ll need a gun to hit up as many tills as possible to get money. When she says no guns, Patrick says that narrows her options to an inside job.

Rowan quickly suggests robbing the bank she works at, but Patrick doesn’t want to rob a bank with her. Once she threatens to do it alone, Patrick warns her she’ll get caught and never see her son again. She steps outside where her father Mal (Francis Magee) approaches her. He knows it wasn’t right disappearing and leaving her with all his debts. Rowan doesn’t want to deal with this right now. Mal confirms he came by earlier. Rowan believes he is there because he needs money, but Mal quickly denies that. After he says he just wants to be part of their lives, Rowan says he is wasting his time unless he has a spare 25 grand.

She mentions that they’ve taken something before leaving. Patrick visits Rowan at home later to give her a few things that might be useful. He confesses that she was the only one there for him when he needed her and he isn’t going to miss her robbing a bank. They go through everything Rowan knows about the security at the bank. The supervisor and manager have to be there to open the vault with the keys. She doesn’t want Varisha involved. Patrick says they have two days and it’ll have to be the manager before showing her a small camera.

She learns how they used the camera to get the code to the safe before even getting inside. Rowan will need to get the camera on Powel or Varisha before they go to the vault. Varisha (Sunetra Sarker) is awoken by a call in the middle of the night because her mom has left the home again. In the morning, Rowan is told to put the camera on his breast pocket without him knowing. She doesn’t think she can get it on Powel so Patrick says it’ll have to be her friend. He intends to pick it up from her at lunch. The caregiver comes over to take care of Varisha’s mom and tell her she should look into the home she told her about.

Varisha admits it looked nice but she can’t afford it. Mal talks to the locals to try to get information about Finn. Once he gives them money, they tell him about seeing Finn with Conor yesterday. They run Mal off before calling to tell someone what just happened. Varisha catches up with Rowan at work and tells her about her mother. Rowan spills a drink on her so she can hide the camera on her nametag. Powel comes over and tells them to get the coat dry-cleaned before they head into the bank. Later, Varisha surprises Rowan when she is taking note of the cameras in the bank.

Varisha’s moves are recorded when she goes to the vault with Powel. He tells her that it was nothing personal with the redundancy, but Varisha feels like it is personal. As they continue, the security guard has to buzz them through. When she drops her nametag, she notices the camera on the lanyard. She doesn’t say anything about it to Powel. Varisha goes outside to confront Rowan about the camera. Rowan is forced to tell her about Finn being kidnapped and everything else. Varisha says she can’t really think she’ll get away with it. Rowan will worry about that when she gets Finn back.

Varisha urges her to go to the police, but Rowan doesn’t think that is an option. She wants to help get Finn back although Varisha can’t have any part in robbing the bank. She gives Rowan the camera and says they should pretend it never happened. Mal follows Conor (Harry Rose) in his car before following him on foot. Rowan gives the camera to Patrick. She admits she nearly lost her best friend for that. Mal overhears Kristof warning Conor that it’ll come back on him if Rowan doesn’t get the money. Kristof complains about him driving that car instead of keeping a low profile.

Conor suggests one of the other guys messed up or could be a snitch. Kristof gets a call telling him about the old man asking questions. He intimidates Conor with his handgun before they leave to check on Finn. Patrick watches the recording from the camera. Mal sees Finn (Jesse Cescatti-McFarlane) who is handcuffed. Kristof insists they better keep an eye on him because he is worth a lot of money. At the station, Detective Simmons (Jonathan Nyati) notices Rowan acts strange when the robbers leave the pawn shop. He asks a partner to see what they can find out about Rowan.

When she gets home, Patrick tells her they’re going to need the keys to the vault. Mal arrives at the door to tell Rowan he knows where Finn is. Even though Patrick thinks it is a bad idea, they decide to go in and get him. They find the chains but Finn is gone. Rowan sees Kristof shoot someone in the distance and believes it could be Finn. Instead, it turns out to be Conor who was a liability. Kristof finds it funny when Rowan tells him they’re going to rob the bank. He doesn’t think it is worth it anymore so Rowan offers to give him a hundred grand instead. Kristof gives them until tomorrow to get the money.

As they leave, Mal tries to learn more about Rowan’s plan to rob the bank, but she urges him to just leave it. Varisha gets her mother something to eat at home. As she runs a bath, her mom tries to cook using the stove. She ends up getting burned so Varisha has to call for help. Rowan cleans the blood from her hands. Finn is locked up elsewhere and Kristof won’t tell him what happened to Conor. Rowan admits Conor was Finn’s first friend when they moved back and he didn’t deserve that. She wants to do this to prevent that from happening to her son. Rowan knows they’re going to need more information on the vault.

They have to get in and out without anyone knowing they’ve been there until Finn is safe. Varisha knocks at the door causing Patrick to worry she has told the police. Instead, Varisha needs money for her mom and wants to be involved. Simmons learns that Rowan used to go out with Patrick who has a record for armed robbery. They decide to go pay her a visit. Rowan tells the others they have to get it right tonight because they have to be in the vault tomorrow. They see the police outside and suspect they’re coming there. Kristof gets a call. He calls Rowan to ask why the police are outside her flat, but Rowan says she doesn’t know. He warns her not to play games.

 

Desperate Measures Review

The second episode of Desperate Measures saw Rowan dig herself deeper while offering to give Kristof 100 grand in exchange for Finn’s life. Now, she has pulled others into her scheme, including Patrick, Mal, and Varisha without realizing that Detective Simmons is growing suspicious.

Kristof concluded that Conor was more a liability than an asset so he shot and killed him. Rowan knows what he is capable of and cannot risk it. Nevertheless, she could lose everything by saving her son. The episode was mostly entertaining even though certain things could’ve been removed without hurting the story.

Some things are questionable, but the show does a good job of exploring the primary premise of the story. It helps that the performances from the leads are good enough to add some authenticity to an otherwise unbelievable series. Desperate Measures has been an easy watch with a simple, enjoyable story after two episodes.

There isn’t much to think about, but there is still a sense of mystery considering characters could die or end up in prison in the end. It is intriguing enough to justify watching all four episodes. The second one scores a 6 out of 10. Recaps of Desperate Measures can be found on Reel Mockery here. Want to support our work? Find out how to do so at this link. Advertising opportunities on Reel Mockery are available. Learn more here.