Bad Blood – As the second episode of Insomnia begins, Emma Averill (Vicky McClure) is shown walking outside and getting into her vehicle. She is abruptly awoken by the radio. She remembers seeing Patricia (Corinna Marlowe) in the hospital. In the hospital, Patricia’s monitor detects that ART is disconnected. Phoebe Bournett (Leanne Best) sits with her as a doctor rushes in to check on her. In a flashback, Emma and Patricia watch the police take Patricia out of their house. At work, Rosemary (Lara Lemon) tells Emma that Mrs. Morgan wasn’t happy and doesn’t want to sign anything without her there. Emma’s sister called a few times too. Emma asks her to rearrange for tomorrow.

She tells Rosemary she’s tired since she didn’t get much sleep. Emma says she’ll call Mrs. Morgan. Robert Averill (Tom Cullen) thanks Phoebe when she arrives because Chloe is MIA. Will (Smylie Bradwell) comes down to say hello to Aunt Phoebe. She calls him a beautiful soul. When she begins breaking down, Robert checks on her. Phoebe says there’s a lot going on. She reveals she’s pregnant. Phoebe doesn’t know who the dad is since she did IVF with a donor. She always wanted to do it on her own and have a family. Phoebe hasn’t told anyone else yet. Before Robert leaves, he tells Phoebe she’s going to be a great mom. Emma listens to the recording in which she repeats numbers just like her mother did. She writes them down before searching them online. Rosemary interrupts to say she’s leaving.

Emma checks her phone and receives a voicemail learning Phoebe has agreed to babysit. Later, Emma returns home and asks Phoebe about Will. They wonder if Chloe is with a boy. Phoebe tells Emma that their mother is dead. She admits Patricia didn’t look peaceful. Phoebe asks if she wants to talk about it, but Emma isn’t sure there’s anything to talk about. Phoebe says Emma decided Patricia didn’t exist the day they put them in a children’s home. If Emma won’t talk about it, it means Phoebe can’t. Phoebe admits it was a shock because the doctor said she was improving. Emma can’t forgive Patricia for trying to suffocate Phoebe as a child. Phoebe doesn’t know why she can’t forgive her when she can’t. She reminds Emma it was always easier for her even at St. Agnes.

The hospital said Phoebe could collect her things tomorrow. She would like to do it together. Emma says she’ll think about it. In the middle of the night, Emma gets up and sleepwalks. She lights candles downstairs before hearing music. Emma turns off the record player. As she heads back upstairs, she hears water dripping. She unplugs the bathtub to let the water drain. She ends up in the shower. In the morning, Robert asks if she had a bad dream. She says no and she hasn’t noticed Will behaving differently. Robert says Julian has been talking to him about doing some furniture for his bar. Emma believes the bar is close to her office. She thinks they should discuss it, but she needs to talk to him about something else first. Chloe (India Fowler) enters the door and interrupts.

Chloe claims she was revising with Amy. Emma doesn’t believe her and wants to talk more, but Chloe leaves the room anyway. Robert tells Emma they need to meet Amy and Emma needs to spend quality time with Chloe. Emma leaves and meets  Phoebe who admits she doesn’t know how to feel. Laura gives them Patricia’s stuff. She agrees to go and ask if Phoebe can see her. Emma admits to Phoebe that she visited Patricia yesterday, but she wishes she hadn’t. Morris comes out and tells them that Patricia’s body has already been moved to another facility. It looks like she didn’t die from the brain bleed. The cause of death and circumstances need to be established. Phoebe believes that has to be a mistake. Emma leaves for work. She ends up hitting a woman on a bicycle.

When the woman leaves, Emma picks up her pass and finds out that she’s Caroline Mitchell. Inside, Rosemary informs Emma she told Buckley she was running ten minutes late. Angus Buckley (Anthony Calf) tells her that Faisal is in her corner, but Baxter needs some work. He says they can’t afford to spend so much time on legal aid and they’re going to have to let the Stockwell case go. Baxter has been courting Richard Davies, the property developer who built the new complexes at Canary Warf. He is Amanda Stockwell’s brother-in-law and she works for him. Emma has to drop the case as a result. Buckley invites her to the dinner Baxter organized. He tells her to let Stockwell know she can’t represent them. Will pushes down Benny. Robert asks Will if he’s going to apologize. Emma asks Rosemary to book an appointment with Pete Stockwell for tomorrow.

Next, Emma tries to track down Caroline Mitchell who works in an old folk’s home. Emma approaches Caroline (Lyndsey Marshal) and checks on her. Caroline insists she had already forgotten about the accident. Emma admits it was her fault because she was distracted. She offers to pay for any repairs to her bike. Then, she joins Faisal (Robert Gilbert) at the gathering. They go inside and speak to Davies. Pete tells Amanda he thought they were having dinner to discuss Nathan. Pete asks Emma what she’s doing since she’s supposed to be his lawyer. Emma tells him there’s a conflict of interest and she can’t represent him anymore. Pete claims she’s just like the others before leaving. Emma argues with Buckley who tells her to go home. At home, Robert asks Will if he wants to talk about what happened with Ben. Will doesn’t want to talk about it.

Emma runs into Julian and talks to him about his bar. She agrees to take a ride from him. Julian Sandford (Dominic Tighe) thinks Robert’s furniture will look great in the bar. When Emma gets into the vehicle, she learns Julian has bought an anniversary gift for Michelle. At home, Robert tells her about Will. He reveals Michelle gave him a prescription for sleeping pills for Emma. She admits that she lied when she said her mom died when she was a kid. She was in a psychiatric hospital. Emma tells him how she found Patricia trying to suffocate Phoebe on the night of her 40th birthday. Patricia always told her she’d end up the same and she had bad blood. Every second child in their family supposedly had it. Emma admits she doesn’t want it to be a part of their life. Robert knows that’s a lot to carry around.

Emma takes a pill and hopes she’ll sleep tonight. She finds herself standing outside in water. She goes inside where she hears music playing. Emma blows out the candles in the house and turns off the record player. She unplugs the bathtub drain before returning to bed with Robert. In the morning, Emma researches the effects of sleep deprivation. Robert tells her he found drugs in Chloe’s stuff. Chloe finds her getting ready to look through her bag. She says it’s just a bit of coke. Emma believes it came from Amy but Chloe denies that. DI Hildreth and DS Caine arrive at the door because they want to ask questions about Patricia’s death. Emma explains she barely saw her mother last Sunday morning after she was admitted to the hospital. Her sister called her.

When she found out it was her mother, she walked out. Emma says she hadn’t seen her in 35 years. She’s asked about going back on Tuesday morning. Emma admits she did, but she only stood by her bed around 10 or 10:30. She didn’t notice anything unusual. Hildreth says blood from a pressure nosebleed was found on the pillow. Fibers from the pillowcase were found in her nasal cavity and throat. The postmortem shows Patricia was suffocated. Emma is asked to make a formal statement at some point.

 

Insomnia 2024 Review

The second episode of Insomnia on Paramount was pretty much the same. The series isn’t great through two episodes with the story being less original than one would expect. Truthfully, this is just like every other drama with insomnia being the centerpiece. The series is overloaded with elements from other shows again with insomnia being the only minor difference.

Some of the performances are less than stellar despite the strong cast. The countless side stories only serve to bog down the pace of the series to the point that it’s getting increasingly difficult to care. The night scenes remain far too dark to see exactly what is going on. Some of the day scenes aren’t much better.

Each episode only serves to add more baggage to the bundle creating an utterly frustrating experience. It’ll be a slog to reach the conclusion which probably won’t justify the six hours spent on the show. This episode scores a 5 out of 10. Recaps of Insomnia can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link.

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