Episode 2 begins with Joe Roag (Joe Col) pleading his case to Abby Aysgarth (Alexandra Roach). He soon moves on from that to offer his help if she’ll keep him out of custody. Although she doesn’t offer a response, he immediately instructs her to have the police track down the two men who ran out of the Glasgow Station. It’s mere seconds later that Abby learns they have much bigger problems – the entire train network (RTV – Real Time Train Viewer) isn’t working.

Things are reaching a tipping point on Joe’s train and Rachel Li’s (Katie Leung) sharing of the news of the hack and jammer certainly doesn’t calm matters. Billy McCloud’s (Scott Reid) claim that they don’t even know who is driving the train nearly pushes the situation over the edge.

After learning that the train’s failsafe isn’t responding and the Transport Minister, Liz Draycott (Sharon Small), is still on board, Abby orders Saj Sidhu (Parth Thakerar) to prioritize getting the RTV online. Abby soon realizes that Meg Hooton (Remy Beasley) is only going to slow her down and asks if she minds staying at the station before reconnecting with Joe. The commuters with Joe are growing more combative and learning that they’ve been traveling with Liz Draycott (Sharon Small) doesn’t help. Despite this, Danny Geoghan (Daniel Cahill) makes matters worse when he reveals that Joe isn’t the hero everyone has been misled to believe.

Abby and Liz will briefly argue over who has authority but Abby will ultimately win out. Liz will also continually remind her that she needs to make important calls as Abby puts her in touch with Tobi McKnight (Gabriel Howell) who is supposed to help her obtain the IP address of the hacking device. Abby is in the middle of explaining the current crisis to Paul ‘Pev’ Peveril (David Threlfall) when Nicola Miller (Pamela Nomvete) shows up unexpectedly. There is a brief but heated standoff between Nicola and Pev before Abby pleads with them to work together.

As Joe tries to explain his predicament to the commuters, Abby briefly introduces Pev to her team. The ones who are familiar with him aren’t happy with his presence. At the same time, Joe is forced to travel in a different section of the train. It isn’t long before Abby and her team receive their first ransom demand of ten million quid in Bitcoin. She shares the threat with the team and splits them into individual groups to tackle the problem head.

Meanwhile, Joe begins looking for an exit when he once again unexpectedly encounters Max ‘Mouse’ Ellis (Adam Mitchell). Mouse tells him exactly what he doesn’t want to hear – he’s stuck until the train stops. At the same time Nicola, Saj, and Abby will briefly debate the chain of command with Mark ‘Hud’ Hudson (Jonjo O’Neill). This video conference will suggest that the hacking device was likely brought on board and installed by one of the commuters. Surprisingly enough, the only person they’ve been able to rule out is Joe. Getting Special Forces, let alone anyone on board seems impossible at the moment.

While Tobi tries to bond with Pev by acknowledging his past accolades, Billy and Yasmin ‘Yas’ Brown (Sharon Rooney) will begin collecting the commuter’s personal information. Rachel Li will also reveal herself as a journalist when she is caught copying the information. Liz will continue to exert her air of authority and bad attitude when Danny reminds her that she is using his personal phone.

By this time, thanks to Tobi, Abby and her team have recovered CCTV footage leading up to the bag-snatching incident on the platform. It would appear that the man who snatched the bag from the woman met with her an hour prior. After making a handoff the man joins two others and goes straight to the concourse. The woman will go to a nearby motel and spend nearly half an hour inside.

Joe continues his escape while Abby and Saj speak with the Voyarapide Rep (Fred Ledoux) in charge of the trains. The conference turns confrontational the minute they ask him about the train’s vulnerabilities. He will practically tell them the problem is on their end and hang up on them. This will lead to a brief argument between Abby and Saj before she tries to get back in touch with the Minister. At the moment, Liz and Kate Nisbit (Naomi Yang) are strategizing over the phone as to how they can come out of the current predicament in the best light possible.

Speaking with Liz will become even more of a priority when Abby learns that the code to override the hacking device (SBC) is complete. Left with no other option, Abby will upload the device which ultimately makes matters worse by setting off a trip wire that clones the SBC’s interface thousands of times. This infuriates Nicola and causes a bigger riff between Abby and Saj when he offers a possible solution that she does not agree with. Abby becomes hostile when Liz returns her call and she learns that Liz has been more focused on saving her reputation than helping with the SBC device. This will ultimately lead to her ordering Liz to give the phone to Billy who is then ordered to give it to Joe.

Nicola is clearly not happy with Abby’s decision and although this leads to a brief standoff, Nicola will let her take the lead, as long as she is also willing to take responsibility for when things blow up. After agreeing without even considering it, Abby will share a private discussion with the man, Leon Parhill (Micah Balfour), who she put in charge of working on the train’s antivirus software. She will basically tell him that she’s always admired his commitment to obeying the rules, but asks him to forget the rules for a single night. Apparently, she suspects that Voyarapide is hiding a crucial vulnerability that they might be able to exploit. He reluctantly agrees.

Before Abby is connected with Joe, an American Rep (Molly Merwin) and an Australian Rep (Joel Elferink) will tell her and Saj about the Blue Blockage Group (BBG). Surprisingly enough, Saj is quite familiar with the group and Abby doesn’t appear to like the thought of the hijacking being politically motivated. She won’t have long to consider things though because she’s soon connected to Joe. Much to the displeasure of Liz, Abby and Joe make an agreement to work together. Their first task is to find and eliminate the phone jammer.

Much to everyone’s surprise and delight, Pev will finally get the RTV back online. Their brief celebrations will come to an abrupt end when they learn that the sleeper train is headed for a T-bone collision with a goods train. As Abby and her team coordinate to get the train moved, Joe finds a disassembled rifle and ammunition while looking for the jammer. When Joe shares the discovery with Abby, he will not only learn about the potential collision but he will learn that the goods train is towing tankers of natural gas.

The episode will end with the sleeper train colliding with the tail end of the good train.

 

Nightsleeper Review

The best way for me to sum up this episode is – BUSY! I understand it’s still very early in the story and characters, backgrounds, relationships, and potential storylines are still being introduced but my goodness. It’s nearly impossible to keep up with everything going on. This not only makes things a bit boring at times but raises the possibility of missing something crucial. Other than this, the episode was a bit dull, backed by not-so-great acting.

There are some intriguing aspects and I can appreciate that the collision was revealed at the end. Although the damage won’t be evaluated until the next episode, viewers at least know that there was a collision I’d give this episode a 5 out of 10.

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