As the finale of Nightsleeper begins, Liz Draycott (Sharon Small) yells that they need some help on the train. Abby Aysgarth (Alexandra Roach) tries to find out who is still on the train. Liz confirms that the former policeman is still there. Joe Roag (Joe Cole) says the satellite phone is gone so they’re on their own now. He says they just need to decouple again. When Fraser Warren (James Cosmo) reminds him they don’t have any tools, Joe insists he’ll find a way. Max ‘Mouse’ Ellis (Adam Mitchell) returns Fraser’s watch. DI Tina Cairns (Katie Pattinson) gets in touch with Abby and Mark ‘Hud’ Hudson (Jonjo O’Neill). They give her permission to go in and ask her to keep everyone on board. Authorities storm the train and learn that someone is gone.

Rachel Li (Katie Leung) tries to flee from the police. Abby asks if they have a satellite phone on the helicopter. Mark and Saj Sidhu (Parth Thakerar) disagree with her instructions. Nicola Miller (Pamela Nomvete) overrules them and tells the authorities to do what Abby asks. Abby wants the team as close to the train as possible and get a plane physically get the phone on board. Billy McCloud (Scott Reid) is with Joe when he tries to decouple the train cars. Abby tells the team that doubt should remain about her. The hack-jacking is based on their operation and the code is hers. If they can regain contact with the train, they may be able to fix the vulnerability. Either way, they still need to remove the AV virus. If they can’t, Mark says they’ll get the reporter who can likely lead them to “The Driver”. Fraser tells Sophie (Leah MacRae) that time didn’t really exist before the railways.

People went by the sun until London stepped in. People kept their time by sticking a third hand on their clocks. Fraser wants one of those. He begins crying and saying he misses her so much. Billy tells Joe that it’s never going to work. Joe nearly falls, but Billy manages to pull him back over. Abby is told they can’t get the phone on the train. Nicola says it doesn’t matter because events have overtaken phones and patches. A decision had been made at the highest level. They learn that London Paddington is the most likely destination for the train. Nicola says France and the UK will not pay a ransom officially. Unofficially, their government has decided to step in and pay it in full on their behalf. After a short call, Nicola says it’s done. Meg Hooton (Remy Beasley) contacts Abby to show her the new message demanding 600 Bitcoins.

The ransom continues increasing. Rachel is returned to the train. Tina wants to know what she did and who she’s working for. Rachel denies doing anything. She’s asked what she is doing with a satellite phone. Rachel won’t speak to them until she has a lawyer. Nicola tells Abby that no one is going to pay when the price will just go up again. Saj confirms the virus is one of theirs. Paul ‘Pev’ Peveril (David Threlfall) explains this is why he leaked his report. Abby says the government wanted to sell the rail network abroad. That’s what the emails were about and Nicola was leading the fight against it. Nicola tells Paul they’ve always been on the same side. Mark interrupts to say a tactical intervention is no longer an option. Abby’s failure is about to be everyone’s breakfast viewing. Joe returns to the cabin and sits down. Billy says the only thing they have now is prayer.

Yas Brown (Sharon Rooney) believes the ransom will be paid. Mouse hears a phone ringing. Kate Nisbit (Naomi Yang) calls Liz to say the press knows about the hack-jack. Liz did an interview with Rachel about the sale of the network so they’re likely going to find out. Tina tells her that Rachel won’t speak to them without an attorney. Joe realizes that the jammers were on the other part of the train so their phones are working now. He calls Abby who believes she knows how to stop this. Abby tells him that the thing was done using their tools and code. Joe tells everyone on the train that he stole the money he was talking about earlier. Abby knows because she read it in his file. Joe knows he’s going to end up in a police van. He reveals his son learned about his crime. Joe told him he’d come back and speak to him in person.

Abby says they found the equipment in the reporter’s bag and the ransom didn’t work. Abby wants Joe to find a laptop so she can send him some engineer software. They also need to plug one of the phones into the SBC. Sophie has a laptop. Abby is going to DOS the train systems. That may cause it to reset and give her time to patch the vulnerability. They might need Fraser’s help. Fraser insists there is plenty of diesel left in his engine. Chrissy Doolan (Ruth Madeley) pleads with Rachel to tell them everything she knows. Abby begins sending the software to Joe. Leon Parhill (Micah Balfour) interrupts to tell Abby another device is in use again. He reads messages asking why they haven’t stopped the train and threatening to tell. The person involved is still on the train. Rachel is claiming she ran because someone is trying to make her look guilty.

Abby asks if he can see everyone on board right now. She wants to know when he can. Joe finds Yas messing with the device on her phone. She says this wasn’t meant to happen. Yas admits they asked her to wire things into the roof space at the beginning of her shift. She was also told to connect the SBC before they set off. Yas insists she didn’t know they were terrorists. These people knew everything about her. These people were going to set things right and make sure she would get money since she was losing her job. Joe asks Abby if she can find the person on the other end if Yas keeps calling the number. Yas says yes. Abby learns the train switched at Reading and is heading southeast. Tina and the others find the jammer. Rachel is told she’s free to go. Liz asks her what she’s going to do. Rachel says she’s going to tell the truth. Aaron Moy (Alex Ferns) is stabilized. Then, he’s asked who shot him.

With Erin (Lois Chimimba) present, Aaron claims he shot himself. Billy helps Joe. They have seven minutes to download the software. Abby tells Joe to plug the laptop into the SBC. She begins telling Joe about how her dad taught her how to build a computer. Then, it became her thing. Abby explains that’s how she got into this. The train stops again. Abby sees that it’s going north again and no one can intervene now. There are hazards everywhere. The train is heading toward Victoria Station. Nicola tells Abby that they have to leave, but Abby isn’t going anywhere. Nicola explains the missile is guided at them. Abby pleads with Paul to stay but he doesn’t. Saj says he isn’t going anywhere. With everything set up, Joe tells Abby they’re ready. Yas destroys the device. Joe yells for them to break. Fraser dies before they can break.

Joe tells Abby that he’s gone and the laptop is messed up. They’ll have to download the software and start again. Abby tells Joe to stay where he is. Saj says UK Rail is going to focus on this area only. Abby suggests switching the lights to red to trigger the safety response on the train. Saj says the Victoria signaling center isn’t responding. Abby says they can do it at the station and she’ll rush to get down there. Abby asks him to call them and message her when he gets an update. Abby makes it to the station where she asks Meg to give her the bag. Abby grabs something before yelling for Meg to get out of there. Joe calls Rees to leave him a message. Joe admits he made a mistake. Abby rushes to the controls so she can turn on the red lights. Joe tells everyone to prepare for impact.

Abby manages to turn the light red. The train begins slowing drop before it stops just before impact. Joe walks off the train and meets Abby. She offers to let him go, but Joe thinks it’s time to stop running. Mouse runs off the train and hugs him. Abby steps onto the train and sees the others. Saj tells her they’ve traced the location and they’re tracking the phone now. It’s Victoria. Abby approaches Yas and says she doesn’t need to say anything. She knows that finding vulnerabilities and exploiting them is what they do. Yas gives Abby her phone. Abby calls Paul to ask how he could do that. Paul insists what he’s done will change things. He claims he saved them by giving her back the RTV. Abby asks if he stopped it on the viaduct himself. He says she was meant to be in the air.

Abby continues complaining before Paul shows up in front of her. She tells him he’s thrown away everything. Paul thinks there are worse places to be than court when no one has listened to you in years. Paul couldn’t stop it because she had locked him out. He knew she’d be okay. Paul says he never doubts her. He sits down at the piano in front of him. Abby walks past police who have come to arrest Paul.

 

Nightsleeper Review

It’s really hard to be satisfied with Nightsleeper considering how lackluster the finale turned out to be. The series was never perfect to begin with, but the finale really dropped substantially in quality. The twists and turns went on for far too long leading to multiple stupid moments.

The ultimate conclusion also fell flat causing a sense of dissatisfaction. Paul’s involvement wasn’t particularly hard to see and his motive wasn’t sufficiently explained. Fraser just had to die before he could stop the train because the series had to be as tedious as possible. Rachel’s big story came to nothing and neither did Aaron’s gunshot wound.

In the end, I didn’t care much for the Abby character or Alexandra Roach’s portrayal of the character. The character just came across as hokey and even more so than the other characters unfortunately. There wasn’t any sense of danger for any of the passengers or anyone waiting at the station which was empty besides Megan.

What was she doing there for so long anyway? There are so many loose ends here despite dragging the story out unnecessarily to six episodes. People involved were never brought to justice, stories were never told, and the believability was never there. It’s hard to recommend this considering the finale drops the ball so terribly.

The finale scores a 4 out of 10. Recaps of Nightsleeper can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. See what others are saying here.