At the beginning of the episode, Dr. Daniel Milton (Mark Strong) enters a hospital and speaks with the security guard. He claims that he is there to retrieve his diary and is told he should start using his phone. Daniel begins grabbing supplies and stashing them in his backpack. Meanwhile, a group of robbers prepares to break in and steal money. Jamie Harris (Tobi King Bakara) confirms that he knows his duty to stay by the door and load the van. They arrive and Jamie’s comrades rush into the building. Jamie uses a bag to keep the door open. During the robbery, Jamie receives a call from his girlfriend and he becomes distracted.

Jamie grabs the bag resulting in Sebastian King (Theo Solomon) and his comrades being locked inside. With the cops approaching, Jamie has no choice but to jump in the van and drive away. On the way out of the hospital, Daniel is stopped by the security guard who wants to know if he will be returning to work. Daniel tells him that he isn’t sure yet and he didn’t find his diary. After the intro, we see two police officers waiting at a roadblock. They chat casually while waiting for someone to pass by the checkpoint. Jamie burns the van and transfers the money to another car.

He arrives at the roadblock and makes up the excuse that he is looking for his dog. Eventually, he is forced to plow through. In the process, he is shot in the stomach and a police officer is ran down. In the morning, Daniel gets prepared for the ceremony for his wife. Lee Simmons (Daniel Mays) receives a call from Jamie asking for help. Lee rushes out the door so he can help his friend. Daniel arrives at the church and speaks with Beth’s friend Anna Willems (Carice van Houten). He speaks with family before entering the church. During this time, Jamie rushes to his friend’s side. He finds him bleeding and in a horrible state.

Daniel gives a speech about his wife Beth (Catherine McCormack). Once the speech and ceremony end, Daniel steps outside and speaks with his daughter Eve (Lily Newmark). Before too long, he receives a call from Lee about Jamie. Daniel comes up with an excuse about work so he can leave the ceremony. They meet at Daniel’s underground surgery and get to work. The use all of the O negative blood on Jamie. Daniel finds out that they’re going to need to remove Jamie’s spleen. He works with Lee to do just that. During the surgery, we see a flashback of Daniel at work. Then, he goes out to dinner with Eve and Beth. During the date, Daniel and Beth appear to be very close.

After that, we see a flashback of Beth with Anna. They speak about Beth’s relationship with her husband. They’re trying to research a cure before Beth gets a call from Eleanor. During the meeting with Eleanor, Beth is asked about transferring funds from the progeria research to Lancaster’s. She explains that she believes they’re making progress there. In the cafeteria at work, Beth collapses and is rushed to the hospital. Back in the present, Daniel and Lee find out about Jamie’s involvement in the robbery. Daniel isn’t happy that Lee brought him to his surgery. He tells him that he’ll have to find out what to do with him. Daniel decides to work on something after that.

While Lee cleans up the blood, Jamie wakes up. He tells Lee about the money before going back to sleep. Lee decides to return to the car to look for the money. He finds it dumped in several trashcans. While Lee is away, Jamie gets up and moves around. He slips on the blood and crashes to the ground. He rips the stitches so his wound begins bleeding again. In another flashback, Daniel rushes to the hospital and finds out that his wife has Lancaster’s. She has known for a while but never told her husband. He offers to help her with the research. Lee rushes back to the secret surgery. We finally see how deep underground the hidden surgery is.

He finds Jamie on the floor and alerts Daniel. Since they’re out of O negative blood, they have to find outside of the box. Daniel calls Anna and tells her to meet him at the Temple tube station. Lee meets with her and leads her down to the secret surgery. She isn’t interested in giving a blood transfusion and tries to find her way out of the tunnels. We find out that Daniel has more than one patient underground. Lee uses chloroform to put Anna to sleep so they can save Jamie’s life. In a flashback, Anna tells Daniel that Beth has been hiding her health condition while they’ve been indulging themselves. They agree not to see one another for a while.

Daniel receives a call from his daughter. He tells her that they’ll have to wait and see if the patient survives. He asks her out for lunch so they can discuss his recent elusiveness. After that, Daniel and Lee speak about the money. Daniel wants to get rid of it but Lee insists they can use it. Daniel relents and agrees to keep the money there for the time being. At the end of the episode, Daniel visits his wife who is being kept at the secret hospital.

 

Temple Review

I can’t believe this show has such low scores elsewhere. I enjoyed the opener despite a few flaws. The flashbacks were slightly confusing but I think I understand it all now that the episode has ended. I liked it. I thought the acting was good and the story was interesting. It is slightly unrealistic but not too far fetched. At the very least, it is believable. I can’t wait to watch the next episode. I’ve started a few shows in the past few weeks and this was the best opener I’ve seen.

I think Temple has a lot of promise. The episode was pretty good. I’d give it a 7.5 out of 10.