As the first episode of The Control Room begins, Gabe (Iain De Caestecker) handles emergency calls for the Scottish Ambulance Service in Glasgow. Anthony (Daniel Portman) guides him as he deals with a pregnancy. Once the baby is delivered, the mother complains about the car since it broke down on them prior to the call. The father asks Gabe’s name before Anthony gives him the okay to tell them. After they name the boy Gabriel, Danni (Rona Morison) asks Gabe if it is his first name. He says yes. Jat (Taqi Nazeer) and Danni confirm they’ve moved in. Anthony believes Leigh (Taj Atwal) might have a thing for Gabe, but they tell him to shut up. Gabe gets a call from a woman (Joanna Vanderham) who says he is bleeding everywhere. She begins panicking as she says his eyes are open.

The woman isn’t sure what he hit his head on. She won’t give Gabe the exact location and instead begins saying he is dead. After the woman says she killed him, Gabe calls for Anthony who returns and puts on his headphones. Gabe tells her to forget everything else and tell them exactly where she is. She asks if they’re going to arrest her, but Gabe says they’ll see if there is anything that can be done. Once she refuses to give them her name, she says she didn’t want to do this. It was just in her hand and she was so scared. The police are advised to see if they can track the call. Then, the woman recognizes his voice before calling him Gabo. He asks if he knows her, but the call ends before he can get an answer. When he talks to Breck (Sharon Rooney) and others, he claims he knows nothing about the caller. The call can be tracked to the Lochran Height development. Other residents called around that time saying they heard shouting and screaming.

Since there is no body or killer, they need Gabe to try to remember who it could be. Once Leigh takes him home, she offers to let him come over since her kids are with their dad. She says last week was fun. As Gabe heads inside, Tah throws Gabe his keys and tells him he’ll be back later. Gabe puts the keys on his neighbor’s door before going into his apartment. He watches Leigh leave through the window. He sits down and turns his phone to private mode. When he searches for Samantha Tolmie Balfron, he doesn’t get any results. We see flashbacks of a young Gabe looking out his bedroom window. In the present, he goes outside and gets into the car. He remembers a man downstairs telling a woman he isn’t going anywhere. He walks outside and climbs into the bushes. Gabe drives to his parent’s home where Ian (Stuart Bowman) invites him in to watch the game.

Once inside, Gabe asks about Uncle Charlie. Ian says he is okay and hasn’t been arrested for a while. Gabe asks if they can turn the television off for a bit, but Ian doesn’t want to miss the Champions League. Gabe walks up the stairs and sees pictures of his mother. He remembers his dad telling his mom that he is still here. Gabe goes to his room where he retrieves a piece of paper under the carpet. It has Gabo written on the front. Ian interrupts to ask his son why he came. Gabe says he thought it’d be nice and he wanted to see how he was. He eventually asks if his father knows what happened to Sam Tolmie (Joanna Vanderham). Ian seems upset that his son even brought that up. Gabriel complains about how long it has been and his father can’t even shut the television off. As Gabe drives him, he remembers hiding with a young Sam (Farrah Thomas) among the trees outside his house.

He stops at The Braes Pub. The sign above him says Eilidh Straiton. He goes in and asks if Eilidh (Charlene Boyd) is in. When he goes upstairs, he runs into a shirtless Robo (Daniel Cahill). He tells Robo he has been looking for Sam’s number and wondered if Eilidh might have it. Robo holds him against the wall until Eilidh comes out and tells him to stop. Robo warns him that he’ll kill him if he ever comes through the door again. As he drives back, we see a young Gabe (Harvey Calderwood) walking among the streets and Sam asking what he is doing. Robo bullies him for being the new boy while warning him to stay away from the trees.

Gabe makes it back, leaves the key on the doorknob, and receives a call from DI Anna Breck who says she is at Lochran Heights. They’ve found many witnesses who heard a man arguing with a woman. The woman is being described as a distressed female about 5ft 6 or 7. She had blonde hair and was roughly the same age as Gabe. She was spotted running from the scene later. When asked if that helps, Gabe only says it could be anyone. His roommate returns to get the key. At work, Anthony asks to see Gabe’s list of old flames. Leigh checks to make sure he is okay. Gabe gets a call from a 12-year-old boy about someone falling through a roof. When the woman from yesterday calls back, her call is transferred to Gabe. She asks him if he remembers, but he says no. The police are advised so Gabe is instructed to keep her talking.

She doesn’t know what to do or who else to call because he left her with no one. Gabe recommends going up to one of the police officers she sees. The woman says he ruined her life by putting her through two years of hell. Gabe says he can’t do this. He can’t breathe and feels sick. Gabe goes outside and runs away from the building. In a flashback, Gabe is told that he has been sick a lot since his mom based. He is asked how he feels before he gets sick. As he is asked more questions, adult Gabe walks through the trees. Young Gabe shows the therapist his drawing of a house that looks like it is on fire. Young Gabe sits with Sam who asks if he is a weirdo too. In the present, Gabe looks around the old building until the doorknob begins shaking. When Sam enters, Gabe admits he wasn’t sure she’d know what he meant. Only two people called him Gabo and he knew it wasn’t his mom.

She hugs him and asks if he has spoken to the police. Gabe wouldn’t be here if he had. He tells her that they only traced the call to the postcode so they know she lives in Lochran Heights. Sam says she doesn’t live there although the van is parked there before she learns that they have a description of her. He tells her how he went looking for her even though nobody probably thought it was a good idea for him to see her again. Sam reveals she was getting their stuff out of the van when he grabbed her and she couldn’t breathe. She just wanted to get him off so she hit him with the barbell she had. Sam wanted to leave him but used his phone to call and spoke to Gabo. She confesses that she closed the back of the van on him and ran. Gabe tries to get her to call Breck and tells her everything, but Sam doesn’t want to go to prison.

Gabe argues they can’t pretend like it hasn’t happened when it has. Sam finds it crazy to be here. Both say they think about it. In the past, Gabe shows Sam the decoration he made using the hands of himself and his mother. Sam asks Gabe if he remembers what he said. Once he nods, she admits that Haz never said anything like that, but he wasn’t a kid. Gabe didn’t say it because he was a kid. He said it because he meant it. After he says he stills does, Sam asks him to move the van for her. She doesn’t think anyone will notice if Haz disappears for a week or two. It’ll buy her some time to find out what to do. Gabe says he is going to call the detective if she doesn’t. He’ll give her until morning and offers to take her anywhere she wants to go now. Sam says she is going to make it on her own from here before admitting she shouldn’t have asked.

In a flashback, Gabe tells Sam that he’ll always sort things out regardless of the circumstances. He goes outside and catches up with Sam to ask her about the keys to the van. She reveals they’re at home. He says he’ll take her there and wait outside while she gets them. Then, he’ll take her to his before coming back after he has moved it. Later, he arrives at the parking lot and walks past a bunch of cops. He tells a cop that his name is Dan O’Neill and he is in 312. She tells him to thank his fella for the muffins since it was the highlight of the day before leading him through. Once he reaches the van, another resident tells him they’re looking for a body.

Gabe gets in the van and tries to start it. Although it takes a few tries, it eventually begins running. The cops wave him out only to be sideswiped by another vehicle in the street. Gabe is woozy but manages to get out of the vehicle and notice that the back door is open. The other driver is drunk. As Breck approaches, Gabe puts his hoody up and prepares to drive away. When he pulls away, a squad car tries to follow him. Gabe hides the van in a lockup as he begins remembering the fire from his childhood. He goes back home where he tells Sam he is screwed because some pissed bloke slammed into him. Gabe tells her about the detective being there and how he drove away. He got the van in Uncle Charlie’s garage, but he is worried they got the reg. She says his name won’t be on it since he changed his van as much as his phone as a part of his job.

If the detective knew it was him, they’d be here by now. Sam explains they were here earlier and his roommate told them he was out. He doesn’t want to go to work tomorrow, but Sam argues that he has to. Leigh and Anthony have been calling his phone all night. Later that night, they hold hands while Gabe remembers Sam shining her flashlight into his bedroom. On his way to work in the morning, Gabe stops to check his face. Anthony asks where he has been because everyone was worried about him. Leigh pulls him to the side for a private conversation. He apologizes for missing her calls last night before he notices Breck in another room. She wants to talk to him. When Gabe joins her, Breck asks him to walk her through the last few hours because his friend called back and he disappeared. Lennie says she spoke to his housemates, but they hadn’t seen him.

Leigh suggests he needs support instead of an interrogation. Gabe says that isn’t home. It is just where he lives so he went to his dad’s place in Balfron. Sam calls Gabe’s phone as it sits in the other room. Gabe is shown a picture of the woman and asked if he has a name for her. Anthony picks up Gabe’s phone as Sam asks Gabo if they know anything. Gabe walks back in time to see Anthony on the phone. Anthony almost tells Leigh but stops to give Gabe a minute. They go to the roof as Gabe says he just wanted to speak to her first. Gabe says he wasn’t a good guy and she was the victim. He confesses to moving the body to make sure nobody will find it. Gabe pleads with him not to say anything because she just isn’t anyone. Anthony won’t say anything, but he wants Gabe’s help. He explains he is in a mess and he thinks Gabe can help him get out of it.

 

The Control Room Review

The first episode of The Control Room had some high and low points, but lost credibility near the end. The series is based on a great idea that could easily work. The pacing was actually pretty good since everything moved along quickly and there was never a point of boredom. The acting was solid in the first episode without anything glaring issues in this department.

Although the first episode wasn’t too bad, it is starting to look like The Control Room is going to turn into an unrealistic tale with too many twists and turns. It started getting unrealistic when Gabe’s vehicle was sideswiped by the other car considering that could’ve been avoided.

It is also tough to believe that Anthony would be okay with lying or have a problem that Gabe can help him resolve. If this delves too far from reality, it is going to have problems maintaining my interest. The flashback scenes were interesting because they’re teasing us with hints of more. We know something happened between Gabe and Sam, but we haven’t been told exactly what yet.

The episode did a good job of being moody as well. Another thing that may become an issue in future episodes is Gabe’s temperament. Regardless, the first episode was at least entertaining thanks to the unique story and it is nice to see Joanna Vanderham again. The first episode scores a 6.5 out of 10. Recaps of The Control Room can be found on Reel Mockery here. Want to support our work? Learn how to do so here.