As the second episode of The Control Room begins, Anthony (Daniel Portman) tells Gabe (Iain De Caestecker) that he needs him to drop something off for him. Although it is a parcel, Anthony won’t say what is in the box. They argue whether Sam is innocent before Anthony insists it isn’t a big deal. Anthony warns him that he’ll be ruining her life if he doesn’t help. Gabe pleads with him to let him talk to the detective first. Anthony gives him an hour. He runs all the way home where he finds Tah exchanging money with a man. Olivia (Madeline Grieve) walks by and ridicules Tah. Then, Tah asks Gabe why the Feds came around last night. He claims it was just a work thing before going into his room where Sam (Joanna Vanderham) is waiting for him. She is worried about him being home so early, but he promises that the police don’t know.
Although she shouldn’t have called, she just needed to hear his voice. Gabe says his uncle doesn’t use the garage much, but they can’t leave Haz’s body there forever. He asks if she is hungry before stepping out of the room to call Anthony. When he doesn’t answer, he leaves Anthony a message saying he has changed his mind. He asks Sam about getting takeaway. Gabe goes outside where he gets the directions to the Toryglen Police Station. As he arrives outside the station, he sees Anthony’s vehicle and nametag inside. Anthony isn’t in the lobby and it looks like Gabe is a few minutes late. He tells the receptionist his name is Gabe Maver and he is there to see Anna Breck (Sharon Rooney). Anthony comes out and says he was just paying for the parking. When Breck arrives, Gabe says he knows who the caller is. There is a girl who lives downstairs and her name is Olivia.
Breck asks about Olivia having blue hair, but Gabe says only since yesterday. As Gabe follows Breck, he discreetly lets Anthony know that he’ll do it. Later that night, Sam apologizes to Gabe for getting into this and says she wishes he wasn’t. He believes they’ll get out of it. She notices that he seems anxious so she asks what he is worried about. Gabe says they will know little about the last 20-odd years of each other. Sam asks if there is anyone or if he has lived with anyone. He admits there have been people he liked, but an oddly high number of them have preferred to keep it secrets. She jokes that he is a guilty pleasure kind of guy. Sam grabs a marker and writes her name on his side like she used to when they were kids. The next day, Gabe goes back to the garage to check on the van. He goes to work and begins taking calls.
Someone begins tapping on the phone to communicate with Gabe. The caller manages to tell Gabe that it is unsafe to talk. Gabe learns that the caller is hiding. The call continues until Gabe hears screaming so he slams his headphones down. Anthony encourages him to take a break before sending him a message letting him know that parcel is in his locker number 28. When he goes to the locker room, Jat (Taqi Nazeer) asks if Danni told him about the house warming and Ross is coming. Ross (Conor McLeod) says he might boycott it because they have a house while some work two jobs to live in an attic. Once he is alone, Gabe retrieves the package and a note telling him to go to the heads at the Kelvingrove Museum at 2 PM. As he goes to the museum, he remembers talking to a young Sam about the things he’d do for her. He reaches the spot before receiving a message from Anthony telling him it is the person in the purple coat.
He follows her and eventually gets cornered by her and a man. She asks if he has something for them. He gives the package to the woman who takes it into the bathroom while the man won’t let him leave. She comes out, thanks him, and gives him a parcel to pass on to whoever he is working for. Gabe doesn’t want to do that since it wasn’t part of the deal, but he has no choice. He rushes to the bathroom and enters one of the stalls. He rips the package open causing money to fall onto the floor. Gabe quickly tries to retrieve the money before anyone can notice.
As he tries to leave the museum, he notices the woman and man being arrested so he tries to find a different exit. Police officers begin looking for him. He makes it outside as the woman is placed into the back of a squad car before he begins running in the opposite direction. Once he escapes, he calls Anthony to find out how much money there is. Anthony says it has nothing to do with him. Gabe tells him about the police and the couple being arrested. He wants to take Anthony the money right now, but Anthony tells him to bring it to work tomorrow. Gabe remembers Sam shining for him and asking if he is afraid of the dark. He makes it home and learns that Olivia let Ian (Stuart Bowman) in. Ian apologizes for before and admits he is worried about him. Gabe gets upset when he learns that his father called the control room and spoke to his boss.
She told him about the call. Ian asks if it is a coincidence that he came and asked about Sam. He believes she has killed someone, but Gabe says no. He also denies that Sam is in his room. Ian uses the keys to open his room and begins looking around. Gabe tells him he doesn’t want him here or anywhere near him. He doesn’t know who made that call, but it made him think of Sam like many other things do. He would like to see her a lot more than he wants to see Ian. When Gabe opens the closet door, he finds Sam hiding in there. He gives her the backpack and quickly closes the door before Ian can see her. Ian tells Gabe that he can’t blame him. Gabe asks about what Sam went through. Ian says her whole family was screwed up although Gabe doesn’t think his family is any different. Ian asks what kind of mother takes a kid to their grandparents and doesn’t pick them up for five years. Although Ian says they were the worst possible combination, Gabe says she is the one who got him through.
Gabe asks where he was. When Ian says he is there now, Gabe says it is too late. When his wife was ill, Ian use to think it couldn’t be any worse without her, but there is a big difference between being there and not. Ian asks his son not to let this be it so Gabe says he’ll call him. After Ian leaves, Sam asks Gabe about the money. He has to tell her about someone at work finding out. Gabe intends to put new plates on the van in case the police got the reg. He’ll drive the van out of there and get rid of the body somehow so she can go home again. She says she doesn’t want to before trying to kiss Gabe. He stops her and says not until Haz is gone. Gabe hears her having a nightmare so he tries to comfort her. As kids, they talk about their moms. Another boy watches them from a distance. In the present, Gabe tells her it is okay even though she says it isn’t.
The next day, Gabe removes the van’s registration before going to work to give the money to Anthony. When they go to the locker room, Jat tells Gabe that Anthony is coming to the house warming too. Gabe says that seals it for him before Jat says he can bring a friend. Jat leaves before Leigh (Taj Atwal) enters and asks for a minute with Gabe alone. Gabe immediately complains about her speaking to his father because she had no right. She argues she had a professional responsibility. Then, she admits she hasn’t been entirely straight with him because she has been seeing her husband. They were going to get back together since it would be cheaper, but that isn’t happening now. She thinks they could do this properly if he wants. Ross interrupts before Gabe can say anything. He leaves the bag in his locker and goes to work. Anthony sends a message asking for it so Gabe tells him it is in his locker. Gabe says he is done, but Anthony seems to have other ideas.
Later, Gabe steals a plate from a red van. He passes by the front of the van and sees a newspaper about the lawyer (Victoria Balnaves) being arrested. Gabe heads to a hardware store where he purchases supplies to deal with the body. He tells the clerk that he is just doing some general stuff. He returns to the garage only to find that the van is missing. He receives a call from DI Breck, but he doesn’t answer. Gabe runs to Charlie’s place where he talks to Logan about the van. Logan reveals Big Al lives on the ground floor and saw someone coming out of the garage so he told Charlie (Drew Cain). His dad said he was going to take it himself since he thought it was already stolen.
He is taking it to Ian’s place since they’ll be off to the Braes. Gabe runs back home and breaks into his neighbor’s flat. Sam comes out as Gabe finds what appears to be counterfeit IDs and cards. He tells Sam about Uncle Charlie taking the van while he searches for Tah’s keys. Once he gets the keys, he agrees to let Sam come with him just in case Tah does something when he returns. Tah screams at them as they drive away. As they drive to his dad’s place, we see flashbacks to their childhoods. Robbo (Ty McPhee) insults Sam when he finds out where they’ve been hiding. A young Gabe (Harvey Calderwood) pushes him to the ground. They reach Ian’s place only to see that the van isn’t there. Sam waits in the back while Gabe searches the Braes for his dad and Charlie. He sees his dad through the window so he goes inside to confront Charlie. Ian tries to convince him to leave since the place has a new owner.
Charlie tells him the police towed the van away and it is in the pound now before he says he is there for his mom’s anniversary. Robbo comes after Gabe with a baseball bat, but Ian jumps in the way to protect him. Robbo chases him out of the pub and calls him a murderer. Eilidh and Robbo see Sam in the back before Gabe drives away in a hurry. In a flashback, a young Gabe calls for help because there is a fire at the Christmas tree farm and someone might be in there. He doesn’t know how it started. Robbo yells for his father in the background. When they go back to Gabe’s flat, they find that someone has broken in. His room has been ransacked and some of his old keepsakes have been damaged. Anthony calls asking for the money because his locker was empty. He gave them Gabe’s address so they’re coming for him. They won’t stop until he is dead.
Headlights flash into the room as Tah comes over to see what is going on. Gabe shuts the door before someone begins knocking. He tells Tah that he is going to do exactly as he says. In the past, Ian answers the door when Gabe knocks. He says not again.
The Control Room Review
Through two episodes, The Control Room has delivered plenty of twists, turns, and decent performances. I don’t necessarily feel on the edge of my seat, but the action can be tense from time to time. There are lots of things going on so it’ll be interesting to see if the writers can tie everything together in the finale. The flashbacks are obviously alluding to something important that happened, but it might be time to get to the point.
Depending on the complexity of the finale, this likely could’ve been condensed to two episodes without losing anything important. I wouldn’t expect total authenticity here, but the whole premise gives that away anyway. In some ways, it feels like we’re being teased with every aspect of the story so far. That could change in the next episode as the past is told and we find out whether Gabe and find a way to get himself out of this mess.
The episode scores a 6 out of 10. Recaps of The Control Room are available on Reel Mockery here. Learn how to support our work at this link.
Jay Skelton is a fan of all television shows and movies. He tries his best to keep up with the latest foreign television shows and movies. Jay loves skinny dipping in the dark too.
It is so far a suitably interesting diversion though clearly not among BBC One’s best offerings for 2022. I felt at times that this last episode would never end. Seems like in several places it would have been suitable to end the episode, yet kept heaping on more and more. I would have been OK with it ending at the point where Gabo discovered the van was missing.
I get frustrated with Gabo’s sheer stupidity. He just keeps making one bad decision after another, digging a deeper and deeper hole every 15 minutes of runtime. Not sure if this is intentional on the part of the writers or just lazy writing.. I really hope the final gives us sufficient reason why a man would throw his life down the toilet for a childhood sweetheart he hasn’t seen in 20 years. I’ve been known to carry a torch myself but nothing would compel me to commit crimes for a girlfriend I once had in high school or as an undergrad.
It does seem like they used the character’s stupid actions to keep the story moving lol. Hard to cheer for the character for this reason and the fact they’ve made him such a pushover.