The series opens in a self-help group, with Dave (Sean Kingsley) sharing his experience with the other members and claiming to be lonely. Father Liam (Matthew Cottle) asks Chris Carson (Martin Freeman) if he would like to talk but he refuses.

Danny (Austin Haynes) enters a building where Franny (Adam Nagaitis) is working. He removes drugs from his waist and places them in a black bag on the floor.

Chris enters a shop where Tilly Carson (Tomi Hyland-Rylands) is trying on a new dress. He tells her that she looks lovely. While Tilly is in the dressing room, Chris asks Dolly (Julia Ross) if he pay her tomorrow. Agreeing, she says the shop opens at 9am. Later, Chris promises to let Tilly stay at his place every night when he gets a job. Later, he drops her off at home. Kate Carson (Myanna Buring) informs him of her plan to move to London if the job she applied for comes through. He refuses to let her take Tilly to London She reminds him of how little he gets to see Tilly. He claims to have gotten a new job with dayshift hours and pleads with her to not take Tilly away from him. Ray Mullen (Warren Brown) awkwardly greets Chris before going inside.

Rachel Hargreaves (Adelayo Adedayo), Eric (Ian Puleston Davies), and Chris have a confrontation with petty thief, Jerry (Dominic Muldoon) in a parking lot. Chris tries to talk a hostile Jerry down by offering him lasagna. Holding dog feces in his land hand, Jerry makes a move and Rachel sprays him with pepper spray. A short time later, Jerry is restrained and put into a police cruiser. Chris motions for Eric to keep an eye on Rachel. Eric makes a hand jester which means she is loony. Later, Chris receives a Deb Barnes (Amaka Okafor) asking him to pull over a black Range Rover driven by Mark Hodgkin (Sam C Wilson). Trailing Hodgkin, she claims to have seen him do a drug deal in Rising Sun.

Casey (Emily Fairn) passes some drugs to a man. Elsewhere, Chris turns on his sirens to alert Hodgkin to pull over. Hodgkin pulls into a dark alley. Chris pulls in behind him and starts entering his data into the database. Hodgkin approaches Chris and assures him that he isn’t stupid. He admits to handing the drugs off. When Chris opens his door, Hodgkin shoves it closed and throws the man’s bag through the window. Before leaving, Hodgkin snaps his photo and reads off Chris’ badge number. Chris emerges from the cruiser and confronts Hodgkin but nothing comes of it. Unable to reach Deb, he leaves her a voicemail demanding to know why she disappeared.

Jodie Sweeney (Faye McKeever) contacts Barry (Shaun Mason) and Ian to see if got the drugs. He says Arthur is nowhere to be found, so they cannot access the docks. She blames him for not being any drugs to sell and demands he fix it. Elsewhere, Casey’s drugs are confiscated by the pub owner.

CCTV footage outside a pub Rising Sun reveals Deb getting drugs from a man. He declines to tell Ray about the footage and curses him under his breath. Deb still isn’t answering her phone. Chris’s boss rejects Chris’ dayshift transfer request. Later, Chris confronts Deb about the drug deal. She threatens him with evidence that connects him to Carl Sweeney who was murdered if he refuses to conduct a search of Hodgkin’s house. He accuses her of trying to blackmail him. She agrees to help him transfer to dayshift if he searches Hodgkin’s premises and arrests him. Rachel and Eric are dispatched to 19 Ardennes Street to investigate a report of a burglary. Chris declines Deb’s offer.

Marco (Josh Finan) is at work when Casey comes in and asks for a hamburger. He tells her the price. She claims to have been robbed. Moria enters the restaurant and tells him that he needs to take Adele in the morning because she has to go to court. He claims to be on the schedule to work. She informs his boss that he will not be available until 1:30pm tomorrow.

Upon arrival at 19 Ardennes Street, Chris finds Rachel alone outside. He goes inside to check on Eric who is with Chris’s dad, Tom. Radio (Tony Schumacher) alerts of an IRIR call at Hastings Fabrics at Denning Road Industrial Estate. Rachel takes the call. Chris asks why he has no pictures of him. Tom says his mum took him away, so he never got to know him and when he came home, she would badger him about drinking. Chris tells him about his split with Kate. A text from Deb urges him to reconsider her offer. Tom claims to have loved him and his mum. Irate, Chris recalls him beating his mum and goes outside to let off a little steam by busting a bottle. He calls Deb to get Hodgkin’s address.

En route to Hastings Fabrics, Rachel loses control of the car and crashes. She and Eric are uninjured. Chris is forced to delay the search at Hodgkin’s house to take a call. Elsewhere, Casey tells Marco that the pub owner robbed her of two grand. He says there may be someone who can hook her up before returning to work.

Phil O’Rourke (Dave Hart) confronts Rachel about not filing a formal complaint against Steve Taylor. He voices concern about Steve’s new girlfriend. Chris finds her in a distraught state. He says she has been ordered to ride with him until the crash is investigated. He later sends Deb a text promising to conduct the search tonight. Rachel expresses the need to get off Response. He asks her if she wants in on a job for Deb. She agrees to work with him on it. Elsewhere, Marco’s job comes under threat after refusing an early shift because of Adele.

Franny is outside Hodgkin’s house when Chris and Rachel pull up. Emerging from the car, Chris and Rachel agree to enter Hodgkin’s house under the premise of a potential gas leak. Chris removes a handgun from a manila envelope. Putting the gun back where he found it, he urges Rachel back to the car. He says a gun is not enough to get Hodgkin charged but it will get them 10 years in prison if they claim to have smelled gas. Seeing a bike outside, he goes back in to retrieve the gun. Franny has been recording them the entire time.

Marco takes Casey to see Jodie. Casey claims to know a place to sell a lot of drugs. Jodie leaves to make some tea. Seeing a photo of Jodie and Carl, Casey reminds Marco that she stole Carl’s drugs and played a role in his death. He says don’t say anything to Jodie.

Rachel accesses Steve’s social media to learn he is dating Lorna McPharland. She breaks down sobbing. Elsewhere, Chris receives a text from Deb retracting her dayshift offer because he screwed up last night. He tosses the gun from Hodgkin’s house into the canal.

Franny tells Deb that Chris is an idiot. She voices concern about going to prison. He promises to fix it. He tells his son that he loves him. Elsewhere, Chris convinces Dolly to let him pay a down payment on Tilly’s dress. She demands the remainder be paid by Saturday. A short time later, he is visiting Tom when he receives a text from an unknown sender ordering him to return his gun. He steals money from Tom. The episode ends.

 

The Responder Review

The first episode of season two is inundated with side stories. It seems someone thought it would be a good idea to introduce all the new subplots simultaneously. This resulted in a very confusing and overwhelming episode. It would have been much more effective to introduce them over the first three episodes.

The show is plagued by poor editing. In many cases, there is no break between scenes that mesh together. Lighting is also an issue. Visibility in the night scenes is very poor, making it nearly impossible to see what is going on.

Not a good start for season two. Hopefully, it will improve in the next episode. The episode deserves a 5.5 out of 10. Get more The Responder recaps here. Support Reel Mockery by donating. Learn how advertising with us can help build your brand awareness. Join our newly established forum to discuss the latest TV and movie releases and many other topics.