The episode opens with Chris Carson (Martin Freeman) and Rachel Hargreaves (Adelayo Adedayo) being taunted by a bloodied Steven Taylor (Philip Barantini) as they wait outside booking headquarters. Chris ignores a call from Franny Sutton (Adam Nagaitis). Once they are let into booking and Rachel begins to recount the event leading up to the arrest with Sergeant Bernie Wilson (Dominic Carter), Steven continues with his taunting while elucidating that he and Rachel are intimately acquainted. Sergeant Wilson expresses little patience with the whole situation and the incessant ringing from Chris’s phone only makes matters worse. It’s not long after Steven is booked that Wilson has them in a private room and not so nicely encouraging them to get their story straight or he’ll have to release Steven.

When Chris later attempts to talk about the incident with Rachel, she merely walks off in a daze. He starts to go after her but soon finds his attention drawn to a text with the image of a bloodied Vernon (Shaun Fagan). Vernon is then shown to be waiting in Maxie’s drive-thru with Franny, who is warning Chris to not turn over the phone. Although Chris is shown listening to the call, he offers no response.

Sometime later, Tilly Carson (Romi Hyland-Rylands) teases Chris about his yawning and tells him he shouldn’t drive when tired. He sarcastically claims he’d never be able to leave the house if he followed that rule. This eventually leads to him admitting that he wanted to show her something along the way. She excitedly assumes it’s her communion dress but things quickly turn bad when Chris pulls up outside the dress shop and spots a suspicious vehicle. Tilly doesn’t understand why they are suddenly speeding away and Tilly’s complaining along with the ringing phone leads Chris to snapping at her.

Rachael calls the station to speak with Sergeant Wilson, but the conversation is quickly taken over by Inspector Johnson (Craige Els), who immediately vilifies her for the incident with Steven. Things only get worse when she learns that Steven was released in hopes that he’ll drop his complaint and keep the department out of the papers.

Barry (Mark Womack) ignores a call from Jodie Sweeney (Faye McKeever) during a visit with her mother, Betty (Pauline Daniels). After he tries to give him tea well before noon and then feed him a raw turkey, he leaves. At her insistence, he takes the wrapped-up turkey with him.

Marco (Josh Finan) spends several minutes cataloging his injuries as he dresses for his meeting with Adele’s social worker, Kristy (Laura Dos Santos). It doesn’t take the social worker long to see that Marco is nervous and encourages him to settle down, as she wants to see him with Adele. Casey (Emily Fairn) only manages to make matters worse when she shows up unexpectedly and he later finds her snorting coke.

Chris attempts to catch a few hours of sleep in an abandoned parking lot but finds himself continually woken up by horns from passing vehicles and Franny’s ringing encro phone. His paranoia appears to be growing as well when he gets breakfast at a local restaurant. This eventually leads to him visiting Jodi’s flat and asking to sleep on her couch due to construction at his place. She accommodates him but immediately appears to regret the decision after learning that the second phone belongs to a drug dealer.

Rachel returns to check on Lorna (Izuka Hoyle) and although she initially appears disturbed by the intrusion, Rachel eventually convinces her to leave with her.

Marco and Casey’s visit with Kristy appears to be going well until Casey finds herself alone with her and Adele. The interaction sends her into a crying fit and fleeing from the apartment. At the end of the visit, Kristy tells Marco that he’s out of his depth and has to recommend Adele to be removed from the home. After some begging and pleading, she agrees to recommend a stay if Marco can find someone experienced to come in and help him.

Jodie steals the encro phone while Chris sleeps and has a conversation with Franny. When two of his men later show up at her apartment, Chris manages to escape unscathed, despite a slight physical altercation. He later texts Rachel with requests to sleep at her place but she refuses due to her situation with Lorna. Much to both of their surprise, Chris finds himself at Tom Conrad’s flat (Bernard Hill) who agrees to let him catch a few hours of sleep.

When Casey shows up at Jodie’s flat, they spend a few minutes strategizing about their predicament, which ends with them deciding to go see Ian (Philip Shaun McGuinness).

Tom’s frantic yelling at the TV, the incessant ringing encro phone, and Chris’s overall uneasiness with his father prevent him from sleeping. This eventually leads to an argument where Tom admits that he is ashamed of Chris’s childhood and that’s why he stopped drinking and tried to make a change.

Rachael opens her flat to Lorna before leaving for work, but Lorna only expresses a desire to return home. Lorna even fears that Steven might be concerned about her absence. Rachael assures her that’s not the case and appears to lock Lorna inside the flat when she leaves.

Casey and Jodie arrive at Ian’s place where they meet and demean his girlfriend Lynne Renfrew (Elizabeth Berrington). It’s not long before they barge inside and are demeaning Ian as well, insisting that he backed the wrong horse. Jodie tells him that there is a reason that Barry has always been a number two guy. Despite this, she offers him the chance to join her side, which he contemplates.

Later that night before they are dispatched to an IR-IR criminal damage and neighbor dispute call, Chris not only tells Rachel about visiting his dad but tells her about having Franny’s phone. She doesn’t offer any advice. At the call, they learn about a landlady named Faith (Phoebe Jasmine Hamilton), who broke the window of her tenant’s apartment after a dispute. Although Faith is the landlady and doesn’t want to press charges, Chris and Rachel must bring her into the station. This appears to bother Chris and even more so when he learns that she has two young children, Tommy (Joseph Clarendon) and Macy. He regrets his decision even more when he later learns from Gail (Sunetra Sarker) that the kids have no one to look after them and will end up in the system.

Jodie, Casey, and Ian wait for Barry to leave what appears to be a garage or office of sorts. Ian tells them that he comes here every day just to avoid spending time with his mother. Once Barry leaves, they break in, and much to their surprise the drugs have practically been touched. Ian becomes enraged when he learns that Jodie is not only sharing some of the profit with Casey but she’s considering making her a partner. This leads to him unveiling that Casey is responsible for Carl Sweeney’s death (Ian Hart).

Chris is still sulking about their last call as Rachel finishes the paperwork. As she joins him, he tells her that he would be in the same situation with Tilly if he handed in the encro phone. He doesn’t appear to find any comfort in the fact that Tilly would still have Kate Carson (MyAnna Buring). The discussion ends with her encouraging him to return the phone. At nearly the same time, Lorna learns that she’s been locked in Rachael’s apartment. Rachael later hears about this through several angry voicemails. Rachel later returns home to find her that Lorna has escaped through a window.

As Chris meets with Franny to return the phone, Raymond Mullen (Warren Brown) visits DI Deborah Barnes (Amaka Okafor) to tell her that he knows what’s going on with Franny. He becomes upset when she claims to not know him and brings up seeing them together on the Rising Sun’s CCTV footage as well as the love poems. She eventually demands he leave, but that only leads to him seeing her son’s football clothes hanging outside. This leads to realizing that Franny is the father of Deb’s son. At the same time, Franny shares photos of him, Deb, and Deb’s son with Chris. He practically tells Chris that he now owns him and gives Chris the keys to the seaside flat where he goes upstairs and falls straight to sleep.

 

Responder Review

For me, the episode didn’t start strong and only appeared to get worse as it went along. That said, I felt the last few minutes were incredibly intriguing. I felt that Martin put on a strong performance, although some parts were questionable. One of the biggest things the series has against it is the lack of preludes or segues from scene to scene. Just a simple ‘fade to black’ would be enough, but there’s not even that. It shoots directly from one scene to the next. In addition to the ping-ponging, this episode was a bit of a disappointment until the end. For that, it deserves a 5 out of 10.

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