As The Salisbury Poisonings begins, we join Gracie (Sophia Ally) and Dawn Sturgess (MyAnna Buring) in a church. Then, we jump outside and see two older people sitting together. Both become severely ill before others come to check on them. A police officer arrives to check on the couple while a helicopter flies overhead. Seconds later, we join DS Nick Bailey (Rafe Spall) at the police station. He logs onto his computer and scours through paperwork while listening to the chatter on the police scanner. He notifies his colleagues that he is heading to the scene immediately. Dawn takes Gracie and drops her off with her mother Caroline (Stella Gonet).

They chat while police sirens blare in the background. Caroline leaves with the girl before Nick makes it to the scene. He wonders if it was an overdose but the others aren’t sure that is the case. Nick tells his colleague to let Trumpton hose down the mess that was left behind. Then, he orders for a uniformed officer to check out the address of Sergei Skripal (Wayne Swann) on Christie Miller Road. Dawn speaks with her friends about the suspected overdose while an officer makes it to the address and looks through the window. The officer is told that Sergei has gone out with his daughter, Yulia. Nick learns that the neighbor has a spare key.

Since they don’t have a warrant, he tells the officer to into the house after the woman. Another officer tells Nick that she Googled Sergei online and found something disturbing. As a result, he tells the officer to stand down. We learn that Sergei was somehow involved in a Russian spy situation. Later that night, Nick and other officers get suited up and enter the house to look around. He enters the house with Mant and Murray at 00.20 hours on March 5, 2018. They find nothing unusual in the house so they leave a bit later. Moments later, we jump to the hospital. The doctors wonder if radiation might’ve had something to do with the sickness.

Sergei is checked but his sickness has nothing to do with radiation. Nick works through the night. In the morning, Tracy Daszkiewicz (Anne-Marie Duff) heads downstairs and finds her son and husband having a push-up contest. She mostly ignores them while taking a call from Alistair Cunningham (Andrew Brooke). Nick finally returns home to his wife Sarah (Annabel Scholey) and his two kids Annie and Ellie. He makes himself and his wife a drink. She tells him that his pupils are tiny and checks them before the kids rush in and ambush him. Tracy meets up with Alistair. They chat with Superintendent Dave Minty (Darren Boyd) over the phone. Tracy learns that a situation is developing after two people collapsed at The Maltings yesterday.

She is asked about her expertise and CBRN training before she agrees to meet with Minty and Paul Mills (Nigel Lindsay) so she can be briefed. She leaves while Nick begins sweating profusely. He seems weak and has trouble getting out of bed as well. Meanwhile, blood is collected from the two patients and taken away by a military officer. Tracy meets with Mills and Minty and they tell her about the Russians who were possibly poisoned. Sergei was a high level MI6 agent inside Russia’s GRU Intelligence Service. He was moved to the UK as a part of a spy swap and put in Salisbury. They are not sure whether they’re dealing with an assassination attempt but want to keep that possibility away from the media.

On her way out, Tracy tells Minty that they need to track the Skripal’s movements up until the moment they collapsed. They’ll also need to see if anyone they came in contact with got ill. She is taken to an office and told that they’ll hold a meeting in 20 minutes. Next, Dawn puts on perfume and speaks with someone about getting her own place so she can spend more time with Gracie. She is reminded that she has some significant rent arrears and that is going to make things more difficult for her. She is told that she needs to show that she can keep up with the payments and she must learn to control her alcohol consumption. The blood samples are dropped off at the label.

After that, armed police walk through the hospital. Sarah checks on Nick when he comes downstairs. He receives a call from HQ making sure that he is feeling okay. He claims he is but is told that he’ll need to go to the hospital for a check-up anyway. He leaves home moments later. Tracy attends the meeting with Mills, Minty, and the others. Mill says it is going to be a criminal investigation run by counter terrorism. He explains their job is not to find out who did it but to keep the people of Salisbury safe. Tracy introduces herself and explains that she is the Director of Public Health for Wiltshire. She says they should assume for now that it is something the victims ate or drink.

She tells Mills she wants to see the CCTV footage for The Maltings but he says that is going to be difficult since all of the security services have gotten involved. Nick goes to the hospital for a check-up and learns that everything is fine. Tracy and Minty visit the scene and she learns that the mess would’ve been hosed into the water. Then, we learn that Sergei and his daughter visited the cemetery where his wife and son are buried. They went into the city and parked in Sainsbury’s before going to the Mill pub for a pint and lunch in Zizzi. Tracy is worried since they could’ve spread it everywhere. Back at the office, Tracy recommends putting up barricades to keep people away from it.

Nick drives his daughters and he sees black for a second. Tracy learns that they’ve collected the CCTV footage. They watch it and see Sergei and his daughter feeding the swans and it appears Sergei gave a little boy bread that might’ve been contaminated. That bread is thrown into the water. Mills lets the know that the news is running with the Russia angle. Seconds later, Mo (Clare Burt) welcomes Ross Cassidy (Mark Addy) when he returns home. Together, they watch the news report about Sergei’s poisoning. Later that night, Tracy tells Mills that they need to find everyone who was near Sergei and his daughter on the CCTV footage since they could be sick too. They believe using their mobiles is the best way to track them.

Then, Tracy tells Emma to get the reservation book of Zizzi’s restaurant and call everyone who booked a table yesterday and today. She wants to know if anyone is ill. Ross tells Mo that placing this call is going to change everything. Nevertheless, he calls the police and tells them that he might’ve been the last person to speak with Sergei. Back at home, Nick says goodnight to his daughters and his condition is worsening. Tracy checks the scene and finds out that Alistair has gotten barricades installed. The media surrounds Ross’s home almost immediately after his call. Tracy meets with Jayne (Faye McKeever) who says her kids were playing around the area this morning and that she wants an explanation.

The man at the lab running the blood tests say he wants to set up a call with JIC on the TACIT line. Nick has more trouble while Dawn drinks and parties with her friends. Tracy is awoken in the middle of the night due to a call from Dave. She heads online and searches for nerve agent. Nick has a nightmare while Dawn’s party continues. Nick gets out of bed, heads downstairs, and falls to the ground. The kids scream in the morning until Sarah wakes up. She checks on Nick. Next, Ross gets a visit from Di Lata Mishra from Counter Terrorism Command and her colleague Rob Andrews. Tracy makes it to work and meets with the man who was running the blood tests, Professor Tim Atkins.

During the next meeting, Atkins explains that the drug is Novichok which means newcomer in Russian. It was developed by the USSR during the Cold War and it happens to be one of the deadliest synthetic substances on Earth. He says the paramedics thought Sergei and his daughter overdosed on fentanyl so they gave them naloxone. That helped combat the toxicity of the nerve agent. He says the nerve agent stops the brain from communicating with the rest of the body. Sergei and Yulia are the only two people in the west who haven’t died almost immediately from exposure. Sarah sits with Nick at the hospital. Tracy and the others find out that it is going to be very difficult to test for the agent.

And, it can remain lethal for many years. Atkins says this is about as bad as it gets in terms of protecting citizens. Dawn gets a call from her mother but is nearly too hungover to answer it. She didn’t make it so Caroline has to tell Gracie that her mother is unwell. Dawn cries and tells the man in her bed, Charlie, that she forgot. Paul takes the mobile numbers to Tracy. She tells Emma to find the kid with the beard and anyone with symptoms. Atkins tells everyone about his quarantine vault before Emma interrupts and tells Tracy she has found the boy from the river and he has the symptoms. Ross is interviewed by counter terrorism. He says he was with Sergei when they picked up Yulia from the airport on Saturday.

Ross explains he has some things to tell them that might sound unbelievable. Tracy learns that the young boy Henry was released from the hospital but Nick is in ICU. Sarah learns that her husband has been poisoned with the same toxin used to poison Sergei. The doctor believes he knows how to help him now. Meanwhile, Ross says Sergei had a new phone with him. He thinks it is odd that Sergei went from a smartphone to an old brick. He also believes they were followed by two people in a black BMW. He claims that Sergei told him, “Putin’s gonna get me.” Evidence from the scene is taken and the benches are removed.

Tracy tells everyone that the testing has started but it’ll take two days before they get viable results. He admits multiple sites are in play. He goes on to say that they’re the only ones who can protect the 46,500 people in Salisbury. She returns home that night and Ted checks on her. Tracy is worried that she can’t do this since it is too big. She says she can’t tell him much but lives are at stake. Ted says he is glad she is in charge but she isn’t. Sarah sits with her husband before going home and getting into bed with the kids.

 

The Salisbury Poisonings Review

I didn’t mind the opening episode of The Salisbury Poisonings but I can’t say it was perfect. There might be a little too much going on and it seems they had trouble juggling everything at once. Or, maybe I just had a tough time keeping up with all of the characters and everything that was going on. I have to wonder how integral some of the characters were to the bigger story. Maybe they bit off more than they could handle?

Nevertheless, I am interested in seeing what happens next. So, I guess I’d had to give the opening episode a 7 out of 10.