As the first episode of Trigger Point begins, we join an EXPO team as they rush to the scene of a possible bomb factory. As Lana Washington (Vicky McClure) and her partner arrive, they hear about the evacuation of Westhaven Estate on the loudspeaker. Joel Nutkins (Adrian Lester) arrives with his partner and says it must be a big one since they have two EXPO teams. Nutkins is told that DI Samira Desai (Manjinder Virk) is in charge of the operation. They’re introduced to Lana before Robins says there is intel that a dangerous individual is operating a bomb factory in these flats. The flat is leased to Andy Phelan (Rick Warden) and it is located on the fourth floor in the south building. Robins says they need to go. Lana and Joel joke around a bit before Carney (Michael Akinsulire) arrives and says it is time to move. Lana makes Joel give her his wire pliers because they’re her lucky pair.

Robins tells everyone that Flat 127 has been identified as a bomb factory. Before long, the team surrounds flat 127 as the door is knocked down. They deploy a smoke grenade and move into the flat. Once they confirm that the flat is clear, Lana and Joel are sent in. As Lana looks around in the kitchen, Joel tells her and Robins to come to the bedroom. They suspect someone might be hiding under the bed. At first, they begin calling for the suspect to come out. However, Lana stops them because she notices they’re dealing with hostages. While they’ve found a woman and kid with restraints, there is no sign of Andy Phelan or a bomb factory. Joel and Lana talk to Angie and Evie a bit after removing the restraints. Angie reveals they forced her to call in the bomb threat by putting a gun to Evie’s head before Carney asks for the EXPO team to come to the bathroom.

Once they reach the bathroom, Lana finds a bomb taped to the bottom of the toilet. Angie and Evie are transported outside while Robins and Brown agree they need to gain control of the situation on the ground. Desai says they’ve had a first account from Angie Phelan who claims she was awoken by masked intruders at 4 AM. She believes they used Andy’s keys to get into the flat because she heard the door open and thought it was him. Angie and Evie were told they’d be killed if they made any noise. Although she couldn’t identify the intruders, Angie says they spoke a mixture of English and Arabic. Since there was A1 intelligence about a bomb factor and Andy, they need to find him. The crowd nearby gets rowdy and throws a water bottle at one of the police officers. The white guy in the Metallic t-shirt surrenders to police without resisting as a result.

Seconds later, Lana tells DI Desai they’ll need to move the crowd back before they can go back inside. Inspector Robins (Cal MacAninch) isn’t sure that’ll be easy since the crowd is getting more hostile. Joel says it looks like the IED has large amounts of HME so they’re going to need a wider exclusion zone. Robins radios in the command to push the crowd back further while Joel and Lana head back to the bathroom. In the bathroom, Joel wonders why he picked a job where he spends so much time on his knees. Lana believes it is because he is an idiot. Joel scans the nearby area and detects a pressure plate under the bathroom mat. He marks it using a glow stick before taking a closer look at the explosive. He tells Lana they’re going to need to prep the pulleys. Joel looks at the cord running through the wall. When he says he can’t see a bloody thing in here, Lana carelessly turns on the light switch as he yells for her to stop.

She repeatedly asks why with her fingers on the switch while Joel says they have a secondary trigger. He confirms the light switch is the trigger and she is holding it in the middle so it isn’t fully depressed yet. She tells him to run, but he says no since the circuit isn’t complete yet and they have time to disarm the bomb. They argue a bit more about Lana killing both of them. Nutkins traces the wire to the cupboard while Lana’s hand begins shaking. As Lana’s hands begin sweating, Joel finds the power source and asks her to give him her mirror. Once she gives him the mirror, he realizes she has his snips too. He finally gets the snips, cuts the cord, and disables the bomb. Lana lets go of the switch. It does nothing so they begin joking about their near-death experiences.

Joel says they need to give these people a SitRep. He asks her to tape up before complaining he is getting too old for this stuff. Joel radios Desai to tell her to maintain radio silence until they clear the site and disrupt the main charge. While working on the wire, Lana notices a number that looks like 1912 carved into the wall next to her. Joel doesn’t know what it could be either so he suggests they let counter terrorism look at it. They go outside to get some air before trying to neutralize the device. From the balcony, they watch and laugh as a kid throws something at a group of cops and runs off. Joel tells her to get Danny to get the pig stick. She forces him to give her the wire snips again. Once Joel walks off, she notices a squirrel running up the building and someone watching her from a window nearby. Joel goes down to the ground level where he looks at the picture of his family on his phone and drinks an energy drink.

We see a cartoonish tattoo on his arm. Meanwhile, Lana sets up the pigstick or waterjet disrupter in the bathroom. She walks back outside and confirms over the radio that she is ready to fire. Once Danny fires it, Lana goes back inside to see what happened, but she seems surprised by what she finds. She radios for Joel to come and check it out. Robins and Desai join them as they learn the main charge was filled with black powder from fireworks. It would be a weak charge that could likely take off a couple of fingers. Joel believes it could be significant that it was a non-lethal, low-explosive device. Next, Lana and Joel walk outside as they prepare to hand the scene over to forensics. He checks on her and tells her to take five in the van while he hands the scene over. Desai tells Robins forensics are going through the flat and they haven’t found Andy’s keys so Angie might be right. They wonder why the intruders would take his keys. Joel is told they’re going to check the garage before moving out.

Joel finds Lana listening to rap music. He jokes about the music and tells her they’re going to be moving out in five. Then, he tells her about him and Jaz turning a corner since she has convinced him to do some DIY stuff at home. They learn the team has found Andy’s vehicle. Since the intruders would’ve had the keys and access to the vehicle, they’re treating it as suspicious. They look into the windows and find nothing of interest. Lana looks under the vehicle. She immediately finds something that concerns her. Joel radios Robins to tell him to move the crowd back even further. While the crowd moves back, Robins warns Desai that bombers could be right here watching every move they make. Desai tells the police officers that the EXPO team is going to deploy a robot to deal with the possible bomb on the vehicle. Lana and Joel watch over Danny’s shoulder as he controls the robot until he tells them they’re in his light.

Lana makes him leave so she can take over. Pete follows him out to ask what is going on. Danny admits it feels like everything is going wrong today. Pete tells him everything will be fine so he should just stick with it. As Danny returns to the operations van, Lana complains the robot is not responding. Desai radios and learns about the robot issue while Lana decides to go in for a closer look. Joel follows her and learns she has gone off script as she approaches the vehicle alone. Once she finds a disconnected wire under the vehicle, she radios Joel to tell him and says someone might be playing with them. It sounds like someone hits the car’s remote and that causes the trunk to pop open. A man’s hands with zip ties emerge from the trunk as he begins asking for help. The man climbs out of the trunk with a mask on his head as Lana pleads with him to stay steal. The sniper, Costa (Gavin Sibson), confirms he has a clear shot of the man in question.

Andy follows Lana’s instructions and slowly removes the bag from his head. Lana tells them she is going to deal with the device although the others try to convince her to stay back. She approaches before getting Andy to lift his arms so she can take a closer look at the bomb. Lana backs away to radio that someone else is in control of the IED since there is a mobile phone attached to it. They’re asked to get spotters and Danny is told to get active on the ECM. As Andy freaks out, Lana tells Joel to bring the kit quickly because he is losing out. Danny uses the ECM to jam any phone signals while Brown and the others look for someone with a mobile phone. Once Lana gets the kit and returns to Andy, the phone begins beeping. She suspects there is another phone since one is used to arm and the other triggers the device.

Desai wonders how they’re bypassing the jammers as Joel rushes in to help. Lana finds the other phone and begins rapidly cutting wires. The cellphone rings and nothing happens so Lana says they’re clear. They manage to keep Andy calm enough to remove the vest and put it to the side. Once Phelan is taken to the medics, Desai calls to ask her team to run a trace on the phone number that tried to trigger the bomb. DI Thom Youngblood (Mark Stanley) arrives to be briefed by DI Desai. He joins Lana first to talk about what she saw. She says the device in the flat was non-lethal although the other one was professionally done. Thom says they’ve looked into the numbers on the wall 1912 and didn’t find it connected to any terrorist group. Since the attackers were speaking Arabic, they wonder if they could be Islamists. Thom grabs her hand and says he is glad she is okay. They hold hands while Wash admits they were seconds away from the device functioning.

She is worried her time is about to run out, but Joel interrupts to say she was born lucky. Joel jokes he would’ve made more effort with his outfit if he knew a superstar like Youngblood was going to be there today. When Thom asks if he is good, Joel says his back is gone, his wife is gone, and his kids aren’t talking to him anymore. Other than that, he is fine. Thom leaves to go talk to Desai while Joel jokes about Lana’s relationship with him. Lana changes the subject forcing Joel to talk about Jaz and the family. He says he wants to be with them, but he doesn’t want to make a choice between the family and the job. He says he’ll speak to Danny tomorrow because they’ve all been there. They learn they’re waiting for one plate check. Joel says he was thinking about the first device and wonders whether they messed up intentionally. He believes it was used to lure everyone outside and give them a bigger target since they do that in Afghanistan frequently.

She doesn’t understand how they managed to get through the jammer to arm the suicide vest. Joel walks away and approaches the van of the plate they’re checking on. Desai tells Thom there were two unregistered burner phones in separate locations so she believes they’re dealing with an organized terror cell. Joel inspects the Zipcom Facilities van before telling everyone to stay back. He asks Lana for the snips so he can check it out. As she turns around, the bomb in the van explodes sending smoke to the sky and debris in all directions. Lana gets up and approaches Joel’s body. Thom tries to pull her back to prevent her from looking at Joel.

 

Trigger Point Review

While the first episode of Trigger Point ended with a big explosion, almost everything leading up to that point was uneventful and silly. It never felt like there was any real connection between the cast or that any of them were remotely concerned about the things going on. With no character introductions or development, it was impossible to care about any of them being blown to pieces and that includes Joel and Lana.

While I understand what they were trying to do with the cameras, it really took away from the experience. The shaky and constantly moving camera just made many of the scenes difficult to watch. Overall, it felt like they didn’t know how to create a 45-minute drama capable of holding the viewer’s attention and decided to replicate the same scenes. Joel and Lana took care of one bomb, found another, took care of it, and found another. The casting choices were surprising since many members seemed out of place and that only added to the unrealistic nature of the show. It just seemed like the characters made things harder than it really had to be just for the sake of keeping things interesting, but it only made the characters seem dumb.

At the very least, the explosion at the end was unexpected enough to jar unexpecting viewers. Could the series get better from here on out? I sincerely hope it does since it would make watching and recapping it a lot more enjoyable. The opening episode had a few good moments so I’ll be generous and give it a 6.5 out of 10. All recaps of Trigger Point will be available on Reel Mockery here. Learn how to support the Reel Mockery product by clicking on this link.