As the second episode of Trigger Point begins, we hear a news report about the Westhaven terror attack and the death toll standing at 18. The reporter mentions Joel Nutkins (Adrian Lester) who died in the explosives attack. Lana Washington (Vicky McClure) turns it off as Danny (Eric Shango) drives her to the scene of another possible bomb. Once they stop, Lana tells Danny to get the suit before she talks to a police officer about the bag on the bus in front of them. He explains that red wires were seen sticking out of the bag on the lower level of the bus. Lana asks him to push them back 15 more meters and keep the comms clear. Danny brings Lana her bomb suit, but she only wants her day sack. She eventually relents and agrees to put it on after Danny pleads with her to do so. Lana goes to the bus alone. She approaches the bag in the back before finding the wires sticking out of it. Eventually, she finds that the red wire is a USB cable and the small, black wire belongs to earbuds.

She yells for Danny to help her remove the suit. Once he reaches her, Lana tells him it was a false alarm since it was only headphones. She thanks him as they walk back to their vehicle. At the police station, she is greeted by one man and runs into Sonya (Kerry Godliman) in the locker room. The male officer agrees to check to see if the board is ready to listen to her yet. Sonya read her report earlier so she tells her she is so sorry for what happened to Nutkins. As she steps inside, Commander Bregman (Ralph Ineson) stops to tell her to come in and sit down. Lana sits down as DI Thom Youngblood (Mark Stanley) smiles at her from across the table. DSU Hamilton (Nadine Marshall) begins by saying they’ve just received an update from the hospital and the death toll is 18 with 27 critical patients. DI Thom says Andy Phelan (Rick Warden) has been on the watchlist for three years because he is a right-wing activist and ex-English Flag member.

He has a history of assaulting black, Asian, and LGBT targets.  They’re looking at his prison time and connections to see if he was attacked by Islamists. DI Samira Desai (Manjinder Virk) begins talking about the numbers 1912 they found on the wall in the apartment. They don’t know if it is a date, signature, or nothing at all.  Moira (Lucy Russell) is asked if that means anything to the security service. So far, they’ve been unable to link it to any terrorist group. CCTV was reported vandalized the day before the attack, but there is CCTV from nearby that could show how the attackers escaped. Desai shows them a video of a van with stolen plates driving by a minute after the van exploded. DSU Hamilton speculates it was an Islamist attack against known white supremacists. Then, Lana is asked to talk to the group about the events that day. She starts by telling them about the minor explosive device found in the bathroom and how it wasn’t meant to cause a large explosion.

She suspects the attackers wanted to lure emergency services, force an evacuation, and set off a larger device. Andy was put into a bomb vest and forced into the trunk of his own vehicle. Commander Bregman asks about Andy getting out of the vehicle and walking toward them. Lana explains it was a fairly simple suicide vest although the firing mechanism was complex. After that, the vehicle IED was exploded before they had time to engage. When Joel tried to push the crowd back, he took the brunt of the blast. She is told she did a great job and Joel will be put forward for commendation. Sonya says the suicide belt’s main charges were TATP similar to what was used during the attacks on Manchester Arena. It is volatile and unstable. They’re still analyzing the scene at Westhaven. Once the meeting ends, Hamilton stops Lana in the hallway to thank her for coming in. She suspects Lana wanted to say something else during the briefing.

Lana says they were able to bypass the jammers so they’re dealing with sophisticated bombs and not amateurs who just have a grudge against Andy. Hamilton reveals they’re short so they’d like Lana to take over. Hamilton joins her team and says their primary lines of inquiry are CCTV, forensics, and suspect identification. Security Services has already given them a list of top suspects. She encourages them to leave no stone unturned because they’ve already killed one of them. Later, Lana relaxes in bed until she gets a call from Thom. She joins him in the car as Thom gets an update about the suspects and green van. He tells Sam he’ll be offline for a few hours before hanging up the call. He tells Lana how grief and love are intertwined. They get stuck in traffic as Thom says they have about half a mile or so left.

Lana contemplates getting out because she doesn’t want the work crowd to see them together. Thom says it won’t hurt for them to know, but Lana doesn’t want that to happen today. She says she’ll see him there. Before she gets out, Thom says he loves her although she doesn’t repeat it. Lana finishes walking to the church for Joel’s funeral and meets up with Danny and the others. She talks to them briefly before joining her father, mother, and brother Billy (Ewan Mitchell). Val (Tamzin Griffin) believes Nutkins would’ve loved this. Hassan Rahim (Nabil Elouahabi) tells Lana that they’re beginning. Lana goes inside and helps them carry the coffin. When Lana walks outside, she talks to Jaz (Evelyn Duah) who says Nutkins always said his team needed him like his family didn’t. Lana gives her condolences and walks away. Thom checks on her. Lana insists she needs a minute.

She rushes around the corner so she can cry without anyone seeing her. Then, she joins Jeff (Kevin Eldon), Val, and Billy at the pub for drinks. When Billy goes for more drinks, Jeff and Val tell Lana how proud they are of her, but they’re also worried. Her father says she has done her bit so she doesn’t need to keep taking chances. Lana insists she isn’t taking chances though. It is her job, she is really good at it, and has been doing it for years. She tells them not to worry about it. She leaves them to see if Thom wants to get hammered with her. However, he says he needs to get back. Thom offers to take her with him, but both think she should be here. Meanwhile, John Hudson (Kris Hitchen) snaps pictures of himself, Billy, and Hassan. Lana joins them and they soon begin taking shots. Karl Maguire (Warren Brown) believes it is his time to buy a round of drinks.

When she calls him Chris, they begin laughing at her for getting his name wrong. Billy tells Karl it is so tough because he has applied for countless jobs without getting an interview. Karl tells him you just have to stick with it before revealing he is a mechanic. Before long, one of the guys begins belittling Billy for not being able to get into the army. As he walks off, Lana calls the guy a dickhead. Lana follows him although Billy says he doesn’t need her looking after him. She admits she hasn’t had enough to sit around and listen to bad army jokes. Lana tells him to come have a drink since he doesn’t need to prove anything to those guys. Before long, Lana crashes to the ground and pleads with them to let her sleep. Karl helps her up before telling her to get some water although she doesn’t want any. He follows her outside as she stumbles around. She sits outside on the ground.

Karl admits he has been where she is. She wonders where that might be and if it is the gutter. Karl says he has been in the gutter a few times actually. He offers to drive her home and she quickly takes him up on that offer. In the morning, a hungover Lana drinks water directly from the tap. We hear a news report about English Flag members protesting in the streets with their leader Agatha Jack (Camilla Power) saying their people are dying because of Islamist terrorists. As Lana joins John and Hassan, Agatha accuses the police of covering up for the terrorists. John says he can help if she ever needs someone to talk to or a few days leave. Lana tells them about her conversation with Hamilton and becoming the new senior. She goes to the office where Thom gives her a cup of coffee. Then, they join Desai and Sonya to look at more CCTV footage from Westhaven.

They watch the initial explosion again and realize it is white at first so it was a pure burn explosion.  It used a lot of powder and whoever did it likely knew what they were doing. Sonya says this proves they likely have very professional manufacturing methods. Karl sends Lana a text asking about her head. Thom asks about tracing the explosive before Desai gets a call confirming they’ve found the bomber’s van. They go to an abandoned building where they meet Inspector Robins (Cal MacAninch). They learn that the van is blocking the entry point so they’ll have to move it. Lana asks Danny to get the T9 robot. Danny uses the robot to slowly move the van forward. Once the van is moved, the team storms the building while Lana and Danny wait outside. Seconds later, Danny and Lana are told to come inside and they hear someone yelling IED. The officer marks the pressure plate on the ground using a glow stick.

While Lana begins checking out the wires, Danny wonders why they’d want to blow this up since there doesn’t seem to be anything here. Lana steps over the plate and follows the wires to a desk in the middle of the room. When she looks under the desk, she finds a battery pack explosive taped under it. She gets up and says they need to see if they’ve gone for a secondary. She looks over and finds a shelf full of ammonium nitrate and other items leading her to believe they’ve found the bomb factor. She asks him to get the destructor so they can begin separating the components. Moments later, she tells the officer there will be a controlled explosion in 45 seconds. While Danny prepares to push the trigger, Lana hears Nutkins asking her for his snips just before the explosion that killed him. After Danny does it, Lana returns to check the bomb under the desk.

She quickly confirms that the device has been neutralized. Before long, Sonya and others are in the building collecting evidence. Sonya shows her something she has found that could be something or not. Lana says she saw special forces use an FG-9 in Afghanistan. Although it confirms that they had military training, it doesn’t explain how they got past their jammers at Westhaven. Lana tells her about the weird stain on the ground before she steps out and joins Danny. He asks if she is okay since she seemed odd once she saw the device, but she insists she is fine. She walks over to Thom and Desai to say the bomb factory is pristine so she doesn’t think they’ll pull prints. John isn’t sure if he agrees. Lana asks them to name one Islamist attack in which they used jammers and high-grade explosives. John says the jammer is just a theory though. Sonya arrives with something they found inside.

John identifies it as an improvised detonator that happens to be popular among ISIS. Next, we join another meeting as Hamilton tells the group about finding the van and it leading them to the possible bomb factory. Thom shows them a picture of the booby trap and the detonator which is commonly used by suicide bombers. Lana says the booby trap was meant to mess up the scene. Defusing it allowed them to see how pristine it was. There were no fingerprints even on the detonator left behind purposefully. The Commander asks them to keep this information quiet until they can find out who it is and make arrests. When the meeting ends, Thom asks Lana to stick to the things she knows. She reminds him she is the explosives expert and she knows exactly what she saw. John watches a news report about the bombing at Westhaven and English Flag blaming Islamists for the attack.

He sits with Lana and talks to her about the special forces battery they found. He says you can use lead acid batteries in other things and not just jammers. John goes on to say the detonators are only used by the ones willing to blow themselves up, but Lana thinks that is too easy. As he leaves the room, he tells her to stop making excuses for them. Sonya arrives to say the preliminary report came back on the stain they found. Lana leads her to a private spot where she learns the stain was HMX319 which is HMX combined with an additive. Sonya finished her analysis at Westhaven and it contains the same substance. She agrees they planted the evidence there to make it look like an Islamist attack. Danny interrupts to tell Lana they have to go deal with another device. Lana asks Sonya to dig a bit. Once they arrive at the scene, Robins tells Lana a worshipper found the device in the mosque nearby.

She immediately says Islamists don’t bomb mosques before she is introduced to the man who found the device. He says it is upstairs in a bag on a door and is tied with one of those plastic cable ties. It had nuts, bolts, and a cheap watch. Danny believes it is a timer. The man is escorted away. Lana says she’ll have radio silence around the device. She goes inside alone and begins looking for the bomb. Once she finds the bomb, she checks it and the door thoroughly. The watch looks like it has about five minutes left. She runs outside to tell Danny they have a nail bomb and five minutes left. She wants to disrupt it without damaging it for forensics purposes. Thom sets his watch as Lana runs back inside and cuts a small hole in the plastic bag so she can see the watch. She cuts another and finds a mercury tilt switch.

Lana is surprised when she hears a man screaming from inside the room. She pries off the door sweep and looks underneath. She sees a man handcuffed and chained to a rail behind him. She tells him to stay still and quiet. Meanwhile, Thom warns Danny that he has three minutes on his watch and no movement from inside. He believes they should get a message in there to get Lana out. Thom runs in and screams for her to get out now. Lana keeps working on the bomb until the episode ends.

 

Trigger Point Review

I was a little surprised the second episode of Trigger Point jumped so far ahead instead of showing us the aftermath of the explosion that killed Joel Nutkins. We only got a few glimpses of its catastrophic impact through news reports on television and radio. I was also expecting to see more of the far-right group known as English Flag since I suspect they’re going to play a big role in this sooner or later. At the very least, it would’ve been nice to see demonstrations and people rallying in the streets.

It seems to be lacking in this regard, but it could be because there is no clearly defined villain yet. I often have to stop to research some of the terms being used. I appreciate that the terms always seem to be accurate so I am learning something about explosives during each episode. The ending of this episode was pretty intense although I am not a big fan of cliffhangers like this.

I hope there is more to the story than Islamists against right-wing terrorists since that would be cliché. The episode wasn’t bad, but I wish it was more closely intertwined with the first so we could’ve experienced the aftermath of the explosion that killed Nutkins. It scores a 6.5 out of 10. Recaps of Trigger Point will be available on Reel Mockery here. Learn how to support the Reel Mockery project by clicking on this link.