As the finale of Trigger Point begins, Lana Washington (Vicky McClure) quickly shuts off the gas at the meter while DI Desai (Manjinder Virk) escorts families out of their homes. Lana and Hassan Rahim (Nabil Elouahabi) try to disable some of the bombs. When DSU Marianne Hamilton (Nadine Marshall) arrives, she learns from Thom that they’ve evacuated everyone in a two-mile radius and Lana and the team are dealing with the devices right now. Ayesha Campbell-Khan (Salima Saxton) has been moved to a secure location. A robot will be brought in to disable the car bomb. Desai shows Hamilton video from a doorbell camera of the man who set up the bombs. Since he wore his mask the whole time, they’re not sure if it was John Hudson. The evacuation is complete. Pete (Tom Stokes) works with Danny (Eric Shango) to move the robot closer to the car.

Lana joins them and confirms they’ve removed all the gas meters. The car bomb is quickly taken care of using a controlled explosion. Lana sends word over the radio that all devices are dealt with. Danny and Lana agree they deserve a drink after this. Hassan approaches Lana to say he served with John and would expect to have formed a bond as a result. After all, Lana and Nut were practically family. John (Kris Hitchen) never made him feel like a part of the team and regularly spewed racist banter. Lana apologizes and admits that must’ve been rough. Hassan just wishes people would’ve opened their eyes. She wishes she could’ve worked it out with Billy. Hassan isn’t sure he would’ve worked out the setup with the gas meters. Nutkins would’ve been proud of her because they all are.

Back at the office, Hamilton tells Lana that her instincts have been right about this from the very beginning. Lana seems to have an understanding of John’s methods so they want to use her to see if they can identify his next move. Hamilton tells the team they’re running out of time before the Commander goes public with Hudson’s name. Lana tells everyone that the device at HQ was very sophisticated so she has to piece together all the pieces to see the final goal. There was more trickery and his strategy is hard to predict although it seems he is leaving a trail. When she mentions 1912, DI Thom Youngblood (Mark Stanley) admits they can’t find a significance to the number for the far-right. Desai claims the last two targets have been related to the by-election.

They discuss the amount of planning it would’ve taken to set up the gas meters and car bomb. Lana believes he is going to have more determination than ever. The team agrees he will likely try to do something during the counting of the by-election. After the meeting ends, Lana gets a text message from John who wants to talk to her. Thom watches anxiously as Lana tries calling John with the intention of keeping him on the phone for as long as possible. He doesn’t answer, but he sends another message with the numbers 66 11 42. Lana remembers the number from a redacted HMX file. She explains that Sonya Reeves (Kerry Godliman) called in a favor from a friend at Porton Down. Thom announces they’ve got John’s location outside of the MOD Steepholm facility which is possibly a dark site.

Lana takes a screenshot of the text messages as they prepare to leave. As Danny and Lana arrive, they agree they’ve never heard of this place. Thom talks to Paul Kirby who says his team is inspecting the entire perimeter. Thom argues with a man who doesn’t believe anyone could’ve breached the facility. The man in charge of security approaches and makes it clear they won’t be allowed to enter without proper clearance. Thom explains the suspect has military training that he could’ve used to get inside the facility. It is eventually revealed that the facility is used to store high-grade military explosives. They’re told to search the perimeter of the facility. Thom wants to make sure nothing has been stolen. Their search warrant has been received although a decision hasn’t been made yet. Once they leave, Lana says John must have a reason to come here. Desai says they checked the numbers with the Security Service, but they don’t mean anything to them.

They’re still in the dark about whatever he is currently planning. Later, Lana visits Sonya and admits it is late or early, but she isn’t sure since she hasn’t been to bed. Lana tells her about the text message from John Hudson. She told them they were using back channels and suggests John is sending them signals right now. They want Sonya to reach out to her Porton Down contact to see if they can help. She agrees to look into it and the possible code as well before asking Lana if she is okay. Lana can’t believe everything that has happened. She hasn’t grieved and just keeps working because she has to make this stop. Sonya comforts her by insisting Nutkins and Billy knew how much she cared about them. Lana goes to sleep on the sofa. Outside the Deptford Assembly Halls, Thom tells Lana there has been no work here in the last week as the count is getting started.

They’ve checked the interior and exterior although Lana feels like they’re missing something. Thom tells her about the coffee shop across the road before Sonya calls Lana. She confirms HMX-319 was distributed from Steepholm with the last occasion being in July 2009 for Operation code name Dynamo. There is nothing on the numbers. It has sparked something for Sonya, but she can’t put her finger on it. Back at the base, Hamilton and Thom tell everyone about Operation Dynamo. It has been difficult to find anything on Dynamo. However, there was a road accident in Kandahar in July 2009 when seven allied soldiers were killed. Official records show that all passengers were killed in the crash, but the families of the victims suspect it was an explosion. There are some sections of John Hudson’s military file that were redacted so it is hard to connect him to the Dynamo.

Lana asks what they were doing driving there and whether it was a supply truck. Thom says they’re trying to find out like the victims’ families who’ve been demanding answers for 10 years. Their request to release the files was rejected in 2019 by the Defense Select Committee. The chair of the committee back then was Ayesha Campbell-Khan. They agree John is after Ayesha because he thinks it is a cover-up. Hamilton will give the information to the commissioner and Home Officer so they’ll decide whether the by-election results will be revealed behind closed doors or online. Until then, they’ll increase security on the ground and around Campbell-Khan. Inspector Lee Robins (Cal MacAninch) asks to have two men deployed to the roof to keep watch. When Lana arrives, DI Desai says the order has come down for the results to go ahead or terror will be winning.

Desai gets a call from Hamilton and gives her a quick update before leaving. Lana is surprised when Karl Maguire (Warren Brown) shows up with coffee. He says he doesn’t want to give up on this and wants to be with her. Lana insists she isn’t in a good place. Although she cares about him, she doesn’t think she is in the same place. He asks for a chance, but Lana doesn’t think they should see each other anymore. Karl tries to convince her otherwise. Lana walks off and joins Danny as they return to work. Lana looks around the building even though it has already been checked previously. They agree they can’t believe what has happened over the past few weeks. Lana gets another message from John saying “Endgame”. They run back to Thom to show him the message while Desai tries to get the location of Hudson’s phone.

They make sure Ayesha is still covered before Desai says John is at an old military chapel. Desai suggests it might be a trap so she is going to take the blue team to the chapel. Lana and the others will stay with Ayesha for the election results. Commander Bregman (Ralph Ineson) meets with Hamilton to learn about everything that is going on. Desai tells them that the blue team is entering the chapel. Hamilton and Bregman watch as the team storms the chapel and finds nothing. Meanwhile, Agatha Jack (Camilla Power) and Ayesha head to the stage to hear the election results. John Hudson is found nearly dead.

Ayesha receives far more votes than the others. Thom receives a call from Desai who confirms they’ve found John. Hassan checks on John and finds a pulse. Lana learns they’ve got John and it looks like an overdose. As Agatha rushes off the stage, Thom says the chapel is where they held the services for the soldier who served with John. Lana wonders why he’d send them there. Ayesha talks on stage while Lana looks around to see if there is anything suspicious going on. Karl enters as Ayesha’s speech continues. Sonya calls Lana to say she has figured something out with the numbers. Sonya explains it is the periodic table of elements meaning 11 would be sodium or NA. According to the theory, the numbers would spell Dynamo. Then, they focus on 1912 which would be KMG. Lana suggests it is Karl Maguire who is standing nearby.

Karl takes to the stage and removes his shirt revealing a bomb vest. Police enter the building as Karl orders the audience to shut the doors and listen to him. Karl shows them the dead man’s switch and tells the police to turn off their radios. Hamilton loses the feed. Thom and Robins get closer to the room. Karl calls out Ayesha for covering up the murders of British soldiers in 2009. He doesn’t believe she cares about soldiers since she wouldn’t even let anyone know his real name in the report. Karl puts her in front of the camera and begins telling them about what happened in July 2009. He says the operation was code named Dynamo. Despite the importance of their cargo, they were lightly defended, ill-equipped, and undermanned. An RPG hit the truck full of HMX and that took out a school so angry locals came after them as well. They tried to fight back, but there were too many of them. Karl ran for it.

He confesses that he ran and left those boys behind. The soldiers were covered up as non-combat deaths. He complains that they wouldn’t even tell the families what happened, but Ayesha justifies it by saying they had to maintain the public’s trust in their mission overseas. They stuck him in the hospital wing for three months while they tried to figure out how to make it go away. When he threatened to go public, they set up a kangaroo court to court-martial him. They threatened to jail him for life if he ever talked about it. He argues that the world needs to know. Then, he looks over at Lana and tells her he didn’t want her to be there. He tried to set it up so she’d go looking for John at the chapel. He pleads with Lana to go. Outside, Robins tries to find out where they can set up a sniper with a clear shot.

PS Costa (Gavin Sibson) is sent to his position. CCTV shows Karl retrieving the IED after entering the building so they have to assume it is real and active. Lana tries to negotiate with Karl. She insists he’ll be seen as another nutter, but he says this is revenge. He tells her about the rehabilitation group he was running in South London with Nic Roberts and Frank Welsh. He tapped into their anger because he needed boots on the ground and couldn’t risk getting caught before. He says they were racist idiots who deserved to die. He gave them a purpose. They wanted a culture war. Although it was different than what he wanted, they all wanted the same thing in the end. As for Billy, he was a loose cannon who was making Lana unhappy so he did it for her. He couldn’t take the chance of Billy leading Lana to him and the Crusaders. He sees something that worries him. He orders the hostages to get up against the windows.

Karl freaks when he sees one of the officers as Lana tries to get him to talk about them and their relationship. She asks if he was just using her, but he says he meant everything he said. Once he makes the cameraman turn off the camera, Commander Bregman realizes he is getting more agitated. He orders the ground team to prepare for a dramatic entry. They’re ordered to send a message to Lana that the critical shot is imminent. Karl thought they were the same because they carried the guilt of trying to protect people and failing. She tries to tell him about the people who will suffer and that they’ll just cover it up if he kills Ayesha. She tells him he still has a home before they get struggling for the dead man’s switch.

Karl is shot and killed by the sniper. Lana continues holding Karl’s finger down on the switch while Hassan and Danny rush in to deal with the device. Once Hassan cuts the cord, they tell Lana she can let go. A distraught Lana continues holding onto the switch though. She lets go and Danny tries to comfort her. Before long, Lana comes out of the building and tries to collect herself. Thom joins her and holds her hand as she begins sobbing. Later, she meets with Hamilton and Desai as she arrives for a preliminary hearing. She says she has been talking about everything and it helps. Hamilton reveals Karl’s fingerprints were found on John’s mobile device. They believe he sent the texts and convinced John to call the number that armed the bomb at the university. The suicide attempt was set up since there were no drugs or alcohol in his system. Instead, John was knocked out.

When Thom steps outside, he is left with Lana. He tells her Sonya is inside trying to explain what a twisted, stranded wire is. John is awake and claimed he was using to book as a way to track the bomber because he wanted to prove he should’ve been made senior. His story checks out. Thom says he is going to head to the nearby pub for a few drinks. Lana might see him there in a bit. Lana goes in for the hearing. When she goes out, Sonya offers her a coffee and half a donut. Lana admits she was lost after Nut died and thought she had a lot in common with Karl. She thanks Sonya for being there for her and always having her back. They agree to head to the pub.

 

Trigger Point Review

Trigger Point was hyped well before it was released so it had a lot to live up to. I’d suspect most viewers would agree that it never really lived up to the hype and never hit its peak. At first, the bomb-defusing action was pretty fun and intense despite being silly and unrealistic. However, once viewers had seen it the first time, it wasn’t so impactful the next time. The series often got bogged down in the dialogue which was far less interesting than the repetitive bomb threat scenes.

The characters are too shallow to be sympathetic and that includes Lana Washington. Some were almost pointless since we never got to see their personalities. At the very least, I think Warren Brown did pretty well in the finale while playing the villain. The finale wasn’t particularly surprising and it didn’t feel like there was a real climax. The idea behind Karl’s character was interesting although it has been done countless times before.

Truthfully, Trigger Point could be much better. In its current state, it is a good guilty pleasure with many cringes. Since it has apparently been renewed for another season, we can only hope they’ll make enough tweaks to make it worth the second trip. The finale scores a 6 out of 10. Recaps of Trigger Point can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support the Reel Mockery project by following this link.