Trigger Point Series 2 Episode 3 Recap

As this episode of Trigger Point begins, a distraught Lana Washington (Vicky McClure) walks through the offices and sits down on a bench. A woman calls to ask about the officer killed. Outside, Lana and Helen Morgan (Natalie Simpson) watch as the body is carried out on a stretcher. The journalist receives a package that she begins cutting open but stops. After the intro, Lana stares at Helen while Commander John Francis (Julian Ovenden) talks about catching the person responsible to honor Thom’s memory. At a café, a woman sits with Oliver and asks him about his food. DI Amar Batra (Maanuv Thiara) says the explosion last night took place in the data server room of Tratea Global Analytics.

The company has been accused of obtaining and using personal data illegally. Francis says they need to get answers. Batra says the team is working on CCTV right now. The woman, Hope, at the café keeps Oliver distracted while someone else seems to switch his bag. Alex receives a message. The journalist opens the box and finds a clock or timer inside. Sonya checks on Lana who receives a call from her dad. Lana tells him that her mom isn’t calling her back. She promises to try again. She joins the others before Francis says he just briefed the home secretary. They go over the events leading up to the explosion and Thom’s death. An engineer was called in to deal with the lift, but his vehicle was stolen and he has since been reported missing.

The terrorists used his pass to gain access to the building and the lift. They managed to use ANPR to track the movement of the stolen van. A caller using voice altering software called about 20 minutes ago to claim he has vital intelligence on the group. He is supposed to call them back. As for Nick Hood, he has wiped his life clean. Helen says he flew to Poland about a year ago and played in the Krakow Chess Open. He played on the first day but didn’t attend for the rest of the week. He reentered the United Kingdom through Dover about a week later. Sonya says the TNT, TM 200, was from Eastern Europe. Francis wants to know everything he did that week. The team watches CCTV footage of Thom being pushed.

Lana goes to the bathroom to collect herself. She learns they have a call. Before long, she arrives at the news agency and sees the timer. Lana tells Hassan Rahim that she doesn’t want to use a disruptor because that could destroy forensic evidence. Lana uses X-ray to check the device and clear it. She finds a hidden message saying, “Welcome to the labyrinth”. Francis speaks to the journalist in hopes of convincing her to keep the incident quiet. She says the public deserves to be informed and someone in the newsroom will leak it anyway. Lana meets Batra at the site where the van was last tracked by ANPR. Once she goes inside, she finds a man with his finger on a trigger. Lana quickly finds out that it is a hoax device.

Nick passes a note to his solicitor. Meanwhile, Francis and the others talk about the real lift engineer, Gerard Fisher. Sonya admits the property was wiped clean. They found a tiny wire that corresponds with the type that was used on the bombs. They found a possible diagram among the burnt material. The terrorists are using advanced circuitry. It’s stuff they’ve never seen before. Sonya sent the diagram to Porton Down. The caller calls Batra again and says he hasn’t hurt anyone. He wants to meet at Wargrave Square so he can give them information. The caller agrees to let them send a detective and an expo. Francis wants Lana and Helen to go. Helen tries to get information about the recent device from Nicholas. She asks him what the cryptic message means to him.

Helen talks to him about Krakow and the chess tournament. She tells him about the CCTV and promises they’ll find the person who pushed Thom. Helen wonders if they’ll sell out Nicholas. She thinks he should go first. Nicholas argues she is underestimating him because he has one or two moves left up his sleeve. He yells, “Sous les paves, la plage”. Oliver gets a message from Hope asking when he is free. Helen and Lana wait for the tipster to show up. Helen says Nicholas lost his cool when she told him about Thom. She tells Lana what Nicholas was saying and what it meant. The tipster calls and reminds Helen he told her to come alone. He knows her full name and address. Alex complains that she lied before hanging up.

As they head back, Lana and Helen speak about Thom. Alex calls and tells them to walk to the junction and cross over. They follow his instructions and meet with him. Alex says he doesn’t have long because they’ll send a car and put a bag over his head. He explains that call themselves The Wave, but he has never seen their faces. They believe society is unjust and they’re riding on the current wave of discontent. They want to sweep away the whole corrupt system. As for Alex, he just wants justice. Alex says he hates violence and had nothing to do with the officer’s death. He hacked the CCTV at the power station and disabled it. He used drones since he knows nothing about explosives. Alex offers to help them catch The Wave in exchange for immunity.

Lana gets upset and accuses him of being just as responsible for Thom’s death. Alex insists he is trying to put things right. He says The Wave is messing with their heads. Francis scolds Lana and Helen when they get back. Helen explains that Alex is willing to stay on the inside and feed them information. Francis asks Batra to give everything they have on Nick to Alex. Lana learns her mom is downstairs. Lana goes downstairs to speak to her mother who knows about Thom. Her mom doesn’t want her coming around the house because things are all wrong and she doesn’t want her in the middle of it. Her mom insists it is awful with her dad right now. Oliver gets ready to meet Hope who approaches Alex.

She says she thought it was time they met properly. They want Alex to set up a system with 12 cameras that will transmit top quality images in real time. First, they want him to upload something and ensure it can’t be traced back to them. Lana speaks to her father before watching the latest video with the others. Sonya tells Francis that Porton Down isn’t sure the image was a circuit diagram. Helen suggests it could be their first mistake. She wonders if the paper may include a map. Francis asks for a plan of every underground. After a while, Batra finds something. He tells Francis it’s The Strand. Francis says the target is a cable fiber network worth billions to the financial sector and the treasury. It’s right under Central London. Once they go underground, they find a possible IED.

Lana checks out a pressure plate. Alex looks at pictures of Nick Hood. He notices that a man with him in one photo looks like Oliver. Lana carries out a controlled explosion. Lana says it’s a hoax device. Alex snaps a picture of Oliver. A tripwire is found in the underground. That explosive is dealt with too. Lana confirms both were hoax devices. They look around with night vision goggles to avoid triggering light sensors. Before long, Lana finds an IED and a light sensor. While trying to cover the sensor, it ends up being triggered. Lana begins rushing to prevent the bomb from exploding. Hassan struggles as the sand continues dipping lower. It turns out to be okay. Then, they find a message taunting them. Lana finds and destroys a camera. Hope tells Alex to upload this.

Lana believes their movement activated the device. She wonders if Nick’s slip was actually deliberate. They theorize that the solicitor gave him an instruction from the outside. Lana says there has to be another bomb because the time hasn’t run out yet. Outside, Lana and Helen get the same taunting picture. Alex calls to tell them about Oliver although he doesn’t know who he is. Batra runs the message through facial recognition software while Oliver attends a meeting. Batra confirms the man’s name is Oliver Jenkins. He is the special advisor to Cabinet Minister Matthew Palfrey. He works at Carlyle House just off the Strand. Lana and Helen rush to the scene while Oliver’s meeting continues. Oliver gets another message from Hope. When he opens it, the bomb explodes. Helen and Lana see the aftermath of the explosion.

 

Trigger Point Review

This episode of Trigger Point was easily better than the last because the characters at least seemed functional here. There were only one or two spots where they did something stupid. I am still not emotionally invested due to the shallow story that is really all glitz and glamour with no substance. It’s hard to know what they’re trying to achieve with Lana’s mom and dad but it hasn’t been effective through three episodes.

The villains have only been barely introduced at this point. Although we’re supposed to know what they’re doing, it seems like they’re just aimlessly blowing things up at this point. The scenes in which Lana disarms explosives are quickly becoming tiresome because they’re being overused and simplified.

Even when one of the characters gets blown up, it seems to matter very little considering we know nothing about the character in question. Zara was a good example of this since she was only there to be blown up. Thom’s death should’ve mattered more but it hasn’t been fleshed out enough. A lot of people were killed at the end of the episode, yet viewers aren’t going to feel bad about it in the least. I genuinely think this would’ve been more effective if it was one villain per episode because it’s so easy to stop caring.

If the story wasn’t working well in one episode, it wouldn’t matter because another one would be presented in the next. With the right attitude and expectations, Trigger Point remains watchable. At this stage though, it’s just a run-of-the-mill ITV series that won’t leave a lasting impact. The episode scores a 5.5 out of 10. Recaps of Trigger Point are available on Reel Mockery here.

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