As the finale of Trigger Point begins, Lana Washington (Vicky McClure) finds herself held captive by Hope (Bethan Cullinane). She knows Lana is good at her job so she is glad Alex brought her to them in the end. Lana finds Alex (Tomiwa Edun) tied up because they know he has been playing both sides. Alex denies what Hope says. Hope tells Lana that one of the triggers is wired to the detonator in Alex’s helmet. She offers to let Lana live if she chooses one of the triggers. Lana accuses Hope of pushing Thom to his death when he was helping people. Tim (Dan Whitlam) pulls a gun on Lana before Hope pushes the trigger and kills Alex.
When Lana is alone with Alex, she tries to search his pockets. She finds a phone and hides it before being told Hope wants a word with her. Hope asks how much she knows about May 1968. She explains that a group of French students were unhappy about single-sex dorms in the Vietnam War. They started a wave of protests that nearly brought down the entire country. Alex thinks they have everything they need to start an uprising. Hope says, “Under the streets, there is the freedom of the beach.” She wants Lana to deliver the decisive blow. DI Batra (Maanuv Thiara) tells Commander John Francis (Julian Ovenden) that the Home Secretary is coming for a meeting this afternoon.
Batra thinks it’d be best for that to be done remotely. Francis believes she’ll be safe there though. Hope tells Lana that Francis’s pride will eventually give them an opening. With the Home Secretary visiting, Hope says they can decapitate so-called law and order in this country. Lana argues she can’t get into CTHQ. Hope believes Lana will. Lana worries they’re using too many explosives that will cause innocent people to get killed, but Hope argues that all cops are bad. Lana will be going in with a cleaning company. Lana says there is no chance she’s doing this. Jeff (Kevin Eldon) returns home and tells Val (Tamzin Griffin) he has been out. Hope tells Lana that they’ll blow up her parents’ house if they try to leave. Hope warns her she’ll have to do what she says or her parents will die.
Lana calls her father. She tells him about the bomb but promises to get him out. Val tells Jeff that people came yesterday and claimed they were from the Met. He admits he was going to stay out of the way until it blew over before changing his mind. Jeff asks if she can remember where they installed the bomb. Lana messes with Alex’s phone before hiding it behind his body. She leaves with the cleaning crew. She appears to try to free her hands while alone in the back. Then, she looks at the explosive. Lana rushes to change the SIM card with the one from Alex’s phone. When the van stops, she ends up falling. Lana gets the phone on and identifies its number. Hope tells her they’ve increased the security and even have dogs.
Hope orders the driver to turn around. Before long, the van stops elsewhere. Lana tells Hope that she can build a bomb inside out of collected evidence. Lana believes it’d be enough to take out the Home Secretary and everyone within three feet. Hope warns her she’ll kill her parents if she is messing with her. She reveals Alex left them with access to all the main building security cameras inside CTHQ. Lana is given two items to wear so they can communicate with her. Hope gives her a phone to wire to the device so she can remain in control. As Lana walks away, Hope tells her through the earpiece they want to see the inside of the building in one minute. Lana uses the setting to divert the phone number. At the desk, Lana tells the receptionist she is there to see Dr. Reeves but forgot her lanyard.
Lana sets off the metal detector so she is searched manually. Once she makes it through, Sonya (Kerry Godliman) arrives to speak to her. Sonya says she trusts Lana who has a favor to ask. They step into the lift preventing Hope from seeing them. Lana asks Sonya for her pass and OME code. She steps out of the lift and confirms she can still hear Hope. Lana walks over to Danny (Eric Shango) and tells him they’re being watched. She quickly tells him what’s going on before asking for his snips. Lana asks him to get Alice, go to her parents’ house, and do nothing until Sonya calls. Then, Lana begins gathering evidence to make the bomb. Jeff and Val find out more about the bomb while Lana tries to make one. Jeff tells Val he isn’t ready to just give up.
Once the Home Secretary arrives, Francis realizes Lana is there so he wants to know what is going on. Lana tells him that Sonya asked her to stop him. Helen (Natalie Simpson) arrives at CTHQ just before the meeting begins. Francis talks briefly before asking Lana to join him. Batra messages Helen to ask why Lana is in the meeting. Helen checks the CCTV feeds because she believes Lana is up to something. Val apologizes to Jeff and says she just can’t stop grieving. They talk about how they deal with things differently. They agree it’s not their fault for Billy. Helen tells Batra she is on it while Lana speaks to the Home Secretary. Helen gets in touch with a team and they begin escorting people out. Batra learns that armed response has deployed.
Lana is told she is going to have to make a move. She runs forward and knocks Francis down. Hope calls the phone causing the bomb in the van to explode. Lana is taken out by the team. Sonya gives the team to go into Jeff and Val’s house. During an interview, Lana tells Francis how she directed the call. Francis isn’t happy that she risked the home secretary, but Helen argues she saved people. Since Lana gave Francis their location, Tim and the others are arrested. Later, Lana goes out with Sonya even though she isn’t okay. Hassan joins them with drinks. Lana urges Sonya to go speak to one of Danny’s uncles since he is eyeballing her. Lana speaks to Jeff who says Val is doing well. Danny forces Lana to dance with him.
Trigger Point Review
The finale of Trigger Point’s second series was a mixed bag. It was well done in some areas since it flowed effectively and looked good enough. On the other hand, this was very farfetched for what it was and too convenient for Lana in the end. On the surface, it was a decent enough finale, but it probably wasn’t thought out well enough.
As a result, it felt like the whole series went out on a silly whimper. Not to mention it was very cliché to force Lana to begin working for the terrorists. Jeff, Val, and even the home secretary never felt like they were really in any danger so there were never any edge-of-your-seat moments.
Truthfully, the finale ended up being unfulfilling and unsatisfying. It was trying to put together something explosive, but the gaping holes and lack of believability hurt it. The series was at least watchable despite a pretty lackluster story and a lack of any explosiveness.
With the right expectations, viewers may enjoy what is being offered here. If they overthink it or think about it at all, they’re probably going to be disappointed by the plot. The finale scores a 5 out of 10. Recaps of Trigger Point can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link.
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Jay Skelton is a fan of all television shows and movies. He tries his best to keep up with the latest foreign television shows and movies. Jay loves skinny dipping in the dark too.
The switcheroo with the sim cards was at least imaginative so you have to give them a little credit there. They developed Francis as an affable douche that in the end tough he is a douche somewhere in there is a decent enough captain that will have Lana’s back.
If I were running the show I’d have Lana transfered to MI5 to broaden the possibilities with new enemies and such. I’d bring Hassan and Danny up as more interesting characters with much more to contribute. I’d also keep Francis and have have him somehow also working with MI5 or as a liason to the Home Secretary.
They should hire me today as one of the show runners. And pay me $200k per series plus a posh flat in London to stay when I’m working on the show, and a driver to get me around. 😁
Tell me about it. I was a bit disinterested in it so I wasn’t 100% positive what she was doing half the time, but it made sense in the end lol. The series could do so much more with the side characters especially Hassan, Danny, and even Sonya. It is pretty shallow in the sense that Lana is the only one doing anything. Although Danny and Hassan supposedly saved her parents, were never saw any of that.
At this point, I think a couple of high schoolers with a few GoPros could make a more interesting series. At the very least, it’d be original and not the same rehashed stuff. They should sign us up as quality control viewers or something along those lines. If they keep criticism to a vacuum of the same paid critics and the same viewers who will give anything a positive review based on who’s in it, they’ll never create anything worthwhile.
It’s really telling that old shows like the Rifleman had 40 episodes a season and still run for 5 seasons without tiring out. The Andy Griffith Show as well. Yea it was pretty stinky at the end, but still getting 15 million viewers and 30 some episodes a season while still being somewhat original.
Today, it seems like they’re just rushing content out there to have something coming out instead of trying to create the next big thing.
Interesting points and spot on. Traditionally UK crime programs learned heavilly in favor of procedural mysteries… similar to Midsomer Murders. Then shows like Luther, Broadchurch and Line of Duty really upended things and in a positive way. Now its been ten years since and programing at this point feels derivotive and lazy. And of course to some degree has fallen victim to political correctness, inclusion, gender identity, LGBQ etc. Not that social issues are not important. They are. It just always feels on many of these shows they are just wedged in for the sake of just being able to say that they were included. Same has happened in the American film industry. Not sure what the answer is. Hopefully at some point a new Broadchurch or Luther comes along and recasts the die.
Yep that’s pretty much the truth of it unfortunately. I sometimes think some of these productions are big Ponzi schemes when they have a billion executive producers ect. Is it any wonder these shows are costing so much to make? They rarely cast top dollar actors/actresses so the money is going somewhere.
Really, just a bit of clever writing would do the trick even if the budget is minimal. About the political correctness stuff, I think these productions, writers, actors, ect. probably like the anti-woke era. It gives them an excuse to make crap because they’ll always have something to blame, i.e. the anti-woke brigade.
Like Amazon deleting all the reviews for The Rings of Power, but most of those reviews didn’t say anything about it lol. I’ll say it again though, bring back the passion projects and not the corporate production houses just flushing out the same lifeless content. Find writers who genuinely care and want to create good memorable stuff. Unleash them and let them create content without the constraints of political requirements.
There are so many possibilities with human studies, but it’s like people are afraid of those types of stories now. Yet, we keep getting the same old rehashed detective shows and stories over and over. Even when they come up with a decent idea, it tends to revert right back into the same old crap such as After The Flood recently.
They won’t change anything until people really tune out though. Father Brown is a good example of that. 99% of people have hated the last two seasons but they keep watching. As long as you’re tuning in, they don’t care how bad it gets. The budget keeps getting lower just to get more from the return. Why come up with something new and refreshing when the sheeple just keep on gobbling it up? Oh how my faith in humanity is shaken lol.
That’s the very reason the 2-party system works so well lol.