As this episode of Vigil begins, Amy Silva (Suranne Jones) tries to get Sabiha Chapman (Hiba Medina) to drop the knife. Sabi claims he made her do it. She eventually gives up the knife before Callum Barker (Chris Jenks) receives medical aid. Sam Kader (Oscar Salem) yells at Sabi who claims it is Callum’s fault her dad is dead. Amy calls Kirsten Longacre (Rose Leslie) to tell her about the stabbing. Kirsten says they’re fast-tracking the forensic report on Sabi’s phone. After the call, Kirsten tells her team to put a lookout request on Ross Sutherland. Eliza Russell (Romola Garai) tells Amy there could be nerve damage so Callum may never pilot again.
She needs to find a way to keep the squadron together. Amy wants all CCTV footage from around the base at the time the R-PAS console was taken. She visits Sabi and tries to get information from her. Before Sabi says anything, Amy gets a call that she has to take. Kirsten tells Amy that Sabi was messaging someone who’s not in her contacts. It feels pretty safe to assume she mentions the R-PAS console. In the messages, someone tells Sabi she is the only one who can do it. After the R-PAS was stolen, she messaged them to say it’s done and left where they told her. Amy wonders if she was messaging Callum. After the call, Kirsten asks Daniel Ramsay (Amir El-Masry) about MI5’s search engine for people because she wants to find out everything about Callum.
Amy confronts Sabi and asks why she took the R-PAS console. She shows her security footage of Sabi carrying a bag about ten minutes after the R-PAS was taken. She left the base with the bag and returned half an hour later without it. Sabi claims she was trying to help the people who live there. Callum said her mom is from there so she would’ve wanted her to help them. He said she could help if she got the console to Jabhat Al’huriya. Callum needed her help because he didn’t have clearance. Amy asks if they killed her dad because he knew. Right before they left, Sabi saw her dad fighting with Callum. She came back because she wanted to talk to him. Sabi insists she took it because she thought she was doing the right thing.
Amy searches for evidence before looking at the messages recovered from Sabi’s phone. She searches for “Al Bidbiyat” on her computer. Amy finds a news article about a young football team being killed in a drone strike on the Wudyan border due to an “intelligence error”. Amy goes to the clinic to speak to Callum about Sabi. He insists he didn’t text her because he didn’t have her number. Amy says she believes Sabi was coaxed into stealing the R-PAS that was used in the attack. Amy asks why he has a secret mobile phone, but Callum insists he knows nothing about that. After he denies texting Sabi, he is asked about his argument with Chapman. He claims not to remember. Amy questions whether the 109 Squadron took part in the mission at Al Bidbiyat. He isn’t at liberty to talk about it.
Amy suggests that’s the kind of thing that would turn someone against their squadron. Amy gets nothing from him. Outside, she gets a call from Kirsten who lets her see the ultrasound. They talk briefly about Kristen’s hospital visit. Kirsten tells Amy about finding Ross before he escaped. Amy worries about her until Kirsten abruptly ends the call. At the station, Paul Townsend (Noof Ousellam) tells Kirsten that Sutherland did two tours of Afghanistan and was dismissed with disgrace after the second. Daniel says Callum’s IP was attached to an anonymous account in which he talks about imprisoning people protesting for free speech and LGBTQ laws. He doesn’t say it himself and instead is boosting other posts. They agree to send it over to Amy. Meanwhile, Amy grills Callum after seeing his social media accounts.
He remains adamant that he didn’t do anything. Amy knows he takes the third Thursday night of every month off-base. Callum refuses to say where he was last Thursday. He suggests they should get a lawyer. Ross sneaks up on Kirsten and tells her to step outside. Outside, she tells him that Chapman was framed and the R-PAS was being controlled by someone in Wudyan. She insists they’re seeing him up as a scapegoat. Ross says he had to do what he did to keep people safe and Chapman was a threat. Kirsten says whoever convinced him to do this used him. She wants to know who it is so she can help him. Ross thought doing this would make it better, but he understands he can’t make it better. Amy visits Wes Harper (Jonathan Ajayi) to talk to him about the R-PAS console.
She asks how long it’d take to teach someone how to operate the R-PAS. Wes says it won’t take long at all to teach someone how to blow something up. Colonel Ali Bilali tells Russell that Air Marshal Grainger has been informed and he is coming before Amy interrupts to say the R-PAS has been taken off base. She wants to check out the safe house even though the soldiers have already gone over it. Russell says she can go with Nicole Lawson (Shannon Hayes). Ali says he has been in touch with the local police so they can hand Sabi over to them. He insists he’ll be taking her when Amy is finished with her. In the car, Amy asks Lawson questions about Barker. Lawson says she likes knowing what is going on.
Amy insists she just wants to get answers and get them back to normalcy. She checks the GPS for locations. Lawson explains she’ll have to wait in the car until the Wudyanis give her permission to look inside. Amy goes inside and begins looking around. While she is inside, she sees a young guy who tries to flee. She quickly takes him down until he kicks her and flees. Lawson scolds her for coming inside alone. They find an ID that confirms the guy’s identity as Faisal Ghazali. Amy discovers hidden paperwork that will need translating. Amy asks if Lawson can take her to the address on the car’s sat nav. She forces Lawson to take her there immediately. Once Amy goes inside, she is introduced to Nader Waheed who asks what Sam has done now.
Amy admits she is there to ask about Callum Barker. Nader asks her to leave. Amy goes back to the base where she tells Callum about meeting Nader. Callum says he didn’t mention anything to Sabi. Sam comes in and admits they were arguing about him. He reveals that he and Callum have been together for the last year. Callum maintains his innocence. He says they went to Nader’s house because that’s where they can be together. The phone she found allows them to talk to one another. Callum offers to give her the PIN so she can see for herself. He claims the argument with Chapman was over their relationship. Chapman was tired of covering for them and said they had to stop.
Amy says she’ll do what she can. Sam says he has a briefing to attend. Townsend tells Kirsten and Daniel that Ross isn’t angry or violent through any of his interviews. H was diagnosed with PTSD, but that was way after he left the forces. In an interview, Ross explains his friend was hurt so he decided to take a shot at him. He mentions a charity halfway house that Kirsten wants to check again. Daniel tries to convince Kirsten to let the local teams check it out, but she insists it is fine. Amy speaks to Sabi again. Amy believes they used her and it wasn’t Callum. Sabi pleads with Amy not to let them take her. Sam tells Callum he is scared before someone will say something eventually.
Amy learns that Marcus Grainger has arrived because Sabi stabbed one of his men. Amy says Sabi is their only link to the group besides Firas. Marcus wants to make arrangements to get Sabi on the next flight to the UK. He says they’ve had intel that Abdullah Ghazali is on-site. Amy explains Faisal Ghazali is the one she found at the safe house. Amy watches an operation involving Abdullah. Marcus says they didn’t have anything to connect him to Jabhat Al’huriya until she found those documents. He appears to be their leader. Colonel Bilali joins them to watch the operation. Marcus says they can stop Jabhat Al’huriya from operating if they can stop Ghazali. The operation isn’t Wudyan so they intend to take him out.
Amy asks if that’s what happened in Al Bidbiyat. Before long, they confirm Abdullah Ghazali’s identity. Children get in the way so they can’t take him out. They soon find out that someone has warned Ghazali. Marcus tells Amy to find out who warned him. Kirsten and Daniel check out the charity house. A woman there says she hasn’t seen Ross in years. She insists he hasn’t been back since. Kirsten tells her that he killed an air force officer a few days ago. The woman confesses that Ross is in room number three. Once they burst into the room, Kirsten tries to convince Ross to cooperate with them. Ross doesn’t so he ends up getting shot. Sabi is taken out. Russell confronts Amy who asks who warned him.
She doesn’t believe it was Callum. Russell says Lawson, Kain, and Sadeghi were involved in the operation. Sam Kader was the stand-by pilot. Russell reveals that Ghazali worked at King Nasser University. Kader attended there. Russell says he just asked for permission to leave the base. As they leave the base, Amy suggests Sam told Sabi to steal the console on Ghazali’s orders. Kirsten calls Amy and leaves a message saying she misses her. She apologizes for earlier. Amy and Russell follow Sam’s vehicle. They watch as he meets Ghazali. A man bangs on their window and points a gun at them.
Vigil Review
The third episode of Vigil’s second season was pretty much what you’d expect after the first two dull, tedious episodes. The story just isn’t that interesting and none of the characters are particularly empathetic. It is trying to be overly complicated when in reality this is so similar to so many other television shows.
Take Callum as an example. The character was pretty much a copy of any bad guy from any British television series until the big revelation about his sexuality. There isn’t much chemistry between Kirsten and Amy to the point that their relationship doesn’t seem authentic in the least.
The same can be said for Callum and Sam as well. The series keeps adding more characters and becoming more complicated, yet it hasn’t been worth investing the effort through three episodes. This probably could’ve ended in two episodes and no one would’ve complained. In fact, no one would complain if the second series hadn’t happened.
The episode scores a 4.5 out of 10. Recaps of Vigil are available on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent work at this link. Learn more about advertising on Reel Mockery here. Discuss this series and more with friends at the Reel Mockery Forum.
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.
I made it through the rain (all 6 episodes). Sloppy at best, completely unrealistic, nauseatingly preachy and “in your face” woke. Most of all it was generally very confusing with so many names being bandied about as well as the most convoluted conspiracy ever. It was frustrating to watch and therefore ultimately unsatisfying.
I want to note the most frustrating aspect, which was that they sent a DCI from the UK to a joint military base in a fictional foreign country and apparently she had the authority to arrest and interrogate anyone including military personnel, foreign nationals, MI5 agents, and even one American. And she had this jurisdiction not only in Scotland but in the foreign country both on and off the base, and even over international airspace. I guess maybe King Charles personally annointed her as grand high muckety-muck.
haha. So, I take it I should just stop here and not continue with the rest of it?