Everything to Remember for 'COBRA' Season 3

It's been two years since PBS last aired COBRA, a drama that has nothing to do with snakes, thank goodness. "COBRA" stands for Cabinet Office Briefing Room A, where the U.K. government convenes in a crisis. (Yes, the term is used even if the meeting is in Cabinet Office Briefing Room B, C, etc.) It’s a handy acronym, and “Convening for a COBRA” has a nice, efficient ring to it. However, this political drama series' manifestation of 10 Downing Street has plenty of reptiles of the human variety. The format for the show is one substantial major disaster per season, which spawns more minor disasters and then gets fixed by some bit of cumbersome political wrangling, frequently tipping into the illogical.

While the series is a fun thrill ride to watch, the over-the-top disasters, half of which are forgotten by the end of the season's six episodes, make the plot lines seem insubstantial. It's not a show that bears examining too closely. Season 1, which was retroactively subtitled Blackout, featured a massive solar flare that knocked out everything except cell phones, which really seemed like cheating, while Season 2, Cyberwar, took out cell phones, banks, car satnav, and most of the Kent coastline. It’s entertaining enough, but like many mysteries, the politics are deeply secondary to the characters despite them mostly being Conservatives. (But nice Conservatives, we’re frequently reminded!) 

For instance, Prime Minister Robert Sutherland (Robert Carlyle) comes from a fairly ordinary background, has vaguely progressive beliefs, and has appointed many women to lead government positions. His Chief Advisor, Anna Marshall (Victoria Hamilton), tries to recruit an up-and-coming Labour Party star, Francine Bridge (Marsha Thomason), who tells her she makes the Tories sound like Narnia (in a good sort of way). We also become interested in whether Robert and Anna’s long ago student romance will once more flame into life as his marriage deteriorates because they are so very attuned to each other.

For comic relief, there is one real, scenery-chewing old-style character with complicated plans for Robert’s downfall, the ever-rising Archie Glover-Morgan (David Haig). In Season 1, he wanted to get rid of Anna; in Season 2, it was Eleanor James (Lisa Palfrey), head of MI-5. However, if Archie is old school, Home Secretary Joseph Obasi (Richard Pepple) is the new sort of Tory voice, an ambitious Black man on his way up the social and political ladder. 

In Season 1, Robert spends a bit too much time staring at screens (real or green), his face a rictus of horror, as he watches Britain fall apart along with his personal life. His troublesome, privileged teenage daughter, Ellie (initially played by Marisa Abela but now played by Holly Cattle), went on trial for a drug offense, served a prison term, and fled to Chile on release. His lawyer wife, Rachel (Lucy Cohu), most likely coached her daughter for her trial, but she was found not guilty, although Archie worked hard to expose her.

However, Robert’s scandals were outweighed by his promise that the country he would turn on the lights again, which he did, even though the northeast of England (traditionally neglected by Conservative governments) was last in line for power. In one bad lapse of judgment, Robert ordered troops to fire on a crowd holding up the passage of a transformer on the Motorway, a plotline that carried into Season 2. Still, he was cleared by a government inquiry and won an election for a second term, although with a smaller margin, defeating the Labour Party’s dynamic new leader, Chris Edwards (Andrew Buchan).

But before his re-election, Season 2’s Cyberwar started with a bang, as a World War II-era shipwreck loaded with explosives in the Thames Estuary blew up, creating a tsunami that destroyed a large portion of Kent with multiple casualties. But that’s not all. As the title implies, an unnamed foreign power released a cyber attack, Cyclamen, on the country. Downed communication systems made search and rescue efforts in Kent almost impossible. Worse, it was discovered (somewhat too late) that the security system at the port of Dover was attacked, meaning trucks from all over Europe entered the country unscanned. 

There was a bit of a panic over a truck with radioactive blueberries aboard until it was determined the fruit was grown in the Chornobyl exclusion zone. But one truck was found parked under Waterloo station, and inside was a highly irradiated corpse. Food panics began, with people afraid of shortages and/or unsafe food. We never learn why the ancient ship exploded, though frakking is mentioned multiple times, as the malware attack acts as a diversion. 

The actual answer to the cyberattacker is a convoluted answer that involves America and China, but predictably, extreme conspiracy theories became widespread, dominated by the nationalist Firestorm movement. Robert tries to thread the needle with this group to keep his majority supporting the election bid of a notoriously right-wing, racist candidate to replace an MP who was killed in the Kent disaster. In response, Francine returned to the Labour Party, where she ran for the same seat, requiring Robert’s fixer, Peter Mott (Edward Bennett), to clean it up and give Francine the win. 

The election is further complicated when Francine publicly suggests Robert’s exoneration was due to bribery, causing a Firestorm activist to murder the report’s lead writer on a live stream. Rachel Sutherland is also implicated in the death of a Russian oligarch, who gets randomly killed off and forgotten about. She fled the country to join her daughter in Chile. Robert blamed Anna for Rachel’s departure and fired her. Surprisingly, Archie talked Robert down, told him that Anna would never betray him, and begged Anna to return. But that’s because Archie feared Obasi was becoming too powerful and preferred that Robert stayed in power. Anna and Robert were reconciled with fervent hugs and tears.

COBRA’s Season 2 finale added another cyber attack, Cerberus, which led Robert to address the nation as it threatened a nuclear power station. Eleanor’s only solution was to launch a counterattack with her big gun, Heracles, the only problem being that it might send false signals to nuclear bunkers worldwide. Of course, she doesn’t launch it, as it suddenly stops just in time. Heracles was put back in the box for another exciting opportunity, nuclear destruction averted. But it’s not over, as Francine and Anna, who’d been at Labour headquarters, left the building as a bomb exploded in the parking garage, leaving the latter badly injured and ending Season 2 on a subdued note.

Season 3 of COBRA, subtitled Rebellion, debuts Thursday, July 25, 2024, at 10 p.m. ET on the PBS app, the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel, and technically on linear. However, Thursdays have not typically been a day most PBS stations follow the national schedule since the end of Mystery! in 2007, so check those local listings! The entire season has been available as an early release for members on PBS Passport since May 2024 and will remain there for those who wish to check out what the Tories are up to now.