'The Tower's Second Episode Brings Twists, Deception & Danger to "Gallowstree Lane"

In this week’s episode of BritBox’s The Tower, Ryan Kennedy is still shaken by memories of the murder of his best friend, Spencer. Unlike his sister Tia (Rawdat Quadri), he doesn’t believe in the authorities and prepares to take revenge with a knife, which he keeps hidden in a downspout outside their flat. When DS Sarah Collins and DC Lee Coutts visit, he’s caught with it on his person, and Sara immediately catches him making the unmistakable gesture of reaching for a weapon. It’s an illegal “zombie knife” (the street term for a weapon over eight inches long with more than two sharp points), so he hands it over.

Sara: I’ve hit a wall of silence in the community which I’ve come to expect. I’m also hitting a wall of silence in the police which I didn’t expect, which isn’t right. I don’t care about task forces of secret operations. I care about two young lives, I care about the law. 

DI Kieran Shaw is growing increasingly nervous that Sarah’s investigation will derail his baby, Operation Perseus, and is upset with Lizzie, who gave Sarah the license plate number of the suspicious white Volkswagen Touareg Ryan jumped into the other day. She reminds him that Sarah is investigating the murder of a child. Shaw proves he’s lost the ability to view the situation normally by pulling up his collection of mug shots of young offenders who are pressed into working primarily as small-time gangsters for their family businesses, which have survived on drug-related crimes for multiple generations. She’s sympathetic that his wife kicked him out, unaware it’s because he insisted she continue working with him. (He’s not worth it, Lizzie. Don’t.) 

DC Elaine Lucas calls Sarah to the site of the murder of Lexie Moss, one of the young girls who lived in Ryan’s building, killed in a brutal hit-and-run overnight. We still don’t know why Lexie threatened Shakiel Oliver’s operations, but there’s every possibility he killed her to make a point. Shakiel has a typical history of taking revenge – sometimes waiting for several years, usually staging them in crowded places where onlookers are too afraid to act as witnesses. He’s an unusual gangster with no bling or swagger. Instead, he lives an authentic upper-class lifestyle, including sending his children to public school.

DS Ash Curren was the cop who identified Lexie, so he and Sarah visit her apartment, where she has a flashback to Season 1 and the still-unexplained falling deaths. Ryan, off on his bike, visits one of Lexie’s grieving friends, Michelle Jones (Terri Reddin), who is convinced Shakiel is responsible. He heads back and goes straight to undercover cop DC Steve Bradshaw, who also resides in the Tower Block. Steve is on the phone with Kieran when Ryan arrives. The two are trying to decide how to handle Shakiel, who hinted he knows about Operation Perseus and if that means there’s a leak. Ryan tells Steve he witnessed Spencer’s death and can’t stop thinking about it. His only clue is that the killer had a bird tattoo on his hand. Meanwhile, Sarah’s team traced the VW, which was rented under a false name, with a fake license plate and a stolen VIN, but whose driver is at least identifiable from the CCTV.

Sarah receives a call from Kieran’s ex-wife, Mary, asking to meet face-to-face to discuss the Tower. Sarah gently reminds Mary that she is no longer in that case and can’t agree to Mary’s conditions. The Crown Prosecution Services won’t reopen the case unless significant evidence comes to light—Mary tries to assure her it does—however, Sara responds that by coming forward now, she could be in legal trouble for withholding evidence. Mary threatens to take it to the press if Sarah doesn’t respond in 24 hours.

As always, the trail (such as it is) leads back to the Tower. Sarah and Elaine find themselves visiting the basement of the building, where they run into the elderly white-haired man who was so critical of the police at the press conference and who now demands to speak with them. To Elaine's surprise, Sarah tells him she’ll talk to him later. As they leave, she admits that was a lie; she has a feeling they are interrupting an undercover police operation and should probably steer clear of the building for a bit.

In good news, Lizzie isn’t sitting around pining for Kieran; she’s got another love interest, Sgt. Arif Johar (Michael Karim), who she uses for information just as much as Shaw, calling him for details about Lexie’s murder. Armed with his intel and Ryan and Steve’s conversation transcription, she confronts Kieran, demanding to know why Lexie wasn’t protected (or at least warned). They argue about whether Shakiel should be held responsible now, as Lizzie wants, or whether they should hold the arrest until the violence escalates, which Shaw assumes will occur when the gun shipment arrives. Unfortunately, Shaw is right: at the moment, Shakiel is untouchable, and Lexie is just another statistic. Furious that Shaw is withholding information relevant to Sarah’s case, Lizzie won’t give up and goes to interview Michelle, but the girl won’t talk to her.

Lizzie returns home defeated, only to run into Sarah on her way out, who stops to coo at the baby and ask Lizzie who her new boss is. She also wants help searching for witnesses and asks about Michelle. Sarah suspects Spencer and Lexie’s murders are connected, but no one is talking. Lizzie counters that it’s always black-and-white for Sarah; sometimes, people have too much at stake to talk. However, Lizzie does give Sarah a break in the case, identifying the CCTV shot from the car rental as Ujal Jarral, Shakiel’s right-hand man.

On his way home from the corner store, Steve is flagged down by Shakiel and invited for a ride. He claims he has ice cream in his bag that needs to be put in the refrigerator to pop upstairs and grab a recorder and a memory stick. Upon getting in the car, Shakiel starts going on and on about his first-world problems with soup spoons. For Shakiel, it seems to be about upward mobility, but he’s acting nervous, wondering if he’s pushing his luck and if it’s time to get out. What does Steve think? Steve deflects, claiming it’s way over his head, and counters by asking what Ujal thinks. Shakiel expresses his contempt for Ujal before ordering Steve out of the car. They’ve arrived at his boys’ school, and he wants to keep them out of all this.

Sarah, Lee, and Elaine, accompanied by uniformed officers, visit Ujal’s house. He’s not home, but Elaine and a couple of uniforms at the back of the house catch him running out. There’s a hilarious moment when Elaine, after expressing disinterest in the raid, opens her car door and knocks Ujal down. Ujal’s wife refuses to cooperate, telling them the garage key has been lost, and ignores Sarah’s advice to hire a lawyer. But the Ujals’ small daughter oh-so-helpfully gets the key from inside the house, and inside is the VW. Ujal is arrested and charged with murder. Sarah goes home and shares the humor of the garage key story with Julie. She also mentions that the Portland Tower case is coming up again, but she can’t discuss it.

While this is happening, Steve turns in his recording, which Lizzie transcribes, and then hands it to Kieran, who seems to have a moment of real doubt upon reading it. What will he do if Shakiel pulls out and disappears out of reach? Shaw’s also trying not to fret about his visit from DCI Tim Baillie, who warned him Mary visited the station wanting to talk about Portland Tower, while Lizzie tells him Mary claims to have new evidence. Kieran should worry that his wrongdoings will be revealed, but he dismisses Mary’s turning up as part of this rough patch in their marriage and Lizzie as trying to hurt him. Instead, Shaw focuses his fear by blaming Sarah and goes to see her, accusing Sarah of encouraging his wife. He also recognizes Julie, realizing she was the teacher of the young girl who died in Season 1, and starts wildly accusing Sarah of bias and misconduct. She tells him to leave.

That night, Steve, now in line to be Shakiel’s second-in-command, is woken by Mitko (Petar Cvirn), who has a loaded gun pressed against his head. Steve obediently follows Mitko and is taken outside. Ominously, he’s told he won’t need shoes.

The Tower Season 3: Gallowstree Road continues with new episodes every Thursday on BritBox through mid-October 2024.