'Trigger Point' Season 2 Brings a New Terrorist Plot & a Whole Lot of Heartbreak

Well, friends, it appears that Lana Washington (Vicky McClure) did not take my advice at the end of Trigger Point Season 1 and get a job working at Starbucks. In the six months that have passed since the first season finale, Lana has not been making lattes, catching up on Ted Lasso, and learning how to knit. (To be fair, if she's got Apple TV+, there was only one season of Severence, which wouldn't take her long to watch.) Alas, she has been in Kosovo training bomb disposal teams. She returns back to London, not precisely healed but not as shattered as she was when viewers last left her. 

She’s in the middle of a corporate talk (“Be alert to the absence of the normal and the presence of the abnormal”) when, naturally, a terrorist attack occurs at a power plant, and she’s pulled right back in. (Welcome home!) She discovers two linked bombs at the power plant gate and gets right to work. However, it turns into an awkward situation because her newly promoted-to-DCI ex-boyfriend, Thom Youngblood (Mark Stanley), and his new partner, DS Helen Morgan (Natalie Simpson), show up. Helen also happens to be Thom’s new girlfriend. (Thom has not learned a thing about not mixing business with pleasure.) Helen seems fine, but she’s also worried that Thom hasn’t told Lana about their relationship when a coordinated terrorist attack seems like a more significant concern. 

There have been other workplace changes since Lana was last in London. Fellow EXPO Hassan Rahim (Nabil Elouahabi) has been in charge of the team while Lana has been away. He’s allowed John Hudson (Kris Hitchen) to come back. “He’s trying to change,” Hass insists. But John hasn’t precisely grown as a person, telling Lana that he “has nothing to apologize for” while reminding her that she “screwed a terrorist.” A real charmer that John. Honestly, the only good news anyone has is Danny (Eric Shango), who is getting married in two weeks and three days. 

There’s also a new commander, John Francis (Julian Ovenden), who says things like, “Great to see a woman in the job” (😡😡😡) while referring to the “disruptor” as “the diffuser.” Thom tries to tell her to go easy on the new commander (you can imagine how well that goes over), but seriously, there are more critical issues right now. The terrorists are streaming their attacks via drone footage with the message, “We are taking back power for the people.”

The drone that filmed the attacks was launched from an abandoned warehouse, so naturally, everyone jumped in their cars and speeds over there. None of them seem to understand that Lana and her team need to clear the building first or consider this might be a trap. Thom and Helen show up on the same floor as Lana, much to her consternation, just as another bomb goes off, killing John Hudson. (Although Lana didn’t like him, no one wanted him to die this way.) In the confusion, Thom (who shouldn’t have been up there in the first place!) steps on a flattened cardboard box, covering — you guessed it — the trigger for another bomb. 

If Thom steps off the cardboard, the bomb will go off, setting off a chain reaction because there are bombs hidden everywhere. He is understandably freaking out. “Listen to me. I’m in control,” Lana tells him. “I’m in charge. I know what I’m doing.” When that doesn’t calm Thom down, Lana gets personal. “I love you, I always have, and I always will. Nothing will ever change that, so I’m not letting you go anywhere. All right?” Lana disables the bomb, and Thom kisses her. (Welp, sorry, Helen.) But there’s no time for post-bomb threat canoodling because suddenly, a drone is aimed right at them. Thom manages to be helpful for a minute and shoots the drone down. 

As the next episode begins, the team arrests a man by the name of Nicholas Hood (Thom Ashley), who they found on the roof next to the abandoned building. He’s not one to give up information and thinks quite highly of himself. When questioned by Helen, he tells her he’ll be a Stanford or Harvard in a few years, “breeding the next generation of scientists.” Lana and Thom go to where he lives — he had been renting a room from a couple with a baby. Lana finds a bag of electronics taped to the bottom of the baby’s crib. Thom, truly never one to read the room, takes the opportunity to ask if Lana meant it when she said she loved him. 

Helen interviews the one surviving employee from the power plant, Joe Hansen (Lee Colley), and asks if the squad should check in on his wife or, better yet, bring her here. Turns out it’s not his wife he’s worried about. Hansen is far more concerned about his girlfriend, Zara, who the wife doesn't know about. The terrorists had called and said they had kidnapped her, and she would die if he didn’t override all the failsafes that were in place. Lana and her team do a welfare check on Zara (Victoria Lloyd), only to discover her trapped inside, with a bomb around her neck. 

Lana, always remarkably calm in a crisis, tries to disarm the bomb, but there’s not enough time left on the countdown. She must run as the bomb goes off and the woman explodes. Thom tries to comfort Lana, insisting she did everything she could. “I lept out of the way; that’s what I did,” Lana tells him. However, she does take the opportunity to answer his badly-timed question from earlier: she loves him and wants to try again. “Me too,” Thom says, forgetting it seems all about Helen. (I think we’ve all watched enough TV to know this kind of heartfelt reconciliation doesn’t bode well for Thom’s future in the series.)

We are introduced to a man, credited as Alex (Tomiwa Edun), who comes home and lights a candle beneath pictures of a young girl. (We can only assume that this is his daughter.) His mobile rings and a voice says, “You did a great job, but now it’s time to get your hands dirty.” He heads out, meets an unmarked van, and gets in. 

Speaking of dads! Lana’s dad, Jeff (Kevin Eldon), is in her apartment when she gets home under the guise that he’s been looking after it while she’s been gone. It turns out that’s just an excuse because he’s been staying at Lana’s apartment because he and Lana’s mother are having issues. That’s understandable; their son died in an explosive car bomb in the show’s first season. Lana promises her dad that she will talk to her mom. But that will have to wait, as a call comes in claiming there is a bomb in an elevator in an office building with people trapped between the fifth and sixth floor. 

Upon arrival, Lana evacuates the elevator, except for one man who refuses to leave—not because he’s one of the bombers but because “I choose not to be intimidated by these meaningless threats.” Lana gives up and gives him a bomb blanket. There’s no bomb in this elevator, just something to jam the mechanism, but our tough-talking friend has wet himself. But just as everyone relaxes, there’s a loud noise. Thom goes running back up to see what’s happened. Someone in full uniform tells him a bomb has gone off and takes him up to one of the elevators. She looks down and tells Thom he needs to look for himself. He goes to look over the edge of the elevator shaft, only to be pushed from behind. With that, Thom, the man Lana loves and who she saved all of one episode ago, falls to his death. 

Trigger Point Season 2 continues with two episodes every Thursday through September 18, 2024, on BritBox.