The Capture episode one delivered on its promise of being “the next Bodyguard” last week. We were introduced to the mind-boggling world of national surveillance and intelligence. Although it was arguably quite slow moving to start with, it set a tense scene and ended with a cliff-hanger that made the audience question everything we’d just been watching. The series is pinned on the idea of living in a “fake-news” era, after all. 

To quickly recap The Capture episode one:

Shaun Emery (Callum Turner), is the solider who has just been released early from prison. He was originally arrested on the charge of murdering a member of the Taliban while serving in Afghanistan, which was captured on video. But, after the video was played in court, his defence attorney Hannah Roberts proved that there was a “technical glitch” with the evidence. This led to Shaun being pardoned.

Meanwhile, freshly promoted and ambitious DI Rachel Carey (Holliday Grainger), struggled to assert power in her new team. It was quickly put to the test when she was put on a new case: lawyer Hannah has gone missing, and there is CCTV footage showing Shaun to be the perpetrator.

But when Rachel showed Shaun the tape, he gave a convincing reaction of innocence, claiming he did not kidnap Hannah and saying that the recording must have been tampered with. Viewers were left asking: is Shaun lying to himself (due to the trauma of what happened in Afghanistan), or has someone really interfered with the CCTV footage?

Although episode two provided some vague answers to the questions we had last week, it left us feeling even more confused about what the hell is going on.

The Capture episode two recap, reactions and questions:

Catch up here…

The CCTV evidence showing Shaun Emmery kidnapping Hannah Roberts is redacted

Rachel receives a phone-call from her new boss DCI Alex Boyd telling her there’s a problem with the CCTV footage in the Emery case – it’s been redacted by M15. She’s left with just five hours to find evidence or get Shaun to confess, or else she’ll have to release him without charge. There are two problems: there is zero evidence without the CCTV footage and Shaun is denying everything. As a last resort, Rachel rings her former boss (who she’s been having an affair with) for advice. But he’s being suspiciously shifty about how she should just “let it go”.

Shaun doesn’t know where Hannah is, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t involved

After his release, the first thing Shaun does is go and see his estranged daughter, who he promised to pick up from school before getting arrested. He then heads home and tries to ring Hannah, which suggests that he really doesn’t know where she is. But, as he nods off, he has further flashbacks of the previous night, which show Hannah trying to get away from his grip. Is this just his mind playing tricks on him?

Rachel asks if this is linked to a terror case

After learning that there is no trace of Hannah’s DNA in Shaun’s car, Rachel says what we’re all thinking: none of this makes sense. She starts to think that the people who redacted the evidence are involved, and runs a background check on the woman who told DCI Boyd to redact the CCTV evidence – to no avail. Assuming that she was from M15, Rachel asserts that these kinds of things are dropped when there is a national terror threat associated with it. 

Shaun decides to try and find Hannah himself

“Don’t do it, Shaun”” we all yell, as he asks his friend to help him break into Hannah’s flat for clues on what’s happened to her. And he’s not the only one who’s doing something he shouldn’t: Rachel’s team is following him, while Rachel keeps on eye on everything via a surveillance room. But Shaun isn’t alone when he enters the flat.  He soon chases after a man who appears to be stealing jewellery from the Hannah’s room. 

Shaun goes on a taxi ride from hell, and things get super weird

Shaun chases the “thief” by hailing down a taxi and following him in his car. Meanwhile, Rachel’s team are right behind them in another car. Shaun’s taxi driver seems like a cheery and chatty cabbie, until he intentionally stops following the car, locks the doors and goes silent. He pulls up to a house and a frightened Shaun is met by a group of men who tell him to cooperate while they escort him into a building. Rachel can see all this as it happens on the CCTV she is watching, and she directs her team to find him at that address. But when they arrive: Shaun isn’t there. “He’s there, I can see him,” a confused Rachel shouts. But when she turns up to see for herself, she realises that what she watched on screen wasn’t what was happening in real life. 

We finally get a glimpse of who is behind all this confusion

Once inside the house, Shaun is escorted to a room. He walks past a room that is full of people watching and working on surveillance equipment. He also walks past the man who was inside Hannah’s flat, confirming that it was all a set up to lure Shaun to this building. Although it’s clear that these are the people who are behind all the CCTV confusion, we still don’t know who they are, what they’re up to or why they’re doing it. 

Phew, that was a lot to take in. And what another great cliffhanger. 

But we still have plenty of questions, including:

– Who is the organisation that has Shaun?

– What is M15’s involvement with the case?

– Who tampered with the tape/s and why?

– Is this because of a terror threat? 

– Is Rachel’s old boss (and former lover) involved in this?

– Is Hannah still alive? Is she involved? 

Twitter’s reaction to The Capture episode two

It’s comforting to know that everyone else seems to be as confused as we are…

Next week might provide us with some answers to these questions. Or, it might just get even more confusing. Either way: we’ll be watching.

Still need to catch up? Here’s a trailer for The Capture to pique your interest

Images: BBC