This Passenger episode 1 recap contains spoilers... Andrew Buchan is best known for his acting roles in Broadchurch and The Honourable Woman, but he's turned his hand to screenwriting in this darkly comic ITV thriller. Set in the fictional Lancashire village of Chadder Vale, the tale begins when a local girl, Katie Wells (Rowan Robinson) goes missing on a woodland lane one snowy night.
It’s up to local police detective Riya Ajunwa (Wunmi Mosaku, who won a BAFTA for 2016 drama Damilola, Our Loved Boy), to find out what’s going on, yet she and everyone else is shocked when Katie returns the next day as if nothing’s happened. However when the incident proves the trigger for a series of strange happenings and shocking crimes, fear and paranoia begin to spread throughout the community.
After watching the first episode, it's safe to say we have a few questions!
What was in that lorry?
The series begins with Kane Jackson driving a lorry down a snowy woodland lane and stopping after hearing a banging noise coming from the back of his rig. After spying a strange dark liquid dripping from the side of the vehicle, he jumps back in the cab and leaves sharpish.
When he arrives at the Jumbo Bread factory, he cautiously knocks on the back of the lorry. "We’re ready for you now," he says, voice faltering, before donning a gas mask and opening the door. When he moves the bread, he’s shocked by what he sees (or doesn’t see) behind the crates, but what was in the lorry and why did Kane need the gas mask?
Meanwhile, Mehmet Shah and Katie Wells are in The Dog & Duck, when her boyfriend John Trowbridge walks in and takes exception to the pair sharing a drink together. "He’s your best mate John!" screams Katie after John smashes him in the mouth before she leaves her man by the side of the road to drive Mehmet home.
While driving through the woods, she comes to a screeching halt when something lands on the bonnet of her car. With Mehmet passed out on the back seat, she gets out to take a look. We can hear disturbing sounds coming from the woods, which sound like a wild animal, and in the car Mehmet’s eyes suddenly open.
Outside the car, Katie walks through the woods, where she meets some sort of growling monster. Eeeek!
Why is it so cold in Chadder Vale?
As DS Riya Ajunwa makes her way through the village, we hear about the unseasonably cold weather that’s gripped Chadder Vale over the last couple of weeks on her car radio. "Yet have you noticed how the snow never sticks?" says the presenter, before Riya gets out and walks up some steps, with a youngster smiling as she goes past. What’s going on in Chadder Vale?
At the gym, she meets the rather miserable owner, Tony Corrigan, before winning a contest with Jakub. He’s not a sore loser and afterwards, he presents her with a cake as it's her 40th birthday.
When she gets to the police station to see her fellow officers, it’s clear there’s not much been going on in Chadder over the last few months — unless you count a cat with a cough and a stolen ladder of course. "Why does all the juicy stuff go to Manchester?" says Riya when Chief Constable Linda Markel arrives. "What about the missing Swedish girl, Nina Karlsson? I could do that," she asks, before being told the case is now closed as she was spotted a few days ago. But where did she go and how come she’s back? We feel it’s important.
However, there is something new to report, as Eddie Wells is getting out today. We’re not sure who he is or what he’s done, but his release after five years of a 10-year sentence clearly isn’t welcome. “It takes a sick mind to do what he did!” says CC Markel.
What did Eddie Wells do?
Elsewhere the manager of Chadder’s new fracking site, Jim Bracknell, collects the post as protestors gather outside his gates. There’s an effigy of him hanging from a noose and he calls Ria to report the incident. "I need protection," he tells her. He seems to blame Mehmet for it all.
However, he does present Ria with a birthday present that will hopefully ward off evil spirits, which is fortunate, because we think she’ll need it pretty soon. “You never know what’s round the corner,” he says prophetically.
He’s more right than he knows because Riya soon breaks the news that Eddie Wells has been released from prison, which is clearly a hammer blow for Jim. “He’s a f****** monster!” he shouts. “I’ve lost my family and he gets leniency, that isn’t justice. He’ll be coming for you, he’ll be coming for us all!” But what did Eddie Wells do?
What does Riya's flashback mean?
At Katie’s house we learn that she didn’t return home last night and the police soon find the car she borrowed from her mum on the woodland road, with a dismembered stag nearby. Did Katie collide with the stag or is that the work of the monster? And what’s that “black liquid” on it?
There’s no sign of Mehmet in the car though and when Riya takes a wander in the woods she suffers a flashback to her youth, where she’s hiding under a bed. But what does it mean?
Meanwhile Mehmet wakes up at his mum’s chip shop. Riya pops in to ask him if he was at the fracking site last night, but if he was there he had a busy evening! Later on, he’s playing an old school computer game when his best pal John arrives, presuming Katie stayed around his last night. She didn’t.
Across the village, at the Jumbo Bread factory, Derek Jackson comes into the office to find he’s been nominated for Lancashire Businessman of the Year. “Did the delivery go okay?” he says when his brother Kane arrives back. “Yeah” lies Kane. He wants someone else to do the driving from now on, but Derek refuses, saying “trust is important.” Intriguing.
What video game is Mehmet playing?
When Ria returns home she gives Sue, the mother of her estranged husband Nick, her medicine. It seems he’s buggered off and she’s stuck looking after his mum. What a hero.
Jakub soon arrives to take her to her ‘surprise’ party at The Dog & Duck, yet before they get the chase to start on the karaoke, Katie mum, Jo Wells, calls her after finally realising her daughter is missing. It’s clear there’s still bad blood between the Wells family and Riya over Eddie's conviction, but that’s all been put to one side now.
Riya and her colleagues immediately park their drinks and go searching through the woods for her. But just like that Katie walks back in through the door as if nothing has happened. Where has she been all night? Katie’s mum calls Riya to let her know, but as she does, her husband Eddie arrives home. It’s immediately clear Katie’s sister Lily is terrified of him.
Meanwhile, Mehmet continues with his computer game, which coincidentally, follows the progress of a beast in an eerie forest and is delighted when he completes it, making a note of the code at the end of the game. It's clear this is something he's been working on for a while.
As the episode ends, we head back to Jumbo Breads and the cage from the back of the lorry, which now has a hole in the base. It’s clear something escaped through from the vehicle and into the woods last night. Elsewhere, at the forensic lab, the black liquid from the stag’s corpse explodes out of its test tube. What is this beast?
