This Passenger episode 3 recap contains spoilers... After Mehmet's death the whole of Chadder Vale is in mourning, yet we soon learn that Derek Jackson and his brother Kane know more about the tragic incident than they're letting on. Elsewhere Riya is hunting missing rubbish bins and Nish makes an intriguing discovery.
Chief Markel says Mehmet’s death is "obviously" an accident or suicide, which Riya finds pretty unbelievable as the pathologist hasn’t even started work yet. "Don’t start turning this into something," says Markel unimaginatively.
When she speaks to Jim Bracknell the next morning, Riya learns someone cut the wire around his site, but isn’t convinced by his story that Eddie was there last night — and neither are we. But if it wasn't Eddie, who was it? Riya tells Jim he should pack his fracking dream in, but he’s determined to stay and protect what he’s built.
The next morning Katie Wells sets off for her trial shift in Manchester. When her mum comes to wish her farewell, they discuss her father and she says her daughter better not be leaving because he’s returned. "You don’t have to go," she explains. "I do," says Katie.
Riya then faces the terrible task of telling Mehmet’s mum what’s happened to her son, but the news causes shockwaves throughout Chadder and after Lily finds out she runs to the bus stop to tell her sister the boy they both loved is dead. It looks like Katie won’t be going to Manchester after all.
Forensics call the police station to tell them they’ve found Mehmet’s suicide note, which comes as no surprise to a deeply cynical Chief Constable Markel. What is it with TV police chiefs? They always seem to have the least suspicious minds ever.
However, like us, Riya knows something else is going on. "We need you back on bins," says Markel with no irony whatsoever. Elsewhere, Mehmet’s mum tells the imam her son was happy and that he “wouldn’t do this”. Across the village, John feels terribly guilty about his best friend’s death and when Katie tries to console him, he asks her to marry him.
At Jumbo Bread, Derek and Kane are having a crisis meeting. “No one knows anything,” says Derek as they debrief after Mehmet’s death. It’s very true, although we suspect these two DO know something about what’s going on in Chadder Vale. “We didn’t kill him, we just moved him. We did our job, we’ll put that second batch in tonight,” he reveals cryptically. So it looks like Derek and Kane broke into the fracking site to leave Mehmet's body there. But if they didn't kill him, how did he die?
However, Kane says they can’t as there’s a big hole in the cage in the back of the lorry. “I tried to tell you, you wouldn’t listen,” says Kane. “We’ve got to get it back or we’re dead!” says Derek. But what is it they’ve let loose in the forest?
Where have all the rubbish bins gone?
At the factory, Jo consoles her daughter Katie and tells her John was spotted in the pub with Debbie Nixon on Friday night. So he was accusing her of cheating on him and he was doing the dirty himself! She ditches him in brutal fashion in front of everyone at the factory and really twists the knife by mentioning his last meeting with his best friend. Did he deserve that? It’s difficult to say. But she definitely didn't hold back as the pain of losing Mehmet coursed through her veins.
Elsewhere, Riya tries to distract herself by investigating the bins and is shocked to learn that in the last six months there have been a staggering 129 requests for replacement bins, which is quite high to say the least. Where have they all bin going? (ahem)
But that’s not the biggest shock of the day because when she gets home she finds her estranged husband Nick is back in town — with his girlfriend. It seems Sue called him because she thinks Riya has a drink problem. “It was my 40th birthday!!!” says the detective understandably. “What’s he done for you? He went to Alicante with your Spanish carer without a second thought!”
Exasperated, Riya packs a disturbingly small suitcase and heads off to stay with her ‘boyfriend’. We presume she means Jakub.
Is Nina Karlsson still missing?
At the police station, the owner of the Good Hope Tree B&B turns up with a bag of all the stuff Nina left in her room, and there’s a computer game called 'Passenger' in there. Nish also gets a call from Mehmet’s mum, who tells him her son took a load of cash from her account before he died. When he looks through the records, Nish finds he spent the money on a site called ‘Starlight Eco’...
After doing a bit of digging online, Nish finds that lots of people have been paying this firm money “but no one says what for.” However it seems Nina also paid the company and when Nish tries to get in touch with her, the online forum’s users say they hadn’t heard from her in six weeks. “Holy fuck,” says Riya. “That girl is still missing.”
At the pub later on, Riya takes another run at Katie Wells. She doesn’t want to talk about Mehmet, but does tell Riya that he wanted to come with her to Manchester, although he said he had something to do first. “He had been working a lot recently,” Katie says. “But he never said what for.”
What's the 'Pangaea Initiative'?
Later on Riya tells Jakub she’s staying with him. “If you want sex, I’m fine with that, but don’t be telling people we’re a couple,” she explains. Lucky old Jakub.
After demonstrating some investigation skills we thought were beyond him, Nish continues his good work and calls up Companies House to find the company doesn’t officially exist, yet is one of many ‘Starlight’ companies that makes up ‘The Pangaea Initiative’. “According to the description on their website they innovate," says Nish dryly, before logging in for a game of 'Passenger'. No Nish, no!
That night, a tortured John finds himself deep in the forest, where he suffers a series of hallucinations in which he sees Katie and his father ridiculing him, before collapsing.
Meanwhile, Derek and Kane tool up and prepare to hunt down the beast (or whatever it is) they accidentally released into the wild, toasting a strange drink before they do so. What the hell are they slurping? Is that some sort of antidote? When they get out there they find John and while Derek wants to flee, Kane is determined to help.
While everyone in Chadder Vale, including Jordan from California, attends Mehmet’s vigil, a load of dodgy men turn up at The Good Hope Tree B&B, requesting “one room please”. Who are they and what do they want?
It’s a development that would interest Riya, but she’s busy on a bin hunt and is shocked to find hundreds of them in an old lock-up. But who put them there and why? We have so many questions right now.
