The Responder season 2 episode 1 recap contains spoilers... It’s been more than two years since Martin Freeman wowed audiences with his performance as troubled Liverpool cop Chris Carson, but now he's back in the beat.
When we last saw the embattled response officer, his world was falling apart under the weight of his own corruption and a crumbling marriage and when we meet him again six months down the road, things haven’t improved much.
His terminally ill mother has passed away and his wife Kate (MyAnna Buring) has moved in with his colleague Raymond Mullen (Warren Brown), yet his biggest fear is losing his relationship with his young daughter Tilly (Romi Hyland-Rylands).
Here's how the first episode of the new series, which was created by former cop Tony Schumacher, went down...
'She's all I've got'
After attending his book group, Chris Carson takes his young daughter Tilly try on a dress for her communion, however it’s clear he’s a bit strapped for cash. He then takes her back to his new place for a takeaway dinner and tells her he’s hoping to get a day job with the police, so she can stay with him more.
However when he drops Tilly off with his wife Kate, he finds she’s on the brink of getting a new job in London, which would mean taking Tilly away. A heartbroken Chris begs her not to.. ("She’s all I’ve got") ..and lies that he has a day job, so will be able to see his daughter more.
We’re only five minutes into the new series and already Martin Freeman is tugging on our heartstrings like Billy-o. Yet this drama’s real strength is combining such moving themes with jet-black humour and that night Chris is accosted by a man wielding a handful of dog shit. "Put the turd down!" says his colleague. "I’m fucking starving," comes the response. It's funny and tragic in equal measure.
Later that night, Chris gets a call from his old boss Debbie Barnes who wants him to stop a car for her. She saw a major drug dealer called Mark Hodgkin pick something suspicious up in a pub called The Rising Sun, but can’t call it in because she’s had a drink.
Chris agrees to pick Hodgkin up, however, when he does the drug dealer is in no mood to be lifted. "Do you think I’m stupid?" he says. It seems Hodgkin is convinced he’s the victim of a set-up and that Chris is in on the whole thing.
When he looks at the CCTV later on he sees Debs meeting Franny Sutton, a local drug dealer, outside The Rising Sun. "I’ve seen the CCTV, what are you playing at?" he asks her. Later on, he hands his application in to a senior officer and is told he won’t get the day job because "everyone thinks he’s a knobhead". Wow.
When he eventually catches up with Debs she tells him he needs to search Hodgkin’s house, find drugs and lock him up. “I know you were involved with Carl Sweeney and his murder,” she says. “I’ve got evidence, don’t make me use it.”
Chris refuses to help her, until she says she'll create a day job for him. With his fear of losing Tilly fresh in his mind, it’s an offer he can’t refuse.
'If I've got to do it...'
Carl Sweeney’s widow, Jodie, is selling the drugs Chris left her to make up for his role in Carl’s death at the end of the last series. However, it seems she’s about to have a supply problem. Her muscle, Barry and Ian, can’t get on the docks to pick up the gear, because their pal "Arthur’"hasn’t been on the gate to let them in.
Meanwhile, Town Centre Casey is also in a spot of trouble after being kicked out of a nightclub for selling drugs on the dance floor. She swings by the chicken shop to see her old pal Marco, who’s making an effort to be a good dad by working a real job.
Casey tells him there’s proper money to be made if she can get some decent stuff and get back in there with protection. With a troublesome boss on his case, Marco says he might know someone.
When a burglary is reported at the house of his estranged father, Tommy, Chris pops in to pay him a visit and tells him his mother — June — has passed away at the start of a heated exchange, in which Chris remembers the abuse his old man handed out. It’s clear these are wounds that will never heal and when Tommy says he loves him as he leaves, it’s too much for Chris. “I remember you putting my head through a door!” he shouts.
However the meeting gives him a glimpse of what he could become if he continues down the road he's on and in his desperation not to lose Tilly the way his father lost him, he accepts Debs’ offer. “If I’ve got to do it..” he tells himself.
It’s clear Debs is somehow in Franny’s pocket, yet when she messages the drug dealer to tell him Chris has agreed to proceed and take out his rival over a “bag of weed”. Yet as Franny eyes a gun on his car seat, it’s clear he has bigger ambitions.
'I can't go to prison'
Meanwhile Officer Rachel Hargreaves is also struggling to escape the memory of what her ex-boyfriend, Steve, did to her. After she crashes her car, we learn that Rachel refused to make a formal complaint against her abusive ex-boyfriend, Steve, who was played by Philip Barantini (the director of the season one finale) btw.
Rachel confides in Chris that she failed the sergeants exam and it’s clear she’s still struggling with the demons Steve left her with. Yet her determination to get off response makes her the perfect candidate to help Chris with his shady deals.
“It’s a guy called Mark Hodgkin,” says Chris. “We find his drugs, arrest him and call it in.” However when they get to the address they find the gun Franny planted, which is more than they were looking for. Chris explains that while Hodgkin is likely to have pleaded guilty to get a reduced sentence on a drug charge, he would fight a gun charge all the way and the two cops would have faced some tough questions about why they entered the property.
However when he sees there are kids in the house, Chris takes the gun without arresting Hodgkin. Across the street, Franny sees everything and when he stops by hers the next day we discover the drug dealer is the father of Deb’s daughter. “I can’t go to prison,” says Debs, who seems to be deeper in the mire than Chris.
After jacking in his job at the chicken shop, Marco introduces Casey to Jodie Sweeney and they strike a deal to sell her drugs in the club. However, Casey is a bit worried when she realizes that she had a hand in the death of Jodie’s late husband, Carl, during the last series.
The episode ends with Chris struggling to pay for his daughter’s communion dress. He pops round his father’s and "borrows" some cash to make up the difference, which given the terrible treatment he’s doled out to Chris down the decades, seems reasonable.
