This Vigil season 2 episode 1 recap contains spoilers
The first season of Vigil was one of the biggest shows of 2021, with more than 12 million viewers tuning in to BBC One to watch DCI Amy Silva unmask a dark conspiracy on a nuclear submarine.
But now Amy and her partner DI Kirsten Longacre will be swapping the sea for the skies, as they find themselves at the centre of another military mystery in this much-anticipated second series...
Who was Wing Commander Chapman arguing with?
The action begins in the fictional Middle Eastern country of Wudyan, as RAF Wing Commander Anthony Chapman has a heated exchange with a fellow officer, before fleeing the country with his daughter Sabi. On his way he tells Squadron Leader Eliza Russell wants to return to Britain as he’s just got back from Dubai, where he learned he has terminal liver cancer, and wants Russell to take command of the squadron. But who was Chapman arguing with before he departed and what were they arguing about?
One of Russell’s first tasks will be to oversee a weapon drone exercise at the Scottish military base of Dundair, which is under the supervision of Air Vice Marshall Marcus Grainger on the ground in Scotland. However, it’s clear the weapons drones — or RPAS (Remotely Piloted Air Systems) — are being operated by personnel in Scotland and Wudyan.
The attack begins on the dummy targets, yet radar soon picks up a civilian by the perimeter fence operating a drone of his own. Grainger sends a team to investigate and the mystery man scarpers.
When the weapons test is complete, Grainger’s Wudyani guests seem very impressed and it’s clear they have ordered a large number of these drones for their country’s military. Yet Grainger wants to show them another of the drones’ capabilities and tells the pilots to place them on autopilot for the trip back to base.
Yet rather than returning to base, Colin Dixon’s Alpha RPAS turns and opens fire on the soldiers on the ground. Dixon tries to take back control of the drone from autopilot, but he’s unable to disable its weapons and is locked inside his vehicle. Finally, his comrade, Lawson, is able to use Bravo RPAS to destroy Alpha RPAS and the wave of destruction is over. Seven people lie dead and Colin Dixon is brutally detained, but did he pull the trigger? We think probably not.
Why did Lawson move positions?
DCI Amy Silva is dropping her daughter Poppy off at school, when she learns of the terrible events at Dundair. She and her girlfriend DI Kirsten Longacre — who’s totally pregnant btw — are soon called in to look into it, after the Ministry of Defence ask for Amy personally. She did a good job with that nuclear submarine we suppose…
At Dundair, DCI Silva goes to speak to Colin Dixon — or "the suspect" — while DI Longacre interviews the other pilots. One of whom is Lawson, who tells them most of the soldiers in the unit knew each other from their time in Afghanistan. Longacre also asks why Lawson moved away from her comrades to get a better sightline, meaning she wasn’t in the line of fire when the RPAS started shooting. But DI Longacre is clearly a bit suspicious.
Inside the base, Dixon tells DCI Silva that he wasn’t in control of the RPAS when it started firing on his friends and the communications were cut when the drone went into autopilot. He explains that he should have been able to take back control of the drone at any time, but that anyone logged into the system could have done the same - apart from Lawson, who was operating the drone that finally shot Bravo down. This leaves two others who could have taken control of it and both of them are based in Wudyan.
Did Grainger want the RPAS destroyed?
In Wudyan, Russell holds a debrief into the incident when Barker, one of the RPAS pilots, takes exception to the news that Dixon was beaten up and is furious that all the pilots from that day are now suspects.
Russell says he and Captain Sattam Abdul Kade will need to write statements in separate rooms, so they can’t be accused of collusion. Kade asks for the names of the Wudyanis who were killed in Scotland, it seems some of them may have been his friends.
Meanwhile at Dundair we hear the Wudyani ruler is furious to hear of the incident and has a mind to cut their funding to the RPAS programme. It seems Wudyan is furious about the hypocrisy of British politicians who criticise the Arab country and brand its leader a war criminal, yet gladly accept its money.
Elsewhere, DCI Silva is interested to hear why the demonstration ended early and questions why no one told her about the civilian who was seen flying a drone near Dundair just before the incident. It’s a question she’s keen to ask Grainger, but he’s busy dealing with the wreckage of the RPAS, although he doesn’t seem as keen to retrieve the data as his colleague, Derek McCabe.
McCabe is currently analysing data from the control unit just outside Glasgow and DCI Silva is keen to see it, however soon after the down RPAS explodes, which means all the data on board is lost. Could Grainger have been trying to cover something up by allowing this to happen?
Either way, he’s very keen to pin the blame on Dixon, says he doesn’t believe the pilots in Wudyan are responsible and that the system must have been hacked. McCabe says that’s impossible, which would mean it’s one of the four pilots, right?
Why was there a fifth controller?
DCI Silva joins Grainger as he speaks to his team in Wudyan, but before the call starts he has time to fill her in on the details of the conflict in the country, where the state is supporting a neighbouring government against insurgents. The UK military is providing non-combat support, something the British media have been highly critical of. Nevertheless, he says Wudyan is one of the UK military’s most important partnerships and two of their nationals died at Dundair.
During the call, Wes Harper, who’s technical lead on the RPAS programme, comes in with important news. He tells DCI Silva all the controllers have been accounted for “two in Scotland and three here,” he says. But hang on a minute, we thought there were only four controllers?
Never mind, because Harper says Wing Commander Antony Chapman was the next person to take control of Alpha RPAS after Dixon and flew it until it was shot down by Lawson, who got back on the system 30 seconds after him. How did he do that? Did he smuggle one out of Wudyan and if so how did he manage it?
“Where’s Anthony Chapman now?” asks DCI Silva and while Grainger confirms he’s in the UK, he says he’s very ill and probably not in any condition to fly a drone. We shall see. After the call Russell says Harper was unwise to share that information so brazenly and asks for his statement on the incident. He tells her to shove her statement. Nice.
Which past operations does Barker mean?
Later on Russell tells Barker to resubmit his report of the incident, saying his opinion on past operations is not relevant. She also asks about a “heated exchange” Chapman had with someone before he left Wudyan, but Barker says he knows nothing about it.
Yet what are these past operations Barker is referring to? Grainger and McCabe have been presenting the RPAS as wonderful new weapons, but maybe their journey to the battlefield hasn’t been as smooth as they claim!
How did Chapman’s wife die?
Meanwhile, DCI Silva confirms that while Chapman had an operation booked for that afternoon, he didn’t turn up for it. She goes to his hotel, but finds his room empty, before questioning Grainger about Chapman and saying it looks like his cancer story was a ruse. It’s clear Grainger has known Chapman for many years and reveals that Chapman’s wife was Wudyani and died when his daughter Sabi was young.
But how did she die? Could Chapman be trying to settle an old score against a regime that had his wife killed?
Grainger also gives a brief rundown of the Wudyani-funded RPAS programme, which it seems is a key priority for the British government, before explaining that there have been questions over Chapman’s loyalty in the past. Grainger also says information has been passed to a UK journalist named Firas Zaman. But if Chapman was suspected of being leaky, why did Grainger trust him so implicitly?
Did Firas Zaman know Chapman?
At the perimeter fence, DI Longacre goes hunting for the trespasser and soon finds him climbing a tree. He does get the chance to reset his phone before coming down, but what information is he trying to hide?
His name is Firas Zaman and when DI Longacre begins questioning him about why he was filming a weapons test, it’s clear he’s a British resident who’s from Wudyan. Meanwhile officers who raided his house find a load of prescriptions, authorised by Dr Mohammed Rajab, in a town not far from the Wudyani air base.
One of them is for IVF, which is odd to say the least and DI Longacre believes they’re some sort of code. She tells him she suspects he is involved in an act of terrorism and will be detained, but he claims he’s “on the side of the angels”.
But the pair are soon joined by MI5 agent Daniel Ramsay who says Dr Rajab is in prison on terrorism charges. Ramsay also explains that after looking at the report, it seems the plan of whoever took control of the rogue RPAS would need someone on the ground to tell them when the autopilot was engaged, which we’re guessing is Zaman. That’s probably why Zaman wiped his phone.
When Ramsay leaves, Zaman says the drones being developed will one day be used by the Wudyani authorities on its citizens. He warms that big oil is coming and these RPAS are how the regime will cling to power “those drones are tools for oppression” he says, before revealing someone who he won’t name told him about the test. We’re guessing that’s Chapman.
Why was Lawson allowed to leave the UK?
DCI Silva wants to interview Lawson, but is told by Grainger that she’s been flown back to Wudyan. When we combine this information with DI Longacre’s suspicions over Lawson moving away from her comrades just before they were killed, she starts to look pretty dodgy.
Who killed Anthony Chapman?
Meanwhile her colleague at the operation centre retrieves the data, which shows where the RPAS were operated from. There were two in Wudyan, two in Dundair, and one in a little village an hour from Glasgow. There’s that fifth controller - and we bet we know who was operating it!
DCI Silva heads out to the Trossachs to see what’s going on and she takes DI Longacre with her. When they get there the SWAT team finds Chapman dead in the woods near the house, but his daughter is nowhere to be seen. As they return to the Jeep, DI Longacre hears and sound and walks off into the woods, where they find Sabi - only for a mysterious assailant to open fire on them as they flee into the forest!
We presume this is the man who killed Anthony Chapman, but why did he do it and who is he?
