This Nightsleeper episode 2 recap contains spoilers... In the second episode of this real-time thriller, Joe tells his fellow passengers the truth about his run-in with the authorities, Abby begins to suspect something is awry in her own organisation and the Minister for Transport seems very concerned by some shady dealings that could come back to haunt her...
As the second episode begins, Joe (Joe Cole) explains that he's really a good guy and didn't hurt anyone. "All I'm asking is that you keep me out of jail until my trial," he says to Abby (Alexandra Roach). We very much doubt she has the power to authorize such a request, but he takes her silence as complicity.
Meanwhile, the truth of the situation begins dawning on the handful of passengers and crew still on board the train. "We appear to have been hijacked," says Joe. "Hackjacked" corrects Rachel Li (Katie Leung).
Back at Victoria, Abby learns that any trains still moving are at risk of crashing as the network’s "Real Time Train Viewer" is down. She tells Saj (Parth Thakerer) that regaining access to that should be a priority, before taking Joe's advice and suggesting he starts by tracing the thieves who fled from Glasgow station just before the train departed.
When Abby gets back in touch with Joe she asks him to pass the phone to the Transport Secretary, whose presence hardly fills the rest of the passengers with confidence. "The one person I wouldn’t want in charge of the situation is a member of this government," says one.
They all agree they’d rather be led by Joe than the hapless minister, yet will that change when Mr Oil Rig tells them all about Joe’s history and how he’s on the run from the police. I think we'd still go with Joe tbqh.
While this debate is taking place, Abby’s on the phone to Transport Minister Liz Draycott (Sharon Small), who seems more concerned about keeping her presence on the train secret than dealing with the crisis engulfing the train network.
Yet Abby needs her to link the satellite phone with the hacking device, to get the phone’s IP address. "Do you have any idea how to do that?" she asks the MP hopelessly. Basically she wants to crack the code at NCST HQ and then use the sat phone to inject it back into the device, to stop the train. Simple really.
Who installed the hacking device?
One man who would know how to do that is former Technical Director of NCSC, Paul Peverill (David Threlfall), who's arrived back at HQ and advises her that even if they cut electricity to the train, it can still run for hours on its diesel back up. "You need to speak to the train’s operating company" he says, demonstrating a keen knowledge of the train industry.
However, at the moment DG Miller (Pamela Nomvete) walks in and is furious to see that "Pev" is back in the building. "He’s the Michelangelo of mansplaining, he leaked confidential information to the public!" she says, complaining that he wanted her job. Yet after Abby begs the DG (who "Liz Trussed" her way to the top, according to Pev) to allow him through, she relents.
Abby gives Pev Saj’s desk and tells him to try and get hold of the Real Time Train Viewer, but seconds later she finds there’s another message on the Victoria departure boards. "The Driver" wants around £10m in Bitcoin, or London will be its "final destination", which doesn’t sound great.
Abby springs into action and sets her team to work trying to regain access to all the systems they’ve lost, which impresses the Director General no end. As such when she gets Mark Hudson, a senior security figure liaising with Police Scotland, on Zoom, she advises him that Abby is definitely in charge of the operation. Mark, who seemed to be one of the few people who got on with Peter Peverill doesn’t seem impressed.
Nevertheless, Hudson says that after studying the CCTV, he doesn’t believe anyone boarded or departed the train in the 10 minutes of interest leading up to its departure. So whoever installed the device is either still on the train or on the platform at Motherwell. "Not the policeman though," says Hudson. "He’s the only person who stays on the cameras for the whole 10 minutes." Incidentally, it seems Joe was a model detective until that nasty incident with the cash.
Outside, as Pev is trying to find out if the runaway train is likely to be involved in a collision any time soon, he reveals that he’s under the influence of Class A drugs. Hurrah. Abby is perplexed but urges him to take the rest, telling him "this is no time for a comedown."
Soon afterwards, the team discovers the connection between the thief at the train station and the woman who’s bag he stole. They met outside before the men went straight to the concourse, while the woman spent 25 minutes at a hotel, but what was she doing there?
Who brought the gun on board?
On The Heart of Britain, Joe begins explaining why he’s wanted by the police. He says he searched a property when he was with the drug squad, found some cash and booked it in, but the suspect claimed there was more than he said, leading to an investigation by professional standards. He claims he went into hiding because he didn’t want to be locked up with the person who he just arrested. It’s a flimsy story and the passengers don’t buy it, banishing him to the other end of the train. He’s gone from hero to zero!
Elsewhere, the Minister for Transport finally gets in touch with her assistant and asks her to "remove all traces" of something that was due to be announced in a few days time. But what is she talking about?
Later on, Abby has no luck getting information out of the French company who runs the Heart of Britain and we find out a little bit about Saj and Abby’s history. It seems they only broke up last night and now they have to work together to resolve a national crisis. Oh dear!
But Abby has no time to worry about that because she’s been told that Mark Hudson has been instructed to get the military fully prepared to step in if things go wrong. "If you don’t sort this out then they will," says the Director General. "Things could get very very messy."
Yet Abby is concerned by the lack of progress they’re making and urges a member of her team to start investigating "outside the red lines". "I think they’re covering a system weakness,” she says. Could she be correct? Does the Minister for Transport know what she’s talking about?
Meanwhile, it looks like her team has cracked the code, but they need a clear phone line to the Heart of Britain to take back control of the train. Unfortunately, the Minister is on the phone trying to do some shady cover-up, so when they run the program, they find the device is able to evade detection by cloning itself.
That news doesn’t impress the Director General, so Abby demands the passengers bring Joe back from exile. "The Secretary of State is so focused on saving her own skin," says Abby. "I don’t care about what that guy might have done, I care what he can do!"
As the situation continues to spin out of her control, Abby attends a meeting with international heads of security, who suggest a political cell called Blue Blockade Group might be responsible. “It’s no coincidence the Minister of Transport is on the train,” says one.
Meanwhile, at NCSC, Peter Peverill has managed to hack his way back onto the system that shows them where all the trains are and they soon realize a goods service at Gretna Junction is blocking the line. As they battle to get hold of the driver, Joe discovers a gun in a suitcase, but who brought that aboard and why?
There’s no time to worry about that because with a collision imminent, Abby tells Joe to get everyone to the back of the train and brace for impact!
