This Vigil season 2 episode 2 recap contains spoilers
After the death of Wing Commander Anthony Chapman at the end of the first episode, DCI Amy Silva heads to Wudyan to continue her investigation.
Meanwhile, back in Scotland, her partner DI Kirsten Longacre joins forces with MI5 agent Daniel Ramsay in a bid to discover the identity of the gunman in the woods...
We pick the story up just where we left it, with DCI Silva, DI Longacre and Sabiha fleeing through the woods from a mysterious gunman. He wants to know where "she" is, but before he gets an answer, an armed police officer comes to the rescue. Yet the gunman manages to flee by jumping from a cliff into a nearby lake.
Thanks to DCI Silva’s nifty work with a rock they do have a sample of his blood though and the police also recover a phone from the house, which they believe could be Chapman’s. But we’re now wondering if Chapman wasn’t the only target and his daughter Sabiha was also on the hitman’s list?
What does Sabiha know?
At the hospital, DCI Silva begins questioning Sabiha in a bid to find the man who killed her father. Unfortunately she didn’t see him and in her terror, ran off to hide after her father was killed.
Sabiha says she has no idea why she and her father came home in such a rush or anything at all about what he’s been up to. DCI Silva seems to believe she’s not telling her the whole story, but either way she’s certainly keen to protect her father’s reputation.
When she’s shown console the authorities suspect Chapman used to take control of Alpha RPAS during the disastrous demonstration, she becomes irritated, demanding to return to Wudyan to be with her mum’s family. Amy doesn’t want her to go, yet doesn’t think she can stop her. But what does she know and what is she hiding?
Who really carried out the Dundair attack?
However there’s another bombshell on the horizon, because it seems new data indicates that while Chapman seemed to have taken control of Alpha RPAS during the attack at Dundair, it was actually being controlled from Wudyan. The GPS data was changed, but by who and why? And if Chapman is innocent, what was he doing in the Trossachs? And why did he lie about having cancer? So many questions, but they’re probably all connected.
DCI Silva wants to head out to the air base in Wudyan to continue her investigation, but Air Marshall Marcus Grainger is being very obstructive and explains that it could sour the UK’s relations with the Middle Eastern country. When DCI Silva threatens to arrest the whole squadron things get heated, but it’s clear Grainger isn’t a big fan of DCI Silva snooping around in his affairs.
But there’s more, because the MI5 operative in the meeting then reveals that Dr Rajab — who’s in prison in Wudyan on terrorism charges — has disclosed the existence of a plot to disrupt UK/Wudyani relations, which involves our old friend Firas Zaman.
The net result is that DCI Silva is off to Wudyan. It’s distressing news for her daughter Poppy, who knows that gay people are often thrown in prison in the Middle Eastern country. We think that might be the least of her problems tbqh.
What does Russell know about Sabiha?
On the flight to Wudyan, DCI Silva tries to get more information out of Sabir. She’s once again rebuffed. They’re quizzed by security at the airport, but Acting Squadron Leader Eliza Russell soon turns up to take them to the base, saving them an uncomfortable delay. “The regime loves to remind us who’s in charge,” says Sabiha. We’re starting to think the young woman is more into Wudyani politics than she’s letting on.
When they arrive at the air base, they are greeted by Colonel Bilali who witnessed the carnage at Dundair first-hand. He’s keen to discuss the situation with DCI Silva as soon as possible.
Meanwhile Russell takes her to one side to suggest that Sabiha should probably be sent back to the UK, for her own good. But does Russell have her own motives for wanting her out of Wudyan? What does she know about Chapman’s daughter?
Either way, Russell is shocked to find that Silva wants to speak to the RPAS pilots, Barker and Kade, and that Chapman wasn’t the man behind the attack at Dundair. She’s then told the rogue drone was controlled from the very air base they’re sat in. If she did know that already then she hid it well.
Russell is happy to let Silva talk to Barker, but things could be more complicated with Kade, as he’s a Wudyani national, yet Silva is in no mood to wait around and heads off to doorstep him.
Furthermore, it seems Russell isn’t being entirely honest with DCI Silva and there’s actually an operation going on against the Wudyani dissidents that Russell neglected to mention. She graciously allows Silva to stay and observe.
What’s going on between Barker and Sabiha?
Two targets escape the compound Russell’s team had been ordered to secure and Colonel Bilali tells her to rectify her error by taking them out immediately. However she refuses and the combatants escape, with Russell clearly laying the blame at Barker's door.
Sensing he might be in the mood to talk, Silva follows him to find out what he knows. He’s a bit more open than the other people she’s met and suggests the rogue RPAS was being operated by someone who hadn’t had much training with the weapons.
After leaving he bumps into Sabir - or ‘Sabs’ - and they seem relatively familiar with each other. She’s desperate for answers about her father and she seems to think Barker can help her, asking “Was any of what you told me true?” She doesn’t get an answer, but we’re very keen to know what he told her.
Who stole the RPAS console?
Later on, the RPAS programme’s technical lead, Wes Harper, takes her around the Alban X armoury, where she asks to see the spare RPAS console, which she suspects was used in the attack at Dundair. But it’s not there and Harper hasn’t seen it for a week at least. So where is it and who took it?
A quick look at the CCTV shows that Chapman erased 13 minutes of footage when the console went missing - but crucially it couldn’t have been him that stole the kit. So who did? The news that someone on the base is working with the dissident group comes as a shock to Russell. If it’s not Sabiha, then we think she knows who it is.
What was Dr Rajab trying to tell DCI Silva?
When Silva meets Colonel Bilali, he seems convinced the dissident group is behind the attack in Dundair, but she’s more interested in the information that led to the raid of Dr Rajab’s address earlier that day.
He’s in a bad way when DCI Silva finally meets him and it’s clear he’s been tortured, despite Colonel Bilali’s denials. However when he leaves the room, Rajab asks for a pen and writes a note that Silva quickly stashes, it looks very much like he’s trying tell her something about Bilali, but what?
Why did Sabiha stab Barker?
Back at Police Scotland, MI5 bod Daniel Ramsay arrives to be DI Longacre’s new partner and he’s already proving useful, after decoding Firas Zaman’s prescriptions (he’s the ‘bird-watcher’ from episode one). It seems someone on the Wudyani air base has been secretly providing a terrorist group with the dates of weapons tests.
Meanwhile the police have found the stolen van used by the shooter, which belongs to cleaner Arlene Royce. The rifle was taken from the Lochdoon Estate, which funnily enough is where Arlene works, and seems to have been nicked by her old flame, Ross Sutherland, who’s ex-military and left Lochdoon after having a row with someone.
When they get to his old flat, they find he’s got a stash of information and photos of Chapman and his daughter, which makes DI Longacre think that she was also a target of the shooter. Or maybe the only target? Longacre also realises it was her phone the police found at the cottage.
When DI Longacre tells DCI Silva what she’s discovered, they wonder if Sabir took the console using her father’s military pass and Chapman deleted the footage? Yet when she puts the phone down it’s clear the flat’s not deserted and with Ramsay gone, she’s alone with Sutherland.
He leaves her unharmed, but not before she tells him that whoever hired him to kill Chapman was using him. “It’s not my job to kill you,” he says, but who was he supposed to kill? Sabir? Back at the air base, as Barker plays basketball, Sabiha attacks him with a knife. But why?
