We’re back on Bodyguard where some hinky, hinky splodey shite is going on. It’s almost unbearably exciting, join me for the fourth episode, won’t you? I’ll put in lots of pics of Keeley Hawes and Richard Madden! Rolling S1:E04 after the break.
We ended on a strange and chaotic note last episode, our Bodyguard David Budd (Richard Madden) unable to stop the detonation of a bomb near the Home Secretary Julia Montague (Keeley Hawes), is she okay? (I ALREADY KNOW THE ANSWER, TWITTER SPOILER PERSON)
I’m more interested in the fact that there was something unusual going on between the Optics Staffer/bomber Tahir Mahmood (Shubham Saraf) and David right before the bomb went off. In fact, David was even on the phone the same exact time Tahir was on his way to his doom. Related? We know David holds a massive grudge against Julia for being the person who sent him to be wounded in Afghanistan and blames it for the ruination of his marriage. He’s also been holding his privates up against hers lately, complicating things. One of his pals even was responsible for shooting up Julia’s car.
Ah well, it’s too obvious at this stage, must be red herring. Onward!
David calmly walks out of the hospital, waiting with the crowd as DCI Deepak Sharma (Ash Tandon) enters to question wounded people. Tom Fenton (Maybe? IMDb is iffy but if it IS Tom Fenton, this is Richard Riddell, right, as you were) saw PC Kim Knowles (Claire-Louise Cordwell) approach the stage as David did, did she survive?
The news is making an interesting approach to the bombing, drawing attention to the rift between Julia and the Prime Minister due to their differing levels of extremity in fighting terrorism. Are they suggesting that the PM was responsible?
The police review the CCTV footage, they can’t confirm that Tahir was the bomber, even with the Briefcase of Doom (that David checked).
David goes home (was that a good choice?) to find (DC?DS? She’s Deepak’s second in command) Louise Rayburn (Nina Toussaint-White) wanting all his electronic devices. He reacts exactly as my kiddos would: nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooookayFINE.
They’ll be searching his residence too, good thing he hid that secret gun super duper well. We all hold our breath as Louise explores the area directly adjacent. But finds nothing. Huh.
Now we’re in interview with David, Louise and Deepak. Ah shite, Kim did die. The police don’t seem impressed with David’s tactical work with Tahir, why didn’t he search the briefcase better? Or Tahir’s person? Wasn’t it weird that he wanted backstage access? David’s verbal shrug makes Louise shake her head and sigh.
Wait. These guys didn’t even know it was the Briefcase of Doom that blew up? They just are figuring that out? They think David being Julia’s PPO during two assassination attempts smells wrong, so at least they’re paying attention.
They’ve examined David’s phone records, of course he’s too careful to do anything on there but he did turn his phone off and they’d like to know if it was to disable GPS tracking. Noooooo.
They also want to know why he left the hospital, these are all tough questions but he’s not completely there so his answers are vague. He’s released to go to Vicky (Sophie Rundle) at the safehouse.
Vicky is all empathy and big eyes, David wants to know if her new fella would make a good dad? He’s doing a rotten job (or a really good job, depending on his agenda) and the inference is that he’ll be removed from duty but I’m wondering if he’s planning a suicide/disappearing run.
David takes Vicky’s car to the hospital where the news segues us back to the Home Office where Commander Anne Sampson (Gina McKee) arrives with her entourage.
Mike Travis (Vincent Franklin) will be running the daily anti-terrorism meeting in Julia’s absence, Stephen Hunter-Dean (Stuart Bowman) is in attendance with his minions as well. Let the posturing begin!
They’re all shocked when Tahir’s picture pops up on the screen, it’s like they didn’t even watch last episode!
A bit of horn-locking between Stephen and Anne and we’re back on track, worrying about police leaks and trying to figure out who gets the biggest shiny ball. Thanks to Mike, Anne’s back on top, nyah nyah suck it, Stephen!
Some interesting eye-cuddling between Mike and Rob MacDonald (Paul Ready), considering it was Rob who insisted Tahir take the Briefcase of Doom to the speech and Mike who thought Julia was getting too snuggly with Stephen.
Roger Penhaligon (Nicholas Gleaves) can’t believe David is still at the hospital, “You had your job and you failed!”
Blah blah like he cares blah.
Oh but David’s face when he realises that Julia has died.
Much like my face when I innocently refreshed my Twitter feed YES I’M DONE WHINING ABOUT IT NOW FANKS.
We didn’t even get to say goodbye! I bet Security Services are hiding her.
The Prime Minister (David Westhead) does a press conference suggesting an in-house assailant as David goes home and digs up where he re-hid the gun and memory stick with all that damning information.
Ahhh and he’s got that gun to his head and then he can’t do it AND THEN HE DOES.
What??? He just shot himself in the head??
We’re bloody halfway through a series and the two leads are dead? What’s going on with you, BBC One??????
****cuppa break***
I don’t even want to watch the rest of the
Okay fine.
The police have CCTV footage of the day in question, showing Rob handing off the Briefcase of Doom to Tahir, now they’ll be checking Rob out much more thoroughly.
Deepak brings the news to Anne Sampson, she makes the political call to NOT bring Rob in immediately, which gives the impression that she wasn’t surprised just then. Instead she calls Mike Travis, acting Home Secretary, when alone.
Vicky’s worried about David not answering his phone (‘specially since he’s usually the one calling her all the time) so she’s at his place banging on the door
AND HE OPENS IT.
His head was too hard to take a bullet???
I mean
Ahhhhh the round was a blank, which he didn’t know.
So many questions
- Who gave him the gun?
- Why did whomever gave him the gun not give him live ammunition?
- What was he supposed to do with the gun that they didn’t want him to REALLY do?
- Why would he take a gun blindly from someone and not check the rounds? That implies trust or someone he’s used to following orders from
So is Julia really dead? Or hiding?
David comes back with Vicky, he needs a kid hug. There are no better things in the world than kid hugs.
Mike Travis is now the Acting Home Secretary and covering Rob’s bum. After Anne called him, he gives Rob a heads-up so he can clear out any embarrassing evidence before the police descend. Mike was in on the briefcase transfer and it sounds like Anne might have been as well, honestly. Politics is a soup.
Vicky and David workshop the questions about the gun, he thinks someone came in and put blanks in his illegal gun. AND the police certainly knew where to look earlier, how many double crosses are we looking at here?
Rob’s in for an interview with Louise and Deepak with his solicitor, how will he explain the briefcase transfer? He takes a very long pause (next time take a drink of water then repeat the question, jeez, Stalling 101) then stammers that the case was Tahir’s and he was returning it.
Rob uses the fatal “we” as in “we were returning it” oooh. Then Rob called Tahir’s phone?
The police are not buying anything Rob is selling. They review the CCTV from outside the speech hall and see David check the case, why didn’t he spot the bomb indeed?
David heads to the swank hotel he and the Home Secretary were staying at to review those CCTV tapes, but the video of the night he wants to see has been altered. Hotel guy Chris (very dishy Gary Pillai) doesn’t have record of anyone accessing them to change them, no surprise there. Not-Longcross probably did it the night of.
Anne, Louise and Deepak video chat and come up with a strategy to deal with the First of October terrorist bombing, guess who has already built rapport and nobody to guard at the moment?
David’s been wearing a baseball cap since he tried to shoot himself in the head, Louise confronts him head-on about it but he spins a lame story about his stove. She can’t believe that?
We meet Nadia (Anjili Mohindra) again, David’s their best chance to get information out of her about the bomb. She blames it on her husband, but as her solicitor (Sarah Malin) explains: she knows there’s a rule about testifying about spousal stuff. Nadia’s husband didn’t build the bomb, but rather was given it as a gift. Nadia wasn’t able to leave the house without her husband and didn’t see anyone he was meeting with, except for this one time…
David leads Nadia gently towards declaring the item handed over as a case of some type, Louise pulls it back. Nadia is shown a lineup of photos including Tahir, we all hold our breath until she shakes her head no.
Break time! David shares his suspicions with Louise, he thinks Security Services is involved and he can’t be wrong.
She heads back to the control room to watch David stare at the CCTV cameras after checking Tahir’s case, what’s he up to? What’s she thinking? We won’t find out tonight because we’re out!
This show! So many twists and turns, I still wonder about David, but he seemed genuinely heartbroken when he heard that Julia had died. I spent quite a bit of time wondering if that briefcase and/or Tahir were even truly associated with the bombing, it doesn’t pay to assume anything with this show.
For the record: totally don’t believe that Julia is actually dead, too bloodless an exit, no way we’ve seen the last of her. Until next time! Cheers
