Paatal Lok – Season 2 Episode 1 Recap & Review

Head On

Episode 1 of Paatal Lok season 2 starts with a worker delivering room service at a hotel. There’s no reply when he knocks, so he heads on inside. However, he finds a decapitated body inside the bath. This, as we soon find out, is actually the Naga Leader, Jonathan Thom.

Meanwhile, at the station, Chaudhary is still working hard and he sees the news break. The press conference is a fiery affair, as DCP Bharadwaj and Ansari brief the public. As far as promotions go, Ansari is due to front this investigation but given his young age, there are a lot of doubters.

This incident may or may not coincide with a Missing Persons case involving a husband, Raghu Paswan, who appears to have just vanished. His wife, Gita, is exasperated given he usually rings every day and has just disappeared.

The officers, led by Chaudhary who takes pity on her, do check out their home, where they find train tickets near Nagaland. The general theory here is that he’s off on a work trip. However, something definitely doesn’t sit right with Chaudhary, and he decides to dig deeper.

As for Ansari, he heads to the morgue and gets the lowdown on what happened to Thom. Whoever did this is likely a professional and the beheading was done to send a message. Speaking to the waiter, it appears Thom would always show up at the bar regularly, but he’d usually be with a security officer.

This time though he was alone and the waiter remembers that Thom had a fiery chat on the phone that night before heading back to his room. The contents of this are still unknown but Thom did request room service at 7am for his breakfast, hence why the waiter showed up when he did.

Looking at the CCTV footage, there’s a strange girl here acting suspiciously, hurrying out the hotel. There’s also Daniel too, the security guard working at the time. He’s racked with guilt and it turns out he was actually with another woman at the time, hence why he took his eye off the proverbial ball.

This woman in the footage happens to be a girl called Rose Livo. She works at the local bar as a hostess and also appears to be entangled in the drug trade too.

Things at home are similarly strained for Chaudhary with Renu. Siddharth has left home now and she’s taking up tuition classes from the next week. She wants them to live more comfortably than they currently are, and she’s missing the grind of working, which she’s been out the loop of. As for Chaudhary, he’s an old-school guy and he’s not comfortable with her also making money for the house. However, Renu reminds him that the end-goal here is to help their son in affording his tuition to Australia.

Chaudhary reluctantly agrees and part of this deal also includes heading off with Jitu to hear out a pitch from Mr Bhalla regarding a new security gig. However, Chaudhary obviously knows his stuff and figures out the whole place is sketchy. He doesn’t shut them down but does make it clear he’s not interested in the slightest.

Unfortunately, things take a turn for the worst when Gita, the distressed wife, is involved in an accident. Unfortunately, she passes away and that leaves her poor son all alone. It also intensifies the search for Raghu too, which Chaudhary is embroiled in the middle of.

A couple of shady men hanging around the hospital, who Chaudhary chases outside, doesn’t help matters, but there’s a further twist in the tale here. Footage from the station shows Raghu hurriedly leaving… with Rose.


The Episode Review

Paatal Lok is back after a 5 year break and the second season wastes little time getting right into the thick of a brand new investigation. Ansari is now in the big leagues but it’s clear that his case is coinciding nicely with Chaudhary’s, and the pair are likely to end up working together again.

The series has a nice ebb and flow to it so far, although it has been a little slow while we catch up with all our characters. Quite what connection everyone has is still a mystery at this point, but it’s clear that things are going to pick up from here on out, given that big reveal with Rose.

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You can read our full season review for Paatal Lok here!

  • Episode Rating
    (3.5)
3.5

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