The Capture – BBC One Mini-Series – Episode 3 Recap & Review

Trust No One

Back for another episode, The Capture returns for an absorbing, thrilling hour of television, one that adds more conspiratorial layers to the case whilst setting the foundation for the conflict to come. 

Cautiously watching Shaun, the episode begins with the American introducing himself as Frank and offering our former soldier a seat. In the room next door, it turns out they have Shaun’s friend Matt captive and as he breathes a deep sigh, he awaits what Frank has to say to him. He asks our soldier where Hannah is, while watching helplessly on the cameras as a torturer named Malek cuts off his friend’s thumb. Having seen enough, Shaun bolts out the room and bursts into the hallway, searching through the various rooms to find him. Unfortunately the guards get to him first and knock him on the ground and out of consciousness. As he drifts from reality, echoes of Hannah looking up at him and pleading for her life flash and fade from his mind.

Meanwhile Rachel dives deeper into asking about the time lapses in camera feeds, learning that it is possible for there to be a few seconds’ delay. As she gets back in her car, she learns the Emery footage has been put online and tells her team to meet her back at the station for an emergency meeting about the leak. She tells them what she knows – about Shaun being inside the property at Belgravia – and an ominous warning is given to the team around the footage. Whoever has shared it will face severe disciplinary action.

Rachel gathers the troops and rendezvouses at the property, knocking on the door Shaun entered as the team inside prepare to deflect their inquiries. As it happens, the police have a warrant and as Rachel enters, she’s told it’s a set of private apartments. Ignoring his statement, she begins searching the house before stumbling upon a door labelled “private”. With no key for the property, they bring in Tactical.

After a fruitless search, the police leave as Shaun watches in disbelief at them not finding him. Unwilling to give up, Rachel heads back to the front of the house and asks where the monitor is for the camera. The owner tells him it’s a dummy camera and she buys it, for now, and leaves. While captured, Shaun manages to kick the light out from the back of the car he’s forced to bundle into the boot of. As Shaun hurries off, Frank watches on the monitors before grinning, “Atta boy”.

Later that evening, crowds of people swarm toward White Hart Lane for a Tottenham match where Shaun grabs the witness from his trial, Mr Levy, under the cover of the mass crowds. He leads him back to his apartment where he shows him the video of Hannah. Telling him he’s been set up, Shaun manages to obtain his valuable advice on what to do next.

With no footage of the incident Rachel saw and no evidence to go on, her integrity to counter terrorism is called into question while Shaun hides out and tries to remember what happened.

It’s here Levy calls Rachel over to explain what happened but before she can call in police support, he explains his theory to her about the footage and leaves her with a tantalizing thought, “What if the CCTV she’s seeing wasn’t live?” He goes on to tell them that the bus passing could be “the wipe”; an edit that’s impossible to see. This brings her back to her own experience with the footage and realizes she may have been a victim of it as well.

Heading back to the office, Rachel goes down to the archives and sees that the original Birmingham terror plot CCTV uses the same trick – a lorry passing the camera just as things change and become more dramatic. As she sits back in stunned disbelief, Shaun takes Matt’s car and drives off… just as Nadia calls in a plate check while his friend looks on with guilt. Messaging him to say sorry, Shaun realizes at this point that he’s been set up, as police rush to the scene while he speeds off down the motorway.

Managing to give the police a bit of a slip, alone he opens the boot and finds Hannah’s dead body. As he stares up at the native CCTV at the site, he shoots knowing glances Rachel’s way as she tells the command centre she’s heading down to the scene herself.

With a dramatic reveal at the end and shadowy forces working against them, all eyes point to Rachel and Shaun teaming up and working together to take down the company behind the evident CCTV interference. With the manipulation of the police under their belt and clear influences around the country, big question marks hang over just who this shadowy organisation is and more importantly, why the army personnel are so interested in Shaun.

If there’s one thing here that really stands out though it’s the musical score. The blend of noir influences with minor key piano strokes works really well to build up the drama throughout the episode. It’s difficult to predict which way this one is likely to go next, but with plenty of big plot points to deliberate over, the door is left wide open for where this drama may go in the near future. Roll on next Tuesday!