The Capture – BBC One Mini-Series – Episode 5 Recap & Review

Shocking Answers

As we tumble deeper down the rabbit hole, The Capture returns with another dramatic episode, one that finally uncovers some crushing home truths in an hour of very good drama. Out of all the shows BBC have put out this year, The Capture has certainly been one of the more impressive entries and this episode only solidifies that, giving us some much needed answers to this intricate web of conspiratorial questions.

With Shaun awaiting answers and DS Rachel relieved of duty, we begin with Rachel getting in a car and heading home. She begins crying until she receives a crucial piece of evidence – footage of Hannah Roberts getting on the bus.

Meanwhile, Shaun stands anxiously before Charlie and the others as he watches the real footage from that night. Hannah did actually get on the bus and he walks out of frame. He’s not insane and seeing the footage helps him internally reinforce this. He tells Charlie excitedly they can upload the footage but he refuses, telling Shaun he needs to listen to them as the real story is far more complicated. As we cut to that night, we see the entire story was fabricated as another man dressed up as Shaun was the one who feigned the assault. With Charlie acting as the Director in this whole charade, we cut forward to see the final product as Hannah and the others discuss Shaun’s “narrative” around his blackouts.

All of this leads to the big night itself where we see Hannah kissing Shaun again, this time with context. That context being a collar up which wasn’t on the original rehearsal tapes. She kissed him to subtly drop his collar and match the real footage with the fabricated one. Shaun then learns why he was selected. Knowing he’d make headlines, the group had every intention of Hannah reappearing after the court trial and exposing Correction for their shady operation. All of this was designed to trick the public and make people think more about what they’re seeing. Only, something went wrong in the operation and a lot of this stems from Rachel taking control of the case.

Meanwhile, DS Rachel herself continues to investigate and uncovers the truth in her own way. It turns out she was the catalyst for this chain of events to unfold all the way back in the first episode, when she sent the footage off and requested they run a trace. All of this leads back to Faisal, a man arrested for terrorism charges, which the authorities were made aware of back when this first started. The American was in on this who charade too, tasking all of his staff to go after Shaun. Eli, the whistle-blower working with Hannah, happens to be in collusion with the American and through the various snippets of CCTV we’ve seen across the episodes, we finally have context for just what’s going on here.

As Hannah catches on that Emery was released, the group scramble for something to concoct up in order to get Shaun arrested again. Reluctantly she agrees to go along with Plan B – planting evidence. This leads us up to Shaun outside Hannah’s flat and the team watching our “toy soldier”. The man inside the flat was there to plant evidence, forced to make a hasty retreat thanks to Shaun’s break in. This causes the American to take drastic measures and bring him in with the planted taxi driver waiting for him outside.

Our trio of co-conspirators meet in the graveyard soon after where they learn that Correction has been used against them, especially given Shaun knew nothing about Hannah. They decide to make the story true and that means killing her and framing Shaun. Finding out Eli is the mole, two of the men start beating him for answers. They get them too, leading the American straight to Hannah’s safe-house where she tells them she’s trying to preserve the justice system. Unfortunately, this is what gets her killed.

Learning the same horrifying truth, DS Rachel heads off in disgust while Shaun learns he can make a difference. The way to do that is to offer himself up for arrest and then the group will release the real footage. They make the decision for him too – phoning the police anonymously and telling Shaun he’ll be arrested. On the way out, Shaun throws his double over the balcony and as they both fall on the electronics below, the lights flicker and go out as Shaun tries to evade the police amidst the crowds of people.

Midway through evacuating the building, the police receive a call from Patrick, informing them to leave urgently. As the cars race off, Shaun slips out the back and limps away before Rachel confronts him. She tells him she knows he’s innocent and can prove it if he goes with them. With nowhere else to go, he decides to get in her car. As the episode closes out, the American takes drastic measures and decides to use Shaun’s daughter as a means of bringing him out of hiding where we leave the episode.

As I said to a few of my colleagues the minute the final credits rolled on this one, an ending can make or break a series. In The Capture’s case, this penultimate episode has elevated this drama from an above-average thriller to one of the more impressive entries of the year. Unlike The Bodyguard, which started strongly and fizzled out, The Capture has only grown from strength to strength and seeing all these big conspiratorial ideas answered in a cohesive and believable manner is testament to the way this one’s been written.

An ending is one of the hardest things to get right and I just hope The Capture can pull off its finale as well as it has this episode. With some good editing and a strong narrative focus throughout, The Capture may just prove to be 2019’s dark horse of the year and after this episode, is sure to have people discussing this one for quite a while.