Trigger Point season 2 ending explained

Trigger Point season two spoilers follow.

Vicky McClure's Lana Washington was dealt a rough blow going into Trigger Point's season-two finale, as if the season hadn't already given her enough to contend with.

The show may have been kind enough to spare her from being blown to pieces when the bomb went off in the penultimate episode, but that confetti explosion was not the sign of roaring good times to come.

Instead, she was tasered and kidnapped by Hope (Bethan Cullinane), the leader of terrorist group The Wave.

It wasn't the first time Lana had found herself in a tricky situation, but it was the first time she didn't have the backing of her team given that she'd just quit after a row with her boss Commander John (Julian Ovenden).

Truly on her own and at the mercy of the merciless Wave, how would Lana get out of this one?

By now we know that The Wave was behind everything despite trying to peg it on billionaire banker Webster King, who was merely their puppet.

When his usefulness expired, so did he, sending him the way of poor DI Thom Youngblood (Mark Stanley).

In the most evil villain explainer ever, Hope set out exactly why the Wave had taken London hostage. As it turns out, they were really doing it for the people.

Disgruntled about the state of society – capitalism failing, ridiculous inequality, low wages and "a lying political class" – The Wave decided to take action by overthrowing the government. With bombs. Sounds rational.

Knowing how ruthless they could be, Lana had to make some quick decisions to stay alive. Luckily, she was made for such a situation.

After proving they meant business by killing her informant Alex right in front of her when she refused to play their games, Lana was dealt another choice. Go along with their plan or watch as her parents – whose home they'd rigged with cameras and explosives – were killed.

The losses were piling up for Lana: Nut (Adrian Lester), Billy (Ewan Mitchell), Thom… She even admitted regret over the death of her obnoxious co-worker John Hudson (Kris Hitchen), so it's no wonder that she decided to be cooperative, at least for the meantime.

The Wave's plan was pretty simple: the assassination of the Home Secretary, who was due to visit Lana's former place of work at the Counter Terrorism Headquarters (CTHQ) that day.

Lana was to enter the grounds trojan-horse style in a cleaning van packed with explosives and take them out.

Their plans were foiled however when Lana – hands tied in the back of the van with the explosives – informed them that they would be caught thanks to the new security measures which included sniffer dogs.

In a bid to convince them that she was still on side, Lana suggested they ditch their explosives and allow her to build a bomb using discarded evidence from previous bomb cases.

Hope, however, didn't trust her and instructed Lana to rig the bomb so that she could control it remotely from her phone, but not before reminding Lana that her parents' lives were on the line.

With a bug in one ear and access to the CTHQ's security camera feed at The Wave's disposal, Lana seemed to have no choice but to go ahead with the assassination.

Once inside, Lana had to somehow manage to build a bomb and gather the help of her friends Danny (Eric Shango) and Sonya (Kerry Godliman) all without tipping off The Wave.

Thankfully they only had visual access to the camera feed, not audio, so Lana was able to alert Danny about her parents.

While Danny and their other co-worker Hass (Nabil Elouahabi) went to see to Lana's parents, she was able to use Sonya's access to get into the evidence room where she was able to build the bomb.

At the time of the briefing at which the Home Secretary was to attend, Lana convinced her former boss Commander John to let her stand in for the absent Sonya as the lead technical expert to lend her knowledge.

Pretty great work for someone who had just called him a 'brown-nosing twat'.

Sonya's absence hinted to DI Helen Morgan (Natalie Simpson) and DI Amar Batra (Maanuv Thiara) that something was amiss, and together they set about discreetly clearing the building of all personnel and filling it with armed policemen.

Eventually, with The Wave's threats breathing down her neck and the very real, imminent risk of her parents being killed, Lana was forced into action.

She all but thrust the bomb at the Home Secretary's feet, at which point Hope detonated the bomb. Except things don't go bang in quite the way she'd expected.

Instead of a bomb going off at the CTHQ, it detonated in the van, killing Hope and her terrorist associate.

Curious to know how on earth Lana pulled that off?

Well, remember all that time she spent in the back of the van on the way to CTHQ? It turns out she put that to good use.

Knowing how keen The Wave were on using mobile phones to set off bombs, Lana found a way to rig the phone attached to the device in the van.

By diverting the call from the phone they gave Lana, she was able to gain command of the device, which allowed her to detonate the bomb in the van instead.

Naturally, Lana was immediately arrested – but all the messiness of that situation was ironed out swiftly, including the arrest of the remaining members of The Wave and the rescue of her parents, leaving her free to attend Danny's wedding at the end. Which was the biggest vibe.

Season two ultimately ended with Lana beginning to process the losses and her grief instead of hiding from it, which sets her in good stead for Trigger Point season three…

Trigger Point seasons 1 and 2 are streaming on ITVX.

Janet A Leigh

TV writer, Digital Spy Janet completed her Masters degree in Magazine Journalism in 2013 and has continued to grow professionally within the industry ever since.  For six years she honed her analytical reviewing skills at the Good Housekeeping institute eventually becoming Acting Head of Food testing.  She also freelanced in the field of film and TV journalism from 2013-2020, when she interviewed A-List stars such as Samuel L Jackson, Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. In 2021 she joined Digital Spy as TV writer where she gets to delve into more of what she loves, watching copious amounts of telly all in the name of work. Since taking on the role she has conducted red carpet interviews with the cast of Bridgerton, covered the BAFTAs and been interviewed by BBC Radio and London Live. In her spare time she also moonlights as a published author, the book Gothic Angel.