Trigger Point season 2 episode 2 spoilers follow.
When Adrian Lester's Joel 'Nut' Nutkins got blown to pieces in the Trigger Point debut, viewers knew exactly what kind of a show they had on their hands: a high-stakes crime drama where no-one was safe.
This was demonstrated time and time again throughout the season, and it makes sense. When your life involves dismantling bombs on a regular basis (at least on TV), then death is bound to be an unfortunate, regular occurrence.
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Trigger Point did an excellent job at setting the stage for illustrating the fragility of life and continued to do so in the season-two debut when they pulled the trigger on Kris Hitchen's time as the show's resident twat John Hudson.
It was, again, a needed reminder that anyone could go in an instant. But one death we cannot make sense of is that of DI Thom Youngblood (Mark Stanley).
Lana's on-again off-again beau being pushed down an elevator shaft was more than just an unfortunate way to go. It was an unnecessary one.
The decision to axe DI Youngblood came after the two had just reconciled. Her six-month sabbatical had given Lana all the space she needed to realise that she really did love Thom despite pushing him away.
Even though he was in a relationship with Natalie Simpson's DS Helen Morgan, Thom's Lana-shaped torch burned so brightly it might as well have been a beacon. So the decision to kill him off not only came as a shock, it was brutal.
This is especially so, considering she'd already recently lost her best friend Nut, her brother Billy (Ewan Mitchell), and fling Karl (Warren Brown) who – despite turning out to be season one's villain – had been a huge support to Lana.
On top of the bluntness of his ending, Thom's death did nothing to propel the story forward. It didn't impact the outcome nor did it drive Lana into action. She was always going to throw her heart into the case irrespective of Thom's death because that's the type of person she is.
All the previous deaths either served to teach the audience something or were integral to the story.
If Nut and John's demises were to show that no-one was impervious to death, then Billy and Karl were the twists that kept the audience hooked and hungry for more.
Though devastating, Thom's death felt more like a disappointing blow than a pivotal plot point.
Not only did Trigger Point rob us of the chance to say 'DI Youngblood' (what a fun, dramatic name), it also rendered the love triangle between him, Lana and Helen redundant and robbed us of the tension that could have developed between the three.
The show followed up this disappointment with more by failing to really commit to the tension between Helen and Lana after Thom's death.
The two never really got into Thom's betrayal, their shared affection for him or their differences. We get it, Trigger Point isn't a romance, but why introduce a storyline only to fail to let it mature?
It seems Thom's death occurred for shock value, and to add to the catalogue of hurt Lana is carrying around.
It was meant to punch through but ended up being more defective than the disruptor in episode one.
Trigger Point seasons 1 and 2 are streaming on ITVX.
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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.
