The first season starts with a bomb tip-off that leads to a tense attempt to disarm multiple explosives - and the realisation that someone is planting very well crafted bombs in London - tragedy isn’t far behind.
Official sources suspect Islamic extremists, but Wash isn’t entirely sure that it all adds up. And the trail she follows leads to some dark places. Suspicion leads to a far-right group called "The Crusaders" using bombing attacks to frame British Muslims... or so she thought.
The second season starts when British law enforcement is confronted by terrorists, using explosives to target critical infrastucture and VIPs.
This series contains examples of:
- An Arm and a Leg: Joel Nutkins is dismembered by the van bomb in episode one. Wash recognises his body by the tattoo on his severed arm.
- Bad Guys Play Pool: Karl is a member of a pool club and invites Wash.
- Big Bad: Karl Maguire, who was seeking revenge for the Dynamo cover-up (and associated court martial) in Afghanistan.
- Bomb Disposal: The core of the show, which follows a police bomb disposal team.
- Dead Man's Switch: Karl uses one for the final bomb at the by-election count.
- Demolitions Expert: Wash, Nut and their colleagues do this for a living.
- Destination Defenestration: The ending to Series 2 Episode 2 for Tom.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: The second season ends with Lana surviving the incident at Counter-Terrorism HQ to attend Danny's wedding party. Her parents also survived bomb threats and her mom has moved on from grieving over Billy's death.
- External Combustion: A variant. Billy’s car is wired to explode when the door is unlocked and opened.
- Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Wash takes her helmet off a lot while dealing with bombs. Sometimes justified in-universe because she needs full vision or needs to get her head flat to the floor to see things, but…
- I Have Your Wife: In season 2, the terrorists abduct a POI's family members in order to force them to do things for them.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Downplayed with the mosque nail bomb. Once Wash realises there's a man (Ali Hussein) trapped on the other side of the door, she's determined to stay until the last second to save him. She only leaves when Danny makes her realise it's an impossible task with such a short time remaining.
- Love-Interest Traitor: Following Nut's wake, Karl and Wash grow closer and eventually end up in a relationship of sorts. Unfortunately, Karl is also revealed as the Big Bad - although Wash has just broken up with him by that point.
- Never the Obvious Suspect: John Hudson expresses worryingly right-wing views and his locker contains a marked-up A-Z with the attack sites and a far-right flyer. He's not the bomber… although the bomber does try to frame him.
- No Full Name Given: Although he gets more screen time than some of the team, we never see Danny's name in the show, not even in credits.
- Sacrificial Lion: Nut’s death at the end of the first episode.
- Sex for Solace: After Billy’s death, Wash ends up sleeping with Karl for the first time.
- SWAT Team: The Metropolitan Police CTSFO serves as the main first responding armed unit when there's a chance that armed (or dangerous) suspects are expected to be encountered.
- Time Bomb: A couple of examples.
- The nail bomb planted in the mosque. It's hooked to a door handle and motion sensitive, but it's also on a timer. Wash runs out of time, so can’t save the man trapped in the room behind it.
- The bomb in Billy's car also has a timer counting down. It's a decoy to scare him into opening the door to escape the car, which will detonate the bomb. It works.
- Western Terrorists: The antagonists of the second season. Known as "The Wave", they're a left-wing terrorist group that they justifies killing the rich and powerful by bombing important facilities, including an attempt to assassinate the Home Secretary. They were secretly helped by billionaire Webster King in an attempt to use their attacks to take out potential and known rivals. They do kill him by rigging his smartphone to blow up at his face.
- Wham Episode:
- The end of Season 2, Episode 3 has Lana and Morgan too late to prevent a bomb from going off in an official's laptop, which was switched while he was distracted previously.
