Shane (Daniel Mays) and Clifford (Jason Isaacs) abduct Lara (Daisy Haggard), the wife of a wealthy hedge fund manager Dominic (Reece Shearsmith). However, their initially foolproof plan quickly spirals out of control.
Tropes:
- Advertised Extra: Jason Isaacs was advertised as the lead of this episode alongside Daniel Mays. He dies after a single important scene, which might also make this a case of Dead Star Walking.
- Asshole Victim: The police officer calls Dominic a "tosspot" after he's done comforting him.
- Atrocious Alias: Cliff comes up with "Mr Farrow" and "Mr Ball" as aliases for him and Shane (Farrow & Ball is a brand of paint.) Lara thinks these are laughably bad aliases, and Shane can't even remember them.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: The police officer's "Strike, strike, strike" before storming the house.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Lara and Shane successfully escape with the ransom money with the police not realising what's happened until it's too late.
- Blatant Lies: Dominic says that Lara is worth every penny and he "doesn't regret it at all" as he's transferring the millions of pounds for Lara's release.
- Brains and Brawn: Clifford is the "brain" - or so it would appear. Lara is as much the brain as he is. Shane is the brawn.
- Bullet Holes and Revelations: The Gun Struggle ends with a shot going off and blood splattered on the wall. We see Clifford holding the gun and assume that it's Shane who got shot but after a Mortal Wound Reveal it turns out it was Clifford who got it in the guts.
- Code Name: The two crooks call themselves Mr Ball and Mr Farrow. Later Shane gets mixed up and calls Cliff Mr Cannon (thinking of the comedy double act Cannon and Ball.)
- Compromising Call: Shane notices when Dominic calls Lara on her phone in the next room.
- Contrast Montage: When the Split Screen shows Lara with her flask of perfume alongside Shane with his bottle of chloroform.
- Crocodile Tears: Lara pretends to be crying on the phone.
- Disguised Hostage Gambit: Shane successfully evades capture by dressing as Dominic as he and Lara flee the scene.
- Failed Attempt at Drama: Shane tries to play it tough with Lara but becomes the end of a joke more than once.
- Femme Fatale: Lara, probably. She and Cliff were sleeping together and appear genuinely in love, but she gets over it quickly when he's shot and killed and moves onto Shane.
- Finger in the Mail: Cliff's apparent plan is to cut off Lara's ears (with the valuable earrings Dominic bought her) and send them to Dominic. When Shane nearly goes through with it after Cliff's death, she talks him around and they send ears cut from Cliff's body instead.
- Gun Struggle: One ensues between Shane and Clifford. Shane wins out.
- Homage: To 24.
- I Have Your Wife: Subverted. Turns out Lara is in on the plan to extort ransom money from her husband for her release.
- Instant Mystery, Just Delete Scene: As a pastiche of these double-crossing mysteries, there are multiple instances of this happening. The clearest example is the apparent Gory Discretion Shot where Shane cuts off Lara's ears and the cut to Lara's bandaged head.
- Instant Sedation: Shane instantly knocks Lara out with chloroform and subsequently Dominic too.
- Karma Houdini: Lara and Shane apparently get away with everything in the end.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Clifford gets killed in a fight over a gun by the accomplice he'd planned to scapegoat for the kidnapping as a direct result of having left him Locked Out of the Loop one too many times.
- Malevolent Masked Men: Shane and Cliff wear animal masks to hide their identity from the victim.
- A Match Made in Stockholm: Name-checked by Shane, who calls it "Stockport Syndrome", and Played for Laughs since Lara has been captive an hour at most. He's also wrong - Lara and Cliff were always lovers.
- Minion with an F in Evil: Shane doesn't seem to be cut for being a hardboiled criminal.
- Morning Routine: The opening Split Screen scene introduces us to Lara and Shane's quite different morning routines side by side.
- Phone-Trace Race: The detectives urge Dominic to string out the conversation so they can trace the caller's location.
- Replacement Goldfish: When Cliff is killed, Lara convinces Shane to take Cliff's place and go on the run with her.
- Safe Word: "Granola granola". Dominic rightly points out that it's hard enough to say it once.
- The Scrooge: Dominic attempts to bargain Shane down to £850,000 of ransom from an initial £1.3 million.
- Shear Menace: A pair of scissors are used to cut off ear lobes.
- Split Screen: Used extensively in this episode to show the same situation from different POVs. Also used for a couple of Split Screen Phone Calls.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Dominic tells Cliff he definitely isn't surrounded by police officers.
- Unintentional Backup Plan: Clifford and Lara intend to cross Shane and make him the Fall Guy for Lara's kidnapping. When Shane accidentally kills Clifford, Lara figures out that they can use Cliff - and, more importantly, his body parts - in Shane's original place.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Clifford and Lara outline The Plan early in the episode. It then almost immediately goes wrong, and it's the second plan which is unseen and discussed between scenes that goes off without a hitch.
- You Have to Believe Me!: Lara trying to convince Shane that this was her and Clifford's plan all along seems to fall on deaf ears because it comes off as a desperate attempt to save her life.
