"I shall never be able to look a ginger beer in the face again."

[llywela]

Recapped for Prosfanfic, and this brings DVD set 2 to an end. Phew! Only two more seasons to go...

I started this recap weeks ago, but then fate and the gods conspired to prevent me finishing it until now. So, here goes:



We open on a random gun shop, run by a solitary little old man, pottering around with the guns minding his own business as he closes up for the night. A couple of armed, masked thugs bust in, bash him about a bit, and make off with armfuls of weaponry. The masks they are wearing only cover their faces, so the man could totally give a partial description – of hair colour and type, anyway. Clumsy thieving.

Doyle is driving along munching on an afternoon snack when his radio alerts him to the gun shop robbery, as a coded tip off has been received. It looks like a lovely, sunny, summery day. Acknowledging the call, he speeds off. The raiders, meanwhile, have made a clean getaway in a dirty blue minivan.

Numerous agents converge on the gun shop. Doyle screeches to a halt just outside and charges in to toss some orders at the other agents, who are just standing around waiting to be told what to do. What happened to initiative? Has Cowley lowered his standards? Or are they not CI5?

The raiders, having ditched the van and switched to a car, pull up nearby to watch, just as Bodie makes a belated entrance to proceedings.

"That's Doyle," said Raider#1, as a dramatic drumroll lends an air of tension to this pronouncement. Raider#2 glances across to where Doyle is in conversation with Bodie and wonders who the other man is, but Raider#1 doesn't care – "Doyle's the one. He's the one I want." So…it isn't just about the guns. This is personal, then. Hmm. Wouldn't it be nice if this plot point was explained sooner rather than later?

Credits.

Raiders#1 and 2 drive their dirty blue minivan to a picturesque spot beside a lake, and proceed to dump the weapons they just went to such great lengths to steal. They are more than a little disconcerted when they spot a car approaching, and have to make a hasty getaway, hoping not to be seen or considered in any way remarkable.

Gun shop. Cowley has arrived. Bodie, with the resigned air of the ex-soldier he is, can only see one explanation – the 'Organisation' is moving forces again, preparing to become active. It's annoying that they call it 'the Organisation' throughout this episode, but presumably they weren't allowed to say 'IRA', or 'mob', or whatever this Organisation is supposed to be, not entirely consistent with any of them, so we'll just note our resigned frustration and move on. Cowley is not convinced.

Elsewhere. Raider#1 is jubilant and cocky, delighted that he's got CI5 stirred up and hopeful of stirring up their own people – the Organisation. "Mr Albie might remember that actions speak louder than words." So the audience now knows two things that CI5 don't – we know that Raider#1 has a special interest in Doyle, and we know that these two are rogues, operating on their own, rather than on behalf of any larger organisation.

Raider#2 then goes off into a diatribe about their leaders being too sedentary for anyone's good – informing us that he's in it for the politics, while his companion is in it for his grudge against Doyle, which makes theirs more of an uneasy alliance than a true meeting of minds.

Gun shop. Cowley is trying to persuade Bodie to keep an open mind, rather than just jumping to a snap conclusion and running with it without any hard evidence. This proves easier said than done. While Doyle potters around examining the inventory and working out what was taken, Bodie sticks firmly to his theory and refuses to let go of it. He believes it was the Organisation, and that's that. "It's exactly their style. Everything fits," he argues. Cowley remains unconvinced, seeing no reason why the Organisation should become active again now. So, he sends his agents out to investigate, which Bodie was itching to do anyway.

"But step on anyone's toes and next week you'll be pen-pushing," Cowley warns as Bodie scoots away. And Cowley, being Cowley, manages to make that sound a dire threat indeed. I prefer the one about watching Russian trawlers in the Hebrides, myself, though. That was a good threat. But Cowley's delivery is always what makes a vague disclaimer into a real juicy threat.

Elsewhere. A doorbell rings, and a man we will later learn is called Morgan but who I shall forever associate with another character entirely from The Bill answers to find Doyle on his doorstep. Now me, I'd be delighted if that happened, but Morgan doesn't share my enthusiasm. More fool him.

"Relax, Morgan, we're old pals," Doyle amiably entreats, but with that hard edge to his affability we've seen previously when he deals with sources and informants who can only be allowed so much slack and no more than that – friendly, but guarded.

Morgan, all bare-chested and half-dressed, gives in and lets him in. Inside the flat, Morgan's highly-strung girlfriend Sylvie is not happy about this. That's two of them not best pleased to see Doyle. Are they not looking at him, or something? He's looking very yummy indeed in this episode. How can anyone not be pleased to see that?

"You must be doing well," Doyle snarks as Sylvie flounces out of the room. "When you can afford an au pair."
"Nah, you've got it all wrong," Morgan cheerfully, but a trifle bitterly, snarks back. "All this free time's just one of the perks of being unemployed."
"Plenty of time to think, eh," Doyle sympathises.
"I spend most of my time forgetting," Morgan snits.
Doyle offers sympathy, of a sort. "If I got rapped over the knuckles for something I didn't do, I'd spend most of my time trying not to feel sorry for myself."

And see how easily the writers and actors have relayed to viewers the information that these two men go back a long way, and were once friends and colleagues but now have a rather uneasy history standing between them. It plays so naturally.

Morgan, recognising buttering up when he hears it, wonders what Doyle wants. "Question and answer time," Doyle tells him. Morgan mildly retorts that he isn't on the payroll any more. Ex-CI5. See how far he's fallen.

Now fully dressed, Morgan leads Doyle into the kitchen, where Sylvie hands over a couple of coffees with a very bad grace and then flounces away to fix herself something stronger. Apparently not bothered about her presence, Doyle spells it out for Morgan. "Gun robbery."

Morgan freezes, and quickly gets rid of his girlfriend so he and his ex-colleague can talk openly. "Feed the cat, Sylvie."

"Ironic," he drawls his backstory once Sylvie has made her exit. "Two years ago I'm everybody's darling because my wife's people have connections with the Organisation. Then Cowley puts me in as a sleeper and I'm risking life and limb. And everything goes wrong and I'm left carrying the can."

That's a bleak look at what can become of an agent if his career goes pear-shaped. CI5 can be an unforgiving organisation, clearly. Doyle shrugs. "Somebody blew the whistle on us. A man got killed, you were the only common denominator." He still looks sympathetic, but only up to a point. He's still CI5, and Morgan isn't. Morgan is indignant at the suggestion that he got drunk and talked, but Doyle shakes his head. He doesn't think that, he says.

"But you put yourself in Cowley's shoes," he suggests, all about the mediation, whether he believes in Morgan's innocence or not. CI5 closed ranks against Morgan, but they need his cooperation now. This must be an uncomfortable interview for Doyle, having to walk a very fine line.

Morgan laughs wryly. "So, after being dishonourably discharged, CI5 would now like some information about the Organisation's activities?"

The hypocrisy of it, from Morgan's point of view, is plain to see and understand. Why should he help them after they turned on him? "Number one, I don't have the connections I used to have," he sourly points out. "Not even the wife I used to have. And number two: even if I knew the Kraut were organising the third world war, I wouldn't give it to your lot."

"You working?" Doyle inquires, apropos of nothing and all faux-casual. Morgan defensively 'fesses up to a bit of lorry driving and other odds and ends, whereupon Doyle hauls out his wallet, and places a note on the table. "That poker session last Christmas. I still owe you."

Payment of an informant, dressed up as paying back a debt as a salve to both their dignity. It's got to be like a slap to the face for Morgan, in spite of Doyle's attempt at tact. Just how long ago did Morgan's career blow up in his face, then? If he was still in the good books and playing poker with the lads just last Christmas, it must be relatively recent, still. Fresh enough to be painfully raw, but not long enough for the wounds to fester. And yet Cowley made it sound as if the Organisation had been inactive for longer than that.

As Sylvie drifts back into the room whining about having a job to get to, Doyle gets set to leave. "Gun shop robbery. Shotguns, twenty-twos, and a coded tip off," he offers as a parting shot. Morgan knocks back his whisky and says nothing. Looking troubled, Doyle thanks Sylvie for the coffee that neither he nor Morgan have drunk, and makes his exit.

Morgan picks up the money and studies it thoughtfully, as Sylvie airily tells him she's working the late shift at the club that night, before asking what all that was about. Morgan readily enough confides in her that CI5 think something is starting, and faux-casually remarks that she could find out at the club. What kind of club does she work at, then? One rife with intrigue, clearly.

"You're not a copper any more, and there's a certain kind of client I don't mess with," Sylvie tartly reminds him. Morgan looks at the money again, and lightly tells her to keep her ear to the ground.

Children's playground. It is definitely summer. Either that or the naked toddlers enjoying the paddling pool are immune to cold. Would a TV show get away with showing naked toddlers these days? A young mother sits flicking through a magazine while her baby sleeps soundly in the pram alongside her. This is the former Mrs Morgan, Alice, she of those Organisation connections Morgan referred to. Doyle approaches and greets her, all affable and casual, and this much humble-pie and offering of olive branches after what was clearly an enormous amount of bad blood can't be easy.

"Ray Doyle," Alice sighs.
"In person," he amiably agrees.
"What's happened?" she icily retorts. "Been reduced to the ranks? Got you out looking for truants, have they?"

And a third person in this episode is not happy to see Doyle. Are they all blind? He promptly puts his foot right in it by admiring the baby and getting its gender completely wrong, thinking it's a girl when in fact it is a boy. My mother always had that trouble. With my older sister, she dressed her in the girliest outfits she could find, and everyone still thought she was a boy. And then with my brother she dressed him all in blues and greens and the most boyish outfits available, and everyone thought he was a girl. Go figure. Alice is not best pleased at this slight on her son's manhood and gets to her feet to escape this unwanted conversation.

Doyle follows, undeterred and still trying to make small talk about her having one of each now, although he isn't able to bring the little girl's name to mind, which loses him even more points. Hey, but he should get credit for remembering that she exists, right? *G* "That's Holly?" he disbelieves on being pointed to the four year old on the climbing frame. "I haven't seen her since the christening." But the fact that he went to that christening tells us a little more about how close he once was to this family.

"No," Alice icily agrees. "And you were notably absent when this one came along."

Doyle makes no attempt to defend the cessation of his friendship with the Morgan family, and gives up trying to pretend the break never happened, switching to business. "Ran into your old man. I gather he's notably absent as well." Indeed, and Alice is bitter about the whole thing, retorting that CI5 broke Morgan, he couldn't cope, and ran off with "that little bitch from the Pineapple Club."

I like this insight into a side of CI5 we rarely get to see, the effect on both agent and family when it all goes wrong. Doyle asks if Alice was okay and didn't have any trouble when it all went wrong. "If you're asking out of concern, it's a bit late now," she snips, and she's got a very good point. As a friend, Doyle clearly wasn't there for her family when they needed support. In some situations you have to decide where your strongest loyalties lie, and when Morgan's undercover op blew up so spectacularly, Doyle's loyalty lay with CI5. He clearly feels bad about that, although not apologetic, believing he was in the right. But it is just as clear that the Morgans have a right to feel aggrieved. I love that we are allowed to see both sides of what was clearly a murky situation.

"We knew you were all right," he says in his defence, and Alice – again quite rightly – snips, "Then why ask?"

She knows he's after something. This is not a social call. As he continues trying to probe very gently, Alice's patience snaps, and she insists that she is well out of it, nothing to do with the Organisation any more. "We came here for a breath of fresh air." She glares at Doyle. "Now there's a distinct smell in the air." She shrilly yells at her daughter to come, they are going, but Doyle puts a hand on the pram and leans in all softly intimidating to lay it on the line for her about the arms raid. She insists that she knows nothing. "Don't come looking for me again, Ray. The past is the past as far as I'm concerned."

He gives up and lets her go with a regretful parting entreaty to take care. "I will," she snips, not returning the sentiment.

Returning to his car, Doyle sees Alice leaving the park with the children, and pauses to watch. She goes straight to a phone box and makes an urgent call, looking tense. He drives over to make inquiries, but gets only another helping of bitter sarcasm in response. Doyle is frustrated at getting nowhere.

Elsewhere in London, in a rather nice looking and sizeable flat, Raider#2 receives a silent phone call, and is perturbed.

"Only Glover," sighs the balding man who'd made the call, getting back into a car driven by his sidekick, who reports a distinct lack of movement since he's been staking out the building. "Duffy's in there, I'd stake my life on it," Baldie decides. "Come on, we'll try it." They exit the car.

Inside, an anxious Raider#2 – who we now know to own the name Glover – anxiously wanders to the door on hearing a knock, clearly fearful of what that silent phone call might mean. He asks who it is, and is cheerily told it is the gasman. He thereupon proves himself to be completely brainless by opening the door. Honestly.

"Never trust gas meter men," Baldie Public Service Announces with a smirk after busting in and knocking Glover to the ground. How did he manage that? Glover is about twice his size. Baldie demands to know where Raider#1 – Duffy – is. Glover plays dumb; Baldie keeps up the intimidation, expositing by way of guesswork that there was a split in the ranks up north, so Duffy decided to try his luck in the big city. He doesn't have to apply much force before Glover screams that Duffy is in Calais. Such a wuss. He's lying, but still a wuss. Baldie offers a few more threats by way of farewell, and leaves. Glover is shaken. As Baldie heads downstairs, a random door creeps open an inch to reveal Duffy hiding inside, hand clamped over the mouth of the unfortunate female occupant.

I wonder what happens to that woman afterward? I mean, he's hardly going to just let her go to raise the alarm, is he? We aren't told how he resolves that situation, though.

Upstairs, Glover is freaking out big time when Duffy returns. Duffy calmly suggests that they get out of there before anyone else comes looking.

Elsewhere in London again, Bodie has gathered up a posse of lesser agents to embark upon a full-scale raid on a betting shop. The random store attendants and punters freeze in shock. Like his partner, it has to be said that Bodie is looking rather lovely in this episode – this scene in particular, where he's playing at being quite the action man.

One little chap behind the counter panics and runs. Bodie gives chase, vaulting over the counter all athletic-like. Running Man runs. Bodie pursues. Running Man takes a tumble. Bodie pursues. Running Man sprints some more. Bodie leaps over a fence and pursues. Running Man scampers along a wall and jumps down into an alleyway. Bodie runs along the same wall and jumps down into the alleyway. Running Man has vanished. Bodie narrows his eyes, suspicious, and has a good look around. He spots a group of large dustbins nearby and approaches them, selects one at random, tips it over – and there's Running Man, hiding inside under a heap of rubbish.

Pleased with himself, Bodie smirks. "Gone to roost in your natural habitat, Philo." Heh.

Betting shop. Bodie has got Philo and another chap we later learn goes by the name Davis sitting on chairs in the middle of the now empty shop floor wearing sullen expressions, not unlike a pair of naughty schoolboys. Bodie's posse of random CI5 goons guards the door, while Bodie himself gets on with the intimidation, trying to extract some information from his captives about why the Organisation is active again. Just as his patience snaps and he's threatening to get really rough, Cowley walks in with Doyle in tow. Timing is everything.

Cowley immediately instructs the goons to let Philo and Davis go. They comply, silently, because they aren't paid enough to speak, and make themselves scarce as well, while they're at it. Bodie sulks. "I was just beginning."

"Are you mad?" Cowley shouts, proceeding to chew out his agent over the small matter of half a dozen agents crashing into a shop in broad daylight to pull in "two toy-town bandits."

Bodie defends himself very loudly, reeling off the form both men have got; Cowley counters with how long ago that was. "Look, I warned you. Stir them up, get the old boys going – we'll have a major war on our hands. And this is just the kind of bravado that'll start it."

"Well, what do we do? Advertise in the papers?" Bodie sullenly snarls, unwilling to admit that his approach might have been wrong.

"No, you use your head, Bodie," Cowley informs him, still angry. "Like Doyle, here."

He exits the shop, leaving the partners alone with their awkwardness at the one having been held up against the other's failings as a shining example of best practice. Good job they're Professionals, and have both been chewed out many times in the past. Doyle has been standing in the background throughout the argument, leaning nonchalantly against the doorpost and staying well out of it. He stays quiet now, letting Bodie take a moment to calm down.

"Okay, professor," Bodie says at last. "What do we do?"
"Well, we know where they drink, don't we?" Doyle offers.
Bodie rolls his eyes. "Oh great, that's the alternative, brilliant. Going around drinking in back street pubs." Heh.

Random back street pub. Bodie and Doyle emerge, Bodie's mood having improved considerably now that he's ever so slightly sloshed. "That was very enlightening, wasn't it?" he chirps. "Pub crawl in broad daylight." There's some banter around the fact that they haven't actually learned anything useful yet – apart from a few bad jokes – and then Doyle suggests that Bodie go and check out Morgan's bird Sylvie at the Pineapple Club, since Sylvie hasn't seen him before. Bodie queries whether Doyle means him to check out the girl or the club – the club, as it happens, as it's the kind of place where Organisation boys might hang out. "Her if you've got the time."

"All this drinking in the day time," Bodie sighs.
"I know, I shall never be able to look a ginger beer in the face again," the less-drunk Doyle cheerfully agrees.
Hee. This is such a cute scene, made cuter still by the way Doyle scratches his back, pulling the back of his shirt up to reveal a few inches of lovely bare flesh.

Pineapple Club. Bodie makes himself at home at the bar. "Hey, what you got that's potent but legal?"
"You're over 21, aren't you?" Sylvie coolly inquires without even looking at him.
Bodie sighs dramatically. "Lemonade." Hee. And then he starts making faux-casual inquiries, and it has to be said, subtlety really isn't Bodie's strong suite.
"Who are the heavy boys around here?" he asks, after beating around the bush a bit.
Sylvie winks. "Ask me about the heavy girls and I might be able to tell you."

Just then, Mr Albie himself wanders in, with Baldie from earlier, a couple of random girls hanging off their arms. Mr Albie shows Sylvie a photo of Duffy, asking if she's seen him around, and she sounds completely convincing as she glances at it appraisingly and denies having ever seen him, at least that she remembers. Leaving them, she promptly heads out back – where Duffy himself is playing poker in a back room. "Someone's been asking for you," she murmurs in his ear. "Outside."

He follows her out of the room, leaving Glover to watch his cards, where she tells him about Mr Albie's interest in his whereabouts. "We see nothing, hear nothing," she assures him. "That's the policy." Duffy is reassured, and leans in for a kiss. Morgan, this chick was so not worth leaving your wife and children for.

At the bar, Baldie has spotted Bodie and recognised him as CI5, discreetly bringing his presence to Mr Albie's attention, along with the fact that Bodie pulled Davis and Philo earlier – their men. "CI5 know the rules," says Mr Albie, looking grim. "He hit Davis, we hit him." Sounds ominous.

Somewhere in London. Next day. Doyle and Bodie are driving around randomly when they receive a message requesting a meet for Bodie with one of his 'toy town bandits'. They accept the arrangement, and head straight there.

"Nice rendezvous," Bodie snarks, all ironical. "Plenty of cover."
It's a big old house, derelict and in the process of renovation, and they are completely exposed as they pull up outside.
"They wouldn't dare," Doyle chuckles. Oh, but they so would.

Baldie is there. "There's two of them," he notes, having arranged the meet just for Bodie. "It's all right," he's assured. "Davis can take them both." Nice.

Sure enough, there's a sniper up in a high winder, rifle in hand. He aims for Bodie's kneecap, but, fortunately for our boy's future mobility, is a suck shot and misses. Bodie and Doyle both dive for cover. There's a lot of shooting, but apparently no one can shoot straight today, as they all miss each other completely. The would-be assassins take off, and the Lads, having failed to apprehend them, dash back to Doyle's car, where Cowley is trying to raise them by radio. The stolen armaments have been found, he tells them – at the bottom of a lake.

I love that the Lads totally don't bother to mention that they were just shot at and almost killed. All in a days' work, eh.

Lakeside. The Lads arrive. Ooh, Doyle has shed his jacket and is just in his little green t-shirt now. Scrummy. Already at the scene, with divers retrieving the guns, Cowley explains about the young couple who saw the van and had heard about the raid and descriptions. What civic-minded and observant young people. While Doyle wanders over to converse with the divers, Cowley makes sure Bodie gets his point, loud and clear. "Hardly looks like stockpiling for a war, does it?"

"You know Davis, that toy town bandit you unleashed on the unsuspecting public yesterday?" Bodie wants to get his point across, too. "He tried to re-arrange my physique with an armalite."
He smirks. Cowley smirks back – they are both so convinced they are right about this. "Tit for tat. You hit Davis…"
"He tries to blow my kneecap," Bodie acknowledges.
"And the story goes on and on, and we learn nothing," Cowley grimly finishes. This is exactly what he wanted to avoid.
"Well, we know it is some kind of active campaign." Bodie sticks firmly to his belief that the Organisation is behind all this.

Doyle wanders back to report that all the guns are accounted for, except one, although the divers will keep checking in case they missed it down there in the murk. They all agree that it makes no sense. "Unless someone's playing a game," Cowley muses.
"Bust up in the ranks?" Doyle suggests. "Could have a runner."
Ding! Episode title.

Lorry yard. Morgan is at work; Doyle comes visiting again. Morgan rolls his eyes, because heavens forfend that anyone should be glad to see Doyle in this episode. They greet one another affably enough, though, Morgan wryly observing that as the new boy he gets all the duff jobs, and Doyle sympathising in gruff manly fashion, before switching to business. "Friend of mine had a drink in your girlfriend's club the other day. Next thing, somebody tries to make him walk different."

If Morgan is ex-CI5, he would know Bodie, surely? Even if they were never mates as he apparently was with Doyle.

"He was looking into that little matter I asked you about," Doyle continues.
"Yeah, well now you know why I didn't want to know," Morgan points out, reasonably enough.
"There's money in it," Doyle offers. How insulting must it be for a former agent to be reduced to the level of paid informant? But he needs the money, what with the ex-wife, children and mistress to look after, and Doyle isn't above pointing that out to him. Whatever it takes to get the job done.

Morgan swings into his lorry without giving an answer, one way or the other.

Random garage someplace in London. Glover shows up to hire a few thugs.

Pineapple Club. Morgan sees Sylvie enjoying a drink with Duffy and Glover, and approaches the table. They introduce themselves as 'Jack and Steve' and dissemble impressively before taking off. Not interested in making new acquaintances. Sylvie dismissively tells her boyfriend that Duffy is just some man she met the other night, involved with the Organisation. Morgan leans forward, interested now. "They're active again now, aren't they?" Once a copper, always a copper. Those instincts just don't go away.

Sylvie sighs and boredly admits that yes, Duffy said they were, that a robbery is being set up at some gaming club. Sylvie is an intriguing character; it's hard to tell throughout this episode how much of her behaviour is feigned nonchalance, playing both ends against the middle, and how much is genuine disinterest, a pawn being used by others. Also, a lot of the character interactions and reactions in this episode don't make sense, and that can make the episode hard to follow logically. Sylvie insists to Morgan that this robbery is "neither your nor my business, right? Anyway, whatever they're up to, this place is boiling over with question-and-answer men right now."

Morgan laughs. "Poor Doyle. On his hands and knees for a break." And that reaction implies that his interest is purely personal curiosity, rather than any residual loyalty to CI5 or Doyle.

By telephone, Glover confirms the final arrangements with his hired thugs for the robbery they are planning.

Bodie lies asleep in bed with a random female.

"Come on, Bodie – wake up." Doyle throws clothes at his partner's head to get him up. Hee. "Tip off," he gives as his reason for calling.
"It's nine am, it's obscene," Bodie sleepily grumbles, as Doyle perches on the edge of the bed and dangles the latchkey he used to get in over the bare back of the random female.
"That's your latchkey, you want to be more careful," Doyle observes. So…this is the girl's place. She can't be that random, then, if Doyle knew to find Bodie there. "Good night?" he mildly adds, teasingly.
The girl doesn't bother even trying to wake up. "Good night." She's asleep again. Heh.

Casino someplace in London. The robbery Duffy and Glover have set up gets underway, but then CI5 turn up to spoil the party. Glover – only present as an observer anyway – gets out of there, post haste as the shooting begins. Looks like Bodie woke up at the prospect of a bit of action, as he seems wide awake now.

After getting his windscreen shot out, Doyle chases Glover's car. Except that the stunt driver blatantly isn't Glover. Cue lots of rather annoyingly dramatic music and stunt driving. Then Mr Albie and Baldie appear to add another layer of intrigue, forcing Glover to stop and attempting to haul him into their own car. Doyle's arrival sets the cat among the pigeons, and Glover flees once more, as do the other two. Doyle is frustrated at having lost them.

Morgan's place. The doorbell rings, frantically. Sylvie answers, and is beyond dismayed when Glover bursts in all frantic about his narrow escape from CI5. "You gave me your address at the club," he says by way of explanation for his being there. "Do you know where he is? Duffy?" Sylvie is appalled that Glover should have come here, stuttering her ignorance, and then Morgan shows up, is outraged, and throws him out.

"Are you insane?" Morgan shouts at Sylvie. "If Duffy's involved in the Organisation build-up, you'll end up with no knee caps!" Sylvie seems genuinely shocked. "I'm on no one's side," Morgan snarls. "Remember that."

Payphone. Glover calls Duffy, still tremulous and shaken by his close encounter, and explains what a mess the robbery was.

It could only have been Morgan who tipped CI5 off, then, despite everything he's been saying about keeping out of things. Old habits and loyalties die hard, it seems.

Glover seems to be getting fed up of Duffy's obsession with Doyle – his own overriding interest is in re-starting a war. Given how much he just panicked at the first sign of trouble, I'm really not sure he's actually got the stomach to follow through with that, but he talks a good talk about wanting to stir things up. Duffy insists that they can help each other and both get what they want. "We'll blow the place sky high, but first I want Doyle."

Random street. Cowley, Doyle and Bodie walk and talk. Doyle hands Cowley a photo of John Albie, running through his resume as having seen action in Berlin, the Congo – Bodie's old stamping ground – and now running a travel agency. "Typical," Bodie snorts. They all agree that Albie is a top man with the Organisation, and that the random thugs they picked up at the raid were just that – random thugs for hire. Cowley confirms that the tip off came from Morgan – although from the scene we saw in the pub, he couldn't have known which casino was being hit, unless he got that out of Sylvie later – and tells Doyle to get a 24-hour-a-day stakeout on him. Cowley shows no sign of ever having known Morgan himself, despite the fact that it is confirmed in the episode that Morgan was ex-CI5 and that Cowley should therefore have known him as well as he knows the rest of his agents. Just another of those perplexing little oddities of this episode,

Mr Albie's office. He drops a newspaper in front of Baldie, pointing out an article about the casino raid, and seethes that the authorities will think it was them. "Once CI5 get their teeth in, they won't let go." They don't want a war, and can't lie low forever, so he tells Baldie to fix another meet. "And this time we'll talk. To Cowley."

Random field at the edge of woodland. Bodie accompanies Cowley to his meet. Mr Albie doesn't bother beating around the bush, simply insisting that this has all been a mistake, that the Organisation don't want a war, that this is a good time for them. "Things are, uh, politically favourable." Cowley points out the circumstantial evidence against them – gun raid, ambush, casino raid. "I know, I read the papers," Albie sighs, as if it's all too tiresome for words. "Look, take my words for it. Stop your boys now. Put a d-notice on the press. It's better for everyone if it's played down. Otherwise everyone gets hysterical. My men, your men – and the public."

Bodie wonders who it is if not the Organisation. Mr Albie is cagey. "All I can say is you won't have any more trouble. Take my word on that."

"Let me tell you something," Cowley snarls. I love it when he does that, all righteous anger. "One more smell of your lot and every Organisation man between here and Inverness spends Christmas in the nick." It's blatantly summer at the moment – Christmas is a long way off. So that's no idle threat.

"Cheers," Bodie smirks as he gets back into the car to drive away.

Pineapple Club. Morgan is on the phone to Doyle, who's had the call patched through to the radio in his car. Morgan has information, "just something I learned from a conversation with someone I hardly know", and isn't feeling especially generous but nevertheless wants to arrange a meet, saying that if Doyle wants the information it's his. Doyle wonders why the change of heart. "I just want to see someone who deserves to be pushed aside get what's coming," Morgan snarls.

As Morgan hangs up, having arranged the meet, we see that across the bar, Duffy has been listening in. Probably should have picked a less public place for such a sensitive conversation.

Random field at the edge of the woods. This is the favoured location of the week for covert meetings, it seems. Morgan arrives; Doyle arrives. In the woods, Duffy also arrives, pulling out that last rifle from the gun shop robbery and taking careful aim. It's Doyle he wants, but he also can't allow Morgan to pass on any potentially incriminating evidence. The sight of the rifle rests on Doyle as he gets out of the car, but then Morgan steps into shot, and Duffy pulls the trigger. It's kind of ambiguous within the scene itself whether Morgan was deliberately targeted or got in the way of a shot meant for Doyle, but it is clear from the context of the rest of the episode that Morgan was the intended target. Morgan goes down, and Doyle dives for cover. Duffy fires again, taking out one of Doyle's tyres, just to prove he means business and also prevent pursuit, and then gets back into the car and makes a hasty exit. Doyle scrambles back into the car and starts radioing for Bodie.

Cowley's car, parked in some random street. Cowley, Doyle and Bodie are having a pow-wow, studying photos from the stakeout on Morgan. "She's familiar," Bodie remarks of a picture of Morgan with Sylvie. Doyle identifies her, and Bodie remembers that she works at the Pineapple Club, sounding surprised at the connection, which he should already know about because Doyle told him about it. I didn't think he was that drunk when Doyle suggested he go check out both the place and the girl. But then, a lot of the scenes in this episode feel a bit like they were written with little or no reference to one another; certainly they seem to have lacked an overall continuity editor. But anyway, Doyle mildly agrees that yes, she does, sounding about as sombre as you'd expect after what happened to Morgan, adding that she seems all right. "Nothing nasty on the file, anyway."

Cowley grumbles that he'd told them to put a 24-hour watch on Morgan, and Bodie protests that they did, but that he gave them the slip, like the old pro that he is. "Was," Doyle reminds him, still sombre, staring at one of the photographs. As Bodie wonders if maybe Morgan was Albie's vendetta, Doyle slowly comes to the conclusion that he knows the face in the photograph – it's Duffy, walking and talking with Morgan. When did that happen? When we saw Morgan and Duffy meet, Duffy didn't seem the slightest bit interested in making any formal acquaintance with him.

"Well, if you do, criminal records don't," Bodie says of Doyle's recognition of the man. Ah, such a simple and low-tech age.

Another random street. Alice Morgan pushes her son's pram along, minding her own business, only for Ray Doyle to bob up out of nowhere for another little chat. After another round of sour greetings, he shows her the photograph of Morgan with Duffy. "Know the face, can't quite place the name." All he gets is another helping of bitter sarcasm, and he really isn't in the mood. "You know him, don't you?"

"I used to know you," Alice angrily tells him. "I don't anymore." She walks away, leaving Doyle frustrated once more.

Meanwhile, Sylvie is being questioned by Baldie and Mr Albie about her connection with Duffy, and tearfully insists that she barely knows him. Mr Albie also provides a bit of belated, and by now not really necessary exposition regarding Duffy's involvement with the Organisation up north and his split with them. He wanted a war; those higher up didn't, and the longer he's running around loose the more chance he has of creating a very dangerous situation. "Nobody wants that kind of civil war," he insists. Well, no one except Duffy and his mate Glover, that is.

Later. Sylvie makes a hasty exit from the non-descript little terraced house this conversation was taking place within. Across the road, Doyle is sitting watching and promptly starts up the engine and turns the car around to follow her. Presumably, tailing her is how he knew she was there. He does a nice job of following her unseen, too, but unseen isn't really how he wants to play it, so he pulls over as she approaches a bus stop. Sylvie tries to pretend she hasn't seen him, because no one is happy to see Doyle in this episode. And yet he looks so good in that dark green shirt.

"You wanna jump in?" Doyle calls, amiably enough. Sylvie pretends she hasn't heard. "You must make a lot of friends at that club," he offers, trying another tack. "That was Albie's friend's place you just came out of, is Albie a friend of yours as well? Is that how Morgan got his information, through you from Albie?"

Well, give him points for trying, but Sylvie really doesn't want to talk. She's under pressure from a lot of directions right now, and she doesn't even know about Morgan's death yet. She insists that none of it is anything to do with her, and won't even look at the picture of Morgan with Duffy that Doyle tries to show her. "If you want to know about Morgan go and ask him!" she shouts before leaping into a passing taxi and making good her escape. Doyle is frustrated, again.

Grotty little derelict flat someplace. Glover arrives with his arms full of supplies, and is startled when Duffy pops up behind him, rifle in hand. Glover is such a bag of nerves; he really is in the wrong line of business. Duffy is jubilant about having started that war they wanted, all on their own. Someone's counting their chickens before they are hatched. "After this nothing can stop it," he crows. "CI5 will want their blood sacrifice, and every Organisation man will be armed and active." What a cheerful thought.

"We've won!" Duffy happily continues to monologue. "And Doyle's out there. Every time they move, he moves. Which is what we want, more than anything: Ray Doyle." And by now viewers really wish someone would explain the why behind that. The actual plotting on this episode isn't that bad, but the unfolding of it is bewildering, with too little explained in the appropriate place for viewers to be able to make sense of it. It really feels like segments of the script were written entirely separately from one another, with no editor to check that they all came together smoothly.

Glover isn't as confident as Duffy, bemoaning that their own people are going to come gunning for them after this. Someone has realised that maybe the plan isn't quite as watertight as Duffy seems to think. Duffy tries to reassure him, and thanks him for his support, wanting to keep him on side, and Glover reminds both us and Duffy, in case anyone had forgotten, that he's in this for different reasons than Duffy. He still doesn't seem to have the stomach to back up his words, though.

Duffy isn't listening, thinking about his plan once more. It seems that the plan is to plant a bomb at the government offices in Darrow Lane to go off at 6pm, with Duffy phoning in a warning five minutes earlier. He tells Glover to plant the bomb – and to bring Sylvie to him. "I don't trust her after Morgan." Glover argues that Sylvie would be deadweight, but Duffy is in no mood to listen to anyone but himself and insists.

Cowley's car. Bodie is driving, at speed, with Doyle and Cowley in the back, discussing the case so far. It seems that ballistics have confirmed that the gun which killed Morgan was the one un-recovered weapon from the raid on the gun store. Cowley recaps the plot leading up to Morgan's execution, as if we haven't just seen the action unfold before our eyes. Was this episode running short or something? He adds that, logically, it must have been the same person who hit the gun shop. Well, yes, seeing as how it was the same weapon, that seems pretty obvious, and most of what he's saying here is completely redundant and doesn't add anything to what anyone already knew, except to confirm that CI5 are pretty much stumped and don't know who to believe.

Bodie then chips in to remind everyone what he thinks – that they should start hitting back now before anything can get off the ground. Without a word, Cowley looks at Doyle for his input, and he advises caution – give it 24 hours, keep up the stakeouts and wait. Bodie, looking disgusted, keeps taking his eyes off the road for dangerously long moments to try to be part of the conversation, but Cowley shuts him down – once they start taking action, it really will be war, and the city can't afford that. So, Doyle and Cowley are in complete agreement, as they seem to have been throughout this episode, with Bodie out on his own as the voice of dissention.

Pineapple Club. Glover collars Sylvie and tells her Duffy wants to see her, and since she's been trying unsuccessfully to get hold of Duffy herself, she agrees without any argument. I could have done with a bit more information of just how and when Sylvie got involved with Duffy and Glover in the first place because the connection feels terribly random.

Duffy's derelict flat. "Apologies for the regal splendour, the butler's on holiday," he cheerfully welcomes Sylvie, before quietly confirming with Glover that the bomb has been set. Sylvie starts rabbiting on about how everyone is looking for Duffy, and that Albie has talked to her, since someone saw her at the club with him, and that CI5 have also been asking questions. "A man called Doyle was tailing me."

Wrong thing to say. Duffy spins around, wide-eyed, as if it's come as a surprise that Doyle would have come into contact with Sylvie, and starts ranting about how she told him Morgan was ex-police, not ex-CI5, and that he and Doyle must have known each other. But he already knew that Doyle knew Morgan, surely – he killed Morgan because he was passing information to Doyle, killed him at an actual meeting with Doyle. It makes no sense.

Anyway, Sylvie is bemused by this unexpected change in attitude, as if she hadn't realised Duffy could be dangerous man, despite his Organisation connections. So few people in this episode seem capable of putting two and two together. Leaping to the conclusion that CI5 must have taken Sylvie in and that she must have told them something, Duffy starts to get violent, and Sylvie starts to get angry, insisting that she told Doyle nothing but that CI5 already had a photograph of Duffy with Morgan.

Fraying rapidly at the edges, Duffy accepts that, but is seriously rattled. Sylvie points out that she couldn't have told Doyle anything, as she doesn't know anything to tell.

Noting that there are forty minutes until the bomb goes off, Duffy tosses some papers at Sylvie. "That's Doyle; Doyle did that." Sylvie looks at the papers – old newspaper cuttings under the headings 'youth shot by squad man' and 'youth dies'. That second headline, though, is attached to an article about Rolf Harris, which is amusing. It was five years ago, Duffy explains, a bank job gone wrong, but doesn't explain any more than that. It was his brother who died, apparently, but the exposition isn't handled well in this episode. We needed this information to be made a lot clearer a lot earlier in order to fully understand Duffy's motivations.

Unravelling fast, although for no good reason other than being unable to handle the pressure now things have gone so far, Duffy tells Glover to go get Doyle and bring him here, but Glover sensibly refuses. Because, seriously, abducting a CI5 agent is a lot easier said than done. And if Duffy was really serious about wanting to kill Doyle, he really should have done it when he had the chance, earlier. Ignoring Glover, Duffy continues that it has taken him until now to find out who pulled the trigger, Ray Doyle, but that the Organisation weren't interested in exacting revenge when he asked them. Hence his decision to go it alone. He snaps at Glover again to get Doyle there, then changes his mind and decides that Sylvie should make the call. "Tell him you know Morgan's informant, tell him you want to meet."

Ah, subterfuge – that makes more sense than abduction. But still – execution up close is hardly as discreet as getting him killed on the front lines of a CI5-Organisation war, as the original plan seemed to be. Glover protests that Duffy is crazy, that the bomb's enough, but Duffy snaps that Doyle isn't looking for the bomb. "He's looking for me!"

Well, technically, I suppose he kind of is, but he doesn't know it. Doyle isn't looking for the bomb because he doesn't know about it, and he's only looking for Duffy as a potential suspect for the arms raid. He has no reason to suppose that there's anything personal going on. But Duffy is clearly not thinking clearly any more. Not that he ever really was. His mind is made up – Sylvie is to call Doyle and offer him information as enticement to get him there, to the derelict flat.

Doyle's car. He's driving along minding his own business when he takes the call, and readily enough agrees to meet without even confirming who the caller is, although her reference to Morgan makes it obvious enough, I suppose.

Derelict apartment block. Doyle arrives and peers around, all wary and on guard, before cautiously making his way inside, gun at the ready. Upstairs, he starts calling for Sylvie, still cautious – but not too cautious. He's got no reason to suspect that this might be a trap of any kind. Sylvie appears and slowly walks toward him, looking like a woman in way over her head and sinking fast.

"Look, I'm going to tell you something," says Doyle. "If you're scared of grassing anybody, don't be, 'cause what happened to Morgan was a million to one chance." How does he figure that? Morgan turned informant on some very dangerous people, who took lethal measures to silence him. In CI5's line of work, I'd call that a pretty standard risk, rather than a million to one chance. Unless he's just trying to reassure her, in which case he's really not making a good job of it, taking such a ruthless line as he adds, "he knew, anyway…"

But Sylvie stops him before he can go on, shocked at the implication of his words. She didn't know until that moment that anything had happened to Morgan. Apparently, nobody bothered to inform her, despite her being the live-in girlfriend.

Doyle looks puzzled at this reaction. "You do know he's dead, don't you? Shot."

Sylvie's reaction is absolute horror. "Who?" she gasps, but doesn't even wait for an answer, already knowing the answer. "Run, now get out!" she screams, and Doyle quickly hustles her toward cover as Duffy appears out of his flat, rifle in hand, and they exchange gunfire, each ducking in and out of their respective points of shelter.

It all goes quiet for a moment, but then Glover appears, gun in hand, to cover Duffy's exit from the flat in search of more defensible ground. He finally pays for his loyalty to his unstable partner with his life, as Doyle takes him down with one shot. Glover really wasn't cut out for this line of work, no matter what he might have believed to the contrary.

Duffy has already made good his escape, so Doyle gives chase, shouting to Duffy that they are way ahead of him. "Do you really think you can get an Organisation war started on a grudge fight?" How the hell do CI5 know about that? We never saw them identify Duffy – he was just a face in a photograph last we saw. How did they suddenly jump to knowing everything about his motivations and intentions? Did a crucial figuring-it-out scene get cut for length or something? It makes no sense!

A lot of running around on balconies, rooftops and scaffolding around the derelict building follows, and a lot of gunfire is exchanged, none of it managing to hit home. It's a great action scene for Doyle fans to enjoy, but it ends with Duffy getting the drop on Doyle, who freezes on the spot, gun trained on his back from a distance, knowing that he's completely exposed…

Doyle spins, a gun fires, and Duffy crumples to the floor. And Sylvie almost chokes in horror at what she just did, clutching Glover's gun in suddenly nerveless hands. Doyle gently takes the gun from her and then snaps back onto full alert as she stutters about the bomb due to go off at 6pm. Telling her to stay put, Doyle dashes off back to the car, and I really, really hope he remembers to get someone straight around to deal with her, as well as taking care of the bomb situation himself, because she's distraught and unstable and also an important witness to be left unsupervised with two corpses.

So. Doyle sprints back to the car, and fans enjoy the very arty shot of this, filmed in reflection in the wing mirror. Snatching up his radio, he calls for Bodie, which…why? There's a bomb, so calling it in to HQ should be the first priority, surely? Anyway, he calls Bodie, who takes a long time answering, and Doyle is getting more and more frantic by the second, snarling angrily into the radio until Bodie casually tells him to keep his shirt on, which is a cute partner moment. "Get an all out, bomb squad, the lot," Doyle tells him. Which, again – why call Bodie for that? It would be quicker and more direct to call HQ himself, surely.

Anyway. CI5's finest proceed to converge on the government offices in Darrow Lane, with only minutes to spare. What would be really funny would be if they got pulled over for speeding, but alas that doesn't happen. By amazing coincidence, Doyle and Bodie manage to arrive at almost the exact same moment, to find a bunch of random police and officer workers just standing around looking worried. Bodie bellows at them to keep back as he and Doyle start frantically sprinting around looking under cars, and it's a big car park and there are a lot of cars there, but as good luck would have it the bomb is in the very first row they start searching, and Bodie finds it almost at once.

Cowley arrives as Bodie gives the bomb a hasty once over and Doyle yells at him to keep back, then returns his attention to his partner as they whisper to one another to just pull it and hope for the best. Both cringe as they take one end each and pull, like a Christmas cracker, expecting to be blown to bits, but hey, at least they'd go together.

Nothing happens. "Bang," Bodie breathes, and they start giggling at one another like a pair of giddy schoolgirls with the sheer relief of not being dead.

Cowley comes striding over now the danger is past. "I heard the call. Duffy?" he asks. Again, how do CI5 know? It's like there's this whole huge chunk of problem solving that we completely missed.

"Double vendetta," Doyle confirms. "Get me and the Organisation."
"Clever boy," Cowley grimly remarks. "He could have brought this city down around our ears."

And on that grim note the episode ends. Overall? There's a lot of decent character work in this episode, and what should have been a good, strong plot, but it's let down by the extremely confusing continuity and exposition, or lack thereof. But the boys look great.