'Criminal Record' Season 2 Starts with a Riot
Hegarty turns and snarls, "Don't you ever say my name again, you hear?"
Criminal Record is not a show that pulls punches. While Season 1's twisty case threatened at times to sink under its own weight, that heavy ambition was worth the ride, even when it didn't quite stick the landing. Season 2 clearly means to continue along the same track, with an opening scene that is remarkable not only for its accidental timeliness but also for its willingness to remind us that those who wear the badge, in the individual, are often as helpless to stop horrors as the rest of us.
Season 2 opens with DI June Lenker (Cush Jumbo) on site at a political protest outside London's Department of Defense. The protest leader, speaking Arabic, is protesting the U.K.'s support of American aggression in the Middle East to a small group of about 20. However, just as he tips over from rhetoric to actionable statements that give the police justification for calling time on it, the neo-Nazi Reform-backed nationalist counter-protestors break through the barriers holding them at bay, resulting in the death of one of the teenagers in attendance, a kid by the name of Rohaan Hussain.
(We should note here that Season 2 wrapped filming the same week Israel and the U.S. first bombed Iran on June 13, 2025. That being said, the U.K. did support new U.S. bases in the Middle East, so this scene is accurate and timely.)
Called before Parliament, Lenker's boss, Mullins (Lyndsey Marshal), is raked over the coals even as she claims the Nazi group had been infiltrated by "six individuals" who, I assume, were there to make sure the riot went full Nazi. Meanwhile, Lenker attends the Hussain family's mourning period (basically like a shiva), only to be asked to leave by his mother. Even though the kid's mother and community reject her presence, and Mullins insists the team has it handled, June's still determined to be part of the investigation. The kid died in her arms, after all.
Mullins is trying to protect Lenker; she doesn't mean to shut her out as much as she doesn't want a good officer sacrificed on the altar of public relations. However, what she doesn't know is that June saw the face of one of the "six individuals" (Luther Ford) and is clearly determined to track him down. It turns out it's not just her obsessing – she did actually recognize him from somewhere. His name is Billy Fielding, and at 18, he was found guilty of the murder of his 16-year-old girlfriend, Cerys Jones, and sentenced to 17 years in prison, a case that June worked on.
June asked to take one of the photos of Fielding, and brings it with her to visit Cerys' mother, Ashley (Rebekah Staton), the next day. Not that she has a chance to ask Ashley about her daughter's murder; the woman is close to overdosing on her meds, and needs help. By the time June gets Ashley in the car to the soup kitchen and starts asking if she knows if Billy's still in prison, it's obvious the woman cannot and should not be traumatized further, so she lets it go. Unfortunately, it also means June doesn't get a chance to realize she's being watched – her visit to Ashley was recorded by two men in a car.
Meanwhile, DCI Daniel Hegarty (Peter Capaldi) is already working his own angle on the infiltrators. He did not retire at the end of Season 1 (as if), just transferred to the intelligence bureau, where his lack of moral scruples is considered a bonus. Checking in with former DS Tony Gilfoyle (Charlie Creed-Miles), now disabled and in prison, he's tracking a man named Cosmo Thompson (Dustin Demri-Burns). Gilfoyle apparently had a run-in with him a few years back and asked whether they should do something, but Hegarty dismissed the guy as too small-time to bother with. Whether that was a misjudgment on Hegarty's part or a change in circumstances doesn't matter. He's no longer small.
Hegarty turns out to be the man behind the team staked out at Ashley's place with the help of his old friend, DS Kim Cardwell (Shaun Dooley), so it's not long before he learns she's mixed up in their current case. When she calls Redheath prison, where the kid is supposed to be locked up, she gets a runaround from a man named Graeme, who first lies that the kid's been transferred and then won't say where, only that he'll need to call her back with more information. Of course, the very next phone call Graeme places is to Hegarty.
Thankfully, Criminal Record is not a show to drag things out, so the next thing June knows, she's got a text from her old nemesis: "Coffee?" Coffee with Hegarty or a cheap night in after couples therapy with her estranged husband, Leo Hanratty (Stephen Campbell-Moore)? You already know who she chose.
As always, this show is at its best when it's one-on-one Jumbo vs Capaldi, so naturally, the scene in the (surprisingly empty) coffee shop is an absolute banger. In short order, we learn that Fielding broke out of prison on Friday night on the underside of a catering truck; the prison was trying to keep it quiet and get him back when the protest occurred Saturday afternoon. Hegarty, naturally, has much better photos of Fielding at the riot, confirming what June saw. However, the political heat that would come from an escaped prisoner pipelined directly to a riot means it's being kept under wraps, and now it's Day 5, and they still have no idea where he is. Hegarty offers June a deal – she helps him get Fielding, and he'll make the kid her star witness.
June is seriously considering it, enough that she goes out with Sonya (Aysha Kala) for a drink to talk it over. Being the voice of reason, Sonya thinks she's mad even to entertain the notion, but she gets why June's talking herself into it. It's not like the hunt for Fielding is long-term; it's a day or two at most. More importantly, even though literally everyone (including Hegarty!) insists this was in no way June's fault, she feels guilty, especially since Rohaan's grandfather has been calling her, leaving messages she can't translate, clearly desperate for news.
Amy Amatangelo
Meanwhile, Hergarty's stakeout of Ashley pays dividends, as Fielding eventually shows up and breaks into her house. The guy in the car turns out to be JP (Luke Pasqualino), another new associate of Hegarty's, and the team gives chase, but JP fails to keep up with the kid and smacks his head on a lock and falls into the canal.
And then, in what will surely be a season full of twists, Billy goes back and rescues JP out of the canal, and when Hegarty reaches the two of them, the kid starts insisting to "Dan" that he did the right thing. He rescued JP, so they can't arrest him, right? Hegarty turns and snarls, "Don't you ever say my name again, you hear?" Apparently, there's a lot more to all of this than anyone is willing to admit.
Criminal Record Season 2 continues with new episodes every Wednesday on Apple TV through mid-June.
