Bodyguard: why was Budd on the train and what will happen in series 2? Your questions answered
Warning: contains spoilers
Confused by the labyrinthine conspiracy? Missed a crucial snippet of dialogue? Need a quick refresher course on what the holy heck just happened?
Happy to help, ma’am. Here are answers to the 11 major questions following Bodyguard’s nerve-shredding, nail-chomping series finale…
1. Was the Home Secretary really dead?
We’re afraid so. Many viewers still clung to the vain hope that - because we never saw a body and the funeral was a small, private, closed-casket affair - the Right Hon Julia Montague (Keeley Hawes) was secretly alive, presumably having faked her own death to evade her enemies and flush them out.
Mischievous teasing from Hawes herself and writer Jed Mercurio added fuel to that fire last week. However, it wasn’t to be. Probably wisely, as it would have been tricky to pull off plausibly - especially because her bodyguard-cum-lover PS David Budd (Richard Madden) clearly hadn’t been in on any such ruse and subsequently attempted suicide.
So minxy Montague remained dead, having succumbed to the injuries sustained in the St Matthew’s College bomb midway through the series. But at least she took down half of the corrupt British establishment with her. A worthy legacy. Thank you, ma’am.
2. Who killed Julia Montague?
An unholy combination of organised crime, Islamist terrorists, corrupt police and senior figures within the Government.
The sophisticated device was built by would-be train bomber Nadia Ali (Anjli Mohindra). Criminal kingpin Luke Aitkens (Matt Stokoe) and his men planted it under the St Matthew’s College stage where Montague was making her keynote speech. Leaked Met intel enabled them to bypass her security arrangements to do so.
More indirectly, Montague’s Westminster rivals - chief whip/ex-husband Roger Penhaligon (Nicholas Gleaves), counter-terror minister Mike Travis (Vincent Franklin) and advisor/spurned lover Rob Macdonald (Paul Ready) - also played a part.
The bomb was partly operated by a pressure sensor. When the plotting trio tried to publicly embarrass Montague by sending aide Tahir Mahmood (Shubham Saraf) onto the stage to interrupt her speech, he could have inadvertently triggered the explosion. Ka-boom. Lavender down.
3. What was the motive of gangster Luke Aitkens?
It was, Aitkens said coldly, “strictly business, nothing personal”. The ambitious Montague was pushing through her controversial Regulatory & Investigatory Powers Act 2018 bill - a “snooper’s charter” known as “RIPA 18” - and had even blackmailed the Prime Minister into backing it.
As well as fighting terrorism, RIPA 18 would have meant increased scrutiny of criminal communications, posing a significant threat to Aitken’s gangland empire. Montague also proposed to transfer powers from the police to the security services, who are harder to bribe and manipulate than the Met.
Killing Montague in a sort of sophisticated mob hit was Aitkens’ way, albeit a radical one, of derailing RIPA 18 and protecting his business interests. First he recruited disaffected war veteran Andy Apsted (Tom Brooke), supplying him with a PSL marksman’s rifle and vantage point near Thornton Circus to fire at Montague’s ministerial car. When that attempt failed, he bought the bomb from Nadia’s terrorist cell, with Budd lined up to take the rap.
4. Who was the “inside man” at the Met?
Don’t be so sexist, Captain Patriarchy - it was an inside woman. For a while, big tease Mercurio led us to believe the the corrupt cop and source of the leaks was Commander Anne Sampson (Gina McKee). Then came the twist as Budd’s boss Chief Supt Lorraine Craddock (Pippa Haywood) was unmasked as the bent officer.
Craddock had been in Aitkens’ pocket long-term, feeding him sensitive information and sabotaging investigations into his activities. She personally promoted Budd to be Montague’s protection officer, making him the perfect fall guy. She leaked the Home Secretary’s itinerary and security protocols to Aitkens, enabling him to plan both attacks.
All very Line Of Duty and Craddock was, like her name, deeply fishy. But together with Aitkens and Nadia, she wound up charged with conspiracy to murder.
5. Who masterminded the terror attacks?
In a shock twist, thwarted train bomber Nadia turned out to be behind the string of explosive devices which had left London in a state of high alert.
Written off as an oppressed, coerced Muslim wife, Nadia was actually a trained engineer, skilled bomb-maker and committed jihadi. She not only built the suicide vest she wore on the train but also the Heath Bank School truck bomb, the St Matthew’s College device and the one worn by Budd in the finale.
Anti-terror police underestimating Nadia enabled her to escape suspicion - well, until Budd remembered that she knew his children’s names and ages, realising with a jolt that Nadia knew far more than she was letting on. She had conspired with Aitkens, communicated with her terror cell from prison and deliberately misled the investigation. The terrorist mastermind had been hiding in plain sight since the opening scene of the series.
6. Was it a coincidence that Budd was on the suicide bomber's train or was it a set-up?
This was never directly addressed in the finale but we'd theorise that it was coincidence. There were surely too many variables for it to be engineered: Budd tackling the bomber depended on him glimpsing the suspicious behaviour of Nadia's husband, deciding to leave his children and get involved, conferring with the train guard, realising that the husband wasn't the one with the bomb, then returning to the train toilet. Not to mention the unreliability of the British railways meaning that he might not have been on the train and in that seat at all.
In addition, Nadia said in her final police interview that she had fully intended to detonate the bomb but couldn't go through with it - for which she had since "atoned a thousand times over".
Assuming it was happenstance, Budd's heroic actions would have brought him to the attention of Aitkens and Craddock. It was probably at this point that they identified him as the perfect patsy, prompting Craddock to promote him to become Montague's bodyguard and take the fall for her assassination. The swines.
7. Were Tahir’s briefcase and Vicky’s boyfriend both red herrings?
Yes, they were. Sorry if that ruined your theory. The whole story wasn’t based on Romeo & Juliet either.
8. Who was Longcross and what was he up to?
The strawberry blond super-spook going by the possibly pseudonymous name of “Richard Longcross” (Michael Shaeffer) was behind all manner of skulduggery throughout the series: covert searches and surveillance, cyber-spying, a spot of light intimidation, doctoring CCTV footage and bugging hotel suites.
Working off-the-books for growling, granite-faced MI5 director-general Stephen Hunter-Dunn (Stuart Bowman), Longcross’ latest mission was tracking down the blackmail-worthy “kompromat” (compromising material) detailing the dodgy past of Prime Minister John Vosler (David Westhead) before it fell into less sympathetic hands.
However, the enigmatic Longcross was ultimately out-manoeuvred by Budd, who sent him into a pepper spray booby trap and the grateful arms of the police. Longcross was taken into custody but, to Budd’s shouty frustration, soon released via court order. Still, at least the kompromat found its way into the press, forcing Vosler’s resignation. Better luck next time, so-called Longcross.
9. Who replaced Budd’s bullets with blanks and why?
One of Bodyguard’s biggest twists came in episode four when grief-stricken, guilt-ridden Budd put his Makarov pistol to his head and pulled the trigger - only to survive with just a painful head wound, a ruptured eardrum and a new penchant for pulled-down baseball caps.
Aitkens’ mob had secretly broken into Budd’s flat and swapped the live rounds for blanks without his knowledge. It made their volatile fall guy less of a threat and, unlike simply stealing the revolver, Budd wouldn’t immediately know that his home security had been compromised.
Ultimately, though, it contributed to Aitkens’ downfall. Budd stashed the blanks as potential evidence. Forensics found them to be covered in the fingerprints and DNA of Aitkens’ henchmen. Blankety-blank indeed.
10. Whose side was Budd on?
The side of truth and justice, thankfully. Despite his PTSD-induced erratic behaviour and Mercurio’s hints that he might be morally compromised, Budd turned out to be one of the rare good guys. A deeply flawed hero but a hero nonetheless.
As an embittered Helmand veteran with an axe to grind against pro-war politicians, he was set up from the start. Sure, he kept a secret handgun and concealed his military links to Apsted but only because he knew it would help the conspirators pin everything on him.
He saved the lives of a train full of passengers and foiled the first assassination attempt on his “principal”. Sure, he followed the orders of his police superiors to spy on the Home Secretary - but despite pressure from above, Budd stayed loyal and didn’t pass on his findings. Neither did he tell anyone about their affair and seemed to have genuine feelings for “Julia, sorry, ma’am”.
Once Montague died, he embarked on a crusade to find her killer, with little regard for his own career, safety or state of mind. The finale saw him nab Aitkens, Craddock and Nadia, as well as bring down high-level villains Hunter-Dunn and Vosler. He also resisted exacting personal revenge on Aitkens, despite extreme provocation.
By the end, he’d faced up to his demons and desperate need for counselling, and was in the process of winning back his family. Attaboy. Come back soon, “Jock Bauer”.
11. What will happen in series two?
A follow-up series is yet to be officially confirmed but Bodyguard has been such a mega-hit, it’s surely inevitable. Mercurio has ideas for another run and, despite rumours, is unlikely to be lured to a rival broadcaster. The corporation nurtured Line Of Duty for four series, promoting it from BBC Two to primetime BBC One. Mercurio recently said he was proud to work for the Beeb and praised it for “backing Bodyguard to the hilt”.
If they can secure the services of in-demand leading man Richard Madden again, a second series could see Budd get another VIP to protect and fling him into a whole fresh conspiracy - a similar format to how Line Of Duty’s core AC-12 team investigate a different corrupt cop each series.
We left Budd on the path to recovery and in a happier place. The likes of Chanel Dyson (Stephanie Hyam), Longcross, Aitkens’ gang and many of the terrorists remain at large. Travis is still Home Secretary and, as far as we know, Penhaligon is still Chief Whip. However, the Prime Minister, director-general of the security services and senior police will all be replaced. A second story would be different enough but also reassuringly similar.
Lavender might be gone but another floral codename could be incoming…
