Trauma, episode two recap: Surely, hospital security isn't so lax and are we that obsessed with sex?

As Mike Bartlett’s three-part psychological thriller hit its midway point, there was a dramatic escalation in bereaved father Dan’s bitter feud with smooth surgeon Jon. Here’s all the talking points from episode two…

Dan dispensed his own brand of justice

After his attempts to pursue the truth by official means - a formal complaint to the hospital authorities and a plea for police help - came to nothing, Dan Bowker (John Simm) decided to take matters into his own hands by inserting himself into the life of consultant Dr Jon Allerton (Adrian Lester) and picking at him from all angles.

His new job in the hospital café and tendency to bumble into off-limits places - the operating theatre, the Morbidity & Mortality meeting - meant he suddenly seemed to be everywhere that Jon turned. 

He paid a menacing visit to Jon’s wife Lisa (Rowena King), then sent her seemingly intimate photos of Jon with colleague Norma (the ace Jemima Rooper, of As If/Lost in Austen cult fame), scrawled with “Your husband is cheating on you.” He also graffiti-ed “Killer” above Jon’s picture on the ward wall, which would be reassuring for patients.

His campaign of intimidation culminated in a visit to the Allertons’ house just before the credits rolled. It’s probably safe to assume he won’t be asking to borrow a cup of sugar. 

John Simm provided heart of the drama

Consistently superb actor John Simm was on two channels at once last night, since he’s also playing the shifty Labour MP in David Hare’s angsty state-of-the-nation conspiracy drama Collateral over on BBC Two. Here he turned in a more visceral performance as the father maddened by grief - and gradually growing in menace towards the man he blames. 

Simm’s was a challenging role - treading the line between hero and villain, while saddled with lots of expositional heavy lifting - but he portrayed an unravelling life with powerful intensity. Dan went from anguish to stalker-ish anger but kept viewers on-board by offering glimpses of vulnerability and humanity. 

As we’ve seen from his roles as The Master in Doctor Who, Edward Sexby in The Devil’s Whore and Lenny in the National Theatre’s 50th anniversary production of Pinter’s The Homecoming, Simm works a good line in likeable baddies. It looks ominously like he’ll go full psycho for episode three’s finale.

We finally found out who stabbed Alex

Amid the dispute about medical culpability, both Alex Bowker’s family - and indeed writer Mike Bartlett - seemed to forget the matter of who actually stabbed the 15-year-old mop-topped schoolboy. Almost in passing, we now found out. 

Alex had been in a fledgling relationship with a girl called Jasmine and her ex Dean - one of those sinister BMX lads lurking outside both Alex’s school and the chicken shop - was jealous enough to pull a blade on him. 

A troubled teenager “with issues at home”, Dean soon turned himself in, was charged with murder and pleaded guilty. Yet this news wasn’t lingered upon. Bartlett was happy to nod to the issue of rising youth knife crime, but his real interest lies in the psychodrama between his grown-up protagonists.

Class envy escalated as Dan lost another job

There’s been a strong undercurrent of classy envy to the duo’s antagonism, ever since blue-collar Dan speculated that his family’s humble circumstances played a factor in son Alex’s stabbing. “He died because I’m a failure,” he said last week, shortly after being made redundant from his job in a metal workshop. “I wasn’t born to the right people and neither was my son.”

He grew increasingly chippy about the high-achieving Allerton family’s designer clothes, flash cars and lavish lifestyle. Well, just wait until he sees their swanky kitchen (shades here of writer Bartlett’s previous hit Doctor Foster with its property porn) and hears about their upcoming holiday to Barbados. 

Keen not to lose his star surgeon, Jon’s boss Matt (Paul Thornley) pulled some strings to get Dan fired from the hospital café. He got bitterly sarcastic with his poor manager as she clumsily broke the news. It must be said, though, that Dan was hardly a model employee: habitually late, forever sneaking off to spy on the trauma team and snarling at his younger colleagues. Maybe he can find a position at Starbucks next and passive-aggressively misspell customers’ names on the paper cups.  

Adrian Lester’s role was less showy but impeccably played

“No serious complaints in years, now two in a row,” said Jon’s boss Matt. As the buttoned-up surgeon with the seemingly perfect life, Lester is playing the inscrutable straight man to Simm’s loose cannon. 

Yet Lester delivered a subtle performance as the increasingly unnerved Jon. His initial assurance gave way to self-doubt, which began affecting his work. He had a bust-up with another patient’s son, who pointed out Jon’s fluttering hands and demanded a different surgeon. 

He made some daft decisions: attending Alex’s funeral last week and this time, going round to the Bowkers’ house to enlist the help of Dan’s wife Susie (the excellent Lyndsey Marshal). Guys, you’ve got to stop these backfiring visits to each other’s wives. Then again, this is a stalker drama and characters have to behave irrationally to keep the plot bubbling away. 

Jon’s a risk-taker, as we know from his rock-climbing hobby, and was indeed sipping on a large goblet of red wine at his birthday bash before being called into work. Was his performance in the operating theatre affected by the alcohol in his system? Did he panic or freeze momentarily at the crucial moment? Does he have something else to hide? I suect there are still twists to come.

Obsession acquired a sexual dimension

Susie was the first to turn the two men’s conflict into a willy-waving contest, flippantly taunting husband Dan after Jon’s visit: “He’s a nice guy. Clever. Fit.” “Why are you being so cruel?” pleaded desperate Dan.

He promptly booked an appointment with psychiatrist Lisa and told her a disguised version of the truth: that his son had died a month ago (from cancer, in this fictionalised account) and he was “trying to find someone to blame”, echoing his funeral eulogy. Steadily, though, his behaviour crept into sexual menace. 

First, he complimented her on her skirt. This soon spiralled into “You don’t look like a psychiatrist”, accusing her of dressing to “garner attention” and a blunt declaration: “I’m sitting here right now thinking I’d quite like to have sex with you”. Lisa was spooked enough by his twitchy behaviour to jump out of her skin when Dan fumbled around in his jacket pocket for his phone, fearing it was a weapon.

Events took another dark turn when Dan bought the same outfit for wife Susie and made a clumsily aggressive attempt to have sex. However, he couldn’t rise to the occasion, which only drove the fractured couple further apart. A row ended with Susie telling him: “Sort your head out or you’ll lose everything.” Judging by the final scene, though, Dan already believes he has nothing to lose.

Agonisingly poised for the final showdown

The Allertons’ daughter Alana (Jade Anouka) was a refreshingly normal presence amid all the melodrama, providing comic relief with her cheeky asides, cute new girlfriend and gap year plans before medical school.

However, when Alana was left home alone, revising for her A-levels while her parents were at work, Dan turned up on her doorstep - with a kitchen knife in his backpack and dastardly deeds in mind. I’ve got a sinking feeling that he plans to turn the tables by seeing how Jon feels when his own teenage child is stabbed.

• The third and concluding part airs on ITV at 9pm on Wednesday