The Capture is already ensnaring viewers with huge twists after just one episode.
The BBC drama, exploring deepfake technology known as Correction, returned for a third season on Sunday (8 March), bringing back Holliday Grainger’s Rachel Carey – and the show has flipped the book by placing Carey at the heart of the conspiracy.
*Spoilers follow – you have been warned*
This season starts amidst an inquiry into the unlawful use of the UK intelligence service’s video manipulation programme after Carey exposed it at the end of series two.
Carey is now in the position of Acting Commander of Counter Terrorism Command while MI5 find a new candidate to take over the role.
In the year that has passed in the show, new camera systems have been implemented, designed to detect when Correction is in play as it’s happening.
At the same time, MP Isaac Turner (Paapa Essiedu) has now become home secretary, and looks set to become the next prime minister – until he’s assassinated while giving a speech right in front of Carey’s eyes. Carey spots the assassin – played by Killian Scott – who points the gun at her before sparing her life and making a getaway.
When the cameras are rolled back, Carey is stunned to discover that the identity of the assassin has completely changed. In his place is an unknown character, played by Joe Dempsie.
As the sole witness, Carey meets another obstacle when she’s introduced to the successful candidate replacing her as Commander of Counter Terrorism Command – the assassin she saw kill Turner earlier in the episode.
It’s a huge moment that sends shockwaves rippling through the season as Carey tries to convince her superiors that who they’ve hired is actually the person they’re hunting.
The Independent spoke to the actor at the centre of the twist – Kaos and Secret Invasion actor Killian Scott – who has spent the press tour for the show terrified he will give away any spoilers.
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“It’s such an entertaining, twisty journey for the audience that I would feel terrible if I did anything to compromise that,” he said.
Breaking down the episode’s events, Scott said: “I have two entrances in episode one, and they’re polar opposites at a level of who I am, and certainly as far as Rachel Carey and the audience are concerned.
“Everyone else in the show is unaware of what takes place. In terms of the assassination, they all think it’s Joe Dempsie because it’s Joe Dempsie’s face. Poor Joe is getting thrown under the bus!”
Addressing the bombshell ending, in which he’s revealed to be Carey’s new boss, he said: “I’m head of intelligence now within MI5, and yet as far as she sees me, I’ve assassinated the guaranteed next prime minister. So what happens between those two things, and how can both things be true? That is the big conundrum for Rachel this season.”
He said, despite the unlikely circumstances behind their meeting, they “sort of need to operate as something of a team”, but added that Carey is “stuck in the ultimate paranoid freak out”.
“She’s certain of what she has seen, but no evidence can corroborate that, and no one else can plausibly believe her because they see all the footage and then they see me and they’re like, ‘This is just two different people.’
“They think she’s had a traumatic experience and therefore things have not processed properly or whatever.”
Scott also teased another revelation to come surrounding why exactly he spared Carey’s life.
“He hesitated for reasons that no one needs to know just yet – there is a reason and the audience will find out,” he said.
The Capture first aired in 2019 before returning in 2022. The series is available to stream on iPlayer and airs weekly on Sundays.
