Liaison (Season 1), Episode 2 Recap & Ending Explained: Apple TV+’s ‘Liaison’ started on a strong note. Through its first episode, it introduced the primary characters of two past lovers who have to join hands on a new case. Their job is to get hold of two Syrian hackers for their own reasons. Its politically charged narrative showed promise and a knack for thrilling narration.
The premiere showed Vincent Cassel’s Gabriel getting caught in relation to the recent hacking incidents from England. While he is safe due to his diplomatic immunity, the British authorities are doing their best to find a loophole to catch him. Meanwhile, Eva’s Alison struggles to get her priorities straight. Gabriel’s sudden appearance after years apart makes it all too confusing what she should be loyal to. Besides them, there is also the issue of Syrian hackers, who are trying to find their own arc of justice.
Let’s see how they all deal with it in the latest episode. Please be aware that there are spoilers ahead.
Liaison (Season 1), Episode 2 Recap
Episode 2: Chaos
The first episode ended on a passionate note, where Alison Rowdy (Eva Green) looked out from her glass door to find Gabriel Delage (Vincent Cassel) standing in the outpour of rain. If not for Kim’s (Bukky Bakray) sudden appearance, they may have even considered embracing one another. However, it ends abruptly for then. Albert (Daniel Francis) returns home, and they apologize to each other. Gabriel remains outside her house at a distance, hinting that there is more to his return.
Meanwhile, in France, Sophie (Irène Jacob) meets their president (Thierry Frémont) to inform him about the recent cyberattacks. Didier (Stanislas Merhar) talks about an agent’s (Gabriel’s) involvement, which won’t jeopardize DGSE in case of any issue. While Sophie wants them to cooperate with the British so that such an attack does not occur in their country, Didier thinks otherwise. The president stands with Didier’s opinion.
The next day, Gabriel meets Alison at an al-anon session. It seems like they had bad blood in the past, but now he appears in her life to learn where Walid Hamza (Marco Horanieh) is. She does not share any answers right away and rather asks him to join her in her car. Gabriel says that the DGSE hired him to extract these two Syrian cousins from their country, who were aware of impending terrorist attacks on England. He thinks that since the two almost got caught, they assumed the French betrayed them, so Walid attacked him in the hotel. Furthermore, he wants to get hold of Walid to know the intel on the terrorist attacks. While he stole Walid’s USB drive at the hotel, it can be accessed only with Walid’s fingerprints.
Alison understands that Gabriel is only trying to use her for his benefit. Due to their shared past, she still decides to warn him that the British authorities are determined to arrest him. When a police officer is about to catch him, he sneaks out. Back at the counter-terrorism command office, DCI Hobbs (Olivia Popica) is notified about his appearance. Being newly appointed in this case, Albert asks her why they are on the lookout for a man for just an incident at a hotel. She reveals his connection related to Hamza and assumes Hamza’s probable connection to ISIS. Albert rules out her suspicion by pointing out Hamza’s locket with a Druze star, which means that he is against radical Islam.
Meanwhile, Kim is on a train to the King’s cross, which malfunctions due to a hack into their system. All the trains get a green signal resulting in an unstoppable collision. Several lives are lost all of a sudden in this terrifying incident. Alison realizes that Kim was on the same train. She rushes to the sight to find her severely injured and joins her on her way to the hospital. Gabriel arrives there in a disguise and tries to get a detail on Hamza’s bed. Soon after, he notices Alison, who arrives there with Kim. She quickly recognizes him and follows him when Albert arrives at the hospital.
In a nurse’s disguise, Gabriel reaches next to Hamza’s bed and gets his fingerprint traced on the USB drive. He senses Alison’s arrival and passionately embraces her. But due to an emergency alert, he leaves just the next moment. Meanwhile, the French president watches the news related to this collision and asks Sophie whether such a cyberattack is possible to happen in their country. EU cybersecurity is not equipped to handle such a disaster, unlike his guess. While Sophie stresses its seriousness, Didier notes that he has gotten hold of the hackers. Against Didier’s biased plans, Sophie wants DGSE to investigate them, which upsets him.
Gabriel calls Dumas (Gérard Lanvin) to tell him that Walid Hamza is dead. Despite getting his fingerprint, he needs a password to encrypt the data, for which he needs Samir (Aziz Dyab). To make that happen, he asks to use a person (Alison) who does not need money but information in exchange. While Dumas is against it, their chat gets interrupted by Didier’s arrival, who is pissed that their case has gone back to the DGSE. Despite knowing that he is dead, he assures Didier that he will bring Hamza to Paris at the earliest, knowing that he wants to get to the bottom of it before anyone else. By then, Samir arrives on a bus in Dunkirk, France, and meets Syrian immigrants from the country.
Due to this life-threatening attack on Kim’s life, Albert is quite shaken. While Alison tries her best to comfort him, Hobbs arrives at their house with more information on Gabriel. She mentions that he is not working with the DGSE but with a firm that has provided him with thorough immunity. Alison asks just enough to understand whether the authorities know about Gabriel’s whereabouts. Since Albert assumes that Gabriel has something to do with the crash, he impassionately decides to intervene to arrest him.
The officers who have eyes on Gabriel try chasing him in a crowded alley. But he manages to run away just in time and saves himself. He then calls Alison and asks her to meet him right then. She lies to Albert that she is going to a meeting with Richard. Before she leaves, Kim thanks her for helping her out at just the right time. They mend their relationship since Kim was always bothered by Alison’s emotional distance until then.
After leaving, Alison meets Gabriel and warns him that his immunity won’t work since he is wanted for murder. She advises him to leave right then, but he is persistent in his attempts to use her to get in touch with Samir and fulfill the job he has taken responsibility for. He sees the train collision as a warning, not an actual attack. While she understands that he is treading in murky waters, she sees it as the right foot forward and agrees to help him. Once he leaves, he gets a call telling him that Samir’s wife, Mariam (Lyna Dubarry), and his son and headed to Europe.
Meanwhile, British authorities learn that Samir was onboard a Dunkirk bus. While Alison’s late arrival raises browses across the room, she pitches in to note that their cybersecurity is inadequate. As a result, she suggests making a deal with Europe. Toby (Leonardo Taiwo) is against joining hands with them. When Richard points out the severity of the current situation, Toby questions his allegiance and then storms out of the meeting.
Later, Richard suggests she go to Brussels to take care of getting this deal signed herself, despite Toby’s protests. The word spreads pretty fast and reaches all the way to France, where Bob Foret (Eriq Ebouaney) tells Didier about this new development. Didier assures that the British won’t sign the deal and continues with his attempts to make them more vulnerable to such attacks.
Liaison (Season 1), Episode 2 Ending Explained
Richard tells Alison to meet Sabine Louseau (Laëtitia Eïdo) regarding it from the Belgium embassy. Before her, Didier meets Sabine, who seems to have some history with her. He asks her a favor to not let the Brits sign the cybersecurity deal with the EU. She understands that it is more of a personal favor than for the country. She then shows him photos of their child – Pierre. It becomes evident that the distance does not suit either of them and that they would prefer to stay together. In the sway of these emotions, she agrees to do what Didier wants her to.
Meanwhile, Mariam gets a call from Samir, who assures her that he will come to meet her in Belgium. He tells her that Walid stayed back in England but does not reveal the life-threatening attack on him. Back in London, Alison tries to maintain her healthy relationship with Albert and his daughter. On the other hand, Gabriel, who has Alison’s phone, looks through her photos to find that she still has one of them as a couple. He feels joy seeing that she hasn’t forgotten him despite their fallout.
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Liaison (Season 1) Episode 2 Links: IMDb, Wikipedia
Liaison (Season 1) Episode 2 Cast: Vincent Cassel, Eva Green, Peter Mullan, Irène Jacob, Aziz Dyab, Stanislas Merhar, Daniel Francis
Where to watch Liaison
