Who’s the real Trauma villain? Ten things we need to know..
1. Who killed Alex?
In the opening episode, teenager Alex was happily chatting away to an unknown friend in a takeaway after school before being joined by who we learnt last night is his girlfriend, Jasmine Marks.
We now know Jasmine’s jealous ex-boyfriend Dean Curran has confessed he’s responsible for Alex’s death. But is it all as straightforward as it seems?
We assume Dean is one of the gang of ominous-looking youths outside the fried chicken shop on bikes. But was Dean acting alone?
Alex’s friend receives a mystery text as he leaves the takeaway, before curiously looking back at Alex and Jasmine sharing a Coca-Cola. Did he know what was coming?
And what about the rest of Dean’s gang? What do they know?
2. Why is Dan obsessed with Jon, not Dean?
Viewers are scratching their heads over why Dan is so fixated on the man who seemingly tried to save Alex in hospital – rather than the person who stabbed him.
Pushed to the edge, Dan is seen stalking Jon on the internet, finding out everything out about his life and getting a job at the cafe in the hospital where he works (right).
At the funeral, he says: “I’m just looking for someone to blame. I’m sure that’s the wrong reaction, but I’m angry and I’m looking for that person to blame because that’s how I think Alex would feel, a real injustice that he wasn’t able to do all the things he wanted to do.” Even after police tell him they have caught the killer, Dan still doesn’t mention his name once. And the first thing that he says to the police when they tell him who killed his son is: “How do I prosecute the doctor?” A father’s grief or something more sinister?
3. Did Jon slip up in surgery... was he drunk?
Senior trauma consultant Jon was very calm when Alex first arrived at the hospital, reassuring Dan that his son had shown no sign of internal bleeding and he “couldn’t be in a better place”.
But Jon seems to lose control in theatre and Alex dies, after Dan frantically bursts into the room.
Jon is called into the hospital during his birthday party, where he had been guzzling wine with friends and family. Could he have been drunk, as Dan later suggests when making a complaint against him?
The surgeon seems very uncomfortable when asked by colleagues why the surgery went wrong during a private meeting that Dan sneaked into during last night’s episode.
Another colleague looks very concerned – but stays silent – when asked if there were “any other irregularities” during the procedure before Alex’s death.
4. Why does Dan try to seduce Lisa?
Despite having serious money problems after losing his factory job and struggling in his new work at the hospital cafe, Dan pays what must be a hefty fee to have a consultation with psychiatrist Lisa, who is Jon’s wife.
He seems to be playing some twisted psychological game, telling Lisa – played by Rowena King – he thinks Alex would still be alive if he’d had a better doctor.
Dan makes a pass at her during their tense psychiatry assessment, saying that he wants to have sex with her, before questioning how much her outfit costs and calling his own clothes cheap.
5. And is Susie after Jon?
Dan and Jon clearly have one thing in common: their desire to use each other’s wives to get at one another.
Jon visits Dan’s wife Susie (Garrow’s Law’s Lyndsey Marshal), at her home to try to persuade her to confront her husband’s erratic behaviour – especially after a complaint has been lodged against him, the first in his high-achieving job.
Susie appears to take a serious shine to the doctor, later telling Dan he’s a “nice guy” and “fit”.
She also suggestively tells the surgeon she wants to “meet a man” while wearing just her dressing gown.
Susie seems to feel very differently to Dan about her son’s death, telling Jon: “I know that you did your best.”
While Jon’s motives seem clear – he wants Dan to leave him alone – Susie’s seem murky. Is there something more going on between them?
But it’s not just Dan who’s hinting at being a stalker: Susie says to Jon that his family must go on “good holidays” – moments before his wife Lisa books a trip to Barbados.
For a show described as the next Doctor Foster it has big shoes to fill. But ITV’s new psychological thriller Trauma might do it. The drama won the battle of the new John Simm TV specials this week, pulling in nearly five million viewers.
The Life on Mars star went head-tohead with himself on Monday night in detective drama Collateral on BBC Two, which drew 1.7million fewer viewers.
Trauma is written by Doctor Foster’s Mike Bartlett. It follows grieving dad Dan Bowker (Simm) who is convinced high-flying surgeon Jon Allerton, played by Hustle’s Adrian Lester, is responsible for his 15-year-old son Alex’s death – even though it seems he tried to save him.
Here we look at the questions viewers are desperate to find answers to in the gripping finale of the three-part series tonight at 9pm on ITV.
6. What’s happened in Dan & Susie’s marriage?
Dan and Susie clearly have some serious marital problems.
When Jon tried to enlist Susie’s help, she says the pair don’t talk and Dan won’t listen to her.
She tells Jon: “If I had the money, I would just get on a plane... just sit on a beach, drink... maybe meet a man.”
Then Dan gets Susie to dress up in the same expensive dress Jon’s wife was wearing during their therapy session in what has to be one of 2018’s most bizarre TV sex scenes.
And Susie is apparently having trouble at work too.
Dan is seen telling Alex before his death: “When you get home tonight, just take it easy with Mum, yeah? She’s having trouble at work.”
He then suggests that Susie’s supervisor at the supermarket she works in is making her life difficult as she tries to study for an exam. In the second episode, Susie is seen downing a glass of wine during the day, so is she drowning her sorrows because of bereavement, or is there something more behind it?
7. Is Jon having an affair?
Dan catches Jon in an intimate moment with fellow surgeon Nora Baker (Jemima Rooper) outside the hospital and takes pictures of the pair, which he sends to Lisa. The touchy-feely photos that Lisa receives in the post at work certainly look incriminating and viewers also noticed lingering looks between the pair after Monday’s episode too. But Jon seems like a committed family man, and still has an active sex life with Lisa. Is it all a front?
8. Was Jon involved in Dan’s sacking?
Dan suddenly loses his new job at the hospital cafe after making a formal complaint against Jon.
He accuses management of letting him go because Jon is a respected doctor at the same hospital, but they dismiss his claims and insist they are a separate company. But Jon later tells Lisa and their daughter Alana, played by Jade Anouka, at the dinner table that everything at work is “better now” and cryptically: “We’ve sorted out the problem I think – it’s done.”
If Jon is behind the sacking, is this just going to add further fuel to Dan’s already raging fire?
9. Have Jon and Dan met before?
When Dan makes his unsuccessful complaint against Jon at the hospital, he is asked whether the pair have ever met “socially” before. He defensively snaps “no”, but is he telling the truth?
Dan’s level of obsession seems deep- rooted. If the two family men have history, it explains Jon’s palpable discomfort when Dan bursts into the room during Alex’s doomed surgery.
And could it explain Dan’s seemingly irrational obsession?
10. Has Dan killed Alana?
Dan’s plan to get at Jon through his work proved unsuccessful – so has he turned violent?
He is seen thoroughly – and almost longingly – cleaning and polishing a very sharp kitchen knife.
He then stuffs the knife into his backpack before making a visit to the plush Allerton family home in Muswell Hill, North London, where Alana is making plans for a gap year with her girlfriend. Is Dan planning to kill Alana or just scare her? Or was he hoping someone else would be home?
After being failed by the authorities, we’ll find out tonight whether Dan really has decided to take matters into his own hands.