Blue Lights is back for a second season. The first two episodes are on BritBox right now, with the episodes picking up a year on from the devastation that was the Season 1 finale.
Tommy is off the fast-track after those events, and Nathan Braniff talked about what that means for the character. Meanwhile, Grace and Annie had to make some difficult decisions in the first episode of the season, and Siân Brooke and Katherine Devlin discuss them.
Breaking down Grace’s hesitation in Blue Lights Season 2’s premiere
In the second season’s premiere, Annie and Stevie are called out to a pharmacy to deal with an issue. Annie decides to let the guy go with a warning, but it comes back to haunt her. Stevie is called back to that pharmacy with Grace, and Stevie sends Grace around the back where he thinks it will be safer.
Well, it certainly isn’t. The assailant is there, and he comes at Grace with a knife. She has no choice but to pull her gun out, but she hesitates. I talked to Brooke about this—and yes, Grace does put her finger on the trigger, and this comes up in the second episode!
"That was a really interesting scene to play…On the set, we always have a police advisor most of the time. For me, it was really interesting to find out from him that those situations where you pull your gun out and put your finger on the trigger are quite rare within the police force there. Only possibly once or twice in your career, so the stakes were really high."
That means it was a much bigger deal for Grace. We’re all so used to watching American crime dramas where the gun is pulled out almost immediately in an interaction. Seeing a different police force and taking this in puts a new weight to Grace’s actions.
"That situation…she doesn’t really experience it very often…Once you make that decision, you become a slightly different person, I think."
MORE: Can Grace and Stevie find a way to work together in Blue Lights?
Annie’s earlier call led to Grace’s situation
Annie had been to that same pharmacy just scenes earlier, and she made the decision not to take the assailant in. It’s no secret that the jails are getting overcrowded, and sometimes, you want to find another way to help people. Now that Grace has to take her steps, what does that mean for Annie?
"She’s always learning within the police force…things do happen…She does feel this guilt surrounding that. I think for Annie, she is a quick thinker, but she has to think more."
The events of Season 1 certainly made Annie change the way she reacts. She has to think more, as this job is dangerous. We’d already seen her have to move out to protect her family from the threats. Devlin talked a little about that.
"Totally. Take a step back! But there’s also so much sacrifice involved…there’s a real vocation and there’s a lot of risk…it’s something that she really has to think about."
Tommy is off the fast-track in Blue Lights Season 2
The big thing for Tommy in Season 2 is that he’s off the fast-track. The events of the first season finale left him in a dark place. Gerry was his mentor, and now he’s left alone. We talked about the decision to take Tommy off the fast-track, and why that decision was made.
"For it to make sense and for it to be believable, Tommy was going to have to make some changes to warrant the fact that he was able to make it through a year…[Tommy] was very reliant on his mentor, Gerry…and then with the big event that happens at the end of the first season, I think that was a massive catalyst for Tommy to change, and to change quickly. And I think part of him stepping back from the fast-track program was to give homage to Gerry and to take Gerry with him in his career."
I love how Braniff kept calling it the “big thing.” He’s talking about Gerry’s death, and that has a knock-on effect for everyone in the police force. You can see how it affects Grace, Annie, and Tommy in the interview—Annie may not have spent time with Gerry, but this moment sticks in the precinct despite the season being a year on from those events.
Take a look at the full interview below: