Code of Silence is six-part crime drama based around deaf caterer, Alison Woods, as she's brought into a dangerous investigation to lip read conversations between a gang of criminals.
Rose Ayling-Ellis leads the impressive cast in this thrilling drama as a determined deaf woman who supports herself and her mother by working in a police station canteen. Until, detectives call upon her lip-reading skills to gain important intel on a violent gang of criminals and her life becomes a lot more complicated.
Here's a recap of everything that happened in Code of Silence episode 2.
The episode opens on Alison watching the live feed at the police station. The police want to know what’s being said. She reveals that Liam didn’t show up for a meeting and he’s asking Cruella to reschedule it. James wants to know why he didn’t turn up, but Alison doesn’t tell him about the hospital.
The police spot Liam taking something out of the black carrier bag he’s holding. Alison lip reads that they're talking about switching phones. Cruella’s driver isn’t happy and the police officer notes that the driver’s phone has just gone offline. Ashleigh says they’re switching SIM cards. They realise they were intercepting the wrong messages. Alison’s phone buzzes revealing that Liam Barlow is now online. The police stand down their officers in the park and send Alison back to the canteen.
Before she goes, Alison says to Ashleigh that if they can’t intercept the messages then they won’t know when the gang are meeting. She asks what they are going to do and Ashleigh says they’ll find another way. As Alison returns to her shift, James pulls up the recordings and sees if they can find anything that’ll help. He says that because Liam is new, they might be able to use him as a way in. Meanwhile, Alison gets a notification saying her bank account is overdrawn.
Elsewhere, the driver takes Cruella to meet Hulk and as the driver steps out, Hulk confronts him and asks if he’s been changing his SIM card every three days like he was told to. He says yes, but then he reveals that Sarah, presumably his wife, doesn’t like him changing numbers because of how pregnant she is. Hulk beats him to the ground.
Alison arrives at The Canterbury Tap for her shift. Eithan, her ex-boyfriend, comes in. He wants to know if she’s okay. She says she’s busy working two jobs and he wouldn’t understand as he has a nice job at the council and his parents have given him money. Then, Liam comes in. He tries to talk to Alison, but he asks if it’s a bad time. Eithan signs to Alison asking if she knows him from the police station. She asks to speak to Liam later and also asks Eithan to leave her alone. During her shift, she runs into Hulk who asks her who she is. Alison's boss introduces Hulk as Braden, the owner of the pub. He then tells Alison to stay out of Braden's way.
Later that day, Alison is watching Liam talking to Braden at the pub. Braden asks Liam to meet someone on their turf and make sure he’s not followed. Liam tells him he won’t let him down, but Braden tells him to take someone with him as cover. Liam looks to Alison. Outside, Liam comes to speak to Alison. She asks if he knows Braden, the owner, and Liam says he’s the one who got him his job. Liam asks about Eithan and Alison apologises for being rude. Then, he asks her if she wants to go out for a drink sometime. She says yes.
At home, Alison's mum wants her to go to the police about her bike accident, but she doesn’t want to. Her mum then tells her she got a job and they celebrate. She wants Alison to speak to Eithan about the new landlord, but Alison doesn’t want to. At the police station, Alison is cleaning the canteen and stops to look up a lipreading course, but it would cost her thousands.
Alison goes to find Ashleigh. She sees James talking to someone in his office and asks Ashleigh who it is. She says it’s the assistant chief constable as James is trying to get more funding for surveillance. Alison asks Ashleigh if they need an informant and reveals she’s been working at The Canterbury Tap. Angry at her, Ashleigh takes Alison to James who wants to know if she's made contact with Liam or any of the other gang members and if it’s only happened at the bar. She won’t answer.
Then, James reveals they know that Liam went to the hospital with Alison. They show her the CCTV image. She explains that he knocked her off her bike, which is why Liam didn't go to the meeting. James is angry and says she’s risked the entire operation. She says she’s helped them and they tell her that she only did it because she was paid to. Alison offers to help, arguing that she knows that Liam and Braden are going to meet, but James is furious and tells her she’s a security risk. Instead, he says she’s fired from the police station entirely, including the canteen, and she's escorted off the premises.
When Alison arrives home, Liam is there looking at old photos with her mum. She notices he’s fixed her bike outside. He asks her again if she wants to go and get a drink. He wants to take her to London for a meeting with friends. At the police station, James tells his colleagues they’re not getting any more surveillance, so now they're desperately looking for another way in.
Meanwhile, Liam picks Alison up to go to London. She notices he’s got two phones. He tells her he’s a software engineer doing some work for a local businesswoman, but he has signed a NDA so he can’t talk about it. They go to a bar in London. Alison comes back from the toilet and spots Liam talking to a man at the bar and lip reads their conversation. The man says he’s got what Liam needs for Mayfair and that the family vault is in the basement, but he can’t help Liam get down there.
The man introduces his fiancée and Liam introduces Alison. The men head off to talk and Alison asks the man’s fiancee what he does for work. She reveals he works for a security storage company looking after valuables for rich people and that he’s talking about getting a big pay rise soon. They end up partying and drinking together.
Afterwards, Alison and Liam go to get food. Alison talks about her family and that her dad left. She says her mum was made redundant and it’s difficult. Liam goes to order them some dessert and Alison tries to take a photo of a floor plan in his bag, but he comes back before she can. They get a taxi home and Liam asks her if she could see what he was saying to the man and accuses her of asking a lot of questions. She pretends she only does it so she can know what’s going on because it's hard for her to hear. He jokes that he’ll have to keep his eye on her.
Liam walks Alison home and when he goes to kiss her, she backs away. He asks to see her again, but she says it’s complicated. When Alison gets into bed, she texts Ashleigh that she wants to meet as she has some information. The next day, they meet and Alison reveals what she learnt about the meet up, about Mayfair and how Liam had a floor plan in his bag.
Ashleigh asks Alison what she wants and she says she just wants to help. Ashleigh takes her into the station to speak to James and Ben. They’re looking for the man Liam met at the bar in London. James says he wants to know any information she gets when she’s working at The Canterbury Tap, but he doesn’t want her to get into any danger.
Alison goes to see Eithan at work. She apologises and asks what’s going on with the housing estate where she lives with her mum. He looks it up and says they’re looking to redevelop the estate and put in luxury apartments with some affordable homes.
Elsewhere, Liam is dressed in a suit and arrives at an address in London. The police are discussing their search for the target and they’ve narrowed it down to three high security storage units and vaults that use biometrics. Liam enters the building and hands over his passport with the name Jack Standford. He says he wants a bulletproof box. A man takes him to the vaults using a retina scanner.
Alison arrives at The Canterbury Tap. She notices Hulk on the phone and that there’s a CCTV camera nearby, so she goes to the back to see if she can see his face. She can’t. So, as she pretends to clean, she moves it to get a better view.
That evening, Liam comes in. He wants to see Braden and they go to the table to speak. Alison watches on the CCTV camera. Liam talks about a secure vault that’s airlocked and deep underground with guards on every door. Braden says they’re not concerned about guards. Alison texts everything immediately to Ashleigh, but fails to notice Braden coming into the room with her.
Braden asks her what she’s doing and who she’s texting. She says she wasn't texting anyone and that she just wanted to know if she should turn the screen off. Liam comes in and tells Braden he knows her, but then he demands her phone. She hands it over and he sees only texts to her mum. Then, Liam tells her to leave.
All episodes of Code of Silence are available on ITVX.
