*This The Way episode 2 recap contains spoilers... The Driscolls hit the road as the situation in Port Talbot continues to deteriorate and the whole of Wales is put into lockdown. Thea is desperate to find her son Rhys, but we're becoming a bit worried about the four-year-old and his granddad, who are stranded a long way from safety. Meanwhile, Owen's departed grandfather has a cryptic message for him...
Day 21
“There is a bell and it’s ringing” Owen's late grandfather Denny tells him as he wakes up in a detainment camp with helicopters roaring overhead. “What right do you have to hold us here?” says Glynn in the distance, yet Owen is clearly struggling without his medication.
That morning Anna visits Dee to tell her where Owen is being held, while at Port Talbot police station, Thea gets a look at the footage of the riot and realises the part her younger brother played in starting it. Apparently, Owen will soon be moved to a "permanent facility" on Anglesey, like a British Guantanamo Bay.
Luckily Anna is one of the workers helping move Owen and his campmates. “Is this a dream?” he says as her face swims before him in his woozy state. “You mean a nightmare?” she replies.
Thea spots them and packs them into an armoured police van, before stealing the vehicle and picking up her dad on the way. Realising her career in the police is pretty much over, she calls her mum and tells her they’re fleeing the town.
It’s a brave decision, but given the way events are spiralling into some sort of dystopian state, it could well be the correct one. She then calls her father-in-law, Philip, and asks him to bring her four-year-old son Rhys to her. Reluctantly, Philip leaves his ill wife behind to come and meet them.
'It happens all the time...'
Unfortunately the roads are all closed, so the Driscolls are forced to walk out of Port Talbot on a disused railway line. “We’re fugitives! How ridiculous does that sound? Fleeing from our homes on foot, no possessions!” says Geoff. “It happens, all the time, all over the world,” replies Anna.
As they go through their supplies, Geoff accidentally reveals he and Dee’s divorce papers (but we’ll come back to that later) and after a brief dispute over whether Anna should join them in their flight from Port Talbot, she eventually agrees to come along.
After one last call to her husband to let her know what’s happened and where Rhys is, Thea ditches her phone and tells everyone else to do the same. That means Philip and Rhys — who can’t get through the blockade to their meeting point — can’t get in touch with her and decide to cross the border by stowing away in a lorry. Unfortunately, the lorry is headed for England, many many miles away from Philip’s sick wife.
'I can't have this in my house!'
As they walk through the forest, Geoff discusses his problems with the ghost of his father, blaming him for everything and the break up of his family. “God is a bell and it’s ringing, hidden but it’s there, and all you’ve got to do is listen,” says Denny.
Meanwhile Owen’s hallucinations continue to lead him on an underwater journey, as he suffers with withdrawal from his prescription drugs. These visions eventually lead him to a giant bell with molten liquid steel pouring from it. But what does it mean?
When he comes around, an argument about the family’s past simmers closer and closer to the surface, as Thea and Owen go head-to-head. It’s a precursor to a big reveal about what happened in his past…
As we enter flashback, we see that Owen agreed to sell a large quantity of drugs for a dealer, with his parents reacting in fury when they found out. Dee says they should give it back, but it’s clear that won’t work as Owen already owes them money. Geoff wants to call the police, but that won’t work either.
As Dee calls the drug dealers, Geoff snaps and flushes the entire stash down the toilet. “I can’t have this in my house!” he shouts, before marching out, leaving his family trailing in his wake.
Thea arrives as the drug dealers surround their house. In desperation, she tasers her brother and takes him away in a bid to save him from his enemies. “Why’d you that you bitch?” he asks, but it seems pretty clear to us.
'Wake up to what is happening...'
In Germany, Thea’s husband Dan (Aneurin Barnard) follows the developing story from the confines of his Security and Surveillance Company. When his father Philip calls, he urges him to head for Cheltenham as he has a contact there.
The Driscolls eventually reach Afan Forest Lodge where they’d arranged to meet Philip, but find only Simon, the eccentric naked chap from the first episode, who’s made himself a rustic hideout.
Thea calls Dan, who tells her what his father is up to. He tells her he can maybe get Thea out, but the rest of her family will have to stay and face the consequences. “Owen threw the first bottle, he started the riot and people died. Wake up to what is happening," he says.
Dee thinks they should stay at Afan Forest Lodge for the night, but Thea disagrees and when Dee tries to pull rank, she lets her know who’s in charge. It’s a sobering moment for Dee, but ultimately Thea agrees to stay.
Day 22
As Philip and Rhys are dumped by the lorry driver in England, the Driscolls set off for Hay-on-Wye, which Simon suggested could be the best place to cross the border.
However, Owen’s presence is causing trouble as he’s a wanted man. A fellow stowaway whips out footage of Owen throwing a petrol bomb, but it's clear the footage has been altered as we know he threw a pole.
While the others talk of ‘The Welsh Catcher’ - a vigilante who specialises in catching fugitives — Owen and his father discuss old Welsh stories of towns underwater. “Quite often the bell of the town is still ringing,” says Geoff, a tale that resonates with both of them, even if they’re not prepared to admit it yet.
"If you were a family unit.." 👀
The Driscolls are packed into coffins made for British soldiers and driven out of town, but stopped by vigilantes who tell the lorry driver “There have been a lot of Welshie’s scuttling over the border, worse than vermin they are.”
They head to the centre of Cheltenham, in a surreal send-up of Dorothy and her pals following the Yellow Brick Road in The Wizard of Oz, before heading to a pub, where they meet Dan’s old pal from university who works at GCHQ.
She provides them with some documents, before revealing the family are the “highest grade targets” in the whole uprising. She says they probably won't be allowed to enter Europe and might have to claim asylum as refugees.
But that’s merely an aperitif for her main bombshell: That Geoff is not Thea’s biological father! This information really opens the lid of Pandora’s box, as the truth of Dee’s infidelity is laid bare. But there’s not much time to discuss it, because the Welsh Catcher is outside!
The Driscolls jump in a car and flee, but when they find the road is blocked they must seek another route. “Alright fine, we’ll go to hers! But I’m not happy about it!” says Dee, as Philip and Rhys bed down to sleep rough for the night.
