Series 2 Episode 1
Survivors - Ep 1/6
Tuesday 12th January 2010 - BBCOne and BBCHD
Abby has been kidnapped. Anya tries to remove the shotgun pellets from Greg, who is badly wounded, but she lacks medical equipment. She leads Al and Tom to a burning hospital. When the hospital collapses, Anya and Al are trapped. Tom brings Najid and Sarah to help, but they can't move the rubble. Another group of survivors arrive and offer to help. Meanwhile, Abby is interviewed by Whitaker, the leader of the laboratory scientists. Abby agrees to undergo medical experiments to help find a cure for the virus. Meanwhile, Sarah goes to see a brutal gang boss who agrees to provide lifting equipment in exchange for sexual favours. Abby is released from her confinement by a disillusioned scientist, but they are both quickly recaptured by Whitaker (who is revealed to have kept his wife, Jill, and infant son alive despite telling everyone they were dead). Anya and Al are freed from the rubble. With the medical supplies, Greg is saved. But the next day Greg says he will leave if Tom stays - as he saw him kill a man in cold blood. Tom leaves the group.
With Abby still missing and Greg recovering from his injuries, the Family are left scavenging for survival in the city. While Naj leaves graffiti messages for Abby, Tom steals supplies from other survivors. Greg and Naj find themselves attacked by the group Tom stole from, but Tom reappears in time to help. The Family learn that more people have been abducted like Abby, and that the kidnappers' vans bear the markings of a known pharmaceutical company. In the Lab itself, Whitaker has Abby injected with a mutated strain of the virus. He will stop at nothing to find his miracle vaccine. His wife Jill, desperate to know the truth about what is going on, escapes from her locked quarters and discovers Abby. Abby explains to her that everyone outside the lab is dead, including the government, and that she is being deliberately reinfected with the virus as part of the search for a cure. Unable to cope with the news, Jill releases Abby, who escapes from the building. Jill is arrested by the guards and put under quarantine. Whitaker struggles to maintain his authority over his rebellious staff, who are infuriated by the news that he has hidden his family in the laboratory. He advises the sinister Mr. Landry (his boss) about the loss of Abby and is ordered by him to ensure she is returned promptly.
The Family are holed up in a cottage while Abby recovers when they meet a travelling trader called Billy. Later, at Samantha's eco-compound, Billy passes on their location and she orders her henchmen to arrest Tom, intending to put Tom on trial for killing one of her people. Abby leads Greg and Anya after them, taking on the role of defence counsel herself while the others become members of the jury. In a surprise power grab, Samantha's head thug Dexter votes "not guilty" and publicly denounces Samantha's style of leadership. Samantha overrules the jury's vote and declares Tom guilty. Tom is set to be imprisoned at an undisclosed location. Samantha visits Tom and offers him freedom if he will kill Dexter. He does, but is immediately captured by Samantha's men. Meanwhile, Greg and Al have arrived in an attempt to free Tom. Greg is captured along with Tom, but Al escapes.
Tom and Greg are enslaved alongside dozens of other men in Mr. Smithson's coal mine. Meanwhile, the Family are desperately hunting for them. They encounter Billy again, and he invites them to his home base, a roadside inn. He introduces his girlfriend, Sally, who offers them food and drink. When questioned about Tom and Greg, Billy feigns ignorance and exits under the pretence of asking around while on his trading route, leaving the Family with Sally. Sarah forms a bond with Sally, and when a carload of men arrive at the inn, Sally warns the Family to hide. She reveals that Billy brings people to the inn in order to sell them into slavery. She also reveals that Tom and Greg are being held at the nearby mine and reluctantly agrees to help free them.
Reunited and on the road, the Family travel south on the lookout for a new home. They encounter a small but thriving community of survivors and accept their offer of hospitality. Al and Sarah enjoy their new romance. Tom simmers as Anya makes friends with the new community's leader, Judy. But Tom's anger is short-lived when his relationship with Anya takes a dramatic twist. Greg and Abby leave together to follow up Greg's suspicions about a mysterious postcard, which leads them to an abandoned airfield. Sarah discovers a family who are sick with a new mutant strain of the virus and quarantines herself with them. As Al keeps an anguished vigil outside the house, Sarah falls ill. Abby eventually enters the house, finds Sarah dead inside, and sets the house on fire. Concerned about the new strain of the virus, the Family visit the Lab where Abby was reinfected. They find the Lab full of dead scientists. Watching one of the security monitors, Abby sees her son approach the entrance of the Lab, and sprints outside to look for him.
In mourning over the loss of one of their own, and with a new strain of the virus set to take hold, the Family find themselves battling on all fronts. They convene in the ruined Lab, discovering that Fiona has survived the outbreak of the mutated virus. A vaccine is more important now than ever, and Fiona and Anya work to create it. But Abby's only concern is to find her son, Peter, previously glimpsed briefly outside the Lab.