REVIEW: ‘Criminal Record’ Season 2 Episode 4 is a Dangerous Game of Trust and Control
This article contains spoilers for Criminal Record Season 2 Episode 4.Cush Jumbo as June Lenker in Criminal Record Season 2. © Apple TVBy episode four, Criminal Record makes it clear that the biggest threat is no longer just the bomb plot — it is the collapse of trust. “Safe” pushes the season deeper into paranoia, exposing how misinformation and institutional compromise can be just as dangerous as the violence everyone is trying to prevent.The episode opens with the phrase “nobody died” being spray-painted across the city, a direct consequence of Cosmo Thompson’s growing influence. His conspiracy theory surrounding Rohaan’s death is no longer just online noise — it is becoming public belief. That opening immediately establishes the central tension of the hour: once a lie becomes louder than the truth, controlling the damage becomes almost impossible.Billy remains trapped inside Cosmo’s operation, and his isolation becomes one of the episode’s most effective sources of tension. Hidden away in the apartment, cut off from the outside world and increasingly unstable without his medication, Billy feels less like an informant and more like a hostage waiting to break. His desperate phone call with JP reveals how fragile the operation really is. Dan insists nothing has changed, but it clearly has — Billy is running out of patience, and time.Meanwhile, June Lenker (Cush Jumbo) faces a different kind of pressure. Her therapy session with Leo is brief, but brutally effective. The scene works because it avoids melodrama; Leo’s frustration feels honest, and June’s silence says more than any argument could. Her work has followed her home, and the emotional cost is becoming impossible to ignore. Jacob choosing to stay with his father continues to hang over everything, making June feel increasingly disconnected from her own life.That emotional exhaustion carries directly into her work. Her scenes with JP continue to stand out, especially as both characters navigate the moral compromises surrounding the case. Their chemistry feels increasingly natural, built through shared frustration, trust, and the quiet understanding that comes from being stuck inside the same pressure.Cush Jumbo and Luca Pasqualino in Criminal Record Season 2. © Apple TVTheir confrontation with Kim is particularly revealing. His casual prejudice and willingness to reduce Rohaan’s death to stereotypes expose one of the ugliest sides of institutional thinking, and the fact that he works within intelligence only makes it worse. JP’s anger feels completely earned, while June’s exhausted reaction says even more — she has heard this kind of logic before, and she knows exactly how dangerous it is.The episode’s strongest thematic thread comes through Zaynab and the press conference. Asking a grieving mother to publicly prove her son existed is one of the cruelest consequences of Cosmo’s disinformation campaign. The show handles this with impressive restraint, allowing the emotional weight to come from Zaynab herself rather than forced dramatic speeches. Her decision to stand there and defend Rohaan is painful precisely because it should never have been necessary.What makes this even stronger is the revelation that Cosmo was partially right about the manipulated photo. The police did alter the image from Suffolk Square, replacing a father and child to create something more usable for the press. It is a small decision in bureaucratic terms, but a massive one in moral terms. It gives Cosmo just enough truth to weaponize his larger lie, and that ambiguity is exactly where Criminal Record thrives.Peter Capaldi continues to make Dan Hegarty compelling because he constantly operates inside that grey area. His refusal to move too quickly on Marco Rivelli frustrates June, but it also reflects his larger philosophy: caution, strategy, and long-term control over emotional reaction. Whether that makes him wise or dangerous remains the question the show keeps asking.Peter Capaldi as Daniel Hegarty in Criminal Record Season 2. © Apple TVThe final act raises the stakes significantly. Billy being brought onto the boat and shown the detonators confirms that the threat is no longer theoretical. Cosmo is not performing anymore, he is preparing. Billy agreeing to stay in, despite the obvious danger, shows how deeply trapped he has become. His survival now depends entirely on convincing Cosmo that he belongs there.Then comes the final twist: Kieran recognizes June from the safe house. It is a quiet ending, but an extremely effective one. In a season built on surveillance and suspicion, recognition becomes its own form of danger. One small memory is enough to threaten the entire undercover operation.If the episode has a weakness, it is that the sheer number of investigations and moving pieces can occasionally make the pacing feel dense. Between Billy’s infiltration, Marco’s connection to the knife, June’s personal life, Zaynab’s press conference, and the fallout from the manipulated photo, the episode asks the audience to keep track of a lot at once. At times, that complexity can feel overwhelming. Still, that same depth is also one of the show’s greatest strengths. Criminal Record refuses to simplify its world, and that layered storytelling makes the tension feel far more real.“Safe” is less about physical security than emotional and institutional instability. By the end of the hour, nobody feels protected: not Billy trapped inside Cosmo’s operation, not June trying to hold together both her work and personal life, and certainly not the truth itself. That is what makes the episode so effective — the danger is no longer just the possibility of violence, but the growing sense that everything is already slipping out of control.Ben A. Williams, Joelle Mae DavidPeter Capaldi, Cush Jumbo, Dustin Demri-Burns, Luca Pasqualino, Luther Ford, Lyndsey Marshal, Peter Sullivan, Shaun Dooley, Stephen Campbell Moore, Charlie Creed-Miles
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