SPOILER ALERT: The following story contains plot details from the Season 2 finale of “Criminal Record” now streaming on Apple TV.
In the second season of Apple TV’s captivating crime drama, “Criminal Record,” Detective Sergeant June Lenker (Cush Jumbo) finds herself investigating the horrifying death of a young man at the hands of a right-wing, white supremacist organization, led by conman and conspiracy theorist Cosmo (Dustin Demri-Burns). Though June is desperate to hold the perpetrators accountable, she finds her investigation thwarted by her former nemesis, Detective Chief Inspector Daniel Hegarty (Peter Capaldi), who has assembled a specialized unit to infiltrate and dismantle the organization from the inside out.
Season 2 opens with a senseless act of violence. While on duty at the Nallswsorth Street rally, tasked with managing the crowds, June witnesses the death of 15-year-old Rohann (Rasaq Kukoyi), a Muslim teen who is stabbed in the middle of the protest. Deeply disturbed and determined to bring the murderer to justice, June’s world tilts on its axis when, during her perusal of the crime scene photos, she spots one of the agitators, Billy Fielding (Luther Ford), who she knows is supposed to be in jail for murder. This revelation sends her on a quest to uncover the truth, which leads her right to Hegarty’s doorstep.
A darker, more introspective season that echoes real-world issues across the globe, “Criminal Record” showcases the interior lives of political extremists, addressing their own inner demons, how easily they are able to spread lies and conspiracies, and why so many people, particularly young white men, are drawn to them. Though this season addresses the perils of modern-day policing, audiences also get a bird’s-eye view of June’s fractured personal life.
June’s marriage to her husband Leo (Stephen Campbell Moore) is quickly collapsing. Meanwhile, her teenage son, Jacob (Jordan Nash), decides he’s better off living with his father full-time. Shouldering the weight of her own choices and their effects on her personal life, as well as an increasingly dangerous and racially charged case, things all come to a head for June in the Season 2 finale. Following a heartfelt conversation about the continued demise of their marriage, Leo is killed when a car bomb meant for June detonates. Now, with Season 2 in the rearview, Jumbo talks to Variety about Leo’s shocking demise, June and Hegerty’s tenuous partnership and what’s next.
This season, viewers meet a very different June than the woman we came to know in Season 1. What was it like to return to the character after two years, and to see her in this very isolated place?
We had always hoped that “Criminal Record” would do well domestically, given that it is a London crime show. It took a while for us to realize how successful it had been worldwide, and that people liked it universally. We had really tried to just make a show where we thought the characters were very interesting and nuanced. I was interested at the end of Season 1 to see how final it felt for June, the betrayal by Hegarty — and also the fact that she had no answers, and what that would do to a person coming back into [Season 2]. And when [creator] Paul Rutman and I discussed it, we felt that the only way she would’ve even ended up in that zone, back working with Hegarty again, was because she had to. June, on the one hand, has risen through the ranks, and she is doing well professionally. But I think personally, as we begin to see, it’s really unraveling for her. She’s really disconnected. There’s a deliberate setup in the fact that there aren’t many other regular female protagonists this season, which makes her all the more isolated. It feels very male-heavy and very lonely, which was purposeful. I think she’s on the brink of burnout, actually. She’s really not sustaining this career along with her home.
If we go in real time, it’s just a couple of years of the world changing; it’s become quite dark and scary. Police work has become even harder, because it feels to her like she’s always two steps behind. And now with what’s going on online, it feels like they’re even further behind. They can’t even really sustain putting out the truth because the truth can change. I think the difference we see in her is that on the one hand, she seems more hardened and more protected, but on the inside, there’s a lot of confusing conversations going on with her in terms of what you’re willing to compromise in order to get to an endgame that will matter for people.
June is very aware of the misogynoir that she’s experiencing in the police force. And she’s aware of how police are perceived, not just in the U.K., but globally. And yet she still has a desperate need for justice. Do you think she believes she can actually achieve justice for Black and brown people who are pushing against a system built to sustain their oppression?
I think there’s something in June that is probably rooted in her backstory, given that she grew up in London. For her, it’s very simple that there is right and there is wrong. It can come across as naive, because most of us live in much more gray areas. I’ve always thought of her as a lone wolf. I don’t imagine that she’s somebody who’s always had tons of friends, and is really extroverted. She wants there to be a rhythm, structure and rules. There is a naivety, I think, that Hegarty particularly points out in her search for truth and justice. I love that there is this character who shows there still are people in institutions really fighting for the right thing, and there always have to be those people, even if they’re fucking up as they do it. There’s something really old-school about her belief systems, which I think is why she finds Hegarty so frustrating, because he is old-school too. But what he’s trying to say to her is that there’s never been structure. There’s never been any rules. But she doesn’t believe that. I think her moral compass is very self-torturing. And if I’m honest, it is quite annoying. She never knows when to stop. Injustice kind of haunts her in a way. But I think that’s very admirable.
June has known that Hegarty isn’t trustworthy since the Errol Mathis (Tom Moutchi) case last season. Why does she choose to work with him anyway?
I think that if there hadn’t have been the death of a young boy in that first episode that was so close in age to her own son, and if she wasn’t feeling so personally responsible for the outcome of that, I think the visit to [Rohann’s] mother’s house and the stuff that that brings up for her, which possibly takes her back to Season 1, I don’t think there’s any way that she would’ve gone for that coffee [with Hegarty]. She just wouldn’t have been interested. What he’s very good at doing is just dangling enough of a chink of light to make her believe that there is something here for you. She does know — based on his past, and her past with him — that although he is completely untrustworthy, does things his own way and wanted her completely out of his face the whole time, when he wants to get something done, he really has the ability to do it. So there’s a piece of her that believes she can solve Rohann’s murder by following this line. And maybe there’s a piece of her that thinks that she can prove to herself that she can one-up [Hegarty], that she knows the tricks now.
Though we see the tension between the characters in the real world, how does June and Hegarty’s relationship translate for you and Peter on set?
Peter and I don’t rehearse our scenes, and we protect the crackle between us, because we are really good friends in real life. We’ve known each other for 20 years. We are both jokers. It’s amazing how you can do the darkest of shows and have the best time. It’s one of the happiest sets I’ve ever worked on. We laugh all the time, but it’s just that Peter and I have to keep our distance from each other to protect that stuff. But we’re both very happy people.
The case is very realistic, given the world we live in. June is investigating a far-right white supremacist organization led by Cosmo Thompson, who’s an extremely disturbing character. How was that for you, mentally, trying to deal with this character in contrast to his protégé Billy, who has done awful things but isn’t inherently monstrous?
I mean, the big difference between this season and the first is that we weren’t looking back at a case that had already happened. We were working on something, and every single day, the clock was ticking as we worked it out, which set a different pace. But in contrast, I was really interested in what Paul, our writer, was trying to highlight about the people who are being let down. It’s about kids being completely let down by the very structures meant to look after them. And then finding inspiration — the wrong kind of inspiration — from people who were able to twist words, which is why it was so important to find an actor as good as Dustin to show us these little gray pockets. If we’ve done our job right, then you watch him and, like you said, you go, “Fuck, he’s so disturbing.” And then you find yourself suddenly charmed by the way he does something, and you see why Billy’s seeing what he does. The same way that Rohann showed up at that protest just as a day out with his mates — he didn’t know he was not going to go home to his mum that day, and then that sets up a whole other thing. It’s also important to remember that, as we follow this case, what you guys are seeing of Cosmo is ahead of what [the police] are seeing, because we haven’t met him. We don’t shy away from the fact that these are complex human beings, particularly the young people.
Speaking of complex human beings, June is very different at home than she is at work. She’s no longer getting along with her husband, and her kid has moved out. She feels very numb this season. Were you surprised that she’s given up the fight in her personal life?
It really felt, subconsciously, that she’d already lost that battle. I think once her son leaves, all the energy that she has left goes into this strange surrogate relationship she has with a boy that she saw bleed out in front of her, and this responsibility she has to him. You can see her really disconnect from those scenes with Leo. Honestly, I think even in Season 1, you know her relationship is over way before it’s over. We’re women, we know these things. And it’s like you just put it on the backburner, and see how it works out. Then there’s this constant stuff that she’s getting from home about, “You don’t share, and you don’t let me in, and you don’t give me information.” It’s really tapping into the idea that she’s misunderstood, and I think she just doesn’t have the energy anymore. There’s only so much of being told that you’re doing it wrong that you can take, and she’s getting it at work, and she’s getting it at home, and I think that’s really tough. I found that quite emotional to play. When absolutely no one’s telling you you’re doing a good job, that’s very difficult.
You could see how devastated she was as her home life crumbled. I think that’s why she seeks out companionship with JP (Luca Pasqualino). Was that something that you were shocked to discover when you read the script?
We had discussed what kind of man June would have an affair with. It’s really interesting, because then when you start to make the world a bit bigger, you’re like, what kind of man would that be? I think Luca Pasqualino played JP so brilliantly, because it brought a totally different energy. I don’t think, on a daily basis, that June feels seen as a woman, or even as a person outside of that job. I mean, obviously, they trauma-bonded together, and that’s what began it. But just to laugh, just to smile, just to be seen is something when you’re not getting that at home. I also think he was just fun. Leo stopped being fun. I think with June and JP, it was just like a breather, a blast of oxygen. But of course, even that couldn’t work out for June because she’s June.
We have to talk about the finale, because it broke my heart. We see Leo and June having this heartfelt conversation, and then in the next instance, he’s gone, a casualty of one of Cosmo’s car bombs. How do you think Leo’s death will change June?
I have been thinking about that a lot, and I think there’s a reason why Paul wanted to metaphorically and physically blow up her life. There’s something within the shell of June, which is dying to come out, and I think it’s going to take something like this to make it emerge. I can’t tell you what that is yet. But I think when you have a person who’s been built on a really solid structure of right and wrong for so long, and then that’s been chipped away at, and then they’ve kind of allowed their real life to drift away from them. Sooner or later, what’s left is going to crack. I think that would be the only natural forward step for a character like June. We can’t go backward, and she couldn’t sustain that relationship with Leo because it was going nowhere, but it will take a humongous shift. I’m interested to see how that plays out.
I thought the numbness was really fascinating, because you can’t play her through this season and then have somebody show up who’s completely human at the end. I think that, in her heart of hearts, she could see the ending coming before it came. So I get excited thinking about where it could go, because all I know is that a non-fucked-up person does not emerge from that. She seems closer to Hegarty now than she ever was, in terms of their internal selves. That makes me excited, because I don’t know if I’ve seen that person before, and I’m interested in seeing that woman.
This interview has been edited and condensed.