The Missing Cocaine
Episode 2 of White Lines begins in Manchester 1996 with Axel standing before a judge talking about an illegal trance race he was DJing at. As we intersperse to scenes back to this party, we see a riot break out as armed police arrive and arrest him. Back in the present, everyone gathers together to say goodbye to Axel. In the aftermath of this, Zoe speaks to Marcus, Anna and Dave about what happened the last night he was around. It turns out Axel wanted a 24 hour party and because of the amount of drugs they all consumed, none of the gang remember the events that transpired. However, there were over 600 people at the party so perhaps one of them may know something. In the aftermath of this, Zoe talks to Joanna about her suspicions surrounding Axel’s friends. To try and get the truth from Marcus, she decides to hide his cocaine stash. Only, Marcus has bigger fish to fry when the Romanians he’s imported drugs from demand their money. At Marcus’ house, Zoe takes all the cocaine and stashes it into Boxer’s car. Before she can drive off though, Boxer arrives with her scooter and demands his car back. She convinces him to let her tag along as they head up to the airport to pick up Andreu’s daughter (and Axel’s lover) Kika. On the way back, they stop off at a local hang-out spot and talk about the past; somewhere Kika and Axel used to meet. Marcus meets the dealers and they demand he sell the drugs and give them the money owed. Pleading for his life, the thugs agree to take the drugs back but for him to pay up 35 grand for the hassle. Scrambling to phone Anna, she suggests he speak to her fiance George who may cough up the funds he needs. Unfortunately when he gets there, George scoffs at the notion and refuses. Just before he leaves, Marcus tells him how much he cares for Anna. Meanwhile, Zoe gets the autopsy results back for Axel’s body and it’s not pretty. Five ribs broken, an open wound where he was stabbed and evidence of drowning too, given the chlorine in his lungs. Andreu arrives and offers his condolences to her but given Axel showed up dead on his land, Zoe is having none of it and throws his apology back in his face. Collecting up the gear in Boxer’s car, Zoe looks set to drive off until Boxer himself arrives and decides to tag along. While they drive off, Marcus brings the dealers back to his house to pick up the drugs but of course the cocaine is gone. They force him to write down different body parts and give him 24 hours to pick up the drugs or they’ll visit his daughter next. As a warning sign, they break his leg in the process. As the episode closes out, Zoe is stopped at a police checkpoint where she admits to Boxer that there’s cocaine in the boot. Although amnesia is a cliched plot device being using to obscure the truth, given the way the mystery is being presented here, is this really what’s going on? Oriol and Conchita are certainly shady and suspicious here though and give Marcus’ issues with the drug dealers it’ll be interesting to see whether this has any part of Axel’s death. The decent music continues throughout, with a particular highlight being The Age Of Love (the song playing during Axel’s illegal rave), which certainly brings back fond memories to those raving days in the 90’s. With a bit more emphasis given to the supporting players this time around and lots of unanswered questions, just who killed Axel Collins?
