Coma on Channel 5 sees Jason Watkins play Simon, a kind-hearted family man who tries to lie his way out of a crime after a split-second error in judgment. After being menaced by local teens, Simon ends up punching 17-year-old Jordan Franklin (played by Joe Barber), but when he fails to get up and ends up in a coma, it looks like Simon's mistake is set to cost him everything he loves.
Here is everything that happened in Coma episode 2...
The second episode of Coma sees a crash team fighting to save Jordan as he flatlines in intensive care, while over at Simon and Beth's house, an estate agent puts a for-sale board up outside their house.
Simon is getting annoyed with his daughter Sophie when she asks him to come into her school and do show and tell about being a local hero, and noticing his snappy mood, Beth sits him down and confronts him about lying to the police.
He admits he had a panic attack the night of Jordan's attack and concocts a story about why he was at the hospital that evening. Beth seems to believe him and her concern about his panic attacks reveals that he has had them before. We also learn that Simon has had a breakdown in the past and was on medication.
As he heads off to work, Simon finds Paul waiting for him outside his house and tells him that Jordan's heart stopped but they have managed to stabilise him once again. He tells Simon he and Jordan's mum, Anna, are holding a vigil for him and that he wants him to come along. Simon clearly would rather do anything but go to the vigil of the man he put in a coma, but he's terrified of Paul and agrees to be there.
At work, Simon is told he is now on gardening leave and today is his last day. After 10 years of working there Simon is clearly unhappy about this and his rude manager is horrible once again.
As Simon leaves work, DS Kelly calls and asks him to come to the station. Once there she goes through Simon's statement with him again and asks him to look at mug shots of local gang members, asking if he can identify any of them as the man who was running away from the scene of the crime the night of the attack. Simon says he doesn't recognise any of them, which of course he doesn't as the attacker is him.
Kelly also asks if he'd seen Jordan around before the night of the attack, and Simon lies that he'd never seen him before. Kelly also asks him not to go to the vigil because it could hamper the investigation, and he agrees. She also reminds him that Paul is dangerous and that Jordan isn't out of the woods yet.
Clearly terrified about how things are spiraling, Simon heads home to find the medication he had for his breakdown. But as he takes the tablet, he drops the glass of water and has to clean it up. As he heads outside to put the glass in the bin, he bumps into Harry from next door and offers to help him with his shopping bags. Harry says no and tells Simon 'I saw what you did' insinuating that he knows he is the one who punched Jordan.
While questioning a local teen about the attack, DS Kelly gets the message that Harry called in the night before to say he saw what happened when Jordan was attacked.
Kelly heads to his house, but he doesn't believe she is a police officer and so she asks Simon to come next door and tell Harry who she is. He is scared about what Harry might say, but nervously gets his elderly neighbour to let Kelly in. She asks if he will come in too, as it might make Herry feel happier, and Simon braces himself for Harry to reveal the truth. But to his utter shock, Harry tells Kelly that it was a teenager who attacked Jorden, clearly covering for him.
Once Kelly has gone, Simon asks Harry why he is covering for him, and Harry says that he and Beth were always good to his late wife, Brenda and that she would have wanted him to help. Although he is relieved that Harry has covered for him, Simon is terrified that he will get into a muddle and inadvertently blow his cover.
Simon goes to the office to hand in a handover folder, which his boss, Jimmy, is rude about and says no one will even read it. But while he is there, Paul arrives and asks to see Simon. They chat in a meeting room about the vigil, and he makes it clear that Simon needs to be there and he won't take no for an answer, despite what the police say.
At the vigil DS Kelly is annoyed when Simon and Beth turn up, having told them to stay away. It all seems to be going okay, and when Paul and Anna thank Simon for saving their boy's life, everyone claps for him. The noise annoys Harry and he comes out of his house, agitated and confused, and tells the crowd of people that it isn't right they're clapping for Simon. Simon panics again that he is about to blow his cover and Beth manages to get Harry back inside before any more damage is caused.
Simon later goes for his leaving drinks at work, where his boss, Jimmy, makes a horrible leaving speech for him, belittling Simon in front of everyone. Everyone laughs and Simon is devastated. He confronts Jimmy in the toilets at the pub and struggles to hold in his anger when Jimmy reveals it was his choice to sack Simon, and it could have been anyone, but he picked him.
Simon races out of the bar before he hits Jimmy and has another panic attack in the street. He ends up in the hospital where Beth is working her shift and she comes to see him. She asks to finish early so she can take him home, and once there she says he should go to bed, but he stays up and watches TV.
After falling asleep on the sofa, Simon wakes to a knock on the door in the middle of the night, and it is Paul, who has come round with a bottle of wine. He tells Simon that he works for a security company and he has a whizz kid at work who has managed to log into his security camera, the one that Simon lied to Paul and the police hadn't been connected yet.
Paul asks for his login and password so the person at work can get in and find the footage on the cloud. Terrified his lies are unraveling once again, Simon panics and pretends he can't find the password. Paul knows he's hiding something and starts to turn on Simon, just as Beth comes down and asks him to leave.
Knowing there's no way out of this, Simon breaks down and admits the truth to Beth. He tells her everything from the teens tormenting him and threatening their family, to the fact he is the one who punched Jordan. Beth is shocked but supportive and promises they will make a plan.
The next morning, the couple must have come up with something, because Simon arrives at the hospital and gives Paul his username and password for the security camera.
While Simon is at the hospital, Kelly visits Harry again and shows him the same mug shots of the gang members that she also showed to Simon. He identifies one of the lads, whom he has obviously picked at random, and tells Kelly he logged calls about these gangs weeks before the incident.
She goes back to the station to find them, and while she is looking, she finds the call Simon made the night before the attack, revealing not only had he had trouble with the gangs himself, but that he also knew Jordan, despite lying that the night of the attack was the first time they'd met.
Meanwhile, as DS Kelly is getting increasingly suspicious about Simon's statement, Simon is at the hospital with Jordan. As Anna and Paul go out to get water, Jordan starts to wake up and Simon is terrified that he will remember what happened. Is his cover about to be blown?
Coma is a four-part series on Channel 5 that runs for four consecutive nights from Monday, March 18 to Thursday, March 21 2024 at 9pm.
