The Pact season 2 sees a family forced to confront long-buried secrets that will change their lives forever.
If you loved watching a complex tangle of secrets being unravelled in the Karen Pirie ending and which made The Suspect ending so shocking then The Pact season 2 could be just what you’ve been looking for. Back bigger and better than ever after the popularity of season 1, the BBC drama’s second instalment focuses upon social worker Christine and her family. Already going through a difficult time, their lives spiral in another terrifying direction with the arrival of stranger Connor.
But what is The Pact season 2 about, how does it differ from the plot of The Pact season 1 and how can you watch the new series? We reveal what you need to know as secrets emerge from the shadows…
*Warning for The Pact season 1 and 2 ahead!*
What is The Pact season 2 about?
The Pact season 2 follows social worker Christine, played by BAFTA-winning actor Rakie Ayola (whom eagle-eyed fans might recognize from a smaller role in season 1). She is the anchor around which this season’s dark pact revolves as her family copes in the aftermath of the loss of her son Liam. If that wasn’t already difficult enough, Christine, her sons Will and Jamie and daughter Megan find their devastation magnified when Connor arrives in town.
Although he’s a total stranger to the family, Connor claims to be the long-lost brother to Christine’s children and it’s not long before carefully buried secrets are brought into the light.
Devoted mum Christine is hinted in The Pact season 2 episode 1 to know more than she’s willing to open up about, whilst someone else tells the social worker that Connor used the same story on her. Of course this could just have been a genuine mistake at the time, but if your head wasn’t already spinning this revelation soon sets in motion an underlying doubt. After all, is Connor telling the truth about his long quest to find his birth family or is all of it a lie?
In the final moments of the series premiere Connor shouts at Christine that he wants answers - as viewers everywhere do - but she simply walks away leaving much to be speculated and even more to be revealed in the remaining five episodes. Her family have already begun to question who they are and where their loyalties lie and it seems like it won’t be long before they find themselves making a titular pact…
How does it differ from The Pact season 1?
Newcomers to The Pact might well wonder how the second spellbinding instalment differs to the first season and whether there are any key plot-threads continued throughout both, however unlike fellow BBC dramas like Bloodlands season 2 and Shetland season 7, there is no cross-series continuity.
The Pact season 1 followed an entirely different storyline with new characters, mirroring the style of anthology series The White Lotus. Also written and created by Pete McTighe, the first series focused upon four friends - Anna, Nancy, Cat and Louie - who all worked in a brewery together.
But in keeping with the overarching theme of dangerous secrets and how destructive they can be, The Pact season 1 also saw the protagonists’ lives thrown into turmoil as they grappled with guilt, the question of morality and their loyalty to each other. Just as we’ve seen so far in The Pact season 2, the first series saw the characters make a questionable pact.
Only theirs was to keep silent about the mysterious death of their boss, Jack, who had pushed them all to the limit - and well beyond. Jack had taken over the brewery and treated his employees with contempt, leading the four friends to decide to give him a taste of his own medicine with a prank.
Unfortunately for everyone, this went way too far and resulted in him dying and Anna, Nancy, Cat and Louie banding together and swearing to prevent this terrible secret from becoming known.
Discussing the choice to go in a very different direction in The Pact season 2, Pete McTighe told Wales Online that he felt it was the characters that people responded to in season 1 and it would be a “disservice” to them to bring them back.
"I think what the audience seemed to really love about it was the characters. It doesn’t matter how good the twists and turns are in a story if you don’t care about the people involved,” he said. “We had such a brilliant cast in series one who inhabited those roles so beautifully. I think that the audience really responded to them and took them into their hearts.”
Pete continued, “It was a big deal to think about a second series that wouldn’t involve those characters. The natural instinct is to bring everyone back and keep that story going, but I felt like that would be doing those characters a huge disservice, because the story that I wanted to tell about those people had been told. Weirdly they feel like real people to me, and I felt like I wanted to leave them alone to get on with their lives in peace. I think they deserved it after all the hell they had been through."
What can you expect from The Pact season 2?
The Pact season 2 has already laid out the framework for what promises to be a seriously shocking and suspenseful series, with Christine’s family forced to reconsider everything they thought they knew about their lives. The matter of whether Connor is who he says he is remains to be resolved and this will surely play a huge part in the remaining episodes as the past rises once again to the surface to either prove or disprove his story.
Either way, his potential siblings' lives have been changed forever by his appearance and his claims and they will surely have to process their feelings about this going forward and decide if they’re willing to accept him or refuse to believe him.
It may be that The Pact season 2 also delves a little deeper into Connor’s childhood, not just because of his possible links to the central family, but to cast more light on his character and what he’s been through to lead him to this point.
His uncanny resemblance to the late Liam has also been remarked upon and it’s clear that Christine and her children are still grieving his loss. Who knows if his death and the circumstances surrounding it could become more of a theme going forwards. Perhaps the biggest thing that fans can expect from The Pact season 2, however, is a pact.
In season 1 this revolved around a mysterious death and so if this pattern continues it could be that Christine’s family’s pact focuses on one too. Whether this could be Liam’s death if some new details emerge or someone else’s yet to happen remain to be seen. All we know is, we can’t wait to see what The Pact season 2 has in store…
How to watch The Pact season 2?
If you’re a UK viewer and have yet to immerse yourself in the complex web of dark secrets and shocking deceit that bind The Pact season 2 characters together then the place to head is the BBC. Each of the hour-long episodes will be broadcast on Mondays at 9pm on BBC One. The finale (episode 6) is set to air on 28th November, but there is another way to watch The Pact season 2 if you just can’t wait that long to see the truth dragged into the light.
Thriller fans who raced through to the Crossfire ending and The Secrets She Keeps season 2 will already know that BBC often make all episodes of their hit shows available and The Pact season 2 is no exception. BBC iPlayer has all six episodes of the drama ready and waiting to be enjoyed now.
Unfortunately, if you're abroad on vacation when The Pact season 2 airs then you won't be able to watch the show as you normally would at home, thanks to regional restrictions. Luckily there’s an easy solution and you can use a VPN to continue watching this hit drama. This is a handy bit of software that changes your IP address so that you can access on-demand content or live TV just as if you were at home.
Our sister site, TechRadar, has tested all of the major VPN services and they rate ExpressVPN as the absolute best. They say, “It’s compatible with all of your devices, supports most streaming services, and ranks among the fastest. You can even install it on devices like an Amazon Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, Xbox, and PlayStation. So for a one-stop-shop, you can’t go wrong with Express.”
The Pact season 2 continues on Mondays at 9pm on BBC One and all episodes are available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
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