Season 2 of IFTV’s thriller series, Red Eye, presents an intense and action-packed end befitting the dramatic events throughout the season. The lockdown at the American Embassy in London had already been lifted by Ambassador Tillman, or rather, he had been forced to do so by the assassin, whose intentions and motives become clear as daylight in the finale. The mystery behind the crash of Flight D-300 is solved as well, with it obviously turning out to be the main reason behind the whole fiasco at present.
Spoiler Alert
Who gets Ambassador Tillman murdered?
The revelation in the final minutes of Red Eye season 2 episode 5 confirms that it was actually Alex Peterson, the UK Defence Secretary, who had been personally benefitting the most from the D-300 airplanes. The Cockpit Voice Recorder from the crashed D-300 flight, therefore, would have exposed Peterson and completely ruined his political career, and he was extremely adamant about getting hold of it. Unlike what had been officially claimed, the recorder from the airplane had indeed been salvaged from the crash site, but it had been carefully removed by some politicians for personal and political reasons. Both Alex Peterson and the new American Ambassador to the UK, Ronald Tillman, had been aware of this move, as they both had seemingly called for it. Crucially, Tillman was a low-level politician at the time who was more famous as a businessman, as he was the CEO of AM Aeronautics at the time, the same company that made the D-300 planes.
It now becomes evident that Tillman had listened to the contents of the voice recording from the time of the crash and had found out exactly how Alex Peterson was involved. But he kept the device secret from the world simply to exert political pressure on the British Defence Secretary, using him to make moves in his own political career. It was only because of the backing of Peterson that a comparatively unknown diplomat like Tillman was given the prestigious position of serving as the American ambassador in London. But while this partnership could have perhaps been beneficial to both in the long run, Tillman had now decided that Peterson was no longer of use to him and fully intended to expose his secret to the British authorities. Perhaps Tillman wanted to strengthen his personal bond with the British PM by giving her the real reason behind the unfortunate deaths of two Royal Air Force pilots in the D-300 crash.
Two days before the present incidents, Tillman had made his intention clear to Peterson, much to the latter’s wrath, and it was then that the British Defence Secretary came up with the elaborate and disruptive plan. His main motive was to get hold of the Cockpit Voice Recorder from the crashed airplane, which had been safely stored inside Ambassador Tillman’s briefcase, which he had personally carried along with him to London for his swearing in. Peterson knew that the only way to get hold of the briefcase would be from inside the American Embassy in London, and for this daring mission, he hired the service of the ex-SAS assassin codenamed Fox. Since the office of Samuel Webb, a senator from Minnesota, had been empty, Peterson used the place to dispatch the diplomatic courier package, which essentially contained nothing of importance. Instead, the package was meant to be Fox’s way into the extremely tight-knit security at the Embassy on that particular day. Thus, Peterson had the real courier taken down at the airport, the package stolen, and Fox used the identity of the courier to enter the building.
Fox’s primary mission was to fit a small camera near the safe inside the Ambassador’s room and create distractions to buy enough time to get hold of the safe’s code via the camera. Additionally, he had also been ordered to execute each of the other men who could have testified in court against Peterson if a trial against the D-300 crash would have taken place. Had the voice recording device from the crashed flight been recovered, the core team involved in the manufacture of the airplanes would have all heard it. This included the chief safety officer of the company, Craig Stewart, and the head of the electronics company that had worked on the flight, Perry Lambert, both of whom had already been murdered by Fox.
Once the assassin got hold of the code and secured the briefcase containing the recorder, the last man standing in the way of Peterson had to be removed. As Ronald Tillman had been the CEO of the airplane manufacturing company at the time, he would have been asked questions too, and the man could have easily exposed Peterson at the time. Thus, Peterson gets Tillman murdered through Fox, both silencing him forever and also exacting revenge for having decided to throw him under the bus for his personal benefits.
What had actually caused Flight D-300 to crash?
While the authorities had refused to believe the rumors stating that there were integral manufacturing defects in the D-300 aircraft, the reports are eventually revealed to have been true. Nicholas Martin, the chief project manager from the British side overlooking the engine, flight system, and electronics departments, had himself gathered enough evidence on his personal hard drive to prove that there were far too many problems with the planes. He had tried filing complaints, as per his responsibility, as well, but they fell on deaf ears. Instead, Martin was sidelined, and when he mysteriously vanished some time later, the authorities claimed that he had committed suicide, although his body was never found.
The truth was that Nicholas Martin had never stopped trying to expose the safety concerns over the airplanes, because of which he became a personal enemy to the UK Defence Secretary, Alex Peterson. As it turns out, Peterson had been siphoning millions of dollars for himself from the D-300 Project, and it would have been a great loss for him if the project had been shut down due to safety concerns. Therefore, he wanted to silence Martin and his reports, but the whistleblower, who had many friends in the air force, managed to come up with a concrete plan. On that particular D-300 flight on the night of the crash, Nicholas Martin had been sneaked into the airplane by the pilot, Patrick Johnson, and the co-pilot, Paul Edney. Martin had been carrying all the relevant documents about his concerns regarding the safety of the airplanes, clearly in the hopes of handing them over to a higher authority who would care about the air force pilots.
But when Peterson found out about the matter and instantly ordered the pilots to turn the plane back and return to base, Edney decided to follow the instructions of his superior, even though Johnson still remained convinced to help Martin. As a result, Edney pulled out his gun to threaten the pilot and ended up shooting Patrick Johnson dead during the scuffle, which severely damaged the flight’s terminal as well. Even with his best efforts, co-pilot Edney could not save the aircraft from crashing, and he and Nicholas Martin were instantly killed after impact. Had this whole fiasco been revealed, though, Peterson’s secrets would also have been exposed, for which he and a few other corrupt politicians went to great lengths to make the crash seem like the result of a deliberate attack by the Russians.
Did Alex Peterson get away with his crimes?
Once the central characters all figure out that Alex Peterson was the real perpetrator and that he had been responsible for the bomb on the private jet carrying Madeline Delaney and Peterson himself, there is an urgency to get hold of him. As DI Hana Li points out, though, there is simply not enough proof to hold Peterson responsible for the whole situation, as he had not directly told Paul Edney to kill Patrick Johnson, having simply asked the co-pilot to turn the plane around and bring it back to base. Similarly, there is no concrete evidence to prove that Peterson had hired Fox to assassinate the Ambassador and the others at the embassy, meaning that the Defence Secretary can only be held responsible for the embezzlement around the D-300 deals.
However, MI5 Director-General Madeline Delaney refuses to let the perpetrator walk away without facing severe consequences for his actions, especially since he had caused the deaths of so many people. Just like back in season 1, Madeline hatches an intricate plan to get a confession out of Peterson, which involves Clay Brody, the Regional Security Officer at the American Embassy in London. While the assassin, Fox, had managed to escape the embassy earlier, he still had to take the ambassador’s briefcase back to his boss, Peterson. With the Defence Secretary’s involvement in the fiasco confirmed, MI5 immediately takes control of his phone, reading and tracking all messages and phone calls. Therefore, when Fox sends a message setting up a handover meeting at car park 3 at Heathrow Airport, Madeline and her team are immediately notified about it.
It is at this empty parking lot that Madeline sets up her trap. Although Fox notices the hidden commandos and tries to warn Peterson about their presence, the MI5 hackers ensure that the latter receives no phones or texts at this time. Therefore, Fox stays away from the meeting point, giving Brody enough time to slip into Peterson’s car pretending to be the assassin. But instead of confronting the politician, Brody makes it quite clear to Peterson that he knows everything about the D-300 crash and his silence has to be bought with millions of dollars. Peterson easily slips into the trap, admitting in his own words how he had caused the D-300 flight crash, how he had covered it up to make it look like an attack by the Russians, and how he had then also paid off a professional hitman to kill the American Ambassador to the UK. All this is transmitted through the communications device that Brody is wearing, and it is finally enough proof to put away Alex Peterson for good.
Does Clay Brody turn rogue?
While it seems like Peterson can now finally be arrested and punished for his crimes, an insensitive comment by him turns the situation intense, with it seeming like Clay Brody will take matters into his own hands. Peterson says that he would have tried to pay off Brody’s brother, Patrick Johnson, had he known about the corrupt nature of the family. Although Brody has been estranged from his family for a very long time and had no connection with his brother as an adult, he definitely does not take this comment well and immediately holds Peterson at gunpoint, threatening to kill him. Technically, Brody really has nothing to lose at this point, which makes him all the more dangerous. Having hidden his real identity as the brother of Patrick Johnson and the son of Air Marshal John Johnson, he is bound to lose his job at the Diplomatic Security Service.
When he then readily agreed to be a part of Madeline Delaney’s plan to expose Peterson, he also risked getting arrested and blacklisted from any public office by pretending to accept a heavy bribe from the corrupt politician. Thus, it does seem like he will shoot Peterson and end all his miseries, but Hana ultimately steps in to save the day. Making use of their acquaintance from before, back from their training days, Hana manages to calm Brody down and convinces him to step away and let the law deal with Peterson, reminding him how his hasty action will end up ruining his own life. Thus, in season 2’s ending, Clay Brody steps away from Alex Peterson, who is arrested by MI5 officers, while Brody will seemingly still be barred from public service because of his previous decisions.
Is the assassin arrested in the end?
The assassin, Fox, continues to fight till the very end, as he takes down one of the MI5-appointed snipers near the parking lot and seemingly plans to create a distraction for his partner, Peterson, to escape. But Hana intervenes and has an intense scuffle with him. She is particularly irked at the man for having toyed with her psyche by shooting close to her head, intentionally missing, to make her believe that she owed him her life. Fox had chosen to keep Hana alive at the time because she was unknowingly carrying the camera that he was using to learn about the authority’s next moves. Now, Hana finally takes him down and has the same opportunity—to shoot him dead or to toy with him in the same manner as he had earlier done to her. Without any hesitation, Hana chooses to shoot close to Fox’s head, deliberately missing him, and the fear and shock are evident on the assassin’s face. Finally, MI5 officers rush into the scene, and Fox is arrested as well, meaning that both he and Peterson will have no chance at escaping the law.
What is up next for Hana Li?
In Red Eye season 2’s ending, DI Hana Li has a heartwarming conversation with her old friend, Clay Brody, admitting that she had been wrong to doubt his intentions. Brody also makes up for past misunderstandings, apologizing for having scarred her by almost killing their trainer many years in the past. It is suggested that there is a slight hint of romantic interest towards Hana from Brody’s side, or at least there was something like that in the past. But neither of them makes any mention of it at present and instead chooses to remain friends. Hana is then seen talking to Madeline Delaney, with the MI5 Director-General offering the protagonist a position at Thames House, essentially asking Hana to join MI5. Although DI Hana Li politely turns down the offer, stating that she wants to continue being a detective instead of an intelligence officer and spy, it is certain that she and Madeline will continue to work closely in the future seasons of Red Eye.
