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You Me and the Apocalypse Episode 2 begins with the world about to end, as the first one did, yet this time we also see a man sat on the floor with blood pouring out of his stomach, and then it flashes back to 33 days earlier.
Jamie is still coming to terms with the impending apocalypse, while Dave was writing out his bucket list, which included something (no doubt nefarious) involving big-buttocked pop star Nicki Minaj.
After a pit-stop at his Mum Paula’s house, where she’d attempted to remodel her house, putting the kitchen wall through “because I’ve always wanted a kitchen-diner”, she gave him a box left by his real mum, who knew all about him… “she even knew about the mole on your penis.”
Outside, there were traffic jams aplenty as chaos ensued, but as Dave observed, “It’s very British chaos – everyone’s queueing”. And of the suggestion at driving across a field, Jamie moaned: “I don’t want to scratch my car!”, to Dave’s bemusement since with the end of the world approaching, the state of his vehicle didn’t really matter. And as such, one items on his bucket list was to car-surf a la Teen Wolf, as the film holds a special place in his heart, or so he says. Similarly, they meet two pensioners in the middle of a country road who also have a bucket lists – doing the do, in the buff, in the middle of the road. Since we’d had “Surfin’ USA” from Teen Wolf, we should also have had The Beatles’ “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road”, but then the rights for that could well have cost more.
Their destiny was to go looking for Jamie’s birth mother, but no-was present in the house, and they just ended up with tranquiliser darts knocking them out.
This The fourth character was then revealed to be is Scotty McNeil – Rhonda’s brother, and the man in the White House’s helpfully-named Apocalypse Planning Department. He started off by pitching to the eager government how the only outcome for the world is that only microbes will survive after toxic dust and tsunamis envelope the planet. But then he has a cunning plan… “Operation Saviour”. What is it? As he confirms to the President: “We know know yet, but you’re annoucing it tonight.”
Patterson Joseph (as General Arnold Gaines) feined an American accent and added: “We’re gonna tell the world we’re gonna save the world. And then we’ll work out how we’ll do it”, the plan being to work with other countries, even those who are usually their enemies.
Elsewhere, Jamie’s doppelganger, revealing his name as Ariel (“Yeah, like The Little Mermaid”) is much more cocksure than the original, and calling Rhonda “Boobmuncher2000” as that’s her username for hacking the NSA, or rather Spike’s username. The racist Leanne observed of Ariel and his friend: “If you ask me, they look a little Jew-y!”
Events changed when a suicidal man inadvertently landed on their ambulance, causing Leanne to be stuck inside while the rest ran off. Rhonda wanted to free her, despite her life being treatened by her, and Ariel reminding her: “We need to move quickly and quietly, and not have an insane Nazi drawing attention to us.”
The guys soon abandon Rhonda when she reveals she’s not a hacker, and there was a good exchange between the two women – Leanne: “How do you not know these two aren’t professional rapists?”; Rhonda: “I don’t think that’s something you can get paid for(!)” – but overall, theirs was a less interesting story, this week, than the other characters.
Back in The Vatican, Father Jude is informed that instead of the canonisation job, he’ll be investigating the Second Coming of Christ. He follows up this news, in a conversation with Celine, with a sour: “This is what’s known in the business as a ‘shit sandwich’… it’s a theological term(!)” However, before Jesus has a second coming, they expect the Antichrist, and Celine is looking forward to meeting him especially.
As the elements of the episode come together, the President is informed of a bunker in the Blue Ridge Mountains – space for 15 people and their offspring, plus DNA for all plant and animal wildlife, where they can all survive for 100 years. It’s dubbed “Mount Genesis” and is an Ark, effectively, that holds just 15 people. When he later gives his address to the nation, about Operation Saviour, he has therefore become the false messiah, aka the Antichrist, by promising false hope that will never materialise. And with his adding, “We’re all in this together”, it’s rather like a certain David Cameron….
At the end, Jamie and Dave wake up the next morning in a house, chained up, and in view of a blonde woman who wanted to cut Jamie’s balls off, since she thinks he’s Ariel. So, a nice little cliffhanger but
overall, You Me and the Apocalypse Episode 2 wasn’t quite as good as the first episode, as the characters have settled into their surroundings, but with a lot of decent one-liners, there’s still a lot to enjoy from this.
You Me and the Apocalypse Episode 2 can be watched online for Sky subscribers here, the series continues next Wednesday at 9pm, and click on the top-right cast shot for the full-size image. As of yet, the series hasn’t been announced on Blu-ray and DVD.
Episode 2 Score: 7/10
Director: Michael Engler
Producers: Polly Buckle and Nick Pitt
Creator: Iain Hollands
Screenplay: Iain Hollands (Based on an original idea by Richard Welsh)
Music: Steve Jablonsky and Pieter A Schlosser
Cast:
Jamie Winton: Mathew Baynton
Father Jude: Rob Lowe
Rhonda McNeil: Jenna Fischer
Leanne Parkins: Megan Mullally
Sister Celine: Gaia Scodellaro
Dave Bosley: Joel Fry
Paula Winton: Pauline Quirke
Scotty McNeil: Kyle Soller
Spike McNeil: Fabian McCallum
General Arnold Gaines: Paterson Joseph
President of USA: Lloyd Owen
General: Nigel Barber
Rajesh: Prasanna Puwanarajah
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.