Curfew: a breakdown of that Sean Bean scene

*Contains Spoilers for Curfew episode 3*

Sky’s new street race drama Curfew is well underway with the third episode now available to watch. The show is a massive genre mashup and now we’re a way in it feels like each ep has a slightly different genre makeup.

Ep three has a strong horror bent: it’s the first time we get a proper look at the mooks and much of the ep follows Kaye, Ruby and Michael who are driving the ambulance and what’s left of the Donahue family who find themselves in a dark underground passage and prime targets for attack. There’s also a backstory which could have come straight out of a horror movie – but more on that later.

Crucially though this is THE SEAN BEAN EPISODE.

Yep, the minute we discovered Bean was in the show we’ve been speculating in which ep he’d bite the bullet. Bean is a terrific actor but he is of course known for his spectacular and frequent demises. What would it be this time? Will he be ripped apart chained to two cars speeding in opposite directions? Will he be mauled to bits by marauding mooks? Will he be chased off a cliff by sheep? Anything was possible.

And the Curfew writers and filmmakers were obviously quite aware of that. So instead, the Sean Bean Episode teases multiple points where you think Bean’s going to buy it, but constantly pulls the rug out from under us.

Bean plays The General (we learn in ep 3 his name is really Errol Chambers – not very glam!) and he’s racing with his heavily pregnant girlfriend Faith (Rose Williams). Faith is due any day and the two are hoping to win a place on the island for the sake of their child-to-be. The trouble is Errol is a massive hot head. We’ve seen this in previous episodes – he flips out big time when Michael (Malachi Kirby) says ‘let the best man win’, drives recklessly and ends up crashing his car early on in the race. In fact at the start of ep 3 it looks like Faith may have lost the baby because of the accident (and this is the first point where you think The General himself might be dead).

The racers have to get past a massive wall surrounding London and different teams choose different means of doing this. For Faith and The General the plan is that a friend of The General’s will smuggle them through a black ops checkpoint with the car in the back of a lorry. Trouble is Errol can’t control his temper and flips out insisting he drive, though eventually agreeing that Faith should remain in the car inside the lorry even though there are crates containing mooks in there with her…

At the checkpoint he’s asked for ID – he manages to keep his cool. The marshall asks to see what’s in the back of the lorry and he opens it up to reveal the car (Faith is out of the vehicle and hiding). The marshall realises they’re racing when he sees the number on the car and Errol draws his gun. He’s definitely going to die now! (we think).

But he gets a last minute reprieve – the marshall recognises him. Seems like The General has a reputation as a bit of a legend, particularly in Cleethorpes (!). Looks like Faith and The General have dodged a bullet… But sadly the marshall hasn’t: an off-hand remark annoys The General who impulsively shoots and kills the marshall. Faith and The General then get in their armoured car and try to drive through the checkpoint but are shot at by the rest of the force manning the point.

Surely this is how Errol will make his exit?

In fact no. Faith, who has felt her baby kick and knows it’s alright, decides to take matters into her own hands. She gets weaponised and shoots up the rest of the black ops guys herself (go Faith!) leaving the pair free to carry on with the race.

Just when you think Bean will live to die another day, ep three does the old switcheroo. While The General attempts to apologise to Faith for being an enormous pain in the bum all episode, Faith tells her she’s finishing the race alone. Nope says Errol, I’ll hunt you down… So Faith shoots him in the head.

The General is no more. But then there’s the backstory we mentioned earlier which also involves Bean. It’s Faith’s and it’s woven throughout the ep.

In it we see Faith as a well spoken young woman who’s babysitting for a family around the time the infection broke out. A series of murders are reported in the area where she and the kids are so she takes the children into the basement to hide. But one of the kids goes outside to find his dog and gets bitten.

Bringing him inside (and clearly not knowing the rules of zombie movies) she puts him in the basement with the other kids while she goes to call the police, and tells them to lock the door behind her. Pretty quickly the screaming starts��� Worse still, when the kids’ heavily pregnant mother returns home, seeing her children dead she shoots herself in the head in front of Faith. Then her husband arrives to find his entire family (including unborn baby) all dead.

But when her husband looks up from cradling the dead body of his pregnant wife…. It’s SEAN BEAN!

The General might be out of the race, but there are things we need to know.

• Why is he called The General and what’s his reputation based on?

• How did he end up with the much much younger babysitter, who he may well hold responsible for the deaths of his entire family?

• When and why did Faith go from clean cut school girl type to fully blinged-up firearm-wielding bad-ass?

We will have to wait for future episodes to find out!

All eight episodes of Curfew are available to watch now via Sky and NOW TV