Spoiler Warning: This post contains a detailed Synopsis of the 1st Episode of Season 2 of Ashes to Ashes

The episode opens in a hospital ward in the “present” with 2 nurses tending to a coma patient while a news report about Alex’s disappearance is running.

When we see Alex we find that time has progressed to 1982 and the Falkland Wars are just about to begin, she then has a Sam Tyleresque vision on the television where she sees Molly telling a teacher that there has been news about her mum. A little later while the team is about to investigate a dead body in Soho Alex hears an Old Woman speaking in a mans voice telling her that she is still breathing. When they see the body they find a man dressed in women’s clothing apparently killed in a case of auto-erotic asphyxiation. They later find a photo of the man with a woman stripper in a pirates outfit

When they get back to the station, they have a visit from Detective Superintendent Charles Mackintosh aka “Supermac” and he is there as the dead man was a cop “Sean Irvine” and he tells them that he is going to crack down on corruption and they will either be with him or against him. When Alex and Gene tell Seans wife she is adamant he would never do such a thing.

In order to track down the stripper, they go back to the club which Chris and Ray allowed to stay open despite it being a crime scene. Soon after Alex arrives the Pirate Stripper takes the stage and she is arrested. In a relatively mild interrogation, the Stripper “Sal” tells them she was forced to pose for the photo as Sean was a cop, and we find out she is from Hyde.

At the same time Sean’s partner “Kevin Hales”  comes into the station and demands to speak to Gene, he then implies that Sean was corrupted and taking advantage of the girls. A little later Alex asks for blood tests to be performed on Irvine and for background checks to be performed on Irvings Wife “Ruth”. As Gene and Alex leave the station she hears a dog speaking as if it was reporting Alex being found in the present. Later on the tests come back and it turns out that Sean had been drugged and it was not an accident but was murder.

They go back to Soho and re-interrogate Sally, as Alex and Gene talk to her someone shoots and kills her, Alex runs towards the source of the bullet, but cant see anything. The next day Gene finds out that Ruth Irvine had lied about her whereabouts and Gene arrests her. During her interrogation SuperMac intervenes and tells Gene that he had been having an affair with Ruth, and she was with him when Sean was murdered.

A little later, Ray and Chris tell Gene that no one had anything bad to say about Sean except his partner Kevin, as such Gene orders them to bring Kevin in for a chat. Alex then finds a red rose on her desk (as well as a smoking cigarette in the ashtray on her desk) and a note saying “Congratulations, they’ve found you”" she then experiences the sensation of being picked up by a helicopter. She then gets called in by Gene who has found photos with Pont de l’Alma written on them and demanding to know why she wrote it and what it means, which she does not (note: Where Princess Diana was killed).

After talking to Kevin, “Ruth Irvine” approaches them and tells them that her house has been ransacked and that they were searching for Sean’s diary which she hands over.  While checking the book they find evidence that Kevin was on the take and an appointment with SM on the day he died. Ray then comes in and gets Gene to magnify the photo of Sean and Sal by photocopying it, as he has found a reflected face in it which looks like Kevin Hales.

Alex had gone back to Soho to investigate and is grabbed from behind and knocked out. When she comes to she finds herself strapped to a surgical table, she initially thinks she is back in the present, but when the “Doctor” appears he tells Alex that he knows that she doesn’t belong there and puts a police radio next to her head so that Gene and the others can hear her struggle. Alex fades in and out and sees ambulance men that could be tending to her in the present day.

Gene finds where she is kept and “Doctor Death” runs off. As she recovers, Gene tells her that Kevin’s alibi does not hold up and Ray and Chris have been sent to arrest him, he then gets a radio call off them saying that Kevin is armed and going crazy. After a failed attempt by Gene to talk him down, Alex goes up and convinces Kevin to give himself up. As Kevin is being taken away, Alex forces him to take a breathalyser test, and contrary to appearances it turns out that he is sober. He then tells her that he is a pebble on a beach and that they are everywhere.

A little later she works out that the SM in Seans diary stands for Supermac, she later breaks into his office and finds that an entry for him has been erased from his diary. Later on Alex and Gene confront Supermac, and he gets Alex to leave while he explains to Gene what was going on. Later on at home Alex gets a phone call from “Doctor Death” who has left a flower in her apartment and asks Alex if she will be his ally or enemy. As she gets ready to put the phone down he explains what Pont de l’Alma refers to and that he was holding back the hordes at Princess Diana’s funeral, and she puts the phone down in shock as she realises that “Doctor Death” is probably from the future as well.