By Abby Robinson

Published: Monday, 24 October 2022 at 12:00 am

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Who is Connor Moran? That’s the question hanging over The Pact season 2, which kicked off tonight (24th October).

Rakie Ayola, who also appeared in the BBC drama’s first outing as a different character, stars as social worker Christine Rees, whose life is turned on its head when the mysterious figure arrives on the scene.

Connor claims that he’s her son, and he looks identical to Liam, Christine’s son who died from a drug overdose. But Christine accuses him of lying and instructs her children to turn their backs on him, which is easier said than done. 

But it’s clear Christine has secrets.

“Every time we ask you about the past, you get defensive,” her daughter Megan says to her. Is Christine refusing to engage with certain events in her life because they’re too painful to recall? Or is she hiding something?

Christine is certainly desperate for Connor to leave her family alone, offering him £2,000 to stay away, but he refuses to back off, instead emboldened by her actions.

• Read more: Where was The Pact season 2 filmed?

“I don’t want your money,” he says, refuting the narrative that he’s simply a chancer hoping to earn a few quid.

“You’re afraid of me. I can see it in your eyes. If you won’t tell me what happened, then I’ll find out for myself and then the others will see exactly what kind of mother you really are.”

She bites back: “You really don’t want to cross me, Connor.”

Chatting to RadioTimes.com and other press about whether viewers can trust Christine, Ayola said: “She’s different things to different people, and that was one of the things I was really intrigued by when I read the script.

“[Creator and writer] Pete McTighe’s written a woman who will just lean into different elements of her personality depending on what situation she’s in and who she’s talking to.

“I recognise that as very human behaviour, and it’s something I feel that in drama, we don’t often allow characters to go there because we want the audience to feel secure – ‘I know who this person is, I know how they behave’ – when in fact, in life, we’re often different things to different people.”

She added: “I think that’s the reason we don’t often see characters who are so multifaceted because we worry that the audience won’t trust them.

“But that’s what people are like. If you think about somebody who you don’t like at all, somebody loves them, so they’re not seeing the same version.

“Pete’s written someone who you might meet and really dislike, but also really love depending on who you are and what you mean to her.”