This post contains spoilers from Prime Target episode 1 from this point forward.
When you start watching Prime Target on Apple TV+ but don't immediately see Leo Woodall, don't worry. You're watching the right show!
The opening scene of the thriller series takes place in Baghdad, Iraq, where a mother and daughter separate during an explosion. Unfortunately, they end up falling through a hole in the ground, revealing an underground structure that will likely have historical significance (and significance to the story).
Following the opening sequence, we meet Woodall's Ed Brooks, who's not only handsome and part of the rowing team but also a math genius unenthused by classes and social norms. He's always scribbling numbers in his notepad, and when he's not, he's visiting a former professor with Alzheimer's. Ed wants to put focus on a particular part of his research but Professor Osborne refuses.
While chatting with Professor Mallinder in his office, there's someone behind a computer screen watching Ed's interaction with his teacher through a hidden camera in the smoke detector. Whoever this person is, they send a screenshot of Mallinder and Ed's work about the number 204 along to another mystery entity. Clearly, all eyes are on these math geniuses.
Elsewhere, Professor Lavin receives video footage of the underground chamber from the ninth century in Baghdad, prompting her to meet with Dr. Nathoo. She's been asked to visit the site and consult on the discovery. She also hypothesizes that the writings on the chamber could point to the site being the Bayt al-Hikmah. Wait until Ed checks it out...
Ed discovers the prime number pattern
Ed attends a birthday party for his friend Fiona, but he's much more interested in flirting with Adam the handsome bartender, played by Fra Free, than with the advances from a woman. They have a one-night stand, but Ed acts weird after and essentially kicks him out of his apartment. The next day, Ed meets with his father, who's much more preoccupied with his younger children than with Ed.
Here's where things really start to get interesting. Ed has dinner with Mallinder and Lavin at their home. With Lavin, he finally has an audience willing to entertain and show interest in his theories about numbers. He thinks there are more numbers yet to be discovered. When Lavin shows him the photographs from the chamber in Baghdad, his brain goes wild.
He recognizes the writings on the ancient walls as a series of number patterns. Before long, he begins scribbling numbers and equations on a piece of paper then on their tablecloth when he runs out of room. Lavin loves indulging Ed's genius while Mallinder's much more wary. Ed rushes out to complete the equation, but Mallinder forces him to leave the tablecloth behind.
Mallinder studies the tablecloth in his office, the hidden camera also taking a peak from above, and when he realizes what Ed stumbled upon, he's clearly conflicted about what to do with this information.
Mallinder's found dead after Ed's discovery
The next morning at breakfast, where Adam is also a busboy at the dining hall, Ed publicly apologizes for how he treated him. But it's right back to the prime number matter at hand. Mallinder pulls him away to ask about what Ed's really working on. He admits that he's looking into the theory of prime numbers. Mallinder insists he stops looking for sequences in prime numbers because it's a waste of time. But there's more to it than that.
Mallinder returns home and receives a message from "The Keeper" about looking into prime numbers. The Keeper asks why he's working on them again when they "had an agreement." Yes, there's something much, much larger at play here. The next day, Ed can't find any academic sources for prime numbers on the school's online databases. Weird.
Later, Lavin comes home to find a burning trashcan containing the tablecloth in their backyard but no Mallinder in sight. Ed finds his room has been ransacked and all his research has been stolen. Mallinder supposedly entered and left him a note, but Ed can't find the professor. He's able to speak with Mallinder, who again presses him to stop his research.
Ed races to Mallinder's house where Lavin plays him the voicemail that sounds a lot like a goodbye message. In the final scene of the episode, paramedics and law enforcement recover Mallinder's dead body from the driver's seat of his car in a sketchy garage. Overhead, a security camera looks on, surely prepared to reveal the truth.
Prime Target episode 1 review
One episode into Prime Target and we already have a potential murder, a suspicious digital overseer surveilling a mathematics professor and student, and a mystery surrounding prime numbers that somehow connects to history and a dig site in Baghdad. The various elements of the episode might have seemed a bit disjointed, but everything came together by the end.
Prime Target opens with a slower debut episode that eases us into the world of Ed Brooks. The series has earned middling reviews from critics, some of which are understandable critiques, but based on the first episode, it's a ride worth taking. Woodall delivers another charming performance that subtly pulls you in and makes it impossible to take your eyes off of him.
Although the pacing in the first episode doesn't leave much room for thrills just yet, the intriguing reveal of the ending and the introduction of the overarching puzzle will have you hooked and ready to move right along to episode 2 and the rest of the season. We're left with nothing but questions to be answered and revelations yet to be discovered. Count us in on this math mystery!
Watch Prime Target only on Apple TV+.