Prime Target kicks off in Baghdad, Iraq. Baidaa and her daughter Amira head out for some ice cream, but while Baidaa steps out to get cash, an explosion rocks the street, sending her flying. Amazingly, Amira survives, but the ground collapses, and both of them fall into the depths below.. and below the street, a long hidden place is unearthed.
Meanwhile, in Cambridge, England, we meet Edward Brooks, a mathematician who's all about his work but not so great with people, especially Fiona, who’s clearly into him. He’s not feeling it, although he does think it’s cool she’s 23, since it’s a prime number. I do love that our main character so far seems to be a socially awkward, math-obsessed nerd.
In the middle of his math lecture, Edward stays pretty grim while Professor Robert Mallinder goes on about the beauty of math. The university needs funding, and Robert’s pitching it to the students, but when he looks over Ed’s research paper in private, it’s clear he’s not impressed. Robert’s obviously skilled with math, but it soon becomes clear that someone is keeping an eye on Ed through the cameras.
Next, Edward meets up with Professor Raymond Osborne, who's retired because he's dealing with Alzheimer’s. Edward tries to keep his mind sharp by playing number games with him. The conversation shifts to Professor Mallinder and his funding ideas. Raymond argues it's more important than Ed thinks, and explains that building a strong reputation brings in investors, and with that money, both the faculty and students get the freedom to learn and research whatever they want.
Professor Andrea Lavin, Mallinder’s wife, is watching footage of the underground structure from earlier. She tells her colleague Charan that the Baghdad Department of Culture and Antiquities wants her to investigate it, suggesting it could be the legendary Bayt al-Hikmah. Later, she asks Mallinder to invite Edward over for dinner so they can connect personally and get past their differences.
Part of why Ed is getting under Robert’s skin is his pure passion for math. Andrea compares it to her own obsession, though it’s not totally clear what she means by that yet. What we do know is that both Ed and Robert are being watched, and as they dig into the numbers, someone unseen is snapping photos of their work.
The next day, when Ed talks to Robert, he shares his theory about prime numbers and what they might have stumbled upon. He thinks there's something called the “God’s Cipher,” and that the underground chamber in Baghdad might be hiding a Prime formula. Robert tells Ed to drop it, refusing to bring the research to the Board. He doesn’t want Ed to get consumed by it like others have. Back at home, Robert seems to be working with some shadowy figures, as he gets a message from someone called “The Keeper” asking why he’s looking at Prime Numbers when they had an agreement that he wouldn't. It's all very suspicious, and I'm intrigued.
The next day, Edward tries to check out prime number formulas on the college’s database, but everything's been wiped clean. To make things worse, Mallinder has destroyed his tablecloth and the folder with all his research papers. There’s also a voicemail from Mallinder to Andrea that sounds like a suicide note, and soon after, he’s found dead in his car. Oof.
Onto Episode 2, which kicks off 4 days ago and shifts the focus to Taylah Sanders, another key character. Like Ed, she’s totally absorbed in her work, which happens to be spying on the university professors.
It turns out, she’s the one who's been keeping tabs on Robert and the others. Taylah works as a surveillance officer for the NSA, and she’s giving a new recruit the usual tour. They're part of the “European unit,” aiming to track down the next big digital weapon. They’re monitoring 15 top mathematicians across Europe, including Robert Mallinder.
Their surveillance setup is pretty basic—they can plant or access cameras, but they only get images, not audio. Their job is just to upload pictures from whiteboards, not decode the math themselves. Since the digital world runs on numbers and patterns, the right combination could potentially bring the whole system down. That’s why this Cipher is so critical.
Back in the present, Andrea is devastated over Robert’s death, while Ed is more focused on getting his hands on Robert’s research. He’s not supposed to be in Robert's office, but of course, he ignores that. He doesn’t find anything useful, but he does get caught snooping by the faculty. The other professors warn him that he could get in serious trouble. How much do they really know about Robert and his past research?
Ed might be onto something, so he heads over to see Andrea. She brings up how Robert burned the tablecloth he wrote on during their dinner, and Andrea thinks Ed’s onto something big. He’s getting warned from every angle, but both of them are set on uncovering the truth.
Taylah thinks Ed and Robert could be at the center of everything, especially after she watches Robert burn his work and commit suicide. This sets off alarms for her, so she shows the footage to her boss, Olson. Even though everyone else has written it off, Taylah isn’t buying it. She believes there’s more going on, and thinks Robert’s voice on the suicide note was edited. She hears coughing in the background, like the audio’s been looped, and starts to think they’re witnessing a cover-up. Olson is later shot by a sniper in front of Taylah, a clear warning to her. She tries to run from the sniper but is chased by an assassin on a motorbike, and is forced to dive into water to escape him.
A great first two episodes, setting up the mysteries and linking the different characters together. I can't wait to see how it all unfolds in the coming weeks.
