We rejoin the Lyons clan in 2025, six months after an American nuclear attack annihilated a Chinese island military base. Edith, who was protesting nearby at the time, is being interviewed on TV, arguing for sanctions against America.

Edith (Jessica Hynes) is interviewed about the aftermath of the American nuclear attack. (HBO)

She is amazed by how quickly people have normalized the unthinkable, disappointedly realizing that, the day after Hiroshima was bombed, “the sun came up, people got out of bed, they went to work.” Her brother Stephen later argues about how simplistic he thinks this is and how interconnected the U.S. and the UK are, saying “We might as well take out sanctions against ourselves.”

As the Lyons family watches the TV broadcast, changed family relationships and social differences are subtly illustrated. Viktor, the young Ukrainian refugee, now lives happily with middle-class Daniel while they wait for Viktor’s “leave to remain” in the UK to be decided. Rosie, the working-class sibling, comments that she’s the only one whose family routinely watches an actual TV set anymore. Stephen’s family all watch on various tablet devices.

Viktor (Maxim Baldry) and Daniel (Russell Tovey) watch Edith’s interview. (HBO)

The interviewer reveals Edith went closer to the fallout than she admitted to film the aftermath, likely picking up enough radiation to cut years from her life. Edith has no interest in her own plight, saying directly into camera – to us – “The world keeps getting hotter. And faster. And madder. And we don’t pause, we don’t think, we don’t learn, we keep racing on to the next disaster. I keep wondering what’s next? Where are we going? When’s it ever going to stop?”

We’re taken through the next few months in a montage, accompanied by composer Murray Gold’s driving theme. Britain makes the difficult choice to sever its “special relationship” with the United States and its new president, Mike Pence. A journalist helplessly points out that “we’re making it worse. The more we impose sanctions, the more America swings to the right.” Vladimir Putin declares himself president for life, Xi Jinping declares himself president for life, and Daniel calls Pence little more than a puppet of Trump, complaining that these “old men are in power forever.”

Meanwhile, Viv Rook appears on the ridiculous game show Pointless. Just like Boris Johnson did during his rise, Viv is willing to look like a buffoon on classless TV shows as long as it gets eyes on her. She brilliantly realizes there is no longer any difference between good and bad publicity, as long as it gets her name out there.

Viv (Emma Thompson) wins as a contestant on the game show Pointless. (HBO)

Viv also maintains her gift for meaningless patriotic platitudes. After she wins on the show, in a moment of sublime satire that’s all too plausible, she says with a straight face that she’s dedicating the funds “to build a statue for all the horses killed in World War I.”

One key element of Years and Years is specifically British and unfortunately may not translate outside the UK. Davies has clearly called in a lifetime’s worth of favors to film on the real sets of countless major British TV shows, bringing the hosts and celebrity guests from those shows into the world of his fiction. Viv’s rise is grounded in a sickening reality.

Viv is not appearing next to unknown actors playing imaginary figures. Instead, she’s next to stars of British television, reported on by major BBC newsreaders – accepted into the “family” of television and normalizing her. It’s a colossal achievement that Davies managed to talk all these people into letting him subtly indict them in aiding the rise of a brutal dictator.

Viv (Emma Thompson) announces her candidacy for parliament after her predecessor’s unfortunate run-in with the blades of a delivery drone. (HBO)

Soon after, the Lyons family’s local MP gets horribly and rather hilariously decapitated by a drone at a corporate launch ceremony. Viv announces her candidacy during the by-election that is called, saying, “This is my chance, to honor my country, and to serve it.” Thompson nails the self-serving patriotism of a populist, an intensity of emotion that has nothing to do with love of country – as demonstrated by what she does later – and everything to do with love of herself.

Unfortunately, it’s tough for many watching Viv to tell the difference. Daniel begs Rosie to stop supporting her, but he learns soon after that, as a result of privatization, Viv now co-owns his housing authority – he technically already works for her. It is difficult to avoid being complicit in her rise.

Muriel (Anne Reid) speaks with Viktor. (HBO)

Indomitable grandmother Muriel was easy to underestimate in Episode 1. She seemed more than slightly dotty, and she thoughtlessly used a horribly outdated, racist adjective to describe her half-Chinese grandson Lincoln.

Some might even see Muriel and her entire house – a massive, decaying old edifice, now too large for its own good – as a metaphor for Britain. “Let it rot, gently,” Muriel says of the house, “I’ll survive.” However, it becomes clearer in this episode that Muriel has hidden depths.

As Viktor explains to Muriel that his own parents turned him in to the Ukrainian authorities for being gay and that he’s trying to forgive them, she replies, “Rubbish. They are disgusting. Your mother and father are disgusting people. You are beautiful. In the eyes of Christ and in the eyes of myself. Have you got that?” Viktor can barely hold back his tears.

Viktor (Maxim Baldry) fights back tears as Muriel offers him unconditional love. (HBO)

It’s a moment of profound acceptance and humanity that calls back to Davies’s seminal work from the 1990s, Queer as Folk, which groundbreakingly dramatized the lives of a group of gay friends in Manchester at a point when that was unimaginable.

Back in London, Celeste has lost her job as an accountant with an American-tied firm due to the sanctions. She and Stephen have to put their elegant townhouse up for sale. She takes Bethany out to lunch, attempting to allay any fears her daughter may have about their financial situation.

Still, Celeste can’t help but be overwhelmed by the change, saying, “When I went to university, they said accountancy was a job for life. But now, thanks to your lot, artificial intelligence can do my job in one second flat. I’m going to be quite literally redundant in every way.”

Bethany (Lydia West) reveals the phone implanted in her hand. (HBO)

Meanwhile, Bethany reveals she has had her phone transdermally implanted in her hand. “I am the phone,” she gleefully tells her horrified mother. Celeste is furious, but Bethany points out that Celeste got a tattoo when she was 18. It seems to be every generation’s destiny to be shocked by their children.

Yet again, Davies finds a way to make a huge technological shift profoundly human and set up a conflict where nobody is truly wrong – they just have vastly different viewpoints.

Throughout this episode, technological changes remain subtle. When the first episode opened, it was 2019 and everyone called one another on handheld cell phones. Now it is 2025, and they routinely tell Signor, their classily voiced Alexa stand-in, to connect them all through the “Family Link.”

They now use cell phones only when they’re out and about, but they’re evolved versions – Daniel pays for gas by simply lifting his phone to the pump and holding it alongside.

Ralph (Dino Fetscher) considers reporting Viktor to immigration. (HBO)

Not long after, Daniel’s soon-to-be-ex-husband Ralph catches Viktor working part-time at that same gas station, in violation of his refugee status. Dino Fetscher nimbly conveys the moment an angel and devil war on Ralph’s shoulders.

Vindictive pain and selfish weakness win out, and Ralph photographs Viktor and emails the photo to the immigration authorities, unknowingly starting an avalanche that will bring untold misery to the Lyons family.

The Lyons family reunites for Muriel’s annual birthday dinner. (HBO)

By now, Muriel’s birthday feast has become the annual pivot around which the episodes revolve, illustrating the gradual, inexorable changes in Britain through the microcosm of her little house.

At every instance, the warmth of the Lyons family is cleverly illustrated. No matter how much they may disagree, they truly love one another, and they often show their love in that most English of ways – through gentle, sarcastic ribbing about things only a loved one would know or dare mention.

Edith (Jessica Hynes) at Muriel’s birthday dinner. (HBO)

Muriel is given a birthday surprise when Edith returns home for the party. Pondering the effects of the radiation she was exposed to, Edith says, “Maybe it’s time I did something with my life instead of shouting. I’m just not sure what.” She describes her activist past, how she warned the world of the melting polar ice caps, but watched as nobody did anything, and they vanished.

Jessica Hynes shows the first glimmers of the staggering depths and shadings she’ll bring to Edith in future episodes, giving a lengthy, witty monologue about how she has accepted her failure to save the environment from humanity’s shortsightedness.

Alone among the family members, Bethany has done some sleuthing and figured out that Edith was exposed to far more radiation than she admitted and only has a few years left to live.

Bethany (Lydia West) describes the potential joy of becoming transhuman to Edith. (HBO)

Bethany hints at the potential to become transhuman, asking joyfully, “Did you know you can live forever?” It still sounds like the slightly deranged fantasy of a teenage girl, but Edith replies with a conspiratorial smile. Their growing bond will prove to be a major element of the series going forward.

Edith goes to live with Rosie, whose neighbor’s daughter was cured of spina bifida in the womb. Rosie has spina bifida too and gets about in a wheelchair, but she doesn’t let it define her. She lives a full life, with a job and kids and even the occasional boyfriend.

Rosie (Ruth Madeley) talks with Edith about fetal surgery to prevent spina bifida. (HBO)

Rosie ponders what will happen once they start fixing people, wondering where they’ll stop. “Do they want to fix me? I think I’m brilliant, I don’t want fixing.”

Amazingly, in the few months since the series was filmed, this treatment has gone from fiction to reality. It was announced this past week that a boy diagnosed with spina bifida had spinal surgery in the womb and can now stand on his own two feet.

Meanwhile, Viktor and Daniel have been warned that his “leave to remain” is in jeopardy. They visit an immigration office, intending to quickly iron out a bureaucratic snafu only for Viktor to be summarily detained and deported the next day.

Daniel (Russell Tovey), Viktor (Maxim Baldry) and their lawyer Yvonne (Zita Sattar) at the immigration office. (HBO)

Daniel finds himself left to FaceTime with Viktor, in hiding with a friend in Kiev because he can’t trust his own parents. Tovey beautifully conveys Daniel’s stifled agony as Viktor says he’ll “live discreetly” until he can find a way to get out of Ukraine.

Back in her neighborhood, Rosie excitedly waits for the “Rookmobile,” Viv Rook’s campaign bus. She eagerly waves as it passes by, emblazoned with Viv’s slogans. The bus is a reference to Boris Johnson’s infamous “Brexit bus,” which traveled the UK, emblazoned with the patently false statement: “We send the EU £350 million a week, Let’s fund our NHS instead. Vote Leave.”

Rosie (Ruth Madeley) waves eagerly to the Rookmobile as it passes through her neighborhood. (HBO)

Rosie drags Edith to a political debate where they find passionate crowds supporting Viv. Edith is shocked, saying, “This is a different country to the one I left!”

“We’re all bloody furious now,” Rosie replies.

“What about?”

“Everything!” is Rosie’s broad, meaningless reply.

Rosie seems to root for Viv based mostly on her electric persona, though, when Edith asks if she supports her, she swears, “I haven’t made my mind up yet.” It’s in these scenes that Davies displays a subtle and brilliant understanding of how populist leaders cement their hold on the public.

During the debate, Viv misstates which side pays tariffs, much as a certain U.S. president frequently does. It isn’t clear if Viv actually knows the difference, and the show’s point is that, in the end, it doesn’t matter.

Viv (Emma Thompson) takes center stage as the debate begins. (HBO)

The Labour candidate calls Viv out on her ignorance, succinctly diagnosing that “you’re just saying words, Mrs. Rook.” As the audience laughs at her, Thompson beautifully shows Viv’s growing fury – she’s a verbal street brawler, with no shame and a brilliant sense of her audience.

Viv soon wraps the crowd around her little finger, pulling out an object that looks like a penlight – a “blink.” It’s an invention of Davies’s, an illicit weapon “smuggled in from Taiwan,” which “takes out any online device within a radius of 30 meters.”

Viv clicks it on and instantly extinguishes the hundreds of glowing smartphones raised up in everyone’s arms, recording her every word. She announces that, rather than ban the blink, she would have the blink handed out all over the country, so people could police their children and protect them from seeing porn online.

Viv (Emma Thompson) demonstrates the “blink.” (HBO)

Davies has made the point that some of what Viv says is legitimate. She expresses anger we all feel, but she uses it only as fuel to gain the power she wants. Viv promises, if elected, to track down “those CEOs in California. Those hi-tech giants. Those men!” responsible for internet porn and drag them to trial in Manchester.

It’s a promise she could not possibly keep, but like any populist leader, the content of her promises is irrelevant – it’s their simplicity and emotional appeal that matter. The crowd loves this. Rosie cheerfully claps. Even Edith finds herself drawn to her feet, applauding Viv’s fierce drive.

Adrift after a lifetime of far-left activism that has seen her screaming into a deaf void, Edith sees an anarchic freedom in Viv that traditional candidates never offered and shouts, “Tear the world down!” amid Viv’s fervent supporters. It’s one of the more biting, insightful moments in the series, indicting all ends of the political spectrum.

Viv (Emma Thompson) asks, “Are you with me?” (HBO)

As Viv hideously shouts, “Are you with me!?!” to the adoring crowd, we can see they are not only with her; they would follow her to the very gates of hell. In episodes to come, they will do exactly that.

Meanwhile, Celeste and Stephen prepare to move out of their already-sold townhouse in London, but Stephen makes the mistake of leaving all the funds in their bank account overnight. As they sleep, their bank crashes, due to the economic turmoil rippling out from the sanctions on America.

The following morning, Stephen and Celeste find themselves among hundreds of panicked customers during a run on the bank. 1929 replays itself in an expertly staged crowd scene as masses of furious customers pound on the bank doors.

Stephen (Rory Kinnear) is lost in the crowd during a run on the bank. (HBO)

The scale of the economic collapse is cleverly illustrated by a local cop outside Stephen’s bank, who coldly refuses him entry until the bank next door also fails, and the cop finds himself among the angry crowd, beating on the door, screaming, “You’ve got my money!”

Stephen has to call his siblings and tell them he lost £1.1 million. He is ruined. This gives a fascinating look at the class differences within the Lyons family. Working-class Rosie can’t hide how little sympathy she feels. The £85,000 that was insured by the government, while negligible to Stephen, is far more than Rosie has ever seen. She and Edith think bankers like Stephen have “knackered the whole country. For the second time.”

Stephen and his family have to move in with Muriel. He finds himself returning to Manchester, tail between his legs, as “the financial adviser who lost a million quid.” Celeste finds herself forced to live side by side with Muriel, even though their every exchange over the years has been little more than barbed sniping.

Viv (Emma Thompson) celebrates her election to Parliament. (HBO)

As the episode ends, Viv wins the by-election, becoming the MP for the Lyons family. Again, Daniel is left as the only member of the family to see the coming nightmare. We find him sitting, Cassandra-like, alone in his darkened apartment, watching Viv gleefully accept her victory on TV. As her delighted fans scream her name, Viv shouts, “We did it! This is just the beginning!”