Episode Synopsis Impossible Planet

The Commuter is set on present day Earth, in Woking to be precise. Ed Jacobson (Timothy Spall) is a down-trodden train station attendant whose main goal in life is to simply get through it unscathed. The passengers at Woking station don’t make his work life easy, but even they pale in comparison to his tumultuous home life.

Ed is married to Mary (Rebecca Manley), the one-time love of his life. Their love waned long ago, however, with the arrival of their son, Sam (Anthony Boyle), who has a psychotic disorder. As they struggle to manage Sam’s condition, the child they coveted so dearly is becoming the thing that is tearing them apart.    

But when Ed meets Linda (Tuppence Middleton) his life is turned upside down. Linda is a mysterious passenger who requests a ticket to Macon Heights, a town that does not exist…at least not on any map Ed has ever seen. But when Ed questions Linda, she disappears before his very eyes. Was it smoke and mirrors, or something else entirely?

Ed’s curiosity gets the better of him and he goes in search of Macon Heights. He boards the train and sets his watch timer to 28 minutes: the length of time Linda said it takes to get to Macon Heights… The timer hits zero and to Ed’s surprise the train slows, but they are in the middle of nowhere; no station; no town; nothing but fields...

Ed disembarks and follows the other passengers over the ridge where he sees it for himself: Macon Heights in all of its glory. It’s a town that feels like towns used to be: a butcher, a greengrocer and most of all… a sense of community. Macon Heights is a town where people seem truly happy. But as the truth of Macon Heights is slowly revealed to Ed, and as he’s asked to sacrifice so much for the happiness on offer, he is forced to make an almost impossible decision...