It’s been a while…

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS

Before you enjoy Bad To The Bone, here’s a summary of the story so far

In When She Was Bad

25-year-old Claire MacDonald sees opportunity at Waterloo station when she finds an abandoned luxury Prada rucksack. She steals it, but when she explores its contents she finds, amongst other items, important medicine and a gun. She decides she needs to finds the owner and return it.

She meets the owner, Barclay, an aloof, enigmatic ego of a man who, liking her honesty in returning the bag (or is it her dishonesty in stealing it in the first place?) says he may have a job for her. Whilst waiting to hear back from Barclay, her boyfriend moves out and she is made redundant by her company. Cast adrift, Claire meets with Barclay again and accepts work as his ‘driver’.

On her first day working for Barclay Claire meets Tom, an associate of Barclay’s. The two of them make an immediate connection and a relationship develops.

But Barclays is darker than he first appeared and Claire finds that she is actually employed as a getaway driver for Barclay, who is involved in criminal activities across London. Claire is thrilled, driving a less-than-trusty Fiat Uno as they flee the scenes of his crimes, things rarely to plan. Tom, it materializes, is working undercover with the police in investigating Barclay, but Claire ignores his warnings.

She meets Barclay’s sister, Dawn, who moves in with her, and Barclay’s mountain of muscle, who he just refers to as ‘Thug Number Two’ (“TNT”).

On their next drive Claire is shocked to find that Barclay is handing over a bag full of money to her new man, Tom. Claire confronts Barclay about the nature of his crimes and he confesses to blackmail, a ‘justifiable crime’ in his mind. He takes Claire with him as he stakes out Bartholomew, a City embezzler who is to be their next target. But the pick-up from Bartholomew goes wrong when TNT and Barclay are injured in a hit and run as Bartholomew panics. Barclay flees the scene, leaving Claire to lie to the police.

Shaken, and with TNT hospitalised, Claire tells Barclay they need to arm themselves. Barclay is reluctant, but agrees to a shooting lesson. Claire proves to be a natural.

The next blackmail victim is a schoolteacher. Claire attempts the pick-up herself but it goes wrong and she shoots the boyfriend of the teacher. She thinks she’s killed him. Barclay is furious.

The next day local radio reports the shooting but no deaths are mentioned. Still panicking, Claire tells Dawn what has happened and they rush to Barclay’s flat. It has been wrecked and the only sign of Barclay is four bloody fingernails that appear to have been extracted with a pair of household pliers.

Back home they find their flat has been ransacked too. Claire calls Tom and asks for his help. He comes over and says he believes Barclay has been taken to an old building owned by Bartholomew.

Whilst driving south Barclay finally calls Claire. He’s been abducted. He reveals that the Bartholomew blackmail is actually being forced upon him by Tom, who has been blackmailing Barclay himself, keeping the police investigation ineffective whilst taking a sizeable cut himself. He draws a gun on Dawn, and tells Claire to continue to the building, not to look for Barclay but to do the Bartholomew pick-up.

When they meet at the abandoned factory Bartholomew does not have the money, but instead gives them Barclay, battered and unconscious. As he drives away a sniper opens fire and kills Tom and traps Claire and Dawn in the stranded Uno that has finally died.

Claire makes a dash to save Barclay, firing into the dark. The sniper rides off after hitting Claire, Dawn and the unmoving body of Barclay. The police finally arrive. Tom is dead. Bartholomew gone. Barclay, Dawn and Claire are all injured but alive.

In the final chapter Claire is back in an office job, apparently her bad days are behind her, but in the epilogue, set a year later, she’s back working with Barclay and TNT.

And what followed in Bad For Good

Bad For Good begins 18 months later. Claire, Barclay and TNT are being chased by the police across south London. They manage to escape but Claire thinks the police must have been tipped off. She suspects their old adversary Bartholomew. Barclay disagrees and leaves abruptly after taking a call from someone called ‘Green’. 

Claire returns to her daytime job at Marshalls. The company has been taken over and jobs are being outsourced to India. 

Barclay has targeted a headteacher who works nights as a prostitute. After the pick-up Claire thinks they’ve been short-changed. As they drive back through south London one of their tyres bursts. Claire finds a bullet hole in the tyre.

Needing transport, Barclay and Claire collect a motorbike from Hank, Dawn’s wealthy new boyfriend. They then go back to the headteacher for the missing money. When they leave her there’s another ambush attempt. Barclay manages to shake the pursuer off. Claire thinks Bartholomew is behind the failed ambushes but Barclay is not convinced. He reveals that ‘Green’ is actually his wife, part of a business arrangement between his father and hers.

Marshall’s boss wants Claire to fly to India to finish the outsourcing. She prevaricates. That evening she meets Green. Green tells Claire to get out of Barclay’s life.

Claire and Barclay break into Bartholomew’s house to learn more about him. They find Bartholomew has been monitoring their movements. Barclay plans to frighten scare him but Claire disagrees. They argue and she leaves with Dawn. When they return to London they find their flat has been destroyed by fire. Furious, Claire suspects Bartholomew. She tracks him down and confronts him. To her surprise he agrees that things have gone too far and to meet with Barclay. 

Barclay, Claire and TNT meet with Bartholomew on neutral territory. Before they can talk TNT is shot. In the ensuing confusion Bartholomew forces Barclay into his car and departs. Claire chases the sniper through the foot tunnel. She catches him but he escapes, falling into the Thames. 

When she returns to the scene of the shooting TNT has disappeared. Green pulls up in Dawn’s car. Green says she knows where Barclay is. Claire reluctantly gets in.

They find him in a barn at Bartholomew’s. Barclay has been tortured by Green’s father, she loses control and kills Bartholomew. They free Barclay. He tells them to leave and as they exit they hear him call the police, seemingly confessing that he has killed Bartholomew.

Claire flees to India. As the plane lifts off she receives a text from Barclay.