8 Episodes · Premiered December 30, 2012 · Ended February 24, 2013
It's April of 1889. Haunted by the failure to catch London's most evil killer, Jack the Ripper, Inspector Edmund Reid now heads up the notorious H Division - the toughest police district in the East End. Charged with keeping order in the blood- stained streets of White chapel, Reid and his men find themselves fighting to uphold justice and the rule of law; but always in the background lurks the fear of the Ripper - is he back for another reign of terror? Rich episodic storylines meld with the intrigue of a criminal underworld festering on the hard streets of Victorian London, following the battle of the men whose job it is to bring the law to the lawless.
A young woman is found brutally murdered, the hallmark signs of the Ripper upon her. Chief Inspector Frederick Abberline believes it Jack's return, but Reid - the precinct's new man in charge - suspects a different evil at work. The team must use all of their brawn, brains and brilliance to track down the fiend responsible before another girl is killed.
A beloved toy maker is beaten to death for a mysterious brass box and the coins in his pocket. The Whitechapel Vigilance Committee presents a 14 year-old culprit who refuses to deny the charge, leading Reid and Drake into the savage world of merciless child gangs. At the same time, Jackson's drinking and gambling have led to the loss of the pendant that ties him to his American past.
H Division and the Independent City of London force are thrown together when the panic surrounding a sudden cholera outbreak leads them to scour both boroughs to find some underlying pattern amidst the rising tide of sickness and death. Meanwhile Emily Reid seeks patronage for her charity efforts, unaware of the resistance she will meet.
The brutal clearing of a local slum for the underground railway reveals an indecipherable murder scene and an unreliable slum girl witness. Lucy Eames, beautiful and disturbed, is the unlikely key to a byzantine web of conspiracy. As Reid closes in on the killer, it becomes clear that the condemned slum is home to dark secrets that someone is desperate to protect.
A string of brilliantly masterminded robberies draw the attention of Reid and his team. While Jackson works to trace the thieves' hardware, Drake is confronted with a spectre from his past in the form of his onetime Colonel. As Reid closes in on the brash robbers and their ultimate target, Drake finds his loyalties put to the ultimate test.
As the dock strike of August 1889 takes hold of the city, the killing of a Jewish anarchist leads Reid and the team into the merciless chicanery of the British government's fight against distant empires and global terrorism.
An international shipping magnate arrives in town with his Pinkerton retinue to complete the acquisition of an ailing London shipping line. Meanwhile, the murdered body of an engine inventor draws Reid's attention just as Jackson and Long Susan's past comes back to haunt them.
Reid is adrift. His team is in pieces and Leman Street is shaken to its foundations following recent events. A kidnapping offers him cause to assemble his men and tackle the white slavery ring operating in their midst. But Reid is gripped by a growing obsession that leads back to a terrible secret from his own past.
