Sarah Bassiuoni’s thriller series, Critical Incident revolves around Senior Constable Zil Ahmed, this young and determined cop—always standing up for what’s right, no matter what. But life doesn’t always play fair. Ahmed’s career starts out strong, right? He’s respected, climbing up the ranks. But then, an awful situation happens that turns everything upside down for him—he ends up getting demoted. Ahmed starts following this girl, Dalia Tun. She’s a youngster who got caught up in some shady stuff at a house party with her drug dealer boyfriend Hayden, and Ahmed’s convinced she’s the key to bringing down a drug lord. But, here’s the twist—his motivation isn’t purely professional at first. It’s personal. See, his girlfriend, Senior Constable Sandra Ali, got hurt at that same house party, and he thinks it’s Dalia who did this to her. So, of course, Ahmed’s determined to take down whoever did this to Ali. But, as you can guess, when the line between personal and professional starts to blur, things get messy. In the end, Ahmed gets killed for doing the right thing. How did this all happen? Let’s find out from Critical Incident’s explainer.
Spoilers Ahead
Why did Ahmed start to go after Dalia?
Alright, so when Critical Incident starts off, we meet Zil Ahmed, a cop who’s loved and respected by everyone at his precinct. But, one night, Ahmed and the other officers get called to break up this house party thrown by a bunch of teenagers. Now, Ahmed was young once, so he knows the deal with these teenage parties—some wild fun, a bit of chaos, but nothing too serious most of the time. So, instead of going in hot-headed, he tells his team to stay cool and handle the situation without making it worse. But, teenagers being teenagers, the minute cops walk into the party, everyone starts losing their cool. It’s understandable, right? What made it worse was that it wasn’t just some harmless fun—they found out this girl named Yvonne had OD’d. She was in a really bad state, and Ahmed was pretty shaken when he saw her like that. Of course, he didn’t want her life in jeopardy, so he needed to find out who sold her the drug. He was genuinely worried about her well-being. But while all this was going down, another teenager—out of nowhere—attacked Ali, Ahmed’s girlfriend and fellow officer, by hitting her from behind. Suddenly, it wasn’t just a rowdy party anymore.
Things escalated fast. Luckily, Ali wasn’t seriously hurt, just a minor injury to her head, and Yvonne ended up recovering after she threw up the drugs. But Ahmed? He wasn’t okay. He was fired up, determined to figure out who was behind the sale of the drugs in the first place and who hurt Ali. After looking into things, Ahmed believed that this girl, Dalia Tun, who lived in a foster group home, was involved. He believed she was the one behind Ali’s attack, and her boyfriend Hayden was responsible for the drugs. Ahmed knew that if he could catch Dalia, it would lead him straight to Hayden. So, when he finally got to know about Dalia’s whereabouts, he went after her. Now, here’s the thing—Ahmed found out that Dalia had a knife on her. Even though he clearly identified himself as a cop, Dalia didn’t listen. She bolted and started running as fast as she could. The problem was that Dalia wasn’t actually the one who hurt Ali. In fact, she’d left with Hayden the moment the cops showed up at the party. But her running made her look guilty, and Ahmed wasn’t about to let her get away. He followed her all the way to a train station, and this is where things took a tragic turn.
In the chaos of chasing Dalia, Ahmed accidentally shoved this innocent guy, Luka, who was standing near the tracks. Luka fell, and before anyone could do anything, a train came, and he lost his legs. It was a total nightmare—a cop accidentally causing such a horrible accident. It became a huge deal, a “critical incident” in every sense of the word. To make matters worse, when Dalia was finally caught and brought in, she claimed she had nothing to do with Ali’s injury or the drugs. She didn’t even hear Ahmed say he was police when he approached her. She thought some random crazy guy was after her, so she ran for her life. That’s why Detective Edith Barcelos was called in to analyze the whole situation. She needed to figure out what really went down, because if Ahmed hadn’t followed procedure—if he didn’t properly identify himself as a cop—he was in serious trouble. Ahmed, feeling the pressure, got more stubborn and even more determined to bust Dalia. In his mind, she was the reason Luka got hurt, Ali got attacked, and his own career was in danger. It was personal now, and he couldn’t let it go. He just wanted to do the right thing, but somewhere along the way, everything got messed up.
How did Ahmed die?
Ahmed was determined to throw the book at Dalia, but Dalia was becoming more and more anxious. She hadn’t done anything wrong, yet her whole life had been one setback after another. She’d bounced from one foster home to another, and now, being falsely accused and locked up at the police station made everything worse. Even after she was bailed out, Ahmed kept sending cops to search her things, just because he thought she was his prime suspect. This pressure pushed Dalia into drugs. To help her drug dealer boyfriend and make money, she even started dealing drugs herself. Soon, she was tangled with a big-time drug dealer named Ty, under whom Hayden used to work. Ahmed and Ali, following her trail, realized how deep in trouble Dalia was when they saw her dealing drugs at the roadside. Ahmed realized he was partly to blame for her downfall. If Ahmed had listened to Dalia’s side of the story and taken a more compassionate approach, things might have been different.
So, Ahmed went to Dalia’s lawyer and admitted how he’d been overzealous—encouraging other cops to watch her more closely and even using a dog squad to bust her. He knew he might face demotion or transfer, but he wanted to do the right thing. At first, Dalia was stubborn and didn’t care much to take Ahmed’s help. She enjoyed the money she was making. But when Hayden was followed by Ali and other officers for a drug bust, Dalia knew she was in danger. She tried to warn Ty, but Ty was brutal and violent and made her feel trapped. Eventually, Dalia realized she needed Ahmed’s help despite her pride. On the day she was supposed to sell drugs to another dealer, she called Ahmed for help. But by then, Ahmed had been demoted and didn’t even have a gun. Ahmed tried to protect Dalia from Ty, but Ty lost control and, with his gun, shot and killed Ahmed on the spot.
Dalia had been running from her troubles for so long, but seeing Ahmed die in front of her and because of her made her feel deeply sorry as he was the officer who genuinely wanted to protect her and do the right thing. She felt responsible for his death because she was the one who had called him to that place. Realizing that if the police think she was responsible for Ahmed’s death, her life would be over, she decided enough was enough. Tired of running and facing the consequences of her actions, Dalia went to the police station to tell the whole truth. She recounted how she had fallen into the drug scene, why she turned to Ty, and how Ahmed had ended up dying at Ty’s hands because of her. In the end, she felt a strange sense of gratitude toward Ahmed, even though she had initially resented him. Maybe this was her chance to change her life. We can hope that Dalia may turn things around, make better choices, and start living honestly, as Ahmed had wished for her. We all hope she finds the right path and builds a life with integrity.
