Alex arrives at Point Blanc and his mission begins. But can he keep his cover while still finding out anything useful, and will he manage to make any friends among the students of the school? Back in the UK, The Division struggles with some inconsistencies in the apparent cause of Ian’s demise.

While this episode does little to appease my niggling concern that The Division is perhaps not the brightest super-secret intelligence agency (or part thereof), it does rather up the ante on how efficient the enemies it faces are and how big a threat they represent. It also gives us our first proper look at Point Blanc itself, as Alex settles in surrounded by his fellow students and does his best to blend in while gathering what he’s there for.

How that plays out is pleasingly layered. Alex may well be a super-capable kid but he’s still just a kid, and this is his first mission, so he’s prone to making the odd slip up, which only heightens the tension. He’s also able to form relationships pretty easily with a couple of his fellow students, while the others are distant for various reasons – one is just distant from everyone, the other two just seem to be far advanced compared to everyone else and in their own little world together.

Yes, that makes just six students total, including Alex, and the facility itself seems comparatively vast and is well-realised as a dusty old facility in the middle of nowhere that was clearly used as something else in the past. The building itself indeed forms part of the mysteries that Alex can’t quite manage to solve yet, and that’s all part of the fun.

Like the previous episode, Otto Farrant makes a good account of himself playing the nuance of the character – Alex is smart enough to carry off his part but also inexperienced enough to make the odd trip and not quite realise the gravity of certain situations until it’s too late. I look forward to seeing how this plays out moving forward.

Back at MI6, Mrs Jones, Crawley and Blunt are increasingly unconvinced as to what really happened to Ian, even more so after Mrs Jones has a chance encounter with Jack. Launching into an operation to try to determine the innocence or otherwise of Martin Wilby, they don’t realise just how far ahead their enemies are of them. Wilby himself, spooked by something he accidentally discovers while digging into why Ian’s death has been dropped as an active investigation, ends up finding out something crucial in a way that seems certain to invite trouble for someone not at all involved in the near future.

As the credits roll, it’s clear that MI6 have their work cut out and Alex, cut off from the world, may well be in over his head. This is going to get very interesting.

Verdict: Still has little niggles here and there but it’s decent enough that I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt for now. 8/10

Greg D. Smith