eve 2.8Eve and her friends must find a way of distinguishing Adam from his doppelgänger…

Series co-creator Emma Reeves pens this dramatic episode which sees further major turns in the emotional development of our lead characters. You wouldn’t expect it to be something simple that’s needed to decide which Zac is the human one, which the robot, and it isn’t – but that’s actually in some ways the least important part of the episode. Once we know – and Eve reaches the conclusion about Adam’s identity at the same moment as I was thinking, “Wouldn’t she realise that…?” – then the discussions between them focus far more on what being alive means. We’ve spent twenty-one episodes buying into the idea that a robot can become human… so why should we, or the characters, believe otherwise of Adam?

It’s a clever piece of plotting and writing, using the audience’s expectations that Adam will be evil simply because he’s been created by Mary Douglas against us. After all, Eve has been able to fight off Mary’s influence (to a greater or lesser extent), so why can’t Adam?

Everything leads inexorably towards the final scenes which are exactly where the story needs to go, but I did wonder if they’d be allowed on CBBC in as blatant and honest a form as they are. It’s one of those situations where a domino effect of bad decisions – made for the best possible reasons – leads to potentially fatal misunderstandings.

It’s one of those episodes that really feels like an ensemble piece and hopefully its consequences will be felt in the remaining four.

Verdict: A brave piece of writing and playing. 8/10

Paul Simpson