The truth is out.

And nothing has changed.

Four weeks on, Renko’s scoop is discredited and everything is back to normal. Except Renko and Hicks are on Grace’s radar and not everyone believes Hard Sun is a hoax…

This is a massively brave way to follow what may be the strongest pilot of the year and for a while it doesn’t look like it’s been successful. You can’t help but grind your teeth at the fact things seem to have been X-Files’ed away yet again.

But then two things happen. The first is you’re reminded of just how broken, in what interesting ways, Hicks and Renko are. And then the kidnapping happens.

The episode has to be about Hard Sun being discredited in order for it to work. The truth has to hit the conspiracy sites and corners of the world first and work its way back in because that’s the most realistic, and cruellest, thing to do. Everything has to seem to be fine. Because when it isn’t, that hits all the more.

The main plot then ends up doing three things at once: establishing a possible format for the show, bringing Hard Sun back into focus, and telling a story of the week. All three are successful, and Neil Cross, with five years and counting of Luther under his belt, excels at this sort of horrible and showy crime fiction. The fact it’s paired with this uniquely nasty stripe of pre-apocalyptic fiction is all the better.

Verdict: Rounded out by some more hints about Charlie (he is very dirty), Renko (she’s definitely working to bring him down) and a chilling appearance by Grace this is a much better episode than you might first worry about. Unflinching, bleak, and with its feet on the ground. But not, of course, looking at the sun… 8/10

Alasdair Stuart