Heading North to confront Dominic Crayle, Abby and Jenny find themselves going to some very dark places.

Spoilers

Liizbeth Myles always does great work and ‘Bad Blood’ is no exception. Abby and Jenny find themselves in a conflict for the heart of a zone. Two orphaned sisters lead the opposing factions and Myles does superb work balancing sibling rivalry and idealism with the harsh realities of the new world. Sheena Bhattsea and Sheetal Kapoor are great as Helen and Emma Maxwell too, making each sister likable but imperfect, antagonistic but never simply a villain.

This is a great snapshot of this new era of Survivors, echoing the push for representation among the young from the last season and combining that with the horrors of grief and the willpower needed to hold a community together. All of which, of course, Abby and Jenny know a lot about and their kindness and determination is the engine for the story here, to tremendous success. This is the show at its best, and a clinic in how to write hopefully, character-facing post-apocalyptic fiction.

Gareth Armstrong’s Dominic Crayle takes the stage in ‘When First We Practise to Deceive’ and he’s more than worth the wait. Plausible and charming and with nothing behind his eyes but avarice he’s a great villain for the two most hard working altruists in UK post-apocalyptic fiction. Aided by Yasmin Mwanza’s excellent Vanessa Walker, a ranger captain, they meet Crayle where they’ve always met foes; honestly and head on.

As the episode goes on what becomes apparent is that Abby and Jenny aren’t quite where they need to be. Investigating the human trafficking that Abby almost fell victim to, the three women discover just how under Crayle’s control the region is, leading to the show taking one of its occasional very dark turns.

It’s a smart mid-box episode, re-establishing the terms, setting the stage and showing us just how brutal the villain of the piece is. It short changes one character, but as we’ll discuss later, I suspect that’s a function of how long this series is rather than this episode itself.

‘Last Stand’ by Roland Moore opens with Abby at a graveside. Grief stricken and furious, she vows to never stop fighting as we flash back and discover how she got there. Moore’s script is gutsy, daring us to buy into something seemingly impossible and then building and building and building until no other outcome seems plausible, let alone possible. It’s helped vastly by Armstrong’s Crayle going full Northern Despot and Paul Bazely as Akihil, the sole resident of an abandoned tower block who helps Abby and Jenny when things get bad. Which they really do.

Lee Adams’ sound design is viciously sharp and the gunfights here, and the wounds sustained are up close, personal and horrific. Lucy Fleming and Carolyn Seymour are, I’d argue, on their absolute best here and the clear love between the two friends drives the story even as the lights start to go out. Best of all though, there’s a moment where Akhil reveals what he can’t let go of and Abby tells him exactly why he must that is just brutal, compassionate, sympathetic and kind all at once. It’s Survivors in a nutshell and it’s one of the highlights of the set.

There are problems though. That framing structure is beautifully executed but in the end, exactly what you don’t believe is what you get. Worse, Moore and Smith use the exact same narrative beat in very nearly the exact same space. That plays badly the first time and worse the second and the result is a story that feels a little rote when it should be anything but. It’s still very good, it’s still a great capstone to the show but it also feels like the path of least persistence in a show so often at its best when it explores the exact opposite. It’s not helped either by the fact that this feels a little truncated. Across two sets this series is good. Across three it would, it’s impossible not to wonder, have been even better.

Verdict: All that being said ‘New Dawn 2’ is still a great entry in a great series. It pushes the notion of post-apocalyptic fiction where it needs to be, it gives an elegant signoff (for now at least) to the show and the Myles story is especially good. If you’re a fan, you won’t be disappointed. 8/10

Alasdair Stuart

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