Alone in London with nothing, Harry and June stumble into a Good Samaritan, but is he too good to be true? John and Ryan search for June in London, while Christine struggles to cope back home. In Norway, things may be trickier than Ben had hoped.

There’s something quite wonderful about just how much The Innocents gets its central protagonists. They’re wide-eyed youngsters in love for the first time, but they strike just the right balance between the sort of cynicism that comes baked-in to teenagers these days and the lack of guile that separates that cynicism from genuine world-weariness.

This time out, that translates into them making a new friend, who lives on a barge and leaves them to make themselves comfy while he ‘goes to see a man about a dog basket’. Although there’s an initial question on the minds of both as to how far they should trust a stranger, they go with it in the absence of any better options, and it leads them on a path they hadn’t necessarily expected.

Meanwhile of course, the adults are all in a much higher state of concern. John and Ryan are going the direct route, driving to London and seeking out the last place they know June to have been. The relationship between John and Ryan is another one that’s perfectly observed – there’s a resentment between them, but also a genuine sense of familial affection. John is angry that Ryan has deceived him and enabled June’s running away, but he also respects Ryan’s own affection for his sister, and has genuine concern for Ryan’s own wellbeing, given his agoraphobia and physical difficulties. Ryan, for his part, still feels like John is too controlling, but is able to put that aside in light of his greater concern for June. It’s done as much with certain looks and gestures as it is with dialogue, and it all just adds to that feeling of verisimilitude which permeates the show.

Back home, we get to see a little more of Christine. Clearly she was marked for great things before the incident that caused her husband’s illness, and there’s a sense of anger bubbling up just under the surface within her because of that.

We also get the first hints that maybe these two families are more linked than we had imagined, and some emerging sense of why exactly it is that Ben is working on a way for shifters to control their ability. Wrapped up in that is a sense that Steinar may well be a lot more than he had appeared at first glance. Certainly he seems physically strong and quite prodigiously driven, but there would seem to be other specific qualities about him which make him remarkable, if not unique.

And still, our young lovers have their own struggles. Still Harry asks himself whether he might have bitten off more than he can chew. Still June questions whether they should run directly away from Steinar or take him at his word and follow him to June’s mother. And in Norway itself, Ben may have bigger issues to deal with than he might have wished or hoped for.

Verdict: Fascinating to watch – a genre show with so little fantasy to it, all the work it puts into feeling so real works to make what little fantastical elements we see all the more impactful. 8/10

Greg D. Smith