Topher shares the story of how he acquired his powers with the gang, but is he being completely honest? Jonah explains more to Karolina about her origins, and the PRIDE parents continue to scheme, both together against Jonah as well as with their own plans.

Last time out we discovered that Topher was not so much imbued with the same power as Molly, but using some kind of dust which granted him that power temporarily. Now Nico wants answers, so Topher sits down and explains his tale of woe to the whole group. The problem is, not everyone is as eager to believe him as Molly, who is so desperate to believe that he may be her long lost brother that she might be missing what’s right under her nose.

Jonah and Karolina continue their own little meeting down the hole, where Jonah explains to his daughter a little more about her origins and his – where he comes from, who he is, and what it is that’s so very important at the bottom of that hole. Its exact nature isn’t exactly a surprise, but at the same time it does potentially cast our villain in a new light – as someone who maybe really does care about something other than himself, although this being Jonah, there’s enough doubt left that it could easily go either way.

As for the PRIDE parents – like last time, they present about as united a front as ever, always prone to fall into squabbling amongst themselves, each with their own agenda they’re following even as they all work ostensibly together to try to stop Jonah and get their kids back. This time out, Robert has a plan of his own to put a stop to Jonah, driven further by Dale and Stacey’s confirmation that Karolina at least has been spotted with him. But can Robert really use his technical genius to solve this issue?

Frank is faced with a tough decision of his own when Jonah takes him into his confidence, asking him to take up the duties traditionally filled by Leslie with regards to selection of a runaway, but can Frank really sacrifice a child to keep playing his own long game against the man who has stolen his wife and daughter?

Janet is still at work unlocking the secrets within the schematics, and what she finds may give her the chance to stop Jonah herself, if she can enlist Victor’s help. The Wilders are about as pleasant to the others as normal, and Dale and Stacey just seem over their heads as usual.

What continues to work really well is the paralleling of the two groups (which makes sense given that we are talking about parents and children here). In both instances, despite the unifying power of a greater goal, individual agendas and personalities are always at work to undermine that. There’s a fragility to both these alliances, but the difference is that with our heroes, that fragility co-exists with an odd strength. Perhaps the simple difference is that the parents find themselves thrown into an unwilling alliance out of necessity, whereas the kids are together by choice. It’s certainly ironic that the kids seem to have a far better, kinder understanding of what family means (and who it means) than the people who brought them up.

Verdict: Every time it starts to feel like you might have the dynamic of the show figured out, it throws another small curveball just to keep you on your toes. Deep, nuanced drama wrapped up in a comic book shell. 9/10

Greg D. Smith