Lynn makes a discovery that changes everything. LaLa gets used to not being dead. Gambi comes clean. Jennifer makes a discovery that changes everything else.

This is the episode that the show hinges on and it delivers in every way. For a start every member of the Pierce family is engaged and vital, and I especially loved the fact that its Lynn who pretty much cracks the case. That not only give the show’s single under-utilised character a central role but also grounds the revelations, and there are plenty of those, in the same familial context the show works so well in.

Then there’s the way that the ASA experiment matches the fantastic elements of the show with its exploration of race. Gregg Henry’s debut as the openly racist ASA officer running the Freeland experiment makes it clear: this is a city that can be destroyed. This is a Petri dish people live in. Everything we’ve seen, everything the Pierces have lived through, is all part of that wider context. It’s a chilling conceit, changes the nature of the show completely and shows us just how bad things have got in Freeland. It also gives Gambi a redemptive arc, and even more hints about the true nature of the organisation Lady Eve, Tobias, and perhaps Gambi work for.

Elsewhere the episode impresses just as much. The opening training montage (and holodeck!) set to ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ is a welcome mood lightener, while the reveal that LaLa is hallucinating (maybe?) LaWanda means there may be another player out there yet. And then there’s the reveal on Jennifer’s powers and the wildly different way she treats them, which is surely going to cause familial angst and drive the plot in future episodes.

Verdict: This is a jam packed hour of TV and it doesn’t miss a step even as it drives the show’s overall arc along. The best episode of the show so far with more to come. I can’t wait. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart